ANGEL BEATS!

DESCRIPTION

CAST

SPECIAL ActionAngel Beats! Specials
SPECIAL DramaAngel Beats!: Another Epilogue
MANGA ActionAngel Beats! The 4-koma: Bokura no Sensen Koushinkyoku
MANGA ActionAngel Beats! The Last Operation
MANGA ActionAngel Beats! Heaven's Door
NOVEL ComedyAngel Beats! Track Zero
TV SHORT ComedyKaginado Season 2
ANIME ComedyCharlotte
MANGA ComedyAngel Beats! Original Comics
MANGA ComedyAngel Beats! Comic Anthology
MANGA ComedyAngel Beats! Spin-off: Tabi Suru Tenshi-chan

REVIEWS

• 

  StupidWeeaboo

  70/100
  Lived up to the hype until the ending

  FIRST IMRPESSIONS:
  Obviously, this anime is one of the most popular of them all, overhyped to all hell and at the centre of most weeb culture at the time. When it was at its peak, there wasn’t a time when I wasn’t hearing about how good this anime was. Overhyping a series directly, for me at least, causes my personal viewing experience to decrease in quality as a result of the high expectations and the vivid descriptions of the anime itself. That’s why I put off watching this for a few years I guess, only now jumping the gun and deciding to watch the first episode. The art and sound design aren’t necessary spectacular, but the sense of mystery conveyed is at least done so in a competent enough way to provoke some intrigue. The MC himself isn’t at all unbearable, just your typical normal amnesia protagonist, which can be kind of a negative though it does add to the mystery of the afterlife and the dynamic of its inhabitants. The biggest problem that I thought I would have with this first episode was the huge cast of characters introduced, but I guess this anime actually cares enough to describe each one. Usually these characters fall out of the limelight and become irrelevant, at least with short anime - which this is - and as such I think introducing so many may cause a problem. Though, if done right and these characters end up getting erased or otherwise, it may be a good driving plot device both if they are developed correctly and if it is in service of a decent plot. Anyways, I guess I’ll watch this anime and see what all the hype has been about.

  REVIEW:
  I really thought that I would end up enjoying this anime all the way through, but the ending really ruins it for me. I feel as though the writer just got lazy and decided to end it all with a convenient antagonistic force combined with the various employed plot holes that defy the rules of the world that had been established over the course of the episodes preceding the ‘climax’ of the series. Sure, some of the characterisation is good, as well as the art and sound - but those aspects alone cannot carry this pothole ridden anime into greatness.
  The plot gets very confused and more often than not, this anime loses track of what it wants to be and is hurt by that. I’ll say that this anime was an 8 for me when it was dealing with more student life plotlines, but when it started getting into complex stuff about programming the ‘players’ of the Afterlife and the random villain that shows up in the end it really turns to shit for me. If it weren’t for those first few episodes, this anime would be at a much lower rating for me. Anyways, I’ll get back to the conclusion later.
  This anime takes place in a high school afterlife kind of zone (a grey area before the people there pass on), in which people find themselves there because of their personally troublesome childhoods - thus the high school acts as their springboard to enjoy a youthful life since they could not do so in their actual lives. Initially however, there is an establishment that aims to defy this ideal youthful life for fear of being ‘erased’ - the Battlement - as they call it. Most of the supporting cast and main cast end up in this Battlement, although there are some other characters, dubbed NPCs, which are just fill the rest of the high school with actual students and because this is some A rule established by this kind of zone that is integral to the plot and is the reason why the Battlement is driven to rebel against the pseudo antagonist of the series (Angel, the poster character for this series) is that once a person obeys the rules of the world and becomes a loyal student, they vanish from the world. An extension of this that is revealed a bit later in the series is that once the character is cleansed of all regrets, they vanish - serving no purpose in the world no longer. Within these bounds, the characters participating in the Battlement want to live and fight for as long as they can, making due in this afterlife zone thingy.
  The first ‘antagonist’ of the series is known to us as Angel, but just so that you can remember I’ll just call her by her actual name - Tachibana. The reason that she is established as such is because she wants the Battlement to follow the school regulations and essentially disappear. Angel as a character seems really out of place for the regulations of the world since she doesn’t act as an NPC, but she as a character is revealed to be also human. But this in itself doesn’t make that much sense -even the following ‘antagonist’ has more of a reason to be as such because of his elaborated backstory. That brings me to probably the largest problem that this anime has, bringing it down from an 8 to a 6 for me. The characters and the world-building.
  [Also, as a minor gripe, why the hell did the anime keep showing where the characters were with that shitty caption. It makes no sense as to why we as an audience need to know specifically where the characters are, like it serves no purpose at all].
  Most of the characters in Angel Beats are mainly one note, most likely being as a result of there being too many introduced in the first couple of episodes as well as subsequent ones to conveniently drive the plot in some kind of direction. Though some of the one note characters are pretty funny, like TK and ‘CHRIST’ some of them are just too generic for the audience to even care about what happens to them such as Noda (the angry dude) and Matsushita (the dude that eats a lot) with most of them just becoming plot drivers and convenient ways to overcome the stupid conflicts that they find themselves in. The one-dimensional nature of most of the supporting cast not only weakens the impact that this show has on me, but because of their insignificance to the plot as a whole their impact just seems very small compared to the actual characters that get some screen time and dedicated development. Good examples of characters that get enough attention for me to care about them are Hinata and Iwasawa, with their motivations and reasons for being in that dimension being clear. They also initially would follow the rules of the world that they live in, though Hinata gets weirdly used as the best friend character for the main character Otonashi to bounce off of. Initially, I thought that this series was just going to be the entire cast disappearing one by one developing the backstory of each along the way (and although its formulaic, it probably would have worked better), instead it was a clusterfuck of plot holes and just laziness on behalf of the writer. The world itself was not fully utilised, with the rules employed by the anime itself being broken with its conclusion and further emphasising this issue is the introduction of unnecessary characters as well as characters not fully delved into (which is most of them admittedly the Guild master and most of the aggressive dudes with weapons). The introduction of new characters throughout the series just seems like such a huge excuse and it leaves too many unanswered questions, especially considering the series’ length being 13 episodes. Anyways, concerning the main character of the series: I think that he’s fine though at the end his character juts falls off and becomes sort of generic. The grounded nature of the developed characters was charming in a way, Otonashi’s search for a purpose in life, Iwasawa’s escapism through music, hell even Yui’s paralysis being her motivation for being so active. I feel like, in order for this series to become great, it would have had to focus on the characters rather than the convoluted world and plot that had been so half-assedly established in a rush to put all of these characters in. If the world was simpler to understand and the plot was just as simply stated before, the show probably would have worked a lot better. Instead, the plot becomes driven by a sequence of conveniences and stupid deus ex machina type situations like Tachibana’s OP programming that would basically break the world on its own. The conclusion in particular is full of those.
  In that case, I guess talking about the conclusion is necessary at this point. Firstly, the introduction of that ‘shadow’ villain, with the program glitching out is unnecessarily complex is such a stupid plot point that it shouldn’t have even been introduced in the first place. I think in general, the stuff about altering the programming of the world that they live in is such an unnecessary aspect to the show, just padding the otherwise slice of life kind of show with redundant action (and action that isn’t even that good mind you). This kind of plot dynamic was first introduced with Angel being able to program herself to perform certain functions and change the materials of the world to suit her purposes. It’s not even explored as to why only she can do that, and the show completely ignores that fact. An extension of this problem is with ‘the Guild’ creating the guns seen in the anime out of dirt and imagination - like what the hell is that supposed to mean. They just explain it with some throwaway exposition that it might as well have just not been in there and instead being explained through imagination on its own and so this afterlife would become kind of like a dreamscape instead of a program. Additionally, the Tachibana clone arc was such a stupid plotline that it might as well have just not existed as it was only there to act as conflict for the characters to grow closer. And although yeah, there is a case to be made that it was necessary so that Otonashi gets closer to Tachibana, but the fact that the aggressive nature of the clones never resurfaced in Tachibana makes it serve no purpose. I think it would have been a better climax if the Tachibana clones manifested themselves and made it so that everyone had to help to save her. But then it probably would have taken too long and as such the other characters wouldn’t have gotten any screen time, so idk. Just throwing ideas out there, but just saying that this series had a lot of ways to approach its conflicts and the development of its characters. Speaking of the development of characters, during the last episode the series just decides to ignore everything. Most of the characters’ resolutions are explained as “oh they just decided to leave!” after a time skip. Which is the stupidest resolution ever. Adding salt to the wound was another explanation of a character just resolving his situation with ‘strong will’ when the ‘shadow’ was first introduced, it is revealed that Takamatsu (the genius-lookin’ guy with abs basically) had been consumed by said shadow and as a result has been transformed into an NPC. This being explained off by ‘strong will’ is so incredibly lazy its infuriating.
  Anyways, the actual conclusion, the graduation ceremony for the four main characters Tachibana, Hinata, Yurippe and Otonashi (as well as Naoi - hell actually let me talk about that guy for a bit. He was basically the secondary antagonist of the series, and one of the characters I liked quite a bit, though his hypnosis powers were kind of stupid. His backstory was actually pretty well done I would say; crushed by the major expectations of his famous potter father, Naoi aspires to be like his brother whom is responsible for following very closely with his father and being the one that his father was the proudest of. After his brother’s death however, Naoi must fill those shoes and as such feels as though he lost his purpose, only now following his brother’s footsteps. Therefore, when he arrives in the afterlife high school, he wants to gain as much attention and power as possible because of how he felt in his youth, by exacting his plans against the Battlement by abusing his power as stupid council president after the Battlement sabotaged Tachibana’s reputation. In a flourish of battle, everyone is dying with Naoi’s plan being to erase everyone with his hypnosis powers. Otonashi to the rescue, having a mega speech and giving a new perspective on purpose for Naoi to then be followed by Naoi for the rest of the series. This adds Naoi to the main cast of people and he joins the one-dimensional club. I liked him before his joining the Battlement ☹ - from this actually I should probably talk about a huge gripe I had with some speech of Otonashi’s. It was probably the biggest speech of the series and in the anime, they just decided to cut to the end of it; it was basically Otonashi having to explain that disappearing is the better decision in moving forward, at least in a reasonable and satisfying manner. This was a minor arc where Otonashi tried to help everyone move forward with their regrets after finding out about his own past where he vows to help people, though it only resulted in him helping Yui being erased from the world anyways I’ll talk about his backstory later. I feel as though his speech being straight up cut, considering that it was such a major speech was so incredibly lazy and unforgivable. It really detracts from the impact that this should have had, and I think this is where it started to go downhill for me and my high expectations for what to come plummeted). Everyone leaves one by one, but this in itself opposes the rules established by the series itself where, in order for someone to disappear, they have to resolve all of their regrets and finally reach a satisfying youth. But them just leaving was such a stupid way to end the series just to pander and reach a ‘satisfying’ ending. But there are just so many unanswered questions, like who the hell is the ‘programmer’ and that dude that steals all of the computers? Just that plot point alone is enough to make me scream and grab at my hair. ANYWAYS, the actual conclusion - turns out that Tachibana is the one that receive Otonashi’s organs, saving her life and sure that does satisfy Otonashi’s plight to help people and allows him to leave later on. But Tachibana herself as a character has no developed motivations, so it kind of comes from left field when Otonashi confesses and Tachibana’s all like “I’ll disappear if I confess!”, like we don’t even know what she regrets in the first place. And then, on top of that, the ending ending shows Otonashi and Tachibana meeting IRL in some secondary life making the whole thing even more stupid. This is probably the worst ending I have ever seen in anime, because of the clumsiness and laziness that it presented to me.
  Though most characters are one dimensional, I think that Iwasawa and Otonashi being developed both in their deaths and their motivations were actually well done, though Otonashi’s character kind of turned to be a little bit too focussed on his goal and became a bit one-dimensional itself though that in itself is arguable. Anyways, I’ll start off with Iwasawa’s backstory. She’s a part of the ‘decoy team’ which is basically an excuse to put an idol band inside of the Battlement’s cast and she’s the centrepiece of said idol group. Her motivations behind it are pretty good as I said grounded, though this doesn’t necessarily mean that it held substance. Just a bit of actual character development, which felt fresh for this anime since there were so many characters that kind of served no purpose other than a gag or two here and there. To be honest it was pretty edgy, but after talking to the MC, Otonashi, after a nice transition from her drinking water to her father drinking alcohol (though it’s kind of lame I thought it was an okay shot), she tells the story of music being her form of escapism from the terrible family life which she was involved in. Then, after performing one emotional song (which was out of the ordinary for her rock band, Girls Dead Monster: GirlDeMo) her dream of providing some solace for someone with her music as the music she listened to did for her she vanishes.
  Contrastingly, Otonashi’s big reveal after being amnesic for the whole series before this point came about as a result of Naoi’s mind control powers being able to explore Otonashi’s mind and finally reveal to him the sorrows of his past. Turns out Otonashi was a shut in for most of his life, only working to keep his sister in check and to provide her gifts and entertainment. Throughout this backstory, it’s Otonashi who is narrating which doesn’t really make sense, but I’ll ignore it for simplicity, and he keeps contemplating his purpose in life. To be honest, now that I’m reflecting on this, it was a bit overexaggerated and edgy. But anyways, after he loses his sister he finally figures out that his purpose has been to serve his sister and achieve a satisfying “thank you” after giving her some gifts. He takes this and realises that he could achieve the same satisfaction and reach another purpose by helping others - so he decides to become a doctor. He studies hard and finally has the chance to get into university (to be honest, I don’t think many people would have this kind of resolve, especially after seeing his sister die as well as his NEET / dropout past, but yeah). But then, the train crashes. After this happens, the flashback stops only to resume later when Otonashi is waiting for Tachibana to recover from all of those clones that got merged into her. The next flashback / memory gain is probably what I enjoyed the most about Otonashi’s backstory. It was just a scenario taking place after the train crashes in which a select few people from the train, survivors, are in a situation where they cannot get out of a tunnel due to the debris blocking either end so Otonashi decides to take the initiative as leader. They manage to last a week since some dipshit drops all the water as a result of panic. During the final scene, Otonashi decides to circle the “donate organs” criteria on his health insurance as some kind of closure so that he can help someone even if he is dead. Sadly, after he dies everyone else gets rescued. I guess this backstory was pretty run of the mill, but I liked how it turned out. What I didn’t like was Otonashi’s transformation of character that comes after finding out about what happened, since he gets really attached to Tachibana and stuff and just yeah. It contrasted too much from his previous character and as a result muddled his motivations and as such we as the audience lose some form of relatability to his situation. Turns out also that since he dies with no regrets, knowing that he may have saved someone else, he will live in the world infinitely and yeah idk. To be honest, I thought that Otonashi’s organs being what saves Tachibana being such a stupid coincidence as well as their love for each other being the thing to make her disappear. It was just all trying to be such a wonderful conclusion only to be confusing, breaking the ‘realism’ and just being too dreamy of an ending for an anime that wanted to take itself quite seriously (with the ‘dark’ parts at least).
  If this anime was 25 episodes, I think that the ending and disappearance of all of the characters would have been a lot more impactful. Instead, this anime will forever be known for me as having the worst conclusion of them all. Though it will also be known in my mind that this anime has one of the best first few episodes embezzled with amazing art and sound. Just the slice of life vibe that I got, with some comedic elements thrown in was really charming. But it was all in service of such a stupid ending and one full of plot holes and questions left unanswered. Anyways yeah, that’s why this isn’t an 8 / 10, not sure why people claim that this is a masterpiece sure it did have a lot of potential, but it certainly did not deliver.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  TheRealKyuubey

  60/100
  My review of the anime Angel Beats

  Yuzuru Otonashi has a problem. He’s just woken up on the ground outside of a strange school, to find out that his unconscious body has been guarded over by an even stranger girl wielding a gun that’s bigger than she is, and the only thing he remembers is his name. But before he can ask what the hell he drank last night, she explains that he’s dead. And she says this… while aiming her gun at another girl. She goes on to explain that this other girl, an apparent angel, is the mortal enemy of her and the group she leads… The Underworld Battlefront. Or the “Like Hell I’m Dead Battlefront,” depending on what version you’re watching.

  Believing this story to be bat-shit crazy, and who could blame him, the boy shrugs off her story, and decides to approach the other girl, who echoes the first girl’s claim that he’s no longer among the living. He asks for proof, so without hesitation, she stabs him through the heart, killing him. He wakes up in bed later on, his bloodstained shirt serving as a definitive reminder that he’s not in Kansas anymore.

  He’s not in Oz, either… Probably. He’s in some vaguely defined computer-based version of Purgatory where teenagers end up whenever they die unfulfilled. You can’t die in this world no matter what happens to you, you can magically build inanimate objects out of dirt, and if you take school too seriously, you’ll disappear. This is a lot of nonsense for our hero to take in, but it’s all real, leaving him no choice but to take his circumstances at face value.

  If the aesthetic of this series reminds you of famous Kyoto Animation titles such as Kanon, Air, and Clannad, you’re not too far off… Angel Beats was designed by the same people who created the original visual novels for those other shows. That’s where the comparison ends, however, as the animation was done by a company named PA Works… It’s a company that has a very small, but very impressive, production history. True to form, Angel Beats is right at the top of my list of the most well produced anime I’ve ever seen, and I’m not just talking about the visuals.

  If there has ever been an anime that I rushed to buy the soundtrack to, it’s this one. I haven’t heard an anime soundtrack that was this beautiful since Bastard. The compositions are diverse, inspired, and in many cases, you can tell exactly what scene a tune is from just by listening to it with your eyes closed. It’s that good, and it’s that memorable. The opening theme is probably one of the least skippable I’ve ever seen, with a mind-blowing piano score set to our title character rocking out on that exact instrument. The ending theme is also great, as it has a very melancholic tone, and the way it ties into it’s video won’t really be made clear until the end of the series. But the heart and soul of the music… As well as the heart and soul of this series in general… Is the fictitious anime band Girls Dead monster, a pulse pounding rock band formed by a handful of the students. This band has it’s OWN separate soundtrack, and trust me, they deserve it.

  When talking about the animation, the comparison to Kyoto Animation must once again be brought up… Angel Beats clearly had just as high a budget as the Kyo-Ani classics, with endlessly smooth and graceful movements from the characters and environment, but unlike most of those shows, it doesn’t waste it’s money on mundane slice of life activities… Oh no, they do SO much more with it. This show goes so all out with it’s big, epic Sci-fi action moments, smoothly blending CG with traditional visuals, that it even puts the first season of Haruhi Suzumiya to shame. Even the background characters… AKA the NPCs… Are well animated, and I’ve seen a ton of shows that didn’t bother to go that far.

  As for the characters? Well, I guess we should start with the title character. Angel… Or, as she comes to be known, Kanade Tachibana… Is a very problematic character, as some of the greatest flaws in the series revolve around her. She has a really unique motivation behind her actions, I’ll give her that, but it doesn’t make her a well written character. I can’t really delve too deep into my problems with her without going into some pretty heavy spoilers, so I’ll be saving my comments about her for my much more liberal post about this series next week. As for her co-star, Otonashi, well, I also have some mixed feelings about him… He’s not your typical Key lead, as he doesn’t make a habit of getting involved in other peoples’ problems, but he also doesn’t really do anything else to make up for it… Aside from commenting on the crazy things all the other characters do, his only role in the story is to form a relationship with Angel so he can pass on what she knows about this world to the Battlefront, but that wouldn’t be an issue if she had ever just told them herself… Which she totally cold have done at any time. Having said that, the development of their relationship is one of the better aspects of the show, so I can’t complain too much.

  Yurippe Nakamura(The girl with the gun), on the other hand, is a very compelling character. She’s active, she has clear motives supported by one of the cast’s most hauntingly tragic backstories, and she’s by far the only character who ever takes the initiative towards moving the story forward. She bears some similarities to Haruhi Suzumiya, both in her appearance and her attitude towards her followers, but she’s also a much more reasonable and intelligent character than Haruhi ever was. She’s strong and perceptive, and has quite possibly the best character arc in the whole show.

  As for our secondary characters, Hinata is the first person who really befriends Yuzuru, and the dynamic between them is pretty enjoyable, despite the forced “Bromance or Romance?” jokes. He’s constantly insisting that he’s not gay, and in a flashback, he proves it by showing us how terrible a catcher he is. Yui is the fast-talking air-head, and while her hyperactive and sometimes idiotic ways are a constant source of annoyance for Hinata, they do show a genuine affection for each other. Naoi makes for a pretty decent villain when he first appears, but after having his cruel ways changed by the power of fwiendship, he basically just becomes a constant gay joke that never gets a punch line. Iwasama is the original lead singer of Girls Dead Monster, and… Well, despite only appearing in three episodes, you could write an entire paper on her. In a good way.

  The rest of the cast barely deserves to be mentioned, if at all. Oda and Shiina make for some good visual gags from time to time, but TK is one of the laziest character ideas I’ve ever heard of. I’d really like someone to explain to me why he’s so popular. Those three included, everybody in th supporting cast is pretty much an interchangeable gimmick with a human face. You could swap any of them out with a girl who likes to skateboard while dressed like a crab, and nothing… Absolutely nothing… Would change as a result.

  Monolingual as I am, I can’t say too much about the Japanese dub… Just that it sounded really, really good. It’s leagues better than the English dub, which was written by the infamous Stephen Foster, and yes, it stinks opf all his trademarked awfulness. If you can stomach hearing an awkward line like “I thought you were just some gun-toting girl or something” and not switch languages, then you know less about how people talk than HE does. He takes a lot of unfortunate liberties with the dialogue, he’s probably solely responsible for the mispronunciation of the word ‘suplex,’ and it’s just an awkward time to be had in general. I’ll be honest, though, while I definitely noticed how bad the writing was, it didn’t really piss me off until he rewrote one of my favorite Yurippe quotes near the end.

  Having said all that, I can’t condemn the dub completely…. Like with most of Foster’s work, the writing may be awful, but the acting overall is actually pretty decent. Likewise, there were a few really impressive performances. Luci Christian is at the top of the class as usual. She’s made a career out of being one of the best emoters in the business, and even though she only gets a single episode of screen time as Iwasama, she still lets her veteran instincts bleed through with every word. Hilary Haag puts her signature hyperactive energy into her role as Yui, forcing me to wonder just how versatile her insidiously high pitched voice can be. Brittney Karbowski owns the role of Yuri, and as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, she’s always a joy to listen to. David Matranga takes the subtle, humorous edge that he gave to his character in the lead role from Clannad and carries it over to Hinata, to stunning effect.

  But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows… Blake Shepherd is the flat out terrible lead role, and for the life of me, I can’t wrap my head around why they trusted him with it. Emily Neves, in the role of Kanade… Um… Well, she doesn’t do a bad job, it’s just sort of mediocre. I mean, if you have three of the best voice actresses in the company in your cast, and give the ‘lead role’ to an actress who’s career highlight at that point was getting booted off of American Idol, it’s not a very flattering comparison. I would have placed this role in the hands of someone more capable, like Jessica Boone or Taylor Hannah, but to be fair, Emily’s talent HAS grown by leaps and bounds since this role. And TK shouldn’t have had an English voice actor at all, since his entire schtick is that he says nonsensical one-liners in Engrish.

  Personally, I’d recommend the sub, but if you’re a hardcore dub fan, then the acting in the dub should at least be satisfactory.

  The meat of Angel Beats can be difficult to talk about, so I think I’ll open by saying it’s an anime that you’re supposed to watch with your heart, and not with your head. It’s full of intense passion, strong emotions, and just enough gripping characters so that any viewer will find at least one to relate to and root for. The romantic melodrama and tear-jerking tragedy of this mysterious world is designed to grab you right by the heart and hold on for dear life, because if it should ever fail to keep that part of you engaged, you brain would kick in, and you’d notice right off the bat just how much of an unholy mess this story really is.

  One of the first things Yuri tells Otonashi is that he should just go with it, and accept things as they are. I’d like to think this advice goes double for the viewer… Turn your brain off, because this story doesn’t make a lick of sense. Now, don’t get me wrong here, a fictional story doesn’t have to make sense to our universe. It has to make sense according to it’s own universe. With nearly every single story element, we get an explanation of what it is, an explanation of how it works, and a direct contradiction within three episodes time.

  There aren’t a lot of examples I can give of this without dropping some spoilers… Once again, tune in next week for that rant… But you can take, for example, the Battlefront’s attitude towards Angel. In an early episode, Yuri explains that they have to be careful, and keep all conversations about their plans under wraps, because they don’t know whether or not Angel can hear them. Well, in only a few episodes time, they’re nonchalantly discussing their plans right on the other side of the classroom from her… She doesn’t seem to notice, and for the most part, they don’t seem worried that she’ll notice.

  And there are other examples… The other students who weren’t brought here from another life are called NPC’s, and while they’re supposed to turn a blind eye to the Battlefront’s antics, they show up in droves to a GirlDeMo concert, and line up for a monster fish meat give-away. The former of the two examples was pointed out by one of the characters… As a matter of fact, a lot of the inconsistencies in this show are pointed out by the characters, as if the writers thought that making the script self-aware of it’s own flaws would somehow make up for those flaws.

  The pacing of this anime is a serious issue. We get plot point after plot point after plot point thrown at us at break-neck speed, and with no build-up or development for any of them, they just fly by without making much of an impact. There’s little to no character development outside of the main cast, and as a result, more than three quarters of the cast go completely unexplored, existing only to spout off their assigned one-note-jokes and occasionally die for our amusement. I strongly feel as though both of these problems could have been solved if the show had a 24-26 episode run, like it was initially supposed to.

  We’re introduced to important details that quickly become forgotten or conflicted, plot points that are almost immediately made pointless, and the only explanations they ever stick to are the ones that sound like complete cop-outs. The incomprehensible nature of the world they’re in ultimately culminates with an underground scene between Yuri and some mysterious figure in a room full of computers. This is by far the most insulting moment in the entire series, as several of the questions we’ve asked about it are resolved with lazy answers ranging from “It was like this when I got here” to “The power of love.”

  And all of this culminates in a conclusion that’s emotionally powerful, as well as a relentless tear jerker, but upon closer inspection is nothing but a clusterfuck of plotholes… And no, i’m not just talking about the one plothole that everybody knows about. There are deeper, much more destructive plot holes that undermine the entire premise of the show, take the stakes completely out of the climactic final battle, and render the two strongest episodes completely pointless. And once you’ve realized them, they will probably make you feel like the biggest fool on earth for loving it as much as you did. And even as someone who genuinely does enjoy the series, it just can’t be forgiven for writing that lazy.

  Angel Beats is available from Sentai Filmworks. The DVD set has been out for a while, and it includes one of the few OVA episodes, which is worth a few good laughs. The set set can be found for a modest sum on Ebay, and at the time of this writing, it’s available for a bit cheaper as part of the Rightstuf.com December sale. It’s not available on Netflix anymore, but it IS still available on Crunchyroll. And as long as you’re a member, and don’t have to put up with six commercials per episode, Crunchyroll’s awesome. There are a handful of CD soundtracks that can also be purchased, and if nothing else,those are worth paying a pretty penny for. There’s apparently also a prequel light novel, but I haven’t read it, because it hasn’t been officially translated yet.

  Angel Beats is a very poorly written story that relies entirely on it’s spectacular visuals to distract you from the phenomenal lack of logic or consistency. It works masterfully on an emotional level, and despite the messiness that you’re supposed to overlook, it never feels hollow or meaningless… but the logical side of Angel Beats is just so infuriatingly bad. It’s easier to appreciate for what it isn’t than for what it is, though.. It doesn’t follow any clichés throughout it’s thirteen episode run, and none of it’s characters fit into any of the tired stereotypes that plague the anime industry, so I’m willing to give it some credit for originality and effort. But the talent, overall, just isn’t there.

  And do you want to know the absolute worst thing about it? The worst thing about this anime is that it is physically impossible to not enjoy it. It is relentlessly fun to watch, even for some stick-in-the-mud like me who kept his brain on full blast the entire time. There’s a lot of things it does wrong… Embarrassingly so, at some points… But when it does something right, it knocks it right out of the park. The overly complicated plot comes with a surprisingly simple, albeit poorly constructed, story. The humor isn’t as spot-on as it probably should be, but it’s inspired enough to keep you laughing just often enough. If nothing else, you’ll enjoy the hell out of the production values alone. I like to tell people this show is bad, or that I don’t like it, but upon a rewatch(Like, for the sake of this review), I find I just can’t stay mad at it. I give Angel Beats a 6/10

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• 

  Revisionary

  70/100
  Although ambitious, the show stumbles when it matters most in terms of characterization and plot development.

  “Angel Beats”’ status as one of the most popular and well-known anime out there is indisputable. Anyone who is looking for a “sad anime” will undoubtedly run across this title in some form or another. As such, I went into this show with high expectations given the hype surrounding the show over the past few years since its initial release.

  Unfortunately, while “Angel Beats” is an admirable show that manages to be engaging to the end, it suffers from too many flaws in terms of its characterization and plot development to truly deliver a strong and meaningful impact that lasts long after thirteenth episode ends. Not even the show’s unique premise and high production values are enough to help the show reach its full potential. Had the show been 24 episodes rather than 13, I am sure that my review of the show would have been more positive. What could have been an amazing experience ends up falling flat.

  “Angel Beats” has a fantastic and unique premise that has amazing potential. Taking place in the afterlife, a group of individuals fight against God to continue their existence and not be “obliterated” (or otherwise pass on from the afterlife). Protagonist Otonashi finds himself in the afterlife with no memories of his past life and the circumstances surrounding his death. Joining the Afterlife Battlefront (SSS), he will continue to unravel the mysteries surrounding this new reality.

  But in spite of its action-packed description, “Angel Beats” is less of an action anime and more of a character-driven drama.

  Unfortunately, it is due to its nature as a drama that it falls flat. Due to the massive cast of characters introduced and the low episode count, many of the characters are underdeveloped and lack proper characterization. It’s a shame too, since many of the characters you meet have genuinely interesting traits that make me wonder what their backstories are.

  The show’s ending is generally lauded as one of the most emotional endings that will send viewers on a “feels trip,” but I feel that any tears that were shed as a result of this show were purely because of how effective the director was at generating emotion through excellent shot composition and music selection rather than the story itself. Without spoiling anything, I was extremely surprised by the ending for the completely wrong reasons.

  “Angel Beats” wants viewers to care about everyone in the story, but it fails to do so because it fails to give them a reason why. As mentioned before, it’s a character-driven drama, but ironically its weakest element is the characters themselves. As an action series, it excels with excellent cinematography, but that is obviously not the focus of the show.

  But it’s not a bad show by any means. There are genuinely good moments throughout, and when it attempts to deliver emotion for its primary characters, it does so extremely well. It may not necessarily be consistent in its execution, but “Angel Beats” does exceedingly well when it has a clear focus. Episode 10, in my opinion, is the highlight of the series and is perhaps one of the best written episodes in anime.

  The tonal shifts between comedy and drama work unlike many other shows. It’s never jarring and never feels off, which is refreshing especially coming from shows that don’t handle it nearly as well, such as “Your Lie in April,” which has shifts that sometimes ruin the atmosphere of the show as a whole.

  And in spite of its uneven characterization, the characters that are focused on properly are excellently written, each with their own compelling motivations that make it hard not to empathize with them. It’s just a shame this treatment wasn’t afforded to the rest of the cast. I firmly believe the show could have been better if the cast was either reduced or if the series length was extended.

  To conclude, I can see why “Angel Beats” is popular in the community. It’s hard to deny the appeal it has as an emotional drama, but it’s also hard to ignore the flaws that prevent it from being what it could have been. I don’t regret seeing this show, and I will continue to have fond memories of it, but if I had to compare it to other emotionally-driven works, it is nowhere in the same league.

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