Angel Beats! - Reviews

Angel Beats is a box of potential. Unfortunately it seems the story forgot to open the box.
The characters all have redeemable qualities, yet they're never explored.
The story is full of holes. Timelines don't make sense. Throw-away characters are treated like they're important.

There is a tunnel visioned plot focus that is eventually far from satisfying.
I want to like it. I do like some of the characters. But their depths are far from touched upon.
It's like they had 10 characters with captivating stories that all deserved attention, but cut 75% of it and tried to cram their relevance in 12 episodes.

To me, this felt like an average anime with a few moments of real heart. Part of this was the length of this show, I think. It should have been twenty-six episodes, as that would have given more time to learning character backstories and allowing individual characters to shine. Instead, only a couple of characters are given anything in-depth--which left me feeling a little cheated during the last two episodes, for spoiler reasons I won't go into.

I really enjoyed the concepts behind this show, and I wish some of them had been explored a little more. Again, that comes to lack of time.

For the characters that the show explored, I really loved getting to know them better, and it made what happened to them all the more satisfying.

Angel has to be my favorite character. I love her character design, and how she's portrayed. I kind of want to see her origins now, of how she became Angel.

And then that ending... I had a moment of heartbreak, but the after credits scene made it all better. It kind of makes me want a sequel.

Overall, I found the show alright. Sometimes I had a little bit of a hard time keeping track of characters, just because there were so many and not all of them got a focus, and the plot could be a little slow at times, but the biggest flaw was the show just needed more time to give each character a focus. It does have some real moments of heart, though, and those ending few minutes are about enough to break your heart.

This isn't really spoilery because I'm very vague, but... I can't help but wonder about that point Otonashi makes near the end, but I guess that will resolve itself eventually, and the cycle will repeat.

Angel Beats!

This title left me with a rather divided opinion.
It had a very interesting start and also a new and fresh concept. The humor was also above average from time to time. Especially the musical support and the drama part lifted it off well. But the actual act was extremely weak. She had no real common thread that she followed and the episodes went practically arbitrarily until a finale was clapped, which could still be saved somehow.

The problem with this is that the anime is largely based on drama and at the beginning on light humor, apart from that there is hardly anything. The characters were also neglected and it was very difficult to really feel their stories and actions. Only the final episodes left a really strong impression, as this was a satisfactory "conclusion".

Genre:

Except for the "Romance" genre, everything was represented here satisfactorily. There is hardly anything to note here.

The genre with the greatest weight was clearly the "drama" genre. I have no doubt about its implementation, it was very pleasant.

Story:

The story, it had an interesting start. There were many background stories and the drama aspect was well worked on. The actual approach of the series "Life after death" was also implemented in an interesting way. But there was nothing apart from it. It lacked a lot of detail and content. Don't know how far the anime distanced itself from the manga, it just feels semi-finished.

Animation / pictures:

The animation was according to the average for the conditions at that time. What struck me positively was the visual representation of the surroundings. The contrast between light and dark has been pleasantly inserted.

Characters:

The characters were mostly without content. There were a couple of exaggerated stereo types. On the part of dialogues and monologues, there was hardly anything worth mentioning than in terms of character development.

Again, what struck me positively were the short but handsome background stories and the relationships between the characters.

Music:

The music was one of the strongest points here. The intro may sound a bit monotonous, but I have to say that the calm yet somewhat dynamic style (at the end) reflects the title very well.
I was particularly impressed by the placement of the Osts in the plant. Despite the low quality, many scenes were raised in a much better light by the musical support - such as the fight scene with the band singing in the background and the finale.

At least they knew what they were doing here.

My conclusion on Angel Beats!

This title has clear shortcomings, but also positive points. I would definitely call it above average, even worth seeing. You could have gotten much more out of it. Nevertheless, I have to say that the title was clearly entertaining despite the lack of an action.

SECRET SANTA 2014 REVIEW

 

Angel Beats is one of those shows that seem to be almost revered that I rarely get around to watching, but Anime-Planet's Secret Santa 2014 even provided an excellent opportunity.

 

Like many other reviewers have noticed before me, Angel Beats is a Key-ified Haibane Renmei, with almost the entire cast consisting of high school students in a mysterious world that's very much an idyllic version of a Japanese high school campus. People get sent there after death, but the reason why is at first a mystery. It's an okay enough idea, but it feels far too much like your regular high school anime to be truly fresh.

 

At first glance, Otonashi, the main protagonist, seems like your bog-standard anime nice guy, except he actually feels far more altruistic than others of his ilk, which was nice to see. He's also far less paternalistic and never spouts much of the “I WILL PROTECT YOU HERP DERP” gobbledygook that so many male leads are wont to do, probably because this anime has very little romance, despite being a Key work. Given how I tend to view most anime romances, it was a pleasant surprise, to say the least.

 

Yuri, the intrepid leader of the faction, is more than a little “inspired by” Haruhi, except that she is more violent and less prone to making oddball decisions. Her actions are mostly to defy God, in case such a being exists, for all the injustice in the world. In practice, this mostly means silly pranks coupled with terrorist attacks, mainly against Tenshi, the stoic student council president.

 

I didn't particularly care for none of these three, but I have certainly seen far worse lead characters in my days. The rest of the cast have their dominating personality trait down pat, but it rarely takes off from there. It doesn't really matter, though, since most of them are used for comedy and spouting catchphrases. Only a select few get any backstory or character development, and even then, it's usually pretty basic.

 

The casting for this is nearly flawless, and the voice actors generally do a stellar job. The voice directing is great, and it really nailed the timing in the delivery, especially in the more comedic lines. I found some of the voices to be rather grating, especially Yui's, but it's nothing compared to most moe-moe anime. And besides, her entire character is supposed to be grating, so it certainly fits.

 

The animation was most excellent, with very little wonky movement or anything detrimental like that. The backgrounds were at times a bit too obviously computer-generated for me, and subsequent P.A. Work titles have gotten much better at this, but they were still nothing to scoff at. Just don't expect them to reach the level of contemporary Kyoto Animation works all the time.

 

However, the rather wonky Key character designs (especially some of the eyes) aren't nearly as good-looking, and they feel wasted on a work with this much technical proficiency. It's still an improvement over how visual novel characters usually look, though. The boring school uniforms and a few guys looking very similar in build and hairstyle just compounded the problems.

 

The music is done by the same guy that scored Clannad – and not to mention other Key visual novels and their adaptations – and it's very much in the same style. Lush synthesizers, moody melodies and an overall soft sound is the name of the game for the in-show music, which usually, but far from always, fit the mood. However, I found it lacking compared to Clannad's soundtrack. The opening and ending songs are pretty much your standard fare, and are very forgettable. They certainly fit the show, though.

 

There's also a rock band comprised of female students, whose popular concerts are used to distract from the anti-Tenshi operations, and their songs are pretty okayish rock, but I'll be damned if I can remember them now, a few days after watching.

 

The comedy is really not my cup of tea, but I can see why people would find it amusing. It's just that it relies too much on the manzai duo set-up, which I have rarely found amusing. The slapstick gags were mostly miss to me as well. It's not wholly original either, since at least one early joke was lifted straight from Clannad.

 

The many action scenes weren't exactly to write home about either. Since there rarely is never any real tension due to the characters' immortality most of them felt like flashy padding, and some of them were ruined because the showmakers saw it fit to insert comedic sequences right in the thick of it. This didn't clash as much as I first thought, but since I did not care for the comedy at all, it only ended up being a mood-killer.

 

The dramatic stuff's better, but in general, this show is way too twee when it comes to things like character interactions and story. Sometimes, it even borders on the tacky, with the backstories feeling especially laboured. It certainly has that Key feel to it, but I've never really cared for it. If you do, well, then more power to you, since you will certainly like this anime way more than I do.

 

The pacing is overall very good, but the show has a tendency to grind to a halt whenever something has to be explained to the viewers in remarkable detail, which happens every other episode or so. The writers really want to make sure that everyone understands exactly what they were going for, which I guess is an admirable goal in and of itself, but the pacing really suffers for it.

 

The ending tied up most of loose ends, but it was very predictable – and not to mention maudlin (but of course, it's a Key work) – that it left me feeling rather cold. Several segments could have done with plenty of trimming as well: it's clear that they had very little plot left, and instead of fleshing out the world, they chose to make do with what little they had left and let it drag out instead. I'm not too keen of how the world got explained, but that's a secondary concern.

 

Overall, this anime was certainly a technical achievement as far as TV budget anime go, and the animators can really put a feather in their caps, but I found the actual contents to be lacking, however much I wanted to like this. It's not a case of style over substance, but rather, my tastes and sensiblities being far too different from what this title has to offer.

I wrestled for a while as to whether I should write a review for Angel Beats, but my egotistical side finally won over with the argument that there isn't enough hate for the series despite how appallingly badly-written it is. For those that have watched it and disagree, I can prepare concise, whiny little nit-picky writeup for you. This review, however, shall attempt to contain as few spoilers as possible, and as such, will not be viable for debates in detail.

Story: 3/10

Angel Beats feels like an anime that messed around with many popular elements of recent anime before Key remembered that they do heart-warming love dramas best, and changed gears right at the end, effectively stamping a bit fat "cop out" right where the word "fin" is usually found in long cursive. They even managed to include an all-girl rock band, having evidently eyed the successes of Haruhi and K-ON, whose sole purpose is providing distractions I'm not convinced were ever needed in any of the given plot situations. The prevalent themes are comedy, action, fantasy, and the after-life,

The story revolves around a group of dead teens who all led unfulfilling lives, now in a pseudo-purgatory high school filled with "NPCs", as the show itself describes. The group has established themselves as rebels, owing to the fact that anyone who diligently goes to class and studies hard like the rest of the NPCs will disappear from the world that they're in. "Oh!" sayeth I, "that's an interesting parallel to social conformity and disappearing into the ranks of social mediocrity!" But then it's revealed that 'disappearing' actually means moving on to your next life, and one way to do that is to be at peace with your past life and fulfilling any regrets you had. "Oh!", again sayeth I "So it's actually about forcing individuals to confront their unresolved pasts before they can move on to start afresh," which worked well with the fact that no one in this afterlife can die and take the easy way out. But then the series realized it had only 13 episodes and more than twice that number of characters, so they promptly struck off 80% of them with an arbitrary 'they all lived happily ever after!' and proceeded to draft a quick friendship and love drama involving the remaining cast. It was around this time that I began my attempts to forcibly integrate my head with my bedroom door.

The disappointing and schizophrenic story focus aside, the plot has more holes than your average pin cushion. Case in point: the first question I asked myself in the very first scene involving the protagonist and a red-haired girl holding a sniper rifle was "if this is some purgatory-esque world, where did she get that gun from?" The second episode immediately jumped to answer my question, revealing that half the rebel group was underground and tasked with making weapons in this cool-looking factory town, which then got blown up in the course of the episode, but all is well because they can apparently create anything they want by breathing life into dirt with the proper knowledge. Which, in my books, puts them 2 steps away from being God. Despite this, the rebel group seems to have to rely on pulling off big operations involving their rock band, a group of armed-fighters, and access to the school's windows and fans to steal the NPC students' meal tickets to get their food. Which I assume they don't really need since they can't die (again), and any of them who took home-ec classes should've been able to make food from the dirt on-hand. So what, teens have the knowledge to produce weapons, but not a bowl of rice? Or does dirt and sustenance just not mix as well as dirt and sniper rifles?

Towards the end there were just so many inconsistencies and ludicrous premises that the show expected me to just accept, like so much barbed wire wrapped 'round a suppository, I had one hand on my face at all times during the final episodes. At the risk of spoiling the ending, how is it that no one questions how Kanade ended up in 'Purgatory High' before our dear protagonist? Long enough for her to become acquainted with that little power-granting software and to become a permanent figure of antagonism for the rebel group, I might add. Even assuming she stepped out of the hospital after the operation and promptly got run over by a passing truck, the time line just doesn't add up. While I'm here, I might as well point out that the series title only makes sense (from a japlish stand point) right at the end, which is cause for concern since the ending was one of the worst-written parts of the entire anime. Maybe they thought that if they tied it to the title, it might seem that the ending had been planned like that all along.

Everything else I haven't mentioned is more or less just the cast tottering about comical and action sequences with only slight consequence to the overall story. They spread it out nicely across all 13 episodes, mixed in with the drama and plot twists, but for me, it just didn't quite come together, like trying to mix lime cordial with Bailey's Irish Cream. Maybe it's because the humor always held the stench of main stream slapstick-ness, whereas I was expecting a more tragically-ironic undertone given the characters' daunting pasts.

In summary, 2 points for the interesting premises that got shoved in a shoebox and abandoned in the rain, and 1 for the guitarist mini-arc in episode 3 which I connected with, somewhat. I also enjoyed some of the other characters' pasts, but that was the one that stood out for me.

Characters: 3/10

Some might argue that the cast was too big for a 13 episode series, but I myself believed they could have worked with it. The varied cast, despite its share of cliches and clones, gave diversity to the group and allowed for various situations and interactions. It was also an intriguing notion to have all of them share horrible pasts, creating much potential for close bonding in this here School for the Tragically Deceased. Yet, the show's insistence on complete resolution gave no room for the characters to shine past their designated character sheet traits. Honestly, if the premise hadn't established that all of them had problematic childhoods, I wouldn't have guessed as much because the writers don't seem to know how to drop subtle hints into the characters' actions. It's worth mentioning that fleshing out characters doesn't always have to include detailed flashbacks with narrations - something the writers seem bent on pushing.

Even the main characters who were lucky enough to get back-stories didn't quite seem to match their pasts in depth or personality. Strangely enough, the 3 I thought fit their pasts best were Yuri, Yui, and Iwasawa - all of whom have pink hair (Yuri a bit more red-ish). The main protagonist Otonashi also did well in this respect, and I can safely say he had the most character growth from start to finish, coming to terms with the state of their purgatory as well as his own past. His actions contribute the most to move the story along (the rest being contributed by Yuri), though it would've been nice to see the other characters do so for a change.

Moderately strong lead characters, decent development for lead male, but burdened by disappointingly flat and unoriginal characters. There was a lot of wasted potential in this area. If it feels like this section is disappointingly short, you've gotten the gist of my opinion of it.

Music: 7/10

The overall theme for Angel Beats' music seems to be minimalism. Most songs and tracks don't seem to use more than 4 different instruments at a time, and usually have but a single recurring motif played by one lead instrument. Throughout the series, the music often suffers from confidence issues, like it's afraid to step out into the spotlight for fear of stepping on Mister Character Dialogue's toes. A couple of tracks still manage to make their presence known and recognized though.

The opening song, sung by Lia who also did some work for Air and Clannad, took a listen or two to grow on me. The piano riff that starts the song off with is short, and has a insistent quality to it, being repeated four times, the latter 2 having a 'pause and finish' variation, if that makes any sense. As it enters the verse, the piano stays forceful, but becomes scattered and erratic, giving tense and contrasting punctuations to Lia's subdued singing. I thought this fit well with the world's initial feel and premise, appearing normal from the front, but with obvious tension and inconsistency present. One could argue this as a statement on the tragic pasts of the characters as well. The chorus then picks up with a symphony of strings backing the emotional updraft, and the vocal melody begins to soar higher, though never quite reaching a conclusive cadence. This rising melody is repeated over and over with that same insistence of the original riff, giving the impression of someone straining to reach a goal with a deep sense of longing. The song then closes by returning to the opening piano riff, this time doubled by Lia's vocals. The insistent repetition of that short conclusive musical statement seems to have tamed and convinced the vocal line, bringing it to the conclusion it sought in the chorus. This can be a loose parallel to Yuri's refusal to follow purgatory's rules to move on, but finally accepting them at the end.

Wow, that's a lot of psychobabble for just the opening song. Let's see if I can shorten the ending song write-up.

The ending song is sung by, surprise surprise, the voice behind Cowboy Bebop's Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (yeah, typing her full name out isn't helping the paragraph length..) The vocals continue through the entire song pretty evenly, with only momentary pauses, and never seems to stray too far up or down the musical stave, lending a sort of strolling feel to the song. It starts with just an acoustic guitar and the vocal melody walking along hand-in-hand, joined by a different instrument after each passage. First percussions, followed by a piano, then a string section as the percussions drop out. During this phrase, the song seems to hang in the air for a bit, before being pushed off again by a chorus of instruments (emphasis on a strong drum beat) and a vocal harmony. I felt it matched the ending animation well, which showed Yuri walking alone down a path bathed in the light of a sunset, being joined by the rest of the cast one by one. It was also used to great comedic effect during the exam episode.

Not done yet - There's still Girls Dead Monster, the all-girl rock band discussed in the story section.

Despite my disapproval of its presence in the plot, I find the band's songs oddly compelling. Then again, I find a lot of music interesting. My main problem with their songs is that from section to section, there's usually a coherence problem between the various parts of their songs. By that I mean the passages don't flow well together, mostly due to some jarring key changes or unexpected progressions, but sometimes the vocal melody will drop the coherence ball as well. This usually leads to songs being a bit difficult to listen to, especially the first time around. Yet the band holds all the vibrance and energy that a young and budding rock band typically would. Chord progressions do their best to challenge the traditional mold and avoid predictability, even though this leads to the listener being a bit more hard-pressed to follow, and the band adds quite a few energetic checks and stops in unexpected places. The band's rhythm section, especially the drums, has a tendency to play out a lot - almost rebelliously so. It feels almost frenetic the way they churn out their runs and fills, but this does a good job of adding to that vibrance I mentioned earlier. A lot of real world musicians who fill these roles often see this sort of playing as a mark of immaturity as it doesn't usually serve the song better as a whole. Yet, the musicianship is good, and overall, its not unlike how my current band plays. I always have problems with coherence in my songwriting as well, so to say that I connect with their songs is a bit of an understatement.

I'm not a great judge of voice acting, and for the most part all the actors seem to do well in playing their characters. Then again, it's pretty rare that I come across a poorly-voiced character. Maybe if I lobotomize myself with a nearby pencil and decide to watch a dub. With that said, I will entertain 1 more gripe and 1 more gush, starting with the latter. The final chords strummed by Iwasawa in episode 3 were well-chosen, but the very last chord could be argued as feeling too 'unfinished' given the situation. Almost like the swan song of someone who didn't get to fulfill all their desires. But that's the sort of controversial flavor I enjoy, so it's all good. And for my gripe, I would have to say that Yui's singing voice felt too far removed from her character for my liking. In comparison, the cast of Lucky Star and Hidamari Sketch did a good job of singing whilst still holding onto their characters. Maybe it's because it's a different person singing, but I still believe it was doable to portray Yui's personality in her singing.

Animation: 7/10

When I first glimpsed screenshots of this series, my opinion was that the characters looked a bit bland and flat. Coupled with the mandatory uniforms, it was difficult for any of them to stick in my mind. Upon picking up the series though, I have to say that in no way does it seem like a low budget anime at all. Backgrounds are sufficiently varied and detailed, and movements of the characters were never awkward enough to be jarring. Angel Beats is also one of the few animes I've seen in recent times that has absolutely no slips in quality anywhere along the way. Maybe it's due to the short length and simplistic character designs. Either way, the characters and special effects are sharply rendered, and are a delight to behold, and the animators even managed to sneak one or two uncommon viewing angles in (I'm not familiar with the terminology here). That said, there isn't anything groundbreaking or unique about it past the higher quality, so I'd like to think that they started with your standard anime budget, and Mister Animation Department got away with some of the money that was meant for the plot and character departments. That evil money grabbin' bootlicker! Oh, and I'd like to mention that the RPG-esque manner in which the locations would flash across the lower left of the screen was a nice touch.

Overall: 4/10

Before you point out that the average of my given scores is 5/10, let me say that characters and plot form the base of the metaphorical cake that is an anime. Music and animation form the pleasing icing and cream that covers said cake, and therefore have a smaller coefficient in calculating the overall score. Yes? All good? Right.

While I generally don't expect much from the current generation of anime (wow does that makes me sound old and snobbish), Angel Beats just held so much potential that I still managed to feel let down by it. Like a young rising star that succumbed to alcoholism and drug abuse even before emerging onto the major scene. But given the praise and popularity heaped on the series, you could argue that it has managed to make it into the limelight, and that my ramblings are the irrelevant totting of an arrogant putz with his head up his arse. It still wouldn't make Angel Beats a good series.