Anime 6547 Angel Beats Reviews Filter Check 2

Angel Beats! is absolutely glorious and perfect. It made me laugh, and cry, and I just loved all the drama and the story is not as paper-thin as one would believe. I thought all the characters were awesome, especially TK xD. The ending made me cry it was so good. In summary, Angel Beats! is amazing and is really emotional and if you haven't seen Angel Beats! go watch it!

Haha just kidding. Angel Beats! isn't actually all that special, and I'm writing this review to just try and send out a message to those of you who have not watched Angel Beats! yet. No I'm ... not trolling, I really hated Angel Beats! and the reason I stuck with it to the end is so I could tell other anime watchers to stay the hell away from it. Note: I don't give a shit about the 'moewave.' I like all genres and types of anime, and if an anime is enjoyable or presents a very powerful story (or both, god forbid!) I'd like to tell you about it. It's just frustrating when I see a review (on this anime especially) and the reviewer goes out of his way to say "I'm going to ignore story and characters because those aren't important." That kind of thing makes me flip shit. It's as if I were to sell you a fancy house, but tell you you couldn't go inside. Is that fair? Hell no! Then here, my review on Angel Beats!, and I promise I won't say anything like "X isn't important" and waste your time doing so.

Story: 4/10
Otonashi, our walking cliche protagonist as another reviewer pointed out, has lost his memories and wakes up in a new world where he realizes people can't die. There he meets several exciting and interesting one-dimensional characters. Yurippe, the leader (who looks suspiciously close to another KyoAni mascot character) is the loudmouth leader of a fighting squadron that wants to "rebel against god." The only thing Yurippe can think to do to "rebel against god" is to pick on the class president, who is a frail lolita character and to repeatedly shoot her until she is dead (in a world where people can't die... fascinating how KyoAni got away with this). Then entire episodes are dedicated through traversing a 'dangerous underground path' full of 'dangerous traps.' Then we learn that the guns Yurippe gets are made out of dirt (no explanation). Then a whole lot of sobstories come into play. Almost every episode a character reveals their "troubled and emotional" past, and the pacing that introduces it is horrendous and each background story takes around half an episode to go through.

Blatantly, I didn't find the comedy all that funny, seeing as it was just rip offs of other Maeda Jun works, oh and so were the back stories. One of the girls falls into a coma and it is even alluded to AIR.

Seeing as this was anime had so many random filler episodes and insert songs it's hard to really explain the story. Or maybe it's hard to explain because there wasn't one (or if there was it was dastardly weak).

Art: 8/10
Aside from the numerous background errors per episode where the background changed sizes and the costuming errors (WILL BE FIXED IN THE BLU-RAYS HERPDERP), the animation was really good. Yes, I hated this anime, but I'm not going to lie, the animation was amazing. Bullets bounced off things realistically, and everything was really fluid. There was even water used in the last episode that looked so real that it utterly shocked me.

Now the character design pissed the hell out of me. The main character looks no more original than any third-rate anime. He's a normal build, with a normal haircut, and a normal voice and manner of speech etcetc. Then Yurippe was obviously just a Haruhi rip-off. Try and prove me wrong. What? You can't? Just put a picture of the two next to each other and you'll see. Then comes the art. I really had no opinion but I was leaning toward dislike on it. It looked like a blocky version Haruhi, and all the characters looked like tetris blocks when standing still, they all had this square build for some reason.

Sound: 9/10
The opening is awesome. A nice piano piece with Lia as the singer. The ending is okay, I didn't feel much for it, but music is a taste and this part of the review is very opinion oriented.

The voice acting was also really good. The characters (as bad as they were) had voices that brought out what the creators were trying to do. Ototnashi had a normal voice, Kanade (Tenshi or Angel) had a monotone voice. Etc. To be honest I didn't really know a lot of the seiyuu other than Hiroshi Kiyama and Kana Hanazawa (Araragi and Nadeko respectively, both from Bakemonogatari) but I didn't really care - they did good work.

Character: 2/10
Every character is a cardboard cut out and can be reduced to one word. There's the bland protagonist, the bossy Yurippe, the 'kuudere' (cool) Kanade, a bodybuilder, an egomaniac, a spaz, a dunce, a brute, a fatty, a ninja, and so on.

And then there was TK.

TK is the single most creative piece of work in this entire anime. 90% of his lines consist of broken engirsh and usually make no sense. BUT I'M OKAY WITH THAT! Why? BECAUSE IT'S CREATIVE. There is very very few pieces of creativity in this anime, very very few things that don't follow an archetypal story. KyoAni took a chance and put in something that might be DIFFERENT (oh god what is this) and it simply worked. TK is a funny character and does headspins for no reason and has no background at all. But who cares? He was more developed and more interesting than ANY OTHER CHARACTER. This whole section got a plus one - just for TK.

Enjoyment: 1/10
I'm sorry. I couldn't do it. I couldn't bring myself to like it, and I know a lot of people who write reviews saying that "they wanted to like it, they really did" - and hey same here. The day this anime aired I was so freaking excited. I was ready to call this the anime of the year and I told all my friends to watch it. By episode three I couldn't take it anymore and I absolutely hated it, but I pushed on. I tried to enjoy the next episode. I sat down with my favorite candy (the Hot Tamales) and got myself my favorite drink (a delicious Seltzer) and made sure I watched it when no one would interrupt me. Shit it was hell. Every week. I tried harder and harder and then I realized.

Why am I forcing myself to like this anime, which is pretty mediocre?

And there you have it folks. That's all it is. Mediocre. The visuals can be the greatest on the planet, but that's not going to make me fond of the characters, or become interested in the plot. It's like Avatar by James Cameron, you love it or hate it, and if you love it, you don't love it for the characters, you love it for the explosions and all the pretty doodads and doohickeys involved.

Overall: 4.8/10
I just averaged the numbers. That's the number I think this show properly deserves. Hey! You may still want to watch this anime. If you do, don't go in expecting too much. If you're able to looks past this anime's flaws in story and character then maybe you're experience will be much different, but if you're bothered by this, I strongly advise against watching this anime. It is not like Haruhi, it is not like CLANNAD, it is not like Kanon, but sure is a blend of them.

The characters refer to themselves as "idiots." And holy crap that is one good definition, but please beware viewer, let me warn you, if you consume idiocy, you become an idiot.

This is my first review so I hope it helps!

If you haven't read the synopsis, Angel Beats (in a nutshell) takes place in a fictional world at a school where the protagonists are unable to advance to the afterlife/next life because of regret or lack of fulfillment in their previous life. There were lots of ups and downs to this series. I was really excited to start the series since it had been so heavily recommended to me by several friends, so I had high expectations prior to watching Angel Beats. Whether or not this affected my opinion is difficult to say, but I ... found myself disappointed and unmoved by the end of the series.

Before I break the series down into categories, I'll say what stands out in this anime. The visuals and audio are captivating. They really compliment the characters and story. Out of all the anime I've seen, I'd place Angel Beats in the top 5 for visuals and the very top for audio. The topic of the afterlife is nothing new. The overall idea of Angel Beats is somewhat identical to Haibane Renmei (protagonists stuck in life after death, forgotten pasts, regret, friendship, pass to next life, happy times), but it is presented more uniquely than any anime of the same genre that I have seen.

A show of such promise is subject to heavy criticism if that promise is not upheld and that was the case for me. I'll explain it in categories.

Story: 5
I was really impressed with the first few episodes. They achieved the goal of getting me hooked to the story wanting to unravel the mystery of this world between the past and future as well as why and how the protagonists ended up there. The premise of the show wasn't beaming in uniqueness, but it was presented and built up in a very promising way. A little over halfway through the series is when I felt that the story started to fall apart. The closer I got to the last episodes the less I enjoyed the show to the point where I would only watch an episode every other day. At times, the story seemed a bit rushed and sloppy with the addition of underwhelming antagonists. The conclusion had me shaking my head because of a romance that was crammed into the last few episodes rather than developed throughout the series. Normally, I rejoice with a "BOOYAH!" when these moments finally occur. This ending left me nothing with more than confused and sad "Booyah..?" Maybe the story would have been better off without the last second romance.

Art: 9
I thoroughly enjoyed the visuals. The background, character designs, and animation were practically flawless in my opinion. I felt that the art made the setting and characters seem dream-like, which fits the show perfectly.

Sound: 10
The music was outstanding. I will probably never say this about a show again, but the songs in this series were so catchy that I even downloaded some of them. The OP was good but what really caught my attention were the original soundtracks played throughout the show. For those of you familiar with LiSA or enjoy Sword Art Online's opening theme (sung by LiSA) than you might enjoy this show simply for the music because she is featured in some of the songs. I suppose the background music wasn't anything special, but it fit each situation appropriately.

Character: 6
The character development is a big reason I was disappointed by the show. The show features a wide variety of characters, all unique and entertaining in their own way. Some of the characters were explored fairly in depth where their pasts were exposed and state of mind shaped as the series progresses. However, many characters were left in the dark that I would have enjoyed being investigated more. I found the supporting characters to be more likeable than the main characters a lot of the time mostly because they were generally the center of the comic relief and source of character uniqueness. Even so, I felt all the characters, both main and supporting, made the show unique and enjoyable.

Enjoyment: 5
Although I found many things wrong with this show, I couldn't help but love certain aspects. Much of my enjoyment came from the soundtracks rather than the plot and it slowly deteriorated as the show progressed. There were also more soundtracks in the first half, which is also why I enjoyed it much more than the second half.

Overall: 5
As I said before, I was disappointed at how the show concluded. I feel that the series would have been much better if it had been lengthened to 20+ episodes with enhanced character development and plot adjustments. The plot of the show proved to be very promising in the beginning and never achieved its full potential. Even with all of this said, I do not regret watching the series and would consider watching it again. This show may not be memorable for everyone, but I feel that just about anyone could enjoy it.

Personally, anyone who liked Haibane Renmei, Sword Art Online, or Clannad could probably appreciate this anime.

Hope this helped!

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, and 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.

Unlinigual 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. 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. 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.

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 give Angel Beats a 6/10.

Short Review: It needed 26 episodes.
Long Review: Angel Beats is a pretty interesting work. The writer, Jun Maeda, is responsible for a number of emotional masterpieces such as Air, Kanon, and Clannad. Maeda's ability to invoke emotion in his audience is definitely outstanding and thus I had great anticipation for the series.

Angel Beats! is a treat to the eyes and ears. P.A. works did an amazing job with the visuals. The opening animation is a pleasure to watch and the backgrounds can easily rival Kyoto Animation's which is no small feat. The music is also very memorable, and usually appropriate to the situation. Besides ... the opening "My Soul Your Beats" and "Brave Song", there's also a bunch of songs sung by the show's band Girls' Dead Monster. Some people have noted the songs by GDM sound a bit amateurish, but I think it's appropriate and gives the feel of a garage band trying to make it big.

The story, however, is rather confusing and keeps shifting gears. We start out in a mysterious world of the afterlife and in a place where not even the characters know what's going on. Naturally, a state of confusion would make sense-- except that most of the world is never really explored or explained. And the explanations we do get are often out of left field, and usually shoved in at the end of the episode.

However, the overall idea isn't bad at all; it's just that the accelerated pacing due to the 13 episodes and the fact that the anime seems to not be sure on where it's going. It just started too much threads.

The most jarring thing about the show is its inability to separate the comedy from the melodrama. It's often mixed together at the worst moments and becomes very cheesy. The worst case of this is probably the character of Naoi, someone who should be interesting, but I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Also, frequently the melodrama feels very forced and manipulative because it's just shoved in there-- you've gotta develop a conflict or issue for it to have any real impact. This was especially true near the end. But Key fans don't worry, there's still some very sweet moments even if it is very messy.

Despite this, Angel Beats is still a very funny show. At first,the humor didn't click with me, but two words: Rocket Chairs. The silly antics of the protagonists group-- the SSS is fun and its enjoyable to see them do silly stuff like that in this world. And of course the character TK himself seems to steal the show every time he utters a line.

The characters are all a fun and likable bunch-- typical for Key. Sadly, a lot of them remained underdeveloped due to time constraints. The ones that they do focus on are very well done-- the amnesiac Otonashi, the competent commander Yuri who's not just another Haruhi, the reliable bro Hinata. The enigmatic Angel is also a decent character who explodes the cuteness meter.

Overall, Angel Beats is not a bad show, but it just feels underwhelming that with all the ingredients for success, the show couldn't make up its mind on what to do. Nevertheless, if you're bored and want a few laughs or a few heartwarming moments, you can check this out.

Angel Beats is yet again another cross media collaboration between Key animation studios, and visual novel writer Jun Maeda. Together have worked on such projects like Air, Kanon, Clannad, and now Angel Beats.

The plot centers around Otonashi, a young man who wakes up in the middle of a school yard, with no recollection on how he got there or any memories of his past. He is then confronted by a girl holding a rather large gun, her name is Yuri, the leader of a organization called the SSS, a group devoted to fighting god and his angels. Confused by her offer, Otonashi declines and ... decides to confront this 'angel', seeing how she appears to be a lonesome little girl. Unfortunately for Otonashi, this helpless little girl somehow manifests blades from her arms and stabs him. After waking up, again, but this time in a hospital. Yuri and the rest of the SSS reveal to him that they are actually stuck in purgatory, and how they can't really die within this world, but if they were to pass on, something Angel intends to make them do, they will reincarnate into another life. Yuri and the SSS rather not pass on, instead, they would rather fight against the god who destined them to have unreasonable lives and possibly reincarnate into water fleas. Otonashi agrees to join Yuri and her group, hoping to regain some recollection of his past and learn the mysteries of this new world.

Angel Beats starts off with great promise, interesting concepts and likeable characters, but ultimately fails to live up to anyone's expectations. People put the blame on the fact that everything in this series is restricted to only 13 episodes. But personally, I put the blame on the writer Jun Maeda. His work in visual novels is quite apparent in this series, as it seems like he's only good at writing scenarios, not a straight linear storyline. A competent writer should find a way to string these characters and events in a organic matter, instead of turning it into a nice jumbled mess.

Everything in the show feels episodic. It presents 'important' plot points and characters, but by the next episode, it disregards all previous plot points in favor for this new one. Rinse and repeat over the course of 13 episodes. As a example; the series also introduces a new villain about mid-way through the series, but over the course of a single episode he joins the SSS. Because of this, the story of Angel Beats feels aimless. It has no conflict, no resolution, doesn't center on a particular character or even a villain. Jun Maeda blames that he 'wrote too much' for Angel Beats, which is why it turned into a cross media project, but why couldn't he craft a storyline just for the anime, and leave everything else to the small series of light novels or the manga?

The one thing that does shine in this series is it's diverse cast of characters. Like I said earlier, they are all very likeable and surprisingly memorable. Even more so with a fan favorite called TK, a mysterious english speaking character who's constantly dancing. Because of this, the humor and interaction between the characters works really well, it makes for some enjoyable moments. But isn't it a little sad when the humor is more enjoyable than the drama in a supposedly 'character driven' series?

Speaking of the drama, it's nothing but forced. It's mostly used for the sake of making the viewer feel sad or a weak attempt to feel something for a otherwise unlikable character. This of course is done in a series of flashbacks into the character's lives, before their new lives in the SSS. Does it have any real impact on the storyline? No. Does it add anything to the characters? It does in a few cases, but not all. Most of the time you'll be wondering what was the entire point of that sequence, as it only serves as a weak selling point to feel empathy for the character. Which I hear is more apparent in Jun Maeda's other work such as 'Clannad', but I have yet to seen that series nor have interest in it.

Something I feel like I should point out is the finale, I won't reveal any spoilers, but it does start with a lick of promise and is touching in a sense, and it leaves on such a bittersweet note that could have left the viewer feeling satisfied with the conclusion. But there's a added scene after the ending credits that almost destroys everything the series is built around. Instead of teeing the story together, it just leaves you with more loose ends and questions. Now, there's a 'unaired' episode that will be included with the DVD and Blu-Ray release, but I doubt it will add much of anything to the ending.

Overall, Angel Beats has nice characters and good looking animation, but the episodic pacing and muddled story leaves the entire experience a little left to be desired.
I find it a little hard to recommend a series like Angel Beats, because of the reception for it seems to be quite mixed. People who are fans of Key's past works seem to enjoy the series, but think it's one of the weakest ones they produce yet. While people like me feel like it's one of the most underwhelming anime's to premiere this season.

Rating:
5/10

Check out if the show somehow interests you, but don't expect much.

You know, sometimes animes just really don't live up to my expectations. One of those animes would definitely have to be Angel Beats.
First hearing about it, I thought it would be just amazing. I mean, everybody was making a huge deal about this thing, telling everyone everywhere how sad and amazing it was, how it was even better than Clannad: After Story. Now, of course, I had to try it.
I really shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. Now, not to say that Angel beats was a bad anime, because it wasn't. But it really wasn't anything special.

First off, we have the characters. Long story ... short, they were bad. Each and every one of them had no personality, was a complete, almost offending stereotype, was extremely, EXTREMELY similar to a character from another anime, or was a character that I've seen way too many times to the point that I know every single thing about them and they're not interesting at all. Plus, there were like 15 characters, and only around five or even less of them were actually important to the story. The others just sat around and did basically nothing. No, seriously, they didn't do ANYTHING.
One character (I won't make an effort to remember or even look up his name, I don't care that much) even has a one or two episode arc that has NOTHING to do with the plot and tries desperately to cover up the fact that it is a huge filler. And right after his arc, he just joins the SSS Brigade like nothing's happened and is completely pushed off to join the already overflowing number of background characters that we know the names and possibly, if we're lucky, one personality trait of.
Though, I have to say, a few of the characters I really liked. *cough*Iwasawa*cough*


The art was great, actually. The style was nice, and they never got noticably lazy with anything. The fight scenes, though, were obviously not very well choreographed. The color pallet also seemed really cold to me, though it was probably something that only I noticed.

The sound was pretty good, too. The opening song was great and the ending song was amazing. Both the English and Japanese voice actors did nice jobs, too.

The story was what really flopped this anime. The plot sounds good; I mean, stuck in the afterlife, trying to fight this angel thing, with angsty regrets about your past life? Sounds like it would make a good story. But it was sad how horribly it was executed.
The pacing was way off. They drag the unimportant parts on way too long, actually put some really unessecary filler into the story, and then end up completely rushing the important parts. And they did this to the extreme. Basically a whole 7 or more episodes is filler and extremely unimportant stuff. For a thirteen episode anime? That's a huge no-no.
Remember how I said I heard that this anime was sad and heartwarming? Well, it wasn't. At all. It didn't even come close to pulling any of the strings of my heart. And that brings me to my next point. Angel Beats never pulled ANY strings. It didn't do anything creative, anything different, ANYTHING that I've never seen before. They just fight and go on missions, eventually reaching an ending that everyone else said was sad but really wasn't at all.
I mean, seriously, they're in the AFTERLIFE, the writers can at least do something creative and put the idea to good use. But, no, what could have been a thought-provoking theme was ruined and wasted.

Despite how it sounds, I did find a bit of enjoyment in this anime. Putting my feelings aside, it seems like most people who watched this anime actually did love it for some reason, so go ahead, give it a go.

This is going to be a critical review of Angel Beats!, I'm going to tell you now. If you feel like you might get hurt from me criticizing your beloved anime, then continue reading; you need to see things from different perspectives.

I started watching Angel Beats! about 2 months ago. I put it on hiatus after watching 1 episode, simply because it was quite boring and its premise was not made quite clear. However, after reading about how "sad" its ending is and how much you will "feel emotionally" after watching it, I decided to give Angel Beats! another chance. No spoilers, so don't worry. ...

The story is essentially a group of people who have led less-than-satisfactory lives before dying, and as such, they are stuck in a middle-ground between Earth and Salvation (Heaven). The plot of the anime consists of people trying to "repay" their "debts" that they accumulated during their lifetime. Once their debt is gone, they will feel relieved, and be able to attain salvation. So, simple plot. And there in lies the problem. Watching Angel Beats!, I was thoroughly bored with every single episode EXCEPT: 5,8, and 10. Only 3 episodes managed to entertain me. Those happen to be the episodes that had some sort of comedic element to them, which probably explains why I enjoyed them.

Every episode in Angel Beats! tries too hard to have some dark, ominous setting. It feels like you're watching some badass anime, but every once in a while the producers will pull a gag-joke and completely ruin the intensity of the anime. There was honestly nothing that caught my attention in this anime, INCLUDING the fight scenes. They seemed extremely obligatory, and served no purpose at all. At the end of all the fight scenes, no one ever dies. What the hell? "That's the whole point. When people die in this middle-ground of an afterlife, they just get reborn." Okay, well congratulations. The producers have somehow managed to dig themselves in a hole, creating a situation in which their fight scenes are automatically meaningless.

Don't get me wrong, Angel Beats! was still a fun anime to watch. However, it failed to deliver. After realizing that its main plot was quite drab, I banked on the series' well-touted ending. I wanted to feel sad. I wanted to get emotional. Previous to this, I have watched AnoHana. That anime, other than its fairly interesting plot, had an INCREDIBLE ending that had me on the verge of tears. Needless to say, with Angel Beats!'s ending being called "one of the biggest tear jerkers in anime", I thought I might even cry this time.

Nope. All 12 episodes, I didn't feel a single shred of sadness. Maybe the 13th (final) episode will deliver? I watch the 13th episode. It is now the 10 minute mark, and there has yet to be anything remotely emotional. Finally, at the 17 minute mark, the anime starts to produce a sense of sadness, all knit together with the emotional music and all. I'm watching this final scene play out, and after it's done, I'm apparently at the 22 minute mark. "What the hell?" were my exact thoughts. The entire series was quite boring, and the one thing that could've saved it all, BLEW IT. Angel Beats!'s ending wreaked very little emotion from me; the parting at the end was simply too sudden and there was no build-up to that moment. Honestly, after watching Angel Beats!, I was left feeling dissatisfied with both the plot and the ending. Neither element delivered. The only reason this show didn't get anything lower is because of its music and characters. TK and Yui really served as saving graces to make this show enjoyable. The opening, in particular, was absolutely phenomenal. It is definitely one of my favorite anime openings, in song and in lyrics.

There were some bright moments in this anime, even certain sections that really made me laugh out loud. However, Angel Beats! is "fair" at best; and for that, it gets a deserved rating.

Ahh sitting down my computer on this fine Halloween evening good ole Daimyo had a marvellous idea. Let’s review a completely scary and terrifying anime. Now good ole Daimyo has seen his fair share of anime, both good and bad. But rarely does an anime completely terrify him as this one did. In fact after watching something as terrible as this I feel I will never be the same loveable person you’ve all come to know and respect. But I did it all for you, yes it was for you the would be readers (actually it was for my ego) I poured my heart into ... this series. As you can see I’m doing quite the job of pussyfooting around what we’re actually going to review. I have a valid reason for this, currently I am sitting on my ass passing out Halloween candy to all the annoying kids who should be at home doing their homework on this miserable Sunday night, instead of barking(yes one kid barked) up my house for cheap sugary coated treats. So as you can see my temperament is quite disagreeable (I’ll be fine after a couple prozacs). But don’t worry because of that you all get the honour of an extremely long and tedious review. In fact going by the rate I’m typing this nonsense down I might even break my previous records. Hooray! Leaving that aside, I’m sure all of you are familiar with the Harry Potter book and movie series by a certain JK Rowling (good because I’m sure not). If you recall there was a character that was not to be named, yes because if you called this fiend by his name who knows what sort of unspeakable evil and atrocities could be committed. I feel just the same way with Jun Maeda and Key (oh shit I just named them) . Usually, when people discuss key/Maeda work’s such as Clannad I tend to give them the evil eye or the hard flame. This is because first of all just by reading the synopsis I can immediately tell that this type of bilge is going to give me sprue. But you know so as to not appear as an ignorant asshat, I tell them that while I think the premise of the show is shit, I can’t call the entire show shit until I get around and arsed to watching it. Well that is exactly what happened with Jun Maeda’s Angel Beats, I kept bitching about how terrible it was until I finally got around to watching it. Did I get a sudden epiphany and do a complete 180 like some of the characters did in this show towards the end? No, but what I did see scared the holy crap out of me.

Story 7/10
Woah where do I begin? What the hell just happened? What the hell is this? What the hell am I saying what the hell for?(It’s actually Why the hell but I didn’t want to combo break) Now usually when I review a series I just look at the synopsis edit it a bit(plagiarize) and add my own personal finesse to why I think it was awesome. Well, that’s just it the story of Angel Beats was not awesome. From what I understood it involves teenagers who got sent to heaven and await reincarnation? (Sorry I put a question mark, I don’t know where the hell they got sent, but thankfully neither does Jun Maeda.) Yes, here in this random dimension they get to temporarily experience the teenage fun they never had while they were still alive. (Just like Disney land without all the rodents!) I don’t know about you, but I felt they missed out several integral parts of enjoying a complete teenage life. Where were the drugs, gang violence and sluts (debatable presence)? You know the type of stuff that makes Hollywood orgasm dollars. But heh I guess to people in Japan being a teenager means playing baseball and just overall finding new ways to be a douchebag to everyone, and then growing up to buy used panties from dispensable machines, animating H-material and taking opium(or paint thinners) and then going to Roppongi for a Hot Saturday Night. But enough of my rambling we didn’t really address why this story sucks. It’s not only that it’s extremely confusing, but it’s also as if there are certain switches Key threw in there to evoke certain emotions from people. At times it was like they wanted you to laugh but I wasn’t laughing. Other times it was like they wanted me to be sad but who would shed manri tears for a show like this. Maybe I’m just a bad person(ahahahaha yea right)? So almost always my Key switches were off, I mean there were a couple times where my switches were half on mostly leaning towards the comedy side and especially when said scene involved a certain TK. But other than that I just felt myself waiting for time to pass and the next episode to air. I can say that towards the end the story seems to finally go at a decent pace and at least develop into something mediocre. Not to give any spoilers it’s not that the ending was good or bad per say just that it wasn’t as terrible as I thought it could be. Still it could not save itself from the atomic remains of what occurred before it. To be honest I was leaning towards giving this one a 6 (which was written down when I was drunk and writing this) but now I’ll change it to a slightly more appealing 7/10.

Characters 6/10
I wish I could slightly save the characters the same way I saved the story (tbh nobody could completely save that story). Unfortunately, if you thought the story was all over the place with its convoluted ideas then the characters were fucking all around the world in 13 episodes. We just had a shitload of characters... scratch that a fuckton. As a result some were ok, a lot bad and the rest were just plain negligible. For the sake of my review (laziness) and not having to recall all the painful memories I had with the cast (excuses) I will only mention a couple that stuck out for me (bias). Ah first and foremost my favourite character TK. Hell he’s the only reason you should stick around for this. He’s by far the best and most underrated character in this series. Poor bastard only gets like what 2-3 lines per episode and that’s if he’s lucky. Also his Engrish really impressed me, and I found myself pumped every time he said that vintage anime line “Get Chance and Luck”. His dancing moves were just so fresh, if all weaboos were like TK just imagine how great the world would be. The next noticeable character is our traditional punk/yankii character Noda(had to search it up). He really talks like a yankii(which is awesome) but unfortunately, that’s all he can do, talk. I think it’s supposed to be for some sort of comedic effect, but every time he tries to act like a badass he fails. I almost feel sorry for him he has all the negatives of a delinquent (rude, loud mouthed, somewhat an idiot) but none of the benefits (i.e the ass kicking elements). I mean just imagine you’re watching GTO and Onizuka couldn’t kick anyone’s ass, what we’d get is a train wreck (Otonashi no!!!!) and that’s essentially what his character is, a real mess. I can’t tell if he’s supposed to be the lancer (though the main character seems to have enough gigolo’s to satisfy his exotic needs) or just deadweight like the rest of cast. No in fact I pity you, I pity that your character was wasted on Key’s works. Had you have been featured in another anime/manga much more manri you may have made a name for yourself. OK now those of you who are still reading my review must be furious by now, I haven’t talked about any of your favourite characters. Well if I did I could easily keep this going for 10+ pages of rants and complaints. But I have an obligation to at least comment (complain) about what I dubbed this show’s “holy trinity”. Otonashi-Kanade-Yuri. You really can’t discuss (hate) this show without mentioning these 3 characters (at least not effectively). Well, where do I start? We have so much to discuss. Should we start with Otonashi’s generic pseudo defender of justice image, self-righteous tendencies or poor taste in women? Hmm how about all of them at once, well ok then, sure why not. First of all Otonashi, donating your rotten organs right before your death doesn’t make you a hero. Also it doesn’t matter what you’re doing, it’s like in your mind you’re always the hero. You could be working with the evil (subjective) emotionless force that’s been plotting against you for the majority of the show but still somehow end up being justice’s crusader and falling in love at the same time. It wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t take yourself so goddamn serious. But you always do always serious fucking business with you. It’s like you feel if you don’t help the people get obliterated they might die or something. Oh no wait it’s the opposite they will disappear if you obliterate them. Also what kind of man leaves all the fighting to the women; I’ll tell you a pussy (you’ll have to excuse my french). Otonashi is definitely the meddling father in this trinity. Next we have Yuri. Hmm whenever I see her I think about a show I saw several years ago, with almost the exact same character except executed in a better way. The name escapes me… I think the main character’s name started with an H( Google Letter H Japanese) so we’ll just abbreviate it to that. Yes indeed Yuri would be much better if she followed H’s example. Don’t ask me why that is but I tend to like titles involving women with H’s in them better than those that don’t have said H. I guess she would be the unholy spirit. Now this last one really bites my ass, and not like some cheap prostitute but more like an overpriced one that doesn’t know its place. Kanade, this character was completely emotionless and not in the badass stoic Kenshiro way but more like I’m getting raped but don’t care type of way. However, for some strange (predictable) reason she’s the most powerful person on the show. I mean who would suspect that the emo girl would end up being the strongest!? I was completely shocked, like honestly it catches me off guard in the same way a romance begins to develop in a shojo title. But she isn’t just strong, she’s inexplicably strong no she just goes ninja shit on all the other characters, abilities come out of her ass all while maintaining that composure. It gets even better when they customize her and turn her into her own Wing zero custom (minus buster canons). Did I mention I really love angel beats characters? In this trinity she’s the son…er daughter for obvious heart sharing reasons.

Enjoyment/Overall 6/10
While I did enjoy writing this review the actual show itself was not as enjoyable. In fact I would almost be inclined to say that I forced myself to watch it just so that I could write this review (precognition). It’s almost as if I was destined to write about this show. That being said I made several points in my notebook that I did not mention in my review. This is obviously though to me surpassing the 2,000 word point (we did it guys!) but mostly because of once again laziness. Also I feel that by now I may have angered enough fans who actually read this entire review, so not much more needs to be said. This is review is probably off base, I mean the anime community doesn’t really like to things in shades of gray (myself included) most people are always on one side of the extreme or the other. Unfortunately, it just so happened that the extreme (minority) of fans I represent dislike shows like Angel beats in general. Every time I tried to get into the show, it’s almost as if the creators were determined to throw me off the horse. Take Yui for example a character I conveniently missed out in commentaries, completely annoying and un-necessary but said character is also completely loli. This means she not only gets her own romantic sub-plot she also gets an entire episode dedicated to developing her character. From the massive amount of characters to choose from why did it have to be her? Is Key/Maeda trying to show me that whatever I think I may like about this show isn’t going to be touched upon further. But I feel I’ve daunted and rambled on too much about this show.

Angel Beats!

The world after death, everyone asks: "What kind of world is it?" No one knows the answer unless you die and see it for yourself. And with that, we have Angel Beats in our ranks. Adapted from a well-known Visual Novel, the anime was a great blockbuster in its era and bring a massive effect to the anime community, many fans blinded by the series charm. But how about the story itself? Is it as brilliant as the story concept?

Story: 6/10

Angel Beats! simply has a unique concept, set in a mysterious world ... where known as the "afterlife". The good thing is all element in this story merges perfectly. Prepare to be amazed by the emotions and drama that have been set in the screen. While in the comedy section, Angel Beats! prove their self-worth. The jokes bring a thirst to my mouth.

Angel Beats! have a deep story inside. And have the potential to grow more. But there's only one fatal problem that spooked the whole story. Yes, the pacing.
It's just forced to quickly finished. The plot's a little bit rushed. It has a strong ending, but cannot be felt perfect because the bad pacing.

Art & Animation: 9 / 10

The art was amazing, it has great details and beautiful backgrounds. I can feel all the color spectrum blended in one elegant screen. Although the character design is not the best. But still, it's better than the story itself.

Sound 10/10

Great soundtracks, and outstanding opening song, it's one of the most memorable songs I've ever heard. You can feel the emotions in the air as the seiyuu did a great job in bringing such character to the screen. The sound effects were nice, overall it's outstanding!

Character 5/10

One of the biggest problem that engulfs Angel Beats potential is the character.
While some character has their own proper development, but the character is too much for a 13 episodes anime. Angel Beats! overloads the story with unused elements in an attempt to please as many people as possible. It's simply inferior. If I have to say this, the romantic relationship between Otonashi and Tachibana was overly forced

Enjoyment 7/10
I found myself enjoy the entire series, even though I didn't put my heart in this anime. It's still unique and enjoyable.

Overall 6/10

Although, it's lack of characters and forced story. But, Angel Beats! still worth to watch, it's not the best anime but it's not the worst anime either. It have potential but have some flaws, Overall: It's worth to watch. If you seek an anime that shows many kinds of dazzling expressions, you must try this one.

This review contains no explicit spoilers. If you're the kind of person that doesn't appreciate even the slightest hint or foreshadowing then avoid reading this.

The story starts when our main character, Otonashi Yuzuru, wakes up in what seems to be a high school... but is in reality the afterlife. There, a bunch of students, led by an obnoxious girl, have formed a club to rebel against God. Their reason? the rather cruel and unfair way in which each of them passed away in the real world. As long as they rebel, they will not pass away for good in the afterlife, and so they decide ... to keep doing their thing.

It is also worth noting that this is a KEY adaptation of sorts. So obviously the main character has amnesia. Never gets old.

I will forever say that Angel Beats! had the potential to become one of the best anime shows of all time. However, something went horribly wrong in the process, and what I was left with is nothing more than a mix of overused tropes with very little redeeming factors.

So what is this thing that went wrong?

Pretty simple: Angel Beats! should've been a 2 cour show (22-26 episodes).

Many animes can pull a believable story with endearing, well developed characters in 13 episodes, but AB! isn't one of those. I wish I could keep going on about how amazing this ride could have been, but sadly I must rate this anime for what it is. That's not to say that the plot is perfect, because some concepts are pretty silly and devoid of logic, but still easily overlooked had the overall story been properly executed.

From the very beginning we're introduced to the fact that in this afterlife people cannot truly die, a fact that doesn't stop our beloved SSS (the name of the club rebelling against anything God-related) from constantly shooting and opening gun fire against Angel (student council president IIRC), who in their opinion is their enemy... wait what? Yes, they have access to an arsenal of weapons crafted underground, for some reason. Like that, there are many factors in this show that don't really make sense, but it's alright, stuff doesn't have to be 100% reasonable in this fictional and weird high school setting, right?

What is actually unforgivable is the terrible pacing and overall pointlessness of the story. It's supposed to be a SoL but it happens to be overloaded of other disposable mini events. Music, fishing, fighting, superpowers, pc programs, etc. are among some of those. There never seems to be a clear focus on where the story is headed, repeatedly switching back and forth, dropping relevant plot points to start new ones. It's not advised to do that if you only have 13 episodes at your avail.

And then we have the extremely poor and rushed character development (if present). The SSS has easily more than 15 actual characters, with a focus on maybe 5 or so. Why? Outside the main characters, there's the violent guy, the calm guy, the mysterious girl, the geek, the weird one that says random stuff in english... yes, that's as memorable as they get. The main ones are "lucky" enough to have a semi-proper backstory composed of lazy flashbacks, but what about everyone else? They're just living tropes with no real input in the plot.

The humor is a hit or miss. Most of it relies on the repetition of the same jokes, so if they didn't stick on you at first, then you'll likely end up cringing at them.

Anyway, a few plot twists deprived of any build-up or character development, and a few illogical ass-pulls later, the show ends. I can see how some people might have been severely moved by it, but I could not help but shake my head in disbelief.

Like with most overrated shows, the art and sound are usually really damn good, and in this case it's no exception. Animation, character designs and backgrounds are nothing short of amazing. The same can be said about the voice acting and music, with the insert songs being great and the OP / ED just magnificent (especially the OP).

A shame that art and sound will never be enough on their own...

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General:
Atmosphere 5/10 --- Nothing made it look like this was the afterlife.
Characters 3/10 --- Even the few that got development are average at best, especially the SSS leader aka Haruhi ripoff.
Story development & ending 4/10 --- Focus and pacing all over the place, ending with a senseless twist.

Technical:
Art 9/10 --- It's PA works.
Soundtrack 9/10 --- Really good!
Voice acting 9/10 --- No complaints. I'm a bit biased because Kana Hanazawa is here too.

Personal:
Priority (How eager I was to watch the next episode) 7/10 --- Okay hype.
Memorability 8/10 --- Hard to forget the anime that I'm pretty sure has the most reviews in this site.

Final score:
5/10 --- Mediocre

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Most of the glaring issues could have been fixed if this had 22-26 episodes. I can just imagine each (or at least 90%) of the characters having a proper backstory and closure, as opposed to just 5. Would have also helped greatly in making the mini-arcs seem as something brief, instead of them taking 25-33% of the entire run time.

This was one of the first animes that I watched, and even so I could still not get captivated by it, when my taste was only starting to take shape. I apologize if some fact might be wrong, it's been more than 2 years since I watched this!

Recommended audience: There's 0 fanservice, only some blood and the plot isn't really complex so this should be pretty easy to watch for any age 12+

I hope you enjoyed this review!

PS: I have not watched any of the OVA or whatever Starway to heaven is.

I came to AB! expecting a tearjerker, but too often I felt that what I was being asked to feel was too shallow or cheap. I don't like the feeling of being 'worked' by an author, whether it's anime or something else. One of the things that I think AB! really suffers from is the demand for immediate empathy, handing you tragic backstory after tragic backstory. At its best, I think this show does well bordering the line between a baseline sense of tragedy and the sort of sweet, silly or absurd situations that could arise with a bunch of pissed-off young people living in ... an eternal high school. At worst, it's messy and confusing as it sidelines worldbuilding and character depth for one-off action episodes and overwrought emotional conflicts.

The basic premise - the unsure do-gooder caught in a conflict and world he doesn't understand - has a lot of potential. The eerie shots of empty classrooms and the endless repetition of this sort of nether-world are enigmatic and may delight the curious - but to claim, as the summary on this site does, that this is a story unraveling 'the mystery of the afterlife' misses the mark a bit. For the bulk of the show, and where it's at its best, it's primarily an episodic, slice-of-life story about unhappy characters rebelling against meaningless suffering and a faceless higher power through simple antics. It's the bonds that form between these characters, and their growth as characters, that form the strongest element of the show and the one that may have you in the tears you've been promised by the end.

Unfortunately, these characters are skating on the rather thin ice of the world they find themselves in - it also doesn't help that for all the stronger, interesting characters, they're also loaded down with the predictable cast of tropes that add a few laughs but exist by and large to shoot a gun, drop a quip or two, and then disappear. By the end, the 'unraveling' that we've done leads to more questions than answers about the world in which they exist.

While the show has a tendency of taking itself too seriously, I enjoyed watching these characters interact most of the time, and they'll be what sticks with you after you've wrapped up your time in this very strange world. When they're being playful there are some very funny moments, giving rise to situations with just the right mix of sweetness and sadness that I felt most deeply in watching this show.

Don't come to this expecting a masterpiece, but if you take it for what it is, it's probably worth the 6.5 hours.

Angel Beats! is what happens when you build a bridge rated at 2 tons and then try to drive a 4 ton truck over it. You might be okay for the first half of the bridge but somewhere around the middle the structure begins to give way and eventually the whole thing falls apart. Many other reviewers before me have said that this series deserved to be twice the length it was, and I solidly agree. However, we were given a 13-episode series, and as such I will review it without speculating what various aspects of the show could have been improved with a longer ... runtime.

Story and Setting: 3

Our MC Otonashi wakes up dead in a world seemingly only consisting of a large high school, and is promptly thrown into the fray in a conflict between the SSS guerilla faction of students who refuse to be assimilated into the afterlife and mysterious girl named Tenshi. By itself, the premise is tantalizing if not entirely original, and shows promise for the first few episodes as our main gang undergoes numerous "operations" to combat Tenshi and introduce Otonashi to his new home. However, the story takes a turn for the non-sequitur right around episode 5. New enemies arise then give way rather quickly to a resurgence of old conflicts, then the world quite literally starts to fall apart. The problem I had when experiencing this story was that little to none of it after the first initial episodes made sense. "Why are the characters doing any of this?" was the question that frequently ran through my mind throughout the show. One central tenet I maintain with any anime that attempts to tell any degree of a serious story is that it is fully responsible for enabling my suspension of disbelief, regardless of setting or characters. I consider myself to have a high tolerance level for fantastical situations, so I mainly look for a believable and understandable story progression. Angel Beats! failed at delivering on this. Things just seemed to happen for the sake of moving forward, character motivations were handwaved away and a romance subplot appeared basically out of nowhere that left me more confused than happy. Ultimately, I appreciate that the story has a good introduction and a definitive conclusion, but I could not turn my brain off and accept the sequence of events that connected the two.

One particular issue with storytelling I want to highlight is Angel Beats' reliance upon exposition to tell large chunks of the story. I realize that this is likely a product of the series' short length but the majority of it could have been left out or highly abridged and I would have felt smarter as a viewer for understanding the characters or plot progression better. ESPECIALLY because anime as a medium is about showing and not telling, I am very disappointed with how the writers chose to convey parts of the story like this.

Characters: 3

Even with detailed backstories given to a portion of the main cast, I simply did not care for any of the characters. None of them had, in my opinion, any real surface depth beyond superficial character traits like "the glasses guy", "the genki girl", "the Rei Ayanami expy", "the male Winry Rockbell who speaks English", and so on. Character backstories only seem to reinforce outward traits rather than add complexity. Even for characters like Otonashi and Yurippe, I didn't sense any significant change or progression over the course of the show. When characters changed their opinions of each other by the end of the show, it felt forced rather than as a logical outcome of their motivations and beliefs. Lastly, and this is mainly a complaint from the perspective of being a Western viewer, I was frustrated that everyone was a stereotypical Japanese anime high school student. There were no original or innovative character archetypes to freshen the usual formula. Good characters can sometime salvage a shaky plot, but unfortunately this was not the case here.

Art: 8

I would be lying if I said I was unimpressed with the animation and artwork. My only quibble is with the individual character designs - Angel Beats! was adapted from a Key visual novel and I am not a huge fan of their art style. However, P.A. Works knocked it out of the park with everything else. Backgrounds and lighting are beautiful, HUDs looked crisp and character movement was fluid and intuitive. Angel Beats! goes the extra mile in many spots, like fully animating GirlsDeMo with the guitarists' hands forming actual chords. It is not the most impressively animated show I have ever seen, but it certainly surpasses the norm for the type of show it is and deserves my appreciation.

Sound: 10

This show's saving grace. Angel Beats! has seriously one of the best soundtracks of all the anime I have seen. The opening grabbed me from the first piano chords and ushered in an OST full of amazing songs. GirlsDeMo was a particular highlight, providing great rock songs that influenced the overall atmosphere of the show. Background tracks that played during action scenes or even moments of dialogue were great to listen to, one of which in particular reminded me of the music from Zelda: Twilight Princess. The OST overall gave a certain vibe of both enthusiasm and vigor with hints of eerie otherworldliness to perfectly complement the show's setting. I'll be listening to it for a while.

Enjoyment: 5

In the end, I can't say I regretted watching Angel Beats!. However, I don't feel any happier for having watched it either, except for having good new music to listen to. The show was a jumbled mess of poorly composited story progression and shallow characters that didn't earn my emotional investment.

Presenting a review of [Angel Beats] for your reading pleasure.

Story(5): In all my years, I have never heard of such a ridiculous idea of an afterlife where you are allowed the opportunity to resolve your regrets from an untimely death. Death will come for you sooner or later whether you have regrets or not. If you are going to die sooner or later, why not move forward in life with your own two feet all the time? That way you will have lived a life worth living, thus this idea of requiring some disturbing afterlife world in order to resolve regrets will become completely unnecessary. ... As such, I believe this story to be quite silly even to Children. And Children are quite demanding when it comes to Anime afterall.

Art(7): This anime certainly is a delight to watch for its clarity of art. The colors and visual animations are at a very high level indeed. I foresee a day in which such animations would be considered one of the best art forms of the 21st Century, just as fake paintings of the Mona Lisa was in the 19th Century.

Sound(8): Such heavenly sound quality most certainly deserves high praise, the music is capable of completing the emotional element that is being portrayed visually. Often times, one is so drawn in to the moments of great emotion that the music exits your conscious mind and into your subconsciousness, wherein you may be moved to tears without your knowledge.

Character(8): Quite possibly the greatest strength and the saving grace of this anime is its Characters. Even with a ridiculous plot, these characters in Angel Beats have managed to perform splendidly. Indeed, they may be dead but they still were capable of moving forward or rather moving on to the next life. Once something is lost, it can never be regained; however, humans have the ability to hope, dream, and continue on even in the face of tremendous obstacles. Indeed, that is what sets us Humans apart from Demons. Therefore, even in death, the Characters remained Humans to the very end.

Enjoyment(7): Angel Beats is quite enjoyable, worthy of spending an afternoon watching while procrastinating on other tasks. Allow the characters to bring you into their world and you will experience the emotional thrill that is Angel Beats.

Overall(6): It is a great shame that such strong characters with high quality visual and audio works of art is spent on such a plot. Should you be one who enjoys witnessing the afterlife of characters who had their life shorten by unfortunate circumstances, you may come to love Angel Beats, unlike I. However, if you find such plots regarding the inner mind of characters to be boring, then I suggest you seek other Anime to enjoy.

I was truly surprised to see that this anime is so highly rated among viewers. I get the feeling that this review will generally be ignored for that reason, so I ask that if you're an avid fanboy/girl of Angel Beats!, please just scroll down to my overall section of the review where I acknowledge that I didn't hate the series, so as not to rage over objectivity.

I'm not sure if my dislike towards this series has to do with my lack of "experience" with anime, or if it might in fact be because of the lack of "experience" on the viewers' ... part. Before I say anything about the series itself, let me just say that the main problem I had with it throughout was that almost every aspect of it was simply a cookie-cutter copy of a different anime, but without the charm and execution. This is also my first review, so forgive me if it lacks any thoroughness.


Story: 5/10

I thought that the story, or at least the setting, was among the anime's strongest points, before you get down to the specifics. I've always enjoyed anime that involves throwing children/young adults into their own situation where they are the ones who act as the adults, making their own decisions. I liked the idea of the "alternate universe" that this story takes place in. I liked the idea that the students at the school have formed their own faction and hierarchy of command. I also really liked the idea that there was an aura of peril and urgency to the story.

What I really disliked, however, was the overly-dramatic character backstories which drive the whole anime. I can appreciate a really sad story, not only as the setting for the anime itself, but for characters, but this takes it way overboard. Each character has their own horrific backstory, but they're horribly written. It feels like the writers just compiled everything negative they could possibly think of, and then they just carelessly dumped it all into the characters' pasts. Hardly any of the characters' stories were believable, and with almost every story-advancing episode, I found myself yawning, saying, "Here we go again, more tragedy, more sadness".

The amount presence that tragedy and sadness have in this story is so enormous that it's borderline humorous, and it made a lot of the story very predictable, which really spoiled what I think would have otherwise been a few decent twists. It isn't without it's few sweet spots, though. Some bits of the story were genuinely sad or happy.


Art: 6/10

One of the big things that turned me off of the anime to begin with was the odd animation. Don't get me wrong, I can definitely appreciate that it's a pretty-looking anime with the gradients in the hair and the eyes. The overall art style was pretty pleasing to the eye. What bothered me was that the actual animation itself was very choppy and weird. No matter how pretty the art style may have been, I can't shake the feelings of "cheap" and "low-budget" when I watch an anime in low FPS with choppy animations.


Sound: 8/10

I thought that the sound was among the strongest points of the anime. I don't know what to say, other than that I enjoyed the music and the sound effects were nice.


Characters: 2/10

Quick note, here: Kanade (Tenshii) is generally an acception to this section of my review. I quite liked her. To be totally frank, I pretty much hated the characters -- None of them really had any depth unless you count their "tragic pasts", and beyond that, they were all pretty typical, cookie-cutter copies of other personalities in other anime to begin with. The anime tries to make some of the characters feel mysterious and distant, but I feel that it failed every time. Above all else, the humor that constantly demanded attention throughout the story was absolutely cringe-worthy most of the time.

None of the characters, Kanade included, were really original.


Overall: 6

I'd like to note that despite my many problems with the show, there were a few nice spots that I really enjoyed that made it (somewhat) worth it to stick through it until the end. I particularly liked the ending and the way it tied off a few loose ends, though it was a little corny. I also really enjoyed the few scenes that involved the main character's past, and (so as not to ruin the story) the events that led up to him being put into this alternate world.

I think that this anime would have excelled if it were aimed at a younger audience, but I can't bring myself to believe that that was the intent, given all the instances of suggestive themes thrown in here and there. Most of the characters were really annoying and lacked depth, aside from the backstories which were unbelievably loaded with tragedy, which in turn made the whole thing pretty predictable. I found the humor to be generally juvenile (with the exception of a few cases), which really left the characters without any real redeeming qualities. Overall, I appreciate that the writers wanted the characters and story to incorporate a lot of the things that we love from other anime, but I felt that it just couldn't deliver in an original way.

Fictional bullies are like real-life bullies to me in that we get along very poorly and I prefer to avoid them altogether. I have not and will never be able to tolerate that stupid fictional cliche because not only do I not consider it good conflict, but explain to me how it makes any sense that they can be dumb as bricks, and yet be able to always run into their victims out of nowhere like they’ve got security cameras lined up across the entire city. And whilst I don’t mind them if they’re funny, comedy is a hellhole in general anime-wise, and most people ... who make the stuff probably never even watched Back to the Future and laughed at the hilarity that is Biff Tannen. The only other alternative for me to accept that cliche is if you have a story that’s focused on a bully, what makes him tick, why he has a particular grudge against this meek person, and how he’s able to have so many friends who for some reason share the same train of thought as him. Never expected Jun Maeda of all people to be the one to write that story, but yes, Angel Beats is basically the “story about bullies” that I’ve wanted for a long time.

Okay, having the bully and the victim be a Haruhi cosplayer and a little girl who can defend herself with Matrix-like powers wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it makes sense when you think about it. Haruhi herself was a bully and whilst the irony of your victim being a lonely little girl who happens to be able to use weapons is nothing new, it’s not a bad stereotype. I’m fully aware that most people paid attention to Angel Beats whilst it was airing because of its setting and how the characters respond to it, but I say said setting and how it works is ultimately irrelevant at the end of the day. Yes, Angel Beats sets out to say the same things Haibane Renmei does (along with The Matrix, Lost, Cowboy Bebop, many other school comedies, etc.), but that doesn’t invalidate my own reading of the show: that it’s really an exaggerated metaphor for bullying where the bullies are the main characters.

The story is focused on Otonashi, an amnesiac who joins said bullies masquerading as freedom fighters called the SSS after a poor choice of wording caused him to see a little girl in the wrong light. Said group has had their own share of baggage, and thus take it out on that little girl because they need someone to blame and due to their blindness as well as a combination of their own talents and stupidity, they try to make things difficult for her at every opportunity and don’t even bother to learn her real name – calling her Angel, or Tenshi if you want to be a weeaboo about it. Although Otonashi himself doesn’t even know what his baggage is, it makes sense for him to join the group where he’d have many supporters rather than few (well, one) and thus we get episodes of the SSS taking their frustrations out on Angel all under the justification of trying to confront God when in reality, they’re just shooting a little girl they know can’t die and thus they feel totally justified.

I’m sure I don’t have to clarify that since this is a Jun Maeda anime, it’s filled to the brim with his usual fetishes: low-IQ characters, laughably dramatic stories, characters loving baseball, decent dramatic soundtrack, derpy derpy doo. Unlike his previous works though, said fetishes actually add to the story rather than detract from it.

The SSS should offend you with their simple-minded behavior and missions that come off more like school activities. Angel Beats purposefully makes them do inconsequential things that won’t matter in the long-term in order to showcase just how empty and pointless taking your anger out on something you ultimately can’t see is, along with having them unknowingly experience the fun they thought they were above in the process. You don’t have to bother explaining how the purgatory they are trapped in really works because it has little to no consequence on the overall story. You don’t even have to bother putting that much effort into what happened in their past lives to justify their actions, because Angel Beats wants you to see that there is no justification whatsoever for being an asshole, and it’s only when you accept that fact and grow up that you can succeed in life. This particularly comes to a head in the episode where the SSS takes their antics too far and end up ruining Angel’s reputation in the school, only to realize that it was all for nothing and she’s a normal girl with a normal name who only opposed them because they caused trouble first, causing Otonashi to side with her. From there, he appoints himself as the guy who wants to make his friends realize the same thing as him, give up on their empty hatred, and move on with their lives.

Except Otonashi isn’t exactly the Jesus Christ he makes himself out to be. Even after he gains his memories of being an aspiring doctor, he can’t fully control people’s lives and is ultimately nothing more than a bit player in the grand scheme of things. He tries to get Angel accepted into the group, only for her powers to go out of control and ultimately distance herself from everyone else for a short time. Whilst he tries to make Yui happy so that she can move on, it is ultimately his blue-haired friend that satisfies her leftover wants. Everyone chooses for themselves what they want to do once the truth is forced out of him, and considering that they were already living a fun life with their missions against God long before he showed up, it makes sense that they’d recognize what they want to do so easily. Even Yuri has to confront her inner demons on her own through some programmed NPC left by a previous denizen of this world. And finally, after the characters graduate from the high school life eager to accept their past whilst starting anew, he decides to invite the girl he loves to stay at this highschool just so they can both be bit players to other people’s stories, only for said girl to reject his offer and move on without him. I’m probably in the minority on this, but Otonashi crying like a baby when he realized how much that offer/declaration of love backfired on him was just hilariously ironic to me.

So Angel Beats appeals to me story-wise. It’s just a pity it’s not executed very well in regards to how it tells that story to me. Again, I’m not talking about the plot details like how Angel could have possibly arrived at the purgatory before a certain somebody and how the rules of the world just keep changing willy-nilly and whatever that Matrix-moment in the penultimate episode was all about, because those don’t really affect the story Angel Beats wants to tell when you get down to it. I’m talking about the presentation choices, many of them due to having Seiji Kishi as the director.

I’ll admit there were times where I laughed at the show’s humor, which is pretty rare in terms of anime. TK is a funny dude and those rocket chairs were pretty genius. Unfortunately, a bunch of the comedy comes from the Fullmetal Alchemist school of comedy in that it creates jarring tonal shifts that are completely unnecessary and ruin the mood the show is going for at times, particularly that scene in Episode 9 when Otonashi discovers the truth behind Angel and the touching tone suddenly gets disrupted for an unfunny gag. And when it’s not doing that, it’s pointing out the show’s own faults and then not bothering to really fix them, which isn’t good meta-humor. That’s just punching somebody and then saying that you punched somebody.

It doesn’t exactly help that it also causes the characterization necessary for this kind of story to work to suffer at times. Whilst anime as a medium will never be able to really capture the personalities of real-life people, there’s a difference between being girly and being lame, and the way Yuri acted after being relieved of her leadership duties was very much the latter. It’s an extreme, but definitely not the only time where the characters’ personalities are exaggerated too far in order to get a laugh, although surprisingly I never had a problem with the dramatic side of things. Maybe because for a Key anime, there wasn’t much in the way of actual crying.

And just to hammer the nail in, the production isn’t all that. It’s pretty decent for the most part, but there are a bunch of poor shots that would have embarrassed Deen at the time this came out. The concert scenes are pretty good with lots of detail put into the way the hands move as well as how the actually pretty decent rock songs sync up to the characters’ mouths, but the action is mostly crap. There are one or two instances where it looks cool, but the rest is poorly choreographed, shot way too close to the camera, and the two sides aren’t even in the same scene for a majority of them that you might as well be watching those Expendables films if you just want some brainless action.

Finally, that epilogue (the official one, not the one that came months later)…well I don’t dislike it because unlike what I’ve heard of [C]‘s ending (I haven’t seen that show), I don’t think it really changed much of anything at the last minute. It wasn’t like Kuragehime’s awful finale where it basically rewarded its cast of bullies for their terrible behavior. It’s just a chance reunion between two people who haven’t seen each other in a long time and considering many years had to have passed, I don’t have any reason to assume that this reunion along with the fact that the characters seem to be living fine after all they’ve been through was unearned. We don’t even really see what happens as a result of it. Nevertheless, I still think it was unnecessary to show.

Still for all its problems and despite my commenters saying otherwise, I quite liked Angel Beats in the end. Ha! See that PA Works? If you would quit wasting your time on character masturbation and focused more on drama that actually moves things along and has something interesting to say, I wouldn’t flat-out ignore you like I usually do! I do admit that a large part of my enjoyment for the show comes from how much I despise what fiction does to the “bully character” the same way a few people enjoy Daily Lives of Highschool Boys because they don’t like the “cute girl” genre it’s mocking, and whilst I think Otonashi’s hypocritical philosophy is played out well enough, it’s not perfectly executed and you may find the faults in it more annoying than I did. It’s definitely something I like more for what it could have been and I would have preferred a script and direction that’s a little less hokey (it could be argued that Flowers of Evil is like that, but I say that’s more a twist on the whole love triangle story), so take my judgment for what it’s worth.

[Adapted From Original Blog Post]

It's these kind of shows I hate. Oh no, not the kind of anime I literally hate, because of that's the case I can just pick up this Tommy-gun that just happens to be laying next to me and completely destroy the show's plot and characters. No, I'm talking about the kinds of anime that you can't help but like; something about the colorful characters and intriguing plot, or the excellent animation and brilliant OP, just grabs you, taking you on an emotional journey through the afterlife. Unfortunately though, it's also the kind of anime after you've finished it, look back ... on and think, "Wait...how long did she have freakin' have to wait?!"

Angel Beats is a 13-episode anime that aired all the way back in the spring of 2010. It was directed by Seiji Kishi, known for directing both my guilty pleasure Danganronpa, and Carnival Phantasm, a show I won't even try to begin to explain for fear of the schizophrenic opening driving me insane. The animation was handled by P.A Works, the animation studio who put themselves on the map with True Tears in 2008, and would go on to create the popular "horror"(these quotations are about the size of blimps by the way) anime Another in the year of 2012. The original story was conceived by the one and only Jun Maeda, who hasn't done anything more in the anime creation department, but did the music for series's such as Kanon(2006) and Clannad. Now with that out of the way, you might be asking yourself, "what exactly is an Angel Beats?". Well, let me explain...

Our story begins with our orange haired hero Otanashi, waking up in a manner those who have played any RPG's would be rather familiar with. He has complete amnesia, and doesn't know where he is, who he is, and what the hell is going on, seeing that when he glances to his right, there appears to be a girl carrying a rather large gun. The girl introduces herself as Yuri, and informs Otanashi that he apparently went and got killed at some point, and is now in a high-school purgatory with Yuri and a number of other students that have died as well. Also, she seems to be pointing that gun at what she claims to be an "angel", but who looks like a normal girl to Otanashi. Understandably not quite understanding what exactly is happening, Otanashi approaches the "angel" despite Yuri's warnings, and sees if she can clear up anything. She too says that this is indeed purgatory, and just to convince Otanashi, she stabs him through the heart with a sword. Of course though, neither Yuri or Angel is insane or lying to Otanashi; this is purgatory, and that means you can't die. After waking up in hospital room, and not sure of what else to do, Otanashi joins up with Yuri's group the SSS, to fight Angel, and see if he can eventually recall memories from his own life and learn what tragic circumstances brought the rest of the school's occupants to this purgatory. He still finds himself drawn to Angel, why she acts the way she does, and if she is actually an angel, sent from God. The answer will affect Otanashi, and drag this entire purgatory high-school into a conflict with an outcome that will be unpredictable for everyone.

Now as you can imagine, all these little mysteries make the first episode and premise of Angel Beats so interesting. There are ton of intriguing questions to be answered, and I found the characters, especially concerning the past of the unfair lives they led, a really interesting catalyst for character development, even if the show never really decided to go that way. Now, it's worth mentioning that the show follows a plan-of-the-week type setup, where Yuri would come up a plan to defeat or resist Angel, only to see it go wrong, at least for the first half of the show. These little adventures make up the bulk of the episodes, and yes are fun and entertaining while they last, showing the daily shenanigans of the SSS with fairly entertaining comedy, but here's where the main flaw of the show's plot and ideas comes into focus. The show completely lacks a sense of direction, going from one unrelated arc to the next, with no clear goal in mind. This means the final arc of the show has no build-up, makes the final villain a character we've never seen before, and suddenly ends as the show drops an emotional bombshell completely out of left field. And then the show just ends, like it forgot to tell us that, "yeah, this is the finale by the way. k' thanks bye". You'll get a clearer idea of what I mean when you go watch the show. This emotional bombshell tries to tie everything up at the end while fulfilling its manipulative plan to make the viewer cry. And yeah, you might cry at the end of the series, the freakin' emotional music playing and lens flares is practically engineered to make you cry, but this emotional twist at the end opens a plot-hole so big that it almost completely ruins the show for me, once I started to think about it after the show ended.

They might have been able to pull the ending(and the anime, off) with the proper steps, but here's the final problem with the show. It's too damn short. 13 episodes wasn't nearly enough time to fully explore the concepts of this afterlife, also taking into account developing the huge cast. This is why the story was so fast rushing through arc after arc, trying to fit everything it wanted in, and why the ending is just so sudden. I heard that the anime was originally supposed be twice the length it actually ended up being, so there's an explanation I suppose, but I can even think of a few filler episodes that could have been cut out without much missed, and at the very least could have been used as "character episodes". More on that later.

But yeah, all these problems stem from the show's short run time: the sudden end, the few lackluster characters, and the lack of direction. It's a shame too, because if P.A works had the time and episodes to do what they wanted, and fleshed out all the characters and setting, it could have been great. It just didn't turn out like that.

This anime has quite the large cast, which doesn't really help seeing that the show was already rushed. This leaves most of the characters with very straight-forward personalities, with nothing under the one trait they show us. However the show will occasionally take a break from digging plot-holes to concentrate on one character of the large cast, and this usually makes up the best parts of the entire show, which makes me feel like a character driven anime would have been the preferable direction, especially considering the lack of episodes. While the character episodes are fantastic(episode 3, 4, and 9 especially) I'll touch on them later, because I need to talk about the main cast, which ironically, might not be quite as good as some of the supporting cast.

First we need to talk about our main character Otanashi, whose bright orange hair might be his most distinguishing feature, because he who just might one of the most blandest people in the entire world. He's very reminiscent of Another's Keouchi, and Gosick's Kujo, a main character that just seems to be there to witness the narrative forward itself, instead of actually affecting it. All his actions are seemingly dictated by a "Main Character Code of Conduct" book; he stands up for what's right, he's noble, caring, etc. etc. My point is, all of his actions throughout the anime, except maybe at the very end, are everything any regular person would do, leaving his character just a blank slate, and nothing more interesting to be said for him.

The proud no-nonsense leader of the SS: Yuri, is much more interesting. Unlike Otanashi, she actually has motivation and development throughout the show, explaining her hatred towards God due to her severely tragic life. And I don't know if this is just me, but Yuri reminds me vividly of Haruhi from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, except without having god-like powers, and being slightly more sane, at least most of the time. I don't know.
Lastly, we have the queen of "kuuderes" herself: Angel. Now, for almost the entire length of the series, she is the latest member of a group of characters I like to call: The Sisterhood of Rei Ayanami, which includes characters like Yuki Nagato from Haruhi, Mei Misaki from Another, and to some extent Inori from Guilty Crown. Yes, she is the seemingly emotionless character for the duration series, until we actually start to learn about her character at the end of the series, including that emotional bombshell at the end of the anime. However, despite this, I never felt she ever really broke out of her archetype, and the reasoning behind her emotionless personality wasn't a good enough explanation in my opinion. She become an alright character, but this problem really hurts her development, and her character overall.

Now the supporting cast finally give me something to talk about. When they aren't providing the comedy for the series, the side characters make up for the actually interesting characters. While of course, there isn't nearly enough time in the show to possibly development them all, the few that do get episodes to themselves are rather awesome. This is where the writing is the best, and as I said before, things might have gone more smoothly as a character-of-the-week show. Unfortunately, of course, once again due to the number of episodes most characters are ignored, but you become interested on what their story of why they're in this purgatory is. You always feel like there's more to them than what the show is showing us, and I found myself wanting to know the back story to more than a few characters, like Shiina and TK. I never got that back-story, but it's kind of fun to make up your own explanation, like maybe Shiina used to be Batman, and TK has a rare disease that if he stops dancing he dies. Point is, it was more fun to speculate on the side characters stories than it was to concentrate on the main character's, which you know, is kind of a shame. And when a side character does get a episode to themselves, like Yui or Hinata, Angel Beats becomes a legitimately really good show, making it all the more painful that we got so few of those episodes.

I've found P.A works has never failed to impress me before animation-wise, and that makes them one of my new favorite animation studios behind studio ufotable(though to be fair, ufotable is like, god). They've shown me a wide range of techniques with shows like Another, while still keeping the kind of animation that makes them P.A Works. With Angel Beats, no bars are held back, the animation looks superb, detail evident in every scene. I also really like the color palette of the show, which can range from grim dark to easy-on-the-eye bright colors, though I find the bright colors really is where the show shines. The action scenes where the SSS fight Angel are rather cool as well, though personally, I find them a little underwhelming compared to shows like Sword Art Online and Shakugan no Shana, though to be fair, those shows are more action oriented. Oh, don't worry Angel Beats, this doesn't mean I forgive you, there's more than one action scene in the anime and it really should be better at times. All in all, action is neither bad or good, so just call it "meh".

However if there is a time where the animation really can shine, it's during the concert scenes preformed by the school band: Girls Dead Monster. It looks absolutely superb, not only because a million things are moving at once, but because the music is synced up wonderfully with the instruments and players. There's not too many concert performances in the series itself, but I was more than happy to wait patiently for them when they came. Speaking or music, and speaking of superb...

I've been disappointing by P.A Works when they handle music before, especially with Another, that OP made me want to slam my head into the wall until it stopped, but I'm am delighted to say that Angel Beats has no such short-comings. It's full of songs both rigid with emotion, and up-beat tracks to bring levity to the series. Key did a wonderful job making this soundtrack, so much so that when the writing fails, the music can be the deciding factor of emotional investment in a certain scene. Not all these tracks you will notice while you are actually watching the anime, but I recommend you to go back and listen to the OST by itself, like I did, and be pleasantly surprised by just how good some of these songs actually are. The only flaw in the soundtrack is that some of these songs can potentially sound alike, but I guess that comes to be expected when you need to produce 5+ emotional songs with the same vocalist. It happens. Personal favorites form this track include "Theme of SSS" and "My Most Precious Treasure". Of course you can't forgot the lovely opening, which features extremely high quality animation and a song that got stuck in my head for about two weeks.

I'm not going to leave here saying that Angel Beats is a bad anime and you shouldn't watch it, because it isn't, but there is many legitimate problems here that really kill the show's chance of being anything more than a typical anime. What it had in music, animation, emotion, it lack in character, pacing and direction. Think of Angel Beats as a poorly made cookie: tastes good, but starts to crumble apart when you hold onto it for too long. My point is, the good of Angel Beats doesn't quite outweigh the bad, leaving an anime to watch and enjoy, but not one to praise and re-watch. What potential it had was killed by the short length of the thing, and ultimately soured what it did right. Perhaps a good anime if you're looking for an emotional pick-me-up, but not one that has any really quality. That's not to say it can't be good, even great at times, but it never lasts too long.

Well, with all that in mind, I bring this review to an end. In summary: Angel Beats. Good. Not great. Goodbye.

Final Verdict: 6/10

P.S: Seriously, how long did she have to wait?!!


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I found the angel beat series to be very mysterious and compelling on a new level of anime involved with high school, science fiction, and supernatural. The animation and story as well as the elements makes it worth more than watching and stands out from its peers for being a simplistic but complex drama and it's emotional tone also has an effect on viewers too. Even though I found the anime enjoyable and funny at the same time it doesn't answer many of my questions about the characters' origins and where are they and what are they trying to do. Also I found the whole ... life is worth living as a bit cliche and didn't feel sad or even cry when the characters disappear without a reason or the unfair end they had in their young life's. To tell the truth, I think life for some people can be torture and death is an graceful escape that can free them from their pain and life is also very cruel at sometimes and death acts like almost as a benevolent force that gives you peace when you are at your end, even your life was horrible death can give take you away from that pain and give you a new start in a new place with a better life. Angel beats was a good anime but I found many parts (including the ending) to be rather corny and unconvincing for you to cry at their misery and because the whole setting and themes is almost black and white to real life and the the show really needs to answer many questions for the characters and their reasons for being here. In other words it was an more than average anime for me but still looks cheesy, confusing, over dramatic, and utterly non moving for someone like me and the main characters have a little too much screen time as well. If there was a second season it should be a prequel or sequel that has different characters with more interesting personalities and a more understanding plot as well as a villain because villains always makes the show more interesting. This anime was good but it isn't for me and is for the more sad and expressional type of anime fan, thanks for reading my review of this strange and over deluxe anime.

Angel Beats! is one of those animes where it looks terrible at first but in the end blows everyone away and sends them on feels trips. It's definitely an anime where judging by the cover is wrong.

Story:

The story line really confused me at first. One, because I had no idea where we were and what the objective was. I was at a loss. They literally place you in a suspenseful situation with one of the characters and put you right into the action. Different enough, but too confusing. I can see why this storyline is considered overrated and adds arguments and controversy online, the ... character style is the first thing people see, then there's character bands and they just press the stop button right after because it's too silly, yet this story was touching. It brought a comfort but thrilling feelings. There were unexpected things and things that were too unexpected. In short, this story showed exceptional potential at first sight and didn't disappoint.

Art:

I've never seen such amazing background before. The sunlight/rays casting onto the scenery really showed the mood through it. It brought the sad atmosphere through the character's emotions and played it to us in return. Absolutely breathtaking.

But the characters...not so much. I think they could've done without the colourful hair and big eyes. The high schoolers were cliche enough, but using an anime style that has turned anime into a bit...strange was too much. It's a reason why people stop watching, they think oh bright haired characters equals horrible story line. The character's style pulls the actual plot away. It's quite a disappointment.

Sound:

The music was perfect. Just like I said about in the background art, it added atmosphere to the emotion of the story. The into song really set the pace of the story, upbeat, but also very tragic.

Character:

How do you get rid of a cliche character? Give them a gun or a sword and you're problem is solved!

Wrong!

Like I said, the style of the characters were disappointing, but the characters themselves weren't too bad. There was character development thankfully. I think the characters being high school students did add the cliche element to it so I think they could've used more creativity, but Kanade especially was very interesting, but we needed more backstory on them. There were characters we didn't know enough of. It was too rushed.

Enjoyment/Overall:

The anime was rushed. The episodes were extended by a few minutes, but I felt like there should've been at least 30 episodes for it to be complete. We have no idea what happens in the end. Otonashi is left hanging then appears in the world of the living again. But this still put me on a bus to Feelsville. It really did give me that "awe" moment, but didn't give me the feeling of wanting to watch it over and over again.

I give this anime 54% on the angel scale.

I honestly wanted to enjoy this, seeing as the story does seem solid and incredibly intriguing, but the fact that it was approached so lazily and sparsely is just disappointing. The majority of the show is just wacky, over-the-top humour which in and of itself is fine, but it makes it incredibly hard for you to take the characters seriously. This, coupled with the fact that you ARE supposed to take the characters seriously (at least with the Haruhi lookalike; this is displayed in the somewhat random and almost out-of-nowhere moments where there are serious flashbacks and attempted tearjerker moments,) just makes this show a ... trainwreck and not a very interesting watch to boot. The characters for the most part lack distinct personality; most of them are just common archetypes, are defined by a single quirk or just plain uninteresting. The only real character of interest is TK, and this is due to the fact that he is just so peculiar in his vibrating, jittery non-stop movement and that all of his dialogue is entirely in English (and, to the show's credit, incredibly well done! I applaud his VA, he has incredible diction!)

In summary, the show just feels like it lacks proper direction. The characters are for the most part, dull and the art is mediocre at best; there is really nothing to capture the eye or the mind in this show, short as it may be. I believe that there is a lot of room for improvement and given another shot, it has incredible potential; the execution seen thus far was just incredibly lazy and poor. I'd love to see another iteration of the show where more focus on character development and story is made to coincide with the humour instead of just letting the funny bits be what most of the show rides upon.

Angel Beats seems to be one of the most popular anime series amongst newcomers in the world of anime. It was the same with me. Angel Beats was my very first "real" anime besides television shows such as Naruto or Yugioh. What does it have to offer? Let's take a look.

Let's split up this review into the five categories as usual:

Story (6/10):

The general premise seemed interesting. A boy without memories wakes up in an afterlife which is a high school alongside other classmates with real personalities and so called "NPCs". The story centers around our main protagonist but also on the events which happened to ... the others in their normal life. It really tried to get us attached to the broad variety of characters but seemed to fail at the limited amount of episodes. 13 episodes are not enough to try to get us attached at a cast this big but it tried it's best to get certain people into the spotlight - but not all of them.

This could have been easily forgiven if it wasn't for the biggest plot hole of the show which was the ending itself. Sure it was tear-jerking and got to me but the way how they did it was not explained very well leaving questions if you dare to look behind the facade of onions being cut.

The only thing which was handled very well in terms of the story was to show what people who had an unjust life could expect in their afterlife. Angel Beats was sad and handled the drama elements as well as the comedy ones.

Art (7/10):

The animation and backgrounds in Angel Beats were nice to look at and solid in terms of quality. Lightning seemed done fine as well. Besides the quite unoriginal looking characters there is mostly nothing to complain about but also almost as good as nothing to praise a lot.

Sound (8/10):

The Angel Beats soundtrack was downright gorgeous. From the opening theme to the ending theme as good as every musical piece was worth getting the soundtrack. I always listen to it when I'm in the mood. Jun Maeda did a great job in getting you involved in the happenings and Girls Dead Monsters "My Song" got my eyes wet. Very good!

Character (6/10):

The biggest issue in Angel Beats for me was the immense amount of characters which were full of various archetypes you see in as good as every piece of fiction nowadays. We have the quite aggressively acting leader of the whole bunch, the shy beauty, the main characters "bro"-character and the mysterious foe just called "Angel".
The stereotypes aren't the major problem though. How only a handful of them got attention and their place in the spotlight was the letdown since the whole cast had something interesting to them, that is. It's a shame the creators only got time/budget to do 13 episodes. I'd love to see more in animation form.

Enjoyment (7/10):

Even with its issues Angel Beats got me hooked for two days straight until I was finished. The comedy was alright, the action as well. It fulfilled most of the criteria to be an entertaining show. But the entertainment value is not to be confused with the actual quality of storytelling, characters and art-style.

Verdict (6/10*):

Angel Beats was an entertaining, fine show but nothing more. Too much potential has been wasted by cutting the episode count to only 13 episodes which left as good as no time to focus on the interesting characters you suddenly had to feel for while watching them trying to achieve what they couldn't in their previous existence. Fans of drama should look into it - it has quite some emotional moments and is still good in terms of audiovisual quality.

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*) Score is not an average