Anime Addiction : Angel Beats!

Sometimes I think I need to see a psychologist because I have a feeling that I like to inflict emotional trauma on myself. The thing I am referring to here is the fact that I continue to watch something even when I get the feeling that I am going to be a crying ball of nothingness. I know that I am going to tear up every time I watch Hachiko, but I still do it anyway.

Angel Beats is one such show. Going into it I knew that it was famous for being a really powerful and tear-jerking anime. But, me being me, I thought to myself “I ain’t gonna cry, what am I, a kid?” and in the end still ended up tearing up anyway.

Angel beats follows Otonashi as he wakes up in a high-school at night and there is a girl next to him, Yuri, with a sniper rifle trained at another girl, who is apparently an Angel. From then on the story unfolds and we find out that this is sort of a place where dead teens come to and Yuri is the leader of a squad who want to confront “God” and ask him why they deserved the crappy lives that they had before they died.

The concept in itself is great and the story also unfolds at a really good pace. It has a lot of twists and turns, sometimes a bit too much, and it builds up to what is a pretty satisfying ending. Another thing that helps the shows rating greatly is the characters. From Otonashi to Yuri to Angel and so many more, we meet and connect with a variety of amazing and well rounded characters.

If it wasn’t evident from the opening paragraphs of this post, this show is extremely emotional. That is not to say that it is entirely dramatic. In fact this is one of the few shows that I have seen strike an amazing balance between humor, action and drama. Scenes can go from comedic and hilarious to serious and tear jerking in a matter of minutes. And this is all due to the amazing writing in the show.

Another important part, at least in the first half of the show, is the band in the school. It’s called Girls Dead Monster, GirlsDeMo for short, and while nothing I found nothing great about them in the first episode by the third episode, I just couldn’t wait to hear them perform again. This is also because of the amazing Music in the show. The opening and end credits are extremely well done and strike a great balance between getting you pumped for the episode and then making you feel bad that the episode is over.

If I have to sum up the positive parts of this show in one word, it would be balance. Angel Beats strikes an amazing balance between action, humor, music, and emotional drama. It is, quite possibly, one of my favorite Anime series in the past few years.

Here is a small sample of the range of emotions that I went through while watching the show…

But Angel Beats is not without its problems. The whole show is just too small. It has an amazing cast, but there are just so many members that most of them aren’t done justice. The entire show is thirteen episodes long and if you want to count the OVA’s they are fifteen episodes, but honestly, it would have benefitted greatly from having ten or eleven more episodes. As the show goes on we meet amazing characters who we want to get to know, but we aren’t able to because of the small number of episodes. While I know that this is due to budget cuts, I can’t help but feel that something could have been done by it.

The second half of the season is brilliant in terms of characters and excitement and emotion but it does leave a lot of plot holes. We are left with unanswered questions and this leads to wild speculation. I came up with an amazing theory that explains one such plot hole, but I’m going to keep it myself anyway. Another thing that I didn’t realize is that from the second half of the seasons, all of the episodes have an epilogue after the credits. It really is a good thing that I didn’t miss it because, if I hadn’t seen the epilogue for the last episode, I’m pretty sure I would have planned on assassinating the creator of the show.

Angel Beats is what I would call a flawed masterpiece. You realize that it has some flaws but you can’t help but love it none the less. It had a profound emotional impact on me and now I am left not knowing what to fill the void that this show left behind. Sure it didn’t move as much as Anohana, but I don’t care. This was one of my favorite series, period. I am glad that I got to experience it even if I wound up shedding a few tears.

I give Angel Beats an 8 out of 10

All of that being said the pertinent question is should you watch the show? My answer is yes, but I have a feeling that it won’t apply to everyone. By the third episode, you get a real taste of the series, and one of my friends said to me “I really don’t want to experience the emotions this show is going to give me”.

So check it out, I’m sure you will be happy that you did; even if you feel like curling up in a ball and crying afterward. Until next time;

Peace!!!