Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

Last episode I was rather afraid of the creators misusing the fact that Otonashi’s background was special somehow. Well, this episode proved me wrong. His background was in no way the most extreme. While typical Key, it actually made sense within the story.

All sorts of elements of Key’s usual stories returned in his back-story, I’m not sure whether it’s a homage or just lazy considering how creative the rest of the setting here is, but in any case: the reason he’s special in this series is because Tachibana reminds him of his dead sister. Him getting close to her… it’s all just for the sake of him, trying to get back to his sister.

The humour in this episode was also quite good. The recurring jokes remained rather lame (someone, please start calling Christ Christ so that he can disappear…), but the new material (the student council president) was very funny. For me it was the most successful episode of Angel Beats yet: it was charming and stressed how the characters rely on each other to keep them going though this strange world. The giant fish was a bit silly, but it had none of the nonsensical plot twists that plagued the previous number of episodes.

Now that we’ve already passed the series’ halfway point, I’m getting ore curious about the finale. Especially the Kyoani versions of the previous key incarnations improved significantly in their second half, and also the Osamu Dezaki movies just got better as they went on. At this point Angel Beats seems to be done with its introductions, so we’re about to get to the meat of the story.

On a side-note: these guys really ended up at an awesome school here. I’m not sure whether it’s from Key or some other anime staff, but the architecture of schools in Key adaptation really is fantastic. Gone are the boring schools with three floors that look the same everywhere.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Well, that was taken care of more quickly than expected. This episode went and completely changed the relationships between the different characters. As it turns out, the new student council president was just as Yurippe: confused, and trying to do something nonsensical because of the regrets that he held from the time that he was still alive.

Otonashi’s dramatic confession scene was a bit weird, since we knew so little about the new president at this point (his backstory yet again felt a bit forced here), but it did show that the real villain of this series is the setting itself. The end boss is probably going to be the one who created it, and I really hope that we’re going to see him soon, in order to be able to give him some depth before the thirteen episodes run out.

At this point it’s also pretty clear that Otonashi is special: he doesn’t seem to hold any particular grudge, or is particularly confused in the way that the other characters are. The creators are probably using his amnesia as some sort of plot device for later, to reveal god knows what kind of a background he had when he was still alive.

One thing that’s been irking me about the backgrounds of these characters is that we hardly ever see how exactly they died. This episode again: that student council president really must have angered the gods badly with his story: first his brother dies in an accident, then his father dies, and then he himself dies. His mother probably died even before that because there isn’t even a mention of her. To be honest, I feel like Key is trying a bit too hard here, like they did with Kanon. But then again, their previous stories have also shown that they like to hold a ton of trump cards for the end, so let’s hope that that’s going to be the case here as well.
Rating: * (Good)

Interestingly enough, all episodes of Angel Beats have their parts that just don’t work. In this episode, it’s the comedy. It’s unfortunately to be expected from the director: his style of comedy is over the top, and either works, or fails to hit the mark completely, and this was the latter. The parts where Yurippe activated the flying chairs lacked timing, and were too repetitive. Her screaming was just too over the top.

On the other hand however, I really felt sorry for Angel (or Tachibana, as her name turns out to be). The way that this episode stripped off all her authority and made her all alone. It screamed Key, but it was really well done.

If my memory doesn’t fool me, it was Yurippe who was the first one to awaken in this world, right? It was her idea to label Angel as the enemy, right? So what if Tachibana was the first one to awaken, and somehow she and Yurippe ended up fighting: I can very much imagine Yurippe as a very confused and angry spirit. Whatever it caused, it caused Yurippe to form that resistance group of hers, and Angel to seek the support of the student council. This would explain why Angel is nice to Otonashi (and probably all of the other members of the resistance apart from Yurippe). I have a lot of reasons to believe that Angel never really causes anyone to disappear: that’s just something Yurippe assumed.

Also, thinking further: while the mysterious new student council president still remains a mystery, then what if he is a regular student? What if Angel was simply trying to use her role as the student council to get the students under control, and prevent them from fighting back like they did at the end of this episode.

Just one thing: please give the new student council president a bit of depth in the next episodes. A dull villain isn’t exactly what this series needs right now.
Rating: * (Good)

This was a really weird episode. Why? Because the drama was better than ever, while the rest was worse than ever.

Let’s talk about the bad stuff first: overall I’ve been pretty happy with the voice acting in this series. It’s not the best, but there are a ton of series that have far worse problems with their voice actors. But then that damned pink-haired girl showed up. Seriously, listening to her feels like listening to someone trying to put a cat into a blender.

It’s probably because of that that the comedy also disappointed. I mean, the creators just kept repeating the same joke over and over. How many times did that blue-haired guy try to molest her anyway? The baseball itself also felt lacking, so much that even the creators just gave up half-way and decided to just show a montage.

And then the drama came, and it actually was very good! For once it didn’t feel out of place, or was way too extreme for its own good. It was an interesting story about a guy who regretted something that he failed to do when he was still alive. We’re not exactly told how he died, but there’s are enough hints that pointed that he died of drug addiction. That anti-climax of course completely ruined it, but on the other hand: I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an annoying anti-climax, so I guess it deserves points for creativity.

In any case, the past few episodes have been complete and undirected chaos, but that’s actually what I like about this series: the characters here are very much flawed in which they don’t really know what they’re doing, or why. I think we’re actually seeing a bunch of very confused spirits wandering around, all having some regrets that won’t allow them to pass on to the afterlife. When ghosts are portrayed in media, you often see them as very confused, not really having a full grasp of what’s going on. That’s exactly what I’m seeing with the Angel Beats cast as well.
Rating: * (Good)

Let’s play a little thought experiment: suppose that instead of what she is now, Yurippe instead had brown hair, was a former construction-worker, had a brother who was a fired salary man, this series took place on Mars instead of a high school, and an ultra-powerful talking robot with a ditzy personality was working around. Do you think that people would have made such a fuzz about this series as a Zone of the Enders rip-off, as much as people are whining about the Haruhi references now? Even considering the difference in popularity between the two, I really doubt that anyone would have cared.

The thing is: what is original nowadays. Why are people complaining about the Haruhi references in Angel Beats, and yet with other series that are full of high school cliches that are apparent in thousands of other anime become ravingly popular. I don’t get it. In fact: what is originality nowadays? Just about every idea has been done before. The only way to be truly original relating to actual real-life news, but the way in which anime and manga are produced is just too limited to really take advantage of everyday news.

For example: it seems like the next episode will have baseball. Oh my god, they’re also ripping off Major, Ookiku Furikabutte, Cross Game, One Outs, Clannad, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, Blood+, FLCL, Touch, Sexy Commando Gaiden and a ton more series that have baseball in them. The thing is, that creators don’t have to reinvent the wheel for every part of their creation. If certain techniques, whether in cinematography, writing, animation or character-development worked in one series, then why not reuse them?

The thing that really matters is not the ingredients, but what you do with them: Angel Beats takes all its ingredients and creates a series that is completely different from Haruhi. It’s a series that focuses on entertainment, but also criticizes both authority and those who go against it. It’s in a setting which feels alive, even though everyone is dead. It’s both fast-paced entertainment and a serious story about characters who don’t believe in this thing called “fate”. For me, it’s done more than enough to set itself apart from other series, and it has plenty of its own ideas. In Haruhi for example, the concert was pretty much a one-off adventure. Here however the concerts form a core part of the story. Can that really be called a rip-off?

An example of a series that really is a rip off would be Omamori Himari of the previous season: it stole so many ideas and cliches from other series, but inserted nothing of its own. Now that’s what I call cheap.

In a way it also reminds me a bit of Argento Soma: apparently it’s supposed to be a huge Evangelion rip-off. But really: who cares? After the ‘big twist’ it goes completely into its own direction and becomes an amazing series with amazing themes. Or take Fantastic Children, which borrows a lot of ideas from Please Save my Earth. Does it suck because of that? Of course not!

Right now my biggest concern with Angel Beats is that the drama doesn’t really seem to work like it should. I’m not exactly what it is, but I’m still having a bit of difficulty connecting to the characters after they show their incredibly sad back-stories. I actually can’t put my finger on exactly what’s not working, but between the drama, mystery, comedy, adventure and slice of life that all come together in this series, I’m enjoying the drama the least. It’s not due to the fact that it rips off something, though.
Rating: ** (Excellent)