Seiya Kanie is the main character in the anime and light novel series Amagi Brilliant Park.
He is voiced by Kōki Uchiyama in the Japanese version, and by Adam Gibbs in the English version.
Appearance[]
Seiya's manager outfit
Kanie is a teenage boy with short brown hair, brown eyes, and a fairly tall build, who is considered to be handsome. He wears casual clothing most often, but he is most often seen in some kind of professional uniform. As the manager of Amagi Brilliant Park, he has his own special (fancy) blue uniform.
Personality[]
Due to Kanie's history as a child actor, he is shown to have developed a superiority complex, making him a narcissist. This narcissistic behavior is shown when he claims he is better than everyone at the beginning of his job as manager, and criticizes the employees. However, this trait has made him a good disciplinarian, which in turn makes him a good leader. He is an excellent student who is very intelligent, and is known to be a prodigy.
His intelligence has allowed him to become a confident leader who despite being hated at first, was unfaltered, likely knowing that he was giving them a drive to work. He wasn't afraid to push the boundaries by being cold-hearted so that the employees would be pushed all the way. In the end, his leadership methods saved Amagi Brilliant Park and all of his employees loved him. He has built a strong bond with the workers of the park. He was a genius who knew when risky decisions were worth the risk. His genius may be a key factor of his narcissism, but it extends to vanity as well, as seen when the first episode makes this personality trait clear.
In truth, Kanie is not really that cold-hearted, but despite having a large ego, he's quite compassionate. He may not be humble, but when it comes to helping others, he always strives to help Amaburi as much as he can. He is actually compassionate, only reprimanding his employees at first because of tough love, though his personality hides this. He may also have feelings for Sento, and acts totally oblivious to stimulating sights and treats her ignoring any feelings for her, meaning he's really good at hiding the truth from people, only failing to do so when he is embarrassed.
He is also hardworking, and is determined to make Amaburi meet their goal of 500,000 annual visitors by August so that the park doesn't shut down; if the park shuts down, then the magical creatures of Amaburi will die. Their life energy is supplemented by Animus, which is the "fun energy" that is given by the amusement park. Since the park has a nonexistant crowd, working there is desperate for them. Kanie's goal is to renovate the park so that the creatures don't die-- and that's his main reason for working there. This shows that he truly is concerned for the lives of others and doesn't think that his life is the only one that matters.
Kanie's vanity
Plot[]
He may have been a child actor when he was younger, but in truth, he had a rough childhood. His father was negligent and his mother was abusive; she wanted him to be the perfect star. All this fame he had to deal with, while nobody truly knew what he was going through. Understandably, he hates his parents and refuses to look back at them. He even changed his last name to Kanie as a result of his hatred for them.
In the story of the show and light novel, Kanie is an honor student who is (at first) extorted by student Isuzu Sento to come to Amagi Brilliant Park. They dryly toured the park, and Kanie claimed the place was a dump. However this time when criticizing something, he was actually correct-- the place really was a dump. Amaburi had been undone by poor management and bad health of its manager, Princess Latifa. Sento then asks him to become the park's new manager, and he initially refused. A man in a costume, Moffle, and Kanie hated each other at first sight, and was told by Sento to not be a man in a costume, which he didn't believe. However, upon learning that the employees of Amaburi are actually magical creatures that need the fun energy, known as Animus of Amaburi to survive, he considers helping them, as there was practically a nonexistant level of Animus. However, he falsely declined helping them and Sento became desperate.
Later, as Latifa makes an announcement that Amaburi is doomed, Kanie makes an surprise appearance and becomes the beacon of hope for Latifa and Sento. As he joined the two and gave a speech to the fellow creatures of Amaburi, the employees immediately hated him for insulting everything about them and the park, even though he was mostly correct. As manager, he forces them to work, makes clever and thrifty decisions, and across the events of the story, he slowly renovates the park. The park needed 500,000 annual visitors by August to save them, and they slowly reach that goal. The employees start to not hate him as much.
On the second to last episode of the show, he makes a clever decision to host an important soccer match at the park. By using his mind reading power to read the minds of the negotiators, the negotiation was flawless. He calculated that the ticket-person turnout would still be high enough for the number to attract 100,000 visitors, which would catapult them to success. However, he was crushed to find out that he miscalculated, especially since he had a big ego. This motivated everyone to contact everyone they knew, and afterwards, the count was 499,997. The final 3 came after 3 boys (who were known to be sadistic towards human punching bags) tackled Sento. When they crossed the entrance and pinned her to the ground, they reached 500,000. He finally learns the true nature of his enemy, Takaya Kurisu, a businessman who was anticipating the downfall of Amagi Brilliant Park.
As a wizard, he once cursed Latifa after the king of a fantasy world made a deal with him to defeat a dragon threatening to destroy his kingdom. He kept his end of the deal and got rid of the dragon, but the king did not keep his end of the deal-- which was to offer his daughter Latifa. Instead, the wizard was betrayed; the king sent all his forces to kill the wizard. In retribution, the wizard put a curse on Latifa before falling off a cliff. He finds out that Takaya Kurisu was that wizard, who had actually survived. He told Kanie that saving Amaburi wasn't going to save her from the curse, which gradually takes away Latifa's life. But by a miracle, she is saved. Coincidentally, the day that Amaburi has to report the annual visitor count is the day where Latifa's memory resets due to another effect of the curse. This also doesn't occur, as the Animus collected by the park allowed a magical tree they were under to bloom, which meant that Amaburi had finally obtained an adequate amount of Animus, enough to reverse Latifa's curse.
Abilities[]
Seiya when he uses his ability
Seiya has a magical power that allows him to listen to a person's mind. This ability was granted to him by a kiss from Princess Latifa. However, it can only be used once per person. Before telling him that, Sento told Kanie to use it on her, which is when he learned of its power of reading minds. She only did this so Kanie would never be able to read her mind, which Kanie pointed out.
Relationships[]
Isuzu Sento[]
Their relationship started off pretty poor, and was quite hard to describe. The first thing Isuzu ever did to Kanie was point a shotgun in his face and force him to go on a date with her, and they toured the park with neither showing any interest. Kanie only accepted Isuzu's plea to lead the park's management in concern of the park, not Sento. Though as manager, he possessed good qualities for a manger to have, which lead to Amaburi's resurrection-- including the value of teamwork. Kanie reprimanded Sento for her militaristic behavior, which drove them apart, Sento starting to admire Kanie. While Sento was sad, Kanie made sure she wasn't left out, and she soon developed feelings for Kanie.
As his secretary, they developed a close bond, and a romantic relationship which they both deny. Kanie completely hides his feelings for Sento, while Sento's are more obvious. Most of the time he doesn't even regard feelings for her in the slightest, just thinking of her as an assistant. But Kanie deeply cares about Sento's feelings, and she is one of Kanie's best friends. Especially since he had no friends prior to her, he hides his true feelings from her.
Moffle[]
Kanie and Moffle's relationship started off more vehemently than any other two characters' relationship. They hated each other at first sight, when Isuzu took Kanie to the mascot of the park, Moffle. Before learning that Amaburi was magical, Kanie thought Moffle was just a man in a costume, and expressed disbelief when Sento and Moffle told him otherwise. They got into many fistfights, which Sento normally stops by shooting them with slugs. Moffle was seemingly incapable of taking criticism, which is a weakness, possibly being the reason he hates Kanie so much.
Moffle was actually the last to hold any respect for Kanie, and when he started to admire him, he repressed those emotions. Since Kanie has such a big ego, he loves bragging, and he brags to others as well, but when Kanie reveals that his video getting more views than the girls with swimsuits video was all part of his plan, he starts throwing a fit like a little kid. He may keep his gung-ho attitude, but after seeing Kanie's loyalty to Latifa Fleuranza and responsibility for restoring the park, he begins to hold vast respect for Kanie.
Latifa Fleuranza[]
Kanie and Latifa actually met a long time ago, when they were just kids. Kanie promised that he would end whatever is making her cry. Back in the present as a teenager, he remembers this promise and makes it his goal to save Latifa from her curse. Knowing about Latifa's curse actually pushed him to push the park to work harder, and he never rested. He even cried for her on the day Amaburi reached 500k visitors, but after finding out that her curse had been undone, they were both happy, and cried tears of joy.
Kanie also really enjoys Latifa's croquettes, which is something she is extraordinarily good at baking.
Parents[]
Kanie abhors his parents, who were both inconsiderate in their own fashion. His mother was abusive and wanted him to be perfect, and his father was negligent. Nobody knew that his parents traumatized him as a child star, and today, nobody knows why Seiya Kodama disappeared. Seiya actually changed his name from Kodama to Kanie after his real last name, Kyūbu was somehow leaked online. His parents have since divorced, and he is now adequately taken care of by his aunt, who is legally Seiya's guardian.
Aisu Kyūbu[]
Aisu Kyūbu is Seiya Kanie's aunt, and guardian. They have a positive relationship and Aisu is a much better guardian than both of Kanie's parents ever were. Unlike Kanie's parents, she cared about Kanie's well-being, and always wished for Kanie to have friends and have a good job. Because of this, she was happy about Kanie's job at Amagi Brilliant Park, and encouraged him to go back and manage the park.
Saki Kyūbu[]
Kanie's little sister. As Aisu cares about Kanie, Kanie cares about his little sister. They both look forward to going to Amagi Brilliant Park together one day. Saki never appears in the anime.
Takaya Kurisu[]
The main antagonist. He is faux affably evil, but only so because he was betrayed when he was a wizard on Mapleland, and only wanted to get rid of the park so Latifa would die, to get revenge on Mapleland. He is now a businessman who is polite, but outside of being a businessman, not much is known about him despite Kurisu being the series' main antagonist. Kanie disliked Kurisu because of his pessimistic attitude towards Amaburi despite his affable personality, and when he showed his true colors as the wizard who cursed Latifa, he likely hates him even more.
Trivia[]
- He has acrophobia (fear of heights).
- Despite his hatred for his parents, he had to use his mother's former surname to hide his identity. His original surname was Kodama, and during that time, his stage name was Kyūbu, and then he quit the entertainment industry and changed his surname to Kanie, which was his mother's née.
- He cannot use his ability on Sento because she tricked him into using it on her right after he got it (before telling him he could only use it once per person).
- Much like Isuzu Sento is a reference to 50 Cent and Latifa Fleuranza is a reference to Queen Latifah, Seiya Kanie is a reference to Kanye West.
- Seiya can mean "west" and Kanie is a cognate for Kanye, the pronunciation being almost, if not completely identical.