***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Angel Beats. Reader discretion is advised.***
Series Synopsis
Yuzuru Otonashi (voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya) wakes on the campus of an ordinary high school. Before him is a girl holding a large rifle. Her name is Yuri Nakamura (voiced by Harumi Sakurai).
Yuri tells Yuzuru he has died and he needs to trust her. She points another girl (voiced by Kana Hanazawa) standing in the school yard. Known as Angel, Yuri claims she is the enemy.
Skeptical, Yuzuru ignores the warning and walks down to Angel. To his shock, Angel confirms Yuzuru death. She also tells him that no one can die in this place. As proof, Angel stabs Yuzuru through the heart.
Once coming to, Yuzuru finds himself surrounded by Yuri and other students. They informed him that he is the newest recruit of the Shinda Sekai Sensen, a.k.a. the SSS. Their purpose, rebellion against God. And standing in their way is Angel.
Yuzuru, Yuri, and the rest of the SSS fight together to challenge God and defeat Angel.
Series Positives
I couldn't help notice a large amount of critical praise for this show. I couldn't help notice it because I’m not sure where it’s coming from.
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| Yuzuru |
Angel Beats is a fun series. But I guess I didn’t enjoy as much as everyone else.
Comedy and Drama
There were some funny moments in this show. Lots of slapstick. If you like that kind of stuff, you’ll like Angel Beats. More than a few times, this show managed to hold its own against other outstanding anime comedies.
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| Yuri |
Yet, in a good-new-bad-news kind of way, it did always stay there.
The bad news was the lack of consistency. The good news, comedy wasn’t the sole focus of the series. Angel Beats got rather heavy as well.
There are moments that will make you laugh. And moments that will give you a good size knot in your throat. The latter half of Angel Beats did a fantastic job at this. The final episode alone was the series’ best work.
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| Angel |
Not to give anything away, but episode thirteen was a goodbye episode. It was the culmination of everything the story had done. It went for sentimental and achieved it.
Yet that’s not as impressive as it sounds. I’ll get to that.
The Characters
This was a good cast.
To mention a quick negative, though, this show wasn’t long enough to do this group justice. Still, what we got out of this series was special. Angel Beats found strength in numbers.
The SSS made this show interesting. Even with death as the main premise, this was a slice of life series and this was where much of the comedy came from.
This was also what produced the most serious of moments. A major element of Angel Beats was how everyone supported each other. Everyone was trying to cope with some unpleasant memories.
The Music
The music of Angel Beats was great.
It was a major tone-setter that succeeded in its job every time. It set the right kind of atmosphere. An atmosphere that was almost impossible to convey with the spoken word.
While a soundtrack plays an important role in every anime, it’s nice when the melody is enjoyable. In Angel Beats, you'll lose yourself in the scenes it created.
Series Negatives
I did like Angel Beats. It was fine.
Except, I can’t be the only one who thinks there were some serious issues with this show
Comedy and Drama, but No Balance
Like I said, Angel Beats was both funny and heavy. It did both well. The problem was, this series only went to the extremes. There was never any middle ground.
The show went from hilarious to depressing over the course of mere seconds. When I say that this show got heavy, I should be saying that it got dark. And it got dark fast.
For example, the SSS needed a resupply. To do that, they needed to get to the place that stored all their weapons and ammunition. To prevent Angel from finding this spot, traps littered the path. Due to circumstances, these traps were still armed when the SSS needed to pass them. Since no one could die, this led to a comical sequence where each member got “killed” off. Until there was only Yuzuru and Yuri left.
The story took this time to go into Yuri’s background. Her biggest regret was her belief that she wasn’t a good older sister. Back when she was alive, her parents were away from the house. That was when a group of thieves broke in while Yuri was taking care of her siblings.
The intruders couldn't find anything of value. This angered them. They demanded Yuri grab something from the place her parents keep the valuables. Since no such place existed, she came back empty handed. The thieves then proceeded to kill Yuri's younger siblings right in front.
WAIT, WHAT!? You don't do that. You don’t go from funny to that.
Angel Beats did this several times. It was jarring. Whenever it happened you're unable to focus on anything else for the rest of the episode. And in this one case, the rest of the series.
The Story
The premise of Angel Beats was intriguing. Too bad the story that comes out of it was a jumbled mess. There were an annoying amount of plot holes. Too many things felt forced. Any sense of flow was nonexistent. And sometimes things just didn't make sense.
This story was a collection of amazing moments strung together. Yet the filler between these moments was nothing but conveniences. Sudden romances appeared out of nowhere. Severing only as fuel for wedged-in heartwarming scenes between two characters.
A particularly bad instance involved the learning a super important lesson. The result of which would make an enemy into an ally. To make the enemy a threat, did the story use clever, thought provoking writing? Nope, random hypnosis. Because why not?
Then there's the big problem when you realize this show should've ended in the first five minutes. It was the scene where Angel stabbed Yuzuru.
The SSS didn't want to move on. They felt God had been unfair to them. And the person who could cause them to move on was Angel. My question is, how was she able to do this exactly?
According to the show, the SSS only needed to conform to the way Angel wanted. That would cause them to move on. Except, she has no way to make them do this. No one could die in this show. So, if everyone ignored Angel, problem solved.
The show should have ended when Yuzuru got knifed through the heart. If Angel could force people to move on, why didn’t she do it then and there?
The story did go on to explain why this was the case. But by doing so, it revealed an even bigger problem. What was the point of Angel's character? There wasn't one. She had no reason to be here.
A story wants its audience to accept its fiction. The more holes a story has, the more leverage people can use to tear down everything.
Also, the ending, while cute, adorable, and heartfelt, I don't for a second buy it. Final ten seconds romances don't do it for me. They never will.
Final Thoughts
All problems aside, I still liked Angel Beats. I can’t for the life of me understand why it’s received such praise. But what are you going to do?
The story limps at best. Yet the characters, the humor, the drama, and the music carry it along. By the time it's satisfying.
Although I have my issues with it, I will recommend people give it a try. You might be one of those who would rate this show higher. There’s only one way for you to find out though.
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