Year: Spring 2010

Dubbed

Episodes: 13 (+ 2 OVAs)

Cat.: Comedy, Action, Drama, Supernatural

Summary:

  Death and reincarnation are inescapable, but what happens in between? Without warning and without his memories, a boy who only recalls his last name - Otonashi - wakes up next to a girl named Yuri who offers him a gun and tells him to shoot an angel. Assuming it must be a misunderstanding, Otonashi is then almost killed by the angel and is drawn into Yuri's army to battle to delay the beginning of his next life. Immortality is within reach, but if Otonashi remembers how he died, will he keep fighting or allow himself to vanish?

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This is an anime going into that I knew nothing about, besides the fact that it was dubbed. Which is why I watched it, 3 hours of reading subtitles that go to fast can really start to burn the eyes.

I was shocked to find that everyone in the show was dead. Basically the show is about a group of high school aged kids who had horrible lives, died, and are now stuck in purgatory unable to be reincarnated because they are left wanting something.

I love how Angel Beats! was able to deliver comedy, dramatic, and sad parts, but the down fall was the pacing. In the 13 episode we are introduced to 15 faces who are seen to regulars, but we only really get to know 4 to 5 of them. And being the sucker I am for back stories, I was highly disappointed by this, especially since all the characters were there for a reason. I really really wanted to know what was up with TK, he was always dancing around and shooting out English one-liners. A 24 or 26 episode set would have be appreciated given the ending of the show.

Some of the more emotional parts of the show air was taken away from it because of the pacing/shortness of the show. Even still, they were very emotional.

I know that Otonashi was already dead, but seeing how he died was a little sad. I felt more like the world was just against him (all of them really). End of that episode I kept saying "That sucks".

The ending, however, was full of cheese! It wasn't bad just cheesy. Angel Beats! Another Epilogue, saved my overall feeling about the ending.

This anime gets a lot of hate and is called a rip off of other animes and famous works. Which in some ways I can see.

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Code Geass ,Gintama ,Sayonara Zetsubo ,Bakemonogatari  Persona games, K-On! Gantz, and Haibane Renmei are the anime people say Angel Beats take a pull from, like anime isn't full of its on set of cliches.

The character design for Yurippe is similar to Suzumiya Haruhi, but its not like Haruhi's design was all that unique to begen with. Naoi is hated not for the way he acts, but mostly for the things he says in situations that come off sounding really gay and I think the writers were doing it on purpose.

In second episode you get a Resident Evil scene, in the third a Howl’s Moving Castle and Laputa: Castle in the Sky reference, in the twelfth a Matrix Reload scene. I really don't understand why anyone would dislike these references, they were clear cut without a question where they came from.

With the all girl rock band (Girls Dead Monster) is compared to K-On!

**The video may be seen as a spoiler** The song "My Song" was one of the high points and unexpected moments of the show.

All the crap aside, Angel Beats! is still a very enjoyable show and if you're not a huge anime watcher you might not even notice most of that stuff. I haven't started reading the manga yet, but as far as I know the manga doesn't really give any extra information about the characters.

I give this anime a 3.5 out of 5.