Anime Review - Angel Beats

So I've wanted to do an anime review for quite a while now, and since the last one I watched all the way through was Angel Beats for the fifth time, that sounds like a reasonable kick start. This won't be too in depth, just two sections explaining the good and the bad.

The Good

1) Oh my God, never before have I felt so much. Angel Beats has some of the saddest moments I've ever seen in anime. No scratch that, it has some of the saddest moments I've seen in anything. I've read sad fan fiction, been to the saddest moments of games (Like Dom's death in GoW3), and seen some pretty sad moments in other animes. Now a lot of people say Clannad is far worse, but having seen the saddest moments of both, I'd say Clannad doesn't hold a candle to Angel Beats. All I have to say is Episode 3, Episode 10, and Oh my God that finale to incite memories of feels on a new level among Angel Beats fans.

2) On the reverse side, the comedy is absolutely hilarious. It does seem misplaced though, which I will mention in the bad. Angel Beats is set in a world where everyone is already dead, an afterlife if you will, which means characters go through some pretty funny and creative deaths only to later get up and walk away. On top of this is the rocket seats, which I was so busy laughing at that I nearly missed the sad part at the end of the same episode.

3) The characters that do get fully developed are deep and interesting. There's the head-strong female group leader, the guy who spends half the anime unsure about anything, the guy who forms an instant bromance with any guy, the girl who shows no emotion at all, the female frontwoman of a school band and...well Yui. Yui, for those who haven't seen Angel Beats is completely spontaneous, almost at Pink pone levels. These are characters that are given impeccable development through both how they are in the after life, and how they were before they died. There is also some insight to how they died.

4) There soundtrack is flawless. Does it have sad music for the sad parts? Yes. Does it have gushy romance music for the gushy romance parts? Yes. Does it have a bit of J-rock from a highschool band? Well, I did mention there was a highschool band, so yes. So this kind of music is fitting, but does it sound good? Hell Yeah it sounds good. What's more is that you can actually buy the Highschool band's music in Japan or over the Internet.

5) Death isn't made sad. Death is made pretty damn funny. Usually, most anime feels comes from a character dying, but in a world where everyone is already dead, death can't be sad. So where do the feels come from? It merges with the basic theme which is another good point of Angel Beats. It's something completely different. Instead of dying, technically they are being reborn. They disappear from the after life to live new lives. Honestly, it's sadder than any anime death I've seen, but also, how original is that for a concept?

6) Angel Beats is available both subtitled and dubbed, meaning that if reading subtitles puts anyone off an anime, that isn't a problem here. It is well dubbed, and unlike many dubs, it doesn't conform to stereotypical (and frankly offensive) accents, nor is there a massive difference between the animation and speech. The soundtrack, however, will be Japanese regardless of versions.

7) The general idea. Frankly it's nothing short of genius. The whole theme of Angel Beats is regret. A bunch of teenagers who feel they had an unfair deal in life are allowed another chance at enjoying their childhood/teenage life in the afterlife, hence why the whole anime is set within a school, but the main group (the SSS) see it as a chance to rebel against the greater power that gave them such an unfair hand in life. It's thoroughly gripping to see what they regret (or at least the full developed chatacters) How they adapt to their existence in the afterlife, and consequently watching them fulfil everything they wanted to achieve, and move past their regrets is nothing short of tear-jerkingly beautiful. Iwasawa's passing is beautiful featuring something of a ballad used to help people through dark times in the exact way music helped her through life. Yui's passing features her finding love and... Well, just watch this shit. I should also mention that Yui was paralysed whilst living. Disclaimer - I take no responsibility for feels that may be felt and tears that my be shed. I also don't know if it will be so bad for people who haven't seen the whole anime. Take care.

Kanade's (who spends a good proportion of the anime being sort-of misunderstood) regret is totally unexpected. In fact, even when she is proven to not be an enemy of the SSS, I thought she was a being of the afterlife only, but finding out her regret and watching her pass on is a bittersweet way to wrap up a great series. She was a heart transplant patient. Her regret was that she never got to thank her heart donor. The male protagonist opted to donate his heart just before dying. 2+2=4, and just as easy as that was, it should be that easy to figure out that she got his heart. More romance ensues...well, that's for all of 2 minutes before Kanade passes on.

The Bad

1) Major troll ending. If lack of patience and/or obscured vision from tears didn't prevent anyone from watching the credits, they will then be greeted with a clip of a man who has a striking resemblance to Otonashi (male protagonist) seeing a woman who has a striking resemblance to Kanade on the streets of the alive world. The Kanade look alike is humming along to (of all things) Iwasawa's ballad. She then begins to walk off, and the Otonashi look alike follows her and goes to touch her shoulder to get her attention. Just as he is about to touch her shoulder...This is going to be too beautiful to explain. Give me a minute.

(60 seconds later)

Ok, as the Otonashi look alike goes to touch the Kanade look alike's shoulder (obviously remembering her)... A FUCKING TITLE CARD COMES UP AND THE EPISODE ENDS. This is made even worse by the producers confirming no season 2, no movie, and absolutely nothing to follow that up. It may be that there is a follow up in the light novel, but I don't do light novels. I really should make this an exception, but no! Troll endings like that seriously enrage me.

That was literally my reaction. I saw that utter troll, and threw my tablet up the wall. I then shit myself in case I broke it, immediately stood up, retrieved it, and checked it was okay. It was okay.

2) The length is too short as it is. This isn't one of those “Make it longer for the sake of it being longer” complaints. Angel Beats really could afford to be longer. This is part of the issue I mentioned about the comedy moments seeming misplaced. As it currently is, it's quite a brain fart of sad and funny moments all jumbled together meaning that parts that convey the other aren't appreciated as much. I mentioned I almost missed a sad part because I was too busy laughing at a funny part? That's exactly what I mean.

3) You will notice I said “the characters that are developed” when I spoke about the characters. I did that a lot, but it was for good reason. It was important though because Angel Beats has a big cast of characters, yet most of them feel like cardboard cutouts or seem like they are their only for plot convenience. Take the hacker guy for example. He has a massive case of what I call “Princess Cadence Syndrome” or “PCS” for short. Basically, he appears from no where, the viewers are given very little information on him, but oh look! He can hack so we don't need anything else right? He's useful to the plot, so there is no problem!

This is the exact same problem as Princess Cadence. She's a Princess who plays an important role in the season 2 outro involving a sabotaged wedding, changeling hoards, and other epicness. Any mention of the princess before this? Nope. None at all.

On top of that, I really want to learn more about two particular characters in this anime, but they're practically cardboard. All we see is a little of their personalities in the after life. I want to learn about the ninja girl, Shiina, who says “this is stupid“ a lot, spends practically a whole episode balancing a broom on her fingers, breaking the tension meter in the OVA, and having a costly weakspot for cute things. I want to learn about the guy who constantly acts high and dances, TK. The guy who just doesn't give a shit, and the guy who speaks English, even in the Japanese version of the anime. Angel Beats did character development well, but only for a handful of characters. I do believe this ties in with the length though. I feel, given more time, we would have had more extremely well developed characters.

Final Verdict

Score and note. 8.5/10 the sad thing is, 1 whole point was lost for the piss take of an ending, while only 0.5 was lost for the combination of lack of character development, misplaced comedy and the fact that it really could benefit from being longer. Look, I spent the whole series shipping Otonashi answer Kanade, and that ending made me cross.

Is it in my top 10? Yes. It sits at number two behind Madoka Magica.

Who would I recommend it to? Ohhhh, anyone who likes anything that can make them cry, shipping maniacs, and folks who like an anime with a well planned story line.

Who wouldn't I recommend it to? Honestly, people who like comedy. There is some cracking comedy in there, but it's misplaced and far less notable that it's sad-moment counterparts. If you like comedy, but prefer sadness, go ahead, but if you like an equal balance or more comedy than sadness, well, this may not be your kind of anime. I also wouldn't recommend it to folks with masculinity issues because they'd pretend like the ending didn't make them cry like a little girl who lost her teddy and make fun of those who admit it's a sad anime.