Anime Review: Angel Beats!

The first time I saw Angel Beats!, I marathoned the first half with my best friend from home.  We then got together to watch the second half (we have a bad habit of starting things at 10pm or later, which doesn't lend itself to marathoning, since we get tired and fall asleep.

Anyways, Angel Beats! is a fantastic anime.  It has a good mix of comedy and seriousness, and occasional tear-jerking scenes.  The overall concept is really cool, and each episode has a different self-contained plot that brings us closer to a conclusion.

Let's take a closer look!


Our main character is Otonashi, who wakes up outside of a high school with amnesia.  He is immediately drafted into the "Afterlife Battlefront", which fights against Angel and school rules.  Those who follow the school rules tend to fade away, and they do not want to disappear.

Yuri is the leader of the Afterlife Battlefront and coordinates all sorts of crazy plans in order to oppose God and Angel.   She is skilled with both guns and hand to hand combat.

Kanade "Angel" is the Student Council President, and tries to take her responsibilities seriously.  In order to do that, she must oppose the chaos caused by the Afterlife Battlefront.  She has super-speed, and resistance to damage, along with her ability to create sonic blades from her hands.

There are many other members of the Afterlife Battlefront.  Besides the members of the Afterlife Battlefront, there are also other students at the school.  Yuri calls them "NPCs" since they appear human, but like non-player characters in a video-game do not change from their routines.

Angel Beats! at first appears to be a wacky, comedic anime, but as the series progresses, the struggles between the Afterlife Battlefront and Angel become more desperate.  The characters struggle to deal with their pasts and the threat of disappearing.  The light tone darkens somewhat, and the series tends towards tearjerking by the end.

Opening theme

Overall, I would highly recommend this anime to anyone who hasn't seen it.  The music is beautiful (both OST and opening/closing songs), the art is pretty and brightly colored, and the characters are engaging.  The only complaint I had was that while the ending was really, really fantastic, I was left wanting more.