Angel Beats – 09



I’ve had my criticisms about this series so far, but really: this was the best Angel Beats episode so far. A great sign at this point.

I’m very pleasantly surprised: there is no villain anymore. At first you’d indeed think that there would be something darker behind everything, like some sort of evil overlord who enjoys toying with lost souls. Instead, the souls created all of the conflict themselves. The final episodes won’t be about beating some sort of end boss. It’ll be about getting these characters to accept their grudges. Most notably, Yurippe. It’s typical Key, but I mean that in a good way. June overall is going to be an awesome month: there are so many awesome series that are going to climax there, I really can’t wait to what they have in store here.

The trainwreck scene was probably the most focused part of this series yet, and it also was without a doubt the best background scene we’ve seen in this series so far. I think that the thing with the early flashbacks of this series was that they were just too short: we got to know why these people held a grudge, but we never got to know who they were. Young Yurippe for example: her character is sad, but also got the depth of a paper bag. It’s now up to the final few episodes to link the two of them together, because one of the things that made this episode so good is how it showed the growth of Otonashi as a character. If all we’ve seen of Yurippe is a little girl who gets scared when her siblings are about to die, you can hardly play with the character-development at that point.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

13 thoughts on “Angel Beats – 09

  1. Agreeing that this was the best episode so far, and hoping that Key can do what you said and keep this going for a great climax. Kinda worried that they won’t manage it, though :L

  2. I don’t know what to think of this series anymore.. Just when it seems like Kanade will join them, evil Kanade appears. When people are expecting more evil Kanade action, good Kanade prevails instead. I feel like I’m driving on a winding course with too many turns until I have no idea where I am now @_@

    What bothers me the most now is why Kanade is still in that world even though she realises what’s going on. Her sense of duty preventing her from disappearing? And indeed, Yuri should get some development soon. The rest of the SSS people as well, since they hardly have any backstory at all.

  3. Holy crap! I was doubting this series before. All of the drama just sort of fell flat for me. But dang, the part where Otonashi signs the donation card.. That tore me up.

    This is how a Key show should be.

  4. Yurippe’s grudge is losing people, her being the last to dissapear might be cruel but also help her to accept that they are moving on to a better place.

  5. Im still wondering about a few things though:
    Are those battlefront members there really all dead?
    Except for Otonashi the narration always stopped before their condition got life threatening. Considiring its written by Key it might still have the koma solution of Kanon, so if the students accept their life up to now, they wake up from the coma.
    Whats Tenshi and if shes really human whats her past? Its already been mentioned that you can only create weapons, which youve seen in your life. But Tenshi uses magical(?) weapons, which are created with a computer, so theres still a chance that she might not be human. Her story is the one I want to hear most.
    What is this school and are those other students and teachers really NPCs?
    If they are really NPCs, why is the battlefront afraid of hurting them with weapons and also not resisting the teachers?
    The teachers behaviour is also very strange for NPCs. Its mentioned that the teachers will consider everything as normal, which the students do. But theyve dismissed Kanade after the prank of the battlefront and theyve intervened during the concert, so that also doesnt seem to be that case. It seems rather more like they are just tolerating the bad behaviour of the battlefront to me.
    Maybe they are some guards of this world, who are helping the students “to find peace”.
    The special effects of the school repairing itself also were those binary numbers and looked like the special effects Tenshis weapons. So it might be computer generated or somehow related to Tenshi.
    There also seems to be some kind of meal ticket reward system in the school. If the students are good and attend classes they get meal tickets. Thats why the battlefront has to steal their tickets.
    Considiring that, the club activities for entertainment, and the teachers behaviour, it looks pretty much like its even purpose of the place to help the students to accept their pasts.
    Maybe its created by Tenshi herself in order to help the students? I hope the explanation follows soon in the next episodes 🙂

    Btw did you know that Japan is really very short of organ donors compared to other countries? So the scene, where Otonashi and the other trapped passenger signed their card, looked pretty much like an advertisement to me. 🙂

  6. hmmm… i wonder if that is really the “good” kanade that woke up. it could all be just a plot by the “evil” one.

  7. I absolutely LOVED this episode, one of the most touching episodes I’ve seen in ages. I loved Otonashi’s character development, overcoming his loss, and becoming a true hero. I also got a lot of heartwarming chills from watching this episode, and allowed me to reflect on my own career as a doctor. I deliberately came back to this site to see what rating you have given this episode, because it truly was one of the best episodes I’ve seen in ages, and am so glad you agree with me and gave this episode an awesome rating!

    Awesome episode from an Awesome reviewer!! ^^

  8. I knew something would eventually happen too little too late and that it would probably be done in 100% Key fashion. Reminds me of every other series where they waste over half their time on slapstick niche comedy before the vehicular crash revelation comes that gets the ball rolling in a melodramatic and somewhat more character driven direction for what it’s worth at this point.

    Stale is the best word I can come up with to describe Key and Jun Maeda. Only thing left to see is whether he resists the temptation to take it in the direction of a highly improbable and perfectly happy ending where none of the characters have any regrets or not. Oh who am I kidding, of course he will.

  9. I think the initial short flashbacks were just foreshadowing what is to come. I think each character which had a flashback so far are the ‘major-minor’ cast members for which we will learn much much more about their back stories. They were there to set up the flashbacks of Otanashi, which would be out of place otherwise. He got an initial backstory flashback which was longer than the others, but not complete. Now we got the complete one. He is the key character; the savior. Now we will dive into each of the other characters culminating in Yuripi.

    If they are smart, it will start off with a minor character, then one or two of the major-minor ones, and then a pure Yuripi arc. She has this way of stepping back and observing and figuring things out many moves ahead. I also think she has realized a bit more than she is letting on; no god/boss etc.

    I like the foreshadowing at the end about ‘and after everyone is “saved” what happens then?’ There is some room for some fantastic debate dialogue between Otanashi and Yuripi.

    Of course it could go with just everyone’s backstory and disappearing and a happy ending; that would suck.

  10. Awesome episode, I was beginning to doubt the series but it pulled this off in grand style. Salutes to Otonashi for being a true hero. Kinda ironic though that he was just seconds away from being saved.

  11. The first truly good episode of the series imo… but I don’t think it makes up for the mediocrity of the former stuff.

    I was wondering if he knew that the body has to be saved and preserved pretty soon after death in order for the donations to be used, but I guess that’s not an issue since they broke through the tunnel right as he died.

    The sad part is that it was probably that water thief’s fault he didn’t make it.

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