Angel Beats!

Before I begin I must clarify something: I am not very familiar with anime. I've watched the entirety of Death Note, Angel Beats, and am in the middle of Sword Art Online. So I'm reviewing this show in terms of its quality, not how it compares or conforms to other anime.

Word of advice, ignore all the complaints about this show, because when there's so much about a show to hate and so much that shouldn't work, and people everywhere still love it anyways, there's definitely something special about it.

Here's a quick sypnosis. A guy wakes up on a school campus, which he soon discovers is something like a purgatory. He eventually joins a resistance formed by a dozen or so other fellow "students" with the goal of resisting the mysterious Angel. Things get even crazier from there.

Couple this mind-blowing concept with some unforgettable characters, crazy amounts of action, lots of Japanese rock music, crazy gore, buckets of blood, cute comedy, seriously depressing backstories, and the most detailed cartoon guns I've ever seen and you get something that's unforgettable. The ending is breathtaking, too.

Now here's what everyone complains about: the pacing is bad and it's too short. No thirteen episode show should be able to bounce back and forth continuously between these different styles and genres continuously like this one does. Yet it does. And it works. Because when you have so much awesomeness going around, you barely notice until you're done crying over the last episode... for the third time.

As for other complaints made about the series, most of those don't hold much water in my opinion. There's really nothing else working against the series besides its length.

So if you haven't watched much anime this is worth watching. If you're very familiar with anime and have a higher standard, I still recommend you give this a go. It's only thirteen episodes and I'm sure you'll find something you'll like.

Why won't I give the series a perfect ten. Simply because no matter how much the flaws never hindered my enjoyment, they still mean the show isn't perfect. That and the baseball episode which I really just didn't like cause it nearly turned me away from the series. It's probably not so bad now, but at the time there's was just something about it that I didn't like.

Last word of advice: the episodes incrementally get better, so don't worry if you're having second thoughts before the midpoint. Or on the baseball episode :)

Angel Beats! is a story about the afterlife in which unruly girl, Yurippe, starts a rebel group to fight against an army of people trying to delete them forever led by Angel.

This series is a ten for many reasons. The first being that it's a short series, spanning 13 episodes. This is important since many T.V. shows, especially Anime, are too long. Even Death Note, which was amazing, was stretched out a little much. Angel Beats doesn't falter like this. Also the story has a lot of clever writing up until the very end, which sucks you in.

Additionally the characters are clever in every way and for the most part we get to know each unique personality quickly and in depth. I would like to know some characters a little more but I'm satisfied.

Most importantly there is something thing that makes this Anime a "resistance fighter" as I like to call it. Angel Beats! has little to no Ecchi or Fanservice and thank God. It has no Moe (younger than teen characters with annoying voices and sexual suggestiveness).

Beats! has all the great Anime traits and hit's a home run with them. Similar to how Paprika is like Inception. Angel Beats! is similar to Lost. So if you like Lost and Anime you will like this.

Angel Beats! conquers and soars. Showing what a great Anime can do, and be with ease.

(NOTE: this review is for the Subtitled version not the Dub which is much worst and could be different).

"Angel Beats" was at best an average show. The show had potential to be really great, but was severely flawed in character development.

The supporting cast was far too large and had too much presence throughout the series. This left little room for developing the three main characters (Yuzuru Otonashi, Yuri Nakamura, and Kanade Tachibana), and led to the inevitable let down at the end of the series where we see the emotional climax. It was difficult to feel emotional at this part because the series did a poor job making the viewer develop an emotional connection to the characters. With more time spent developing the main characters, this could have been much, much better.

For my concluding point, the main problem was that the series tried to accomplish too much in a short amount of time, and this caused each arc to feel very mediocre. Perhaps if the series was longer it wouldn't seem so rushed, but a good 13 episode series is absolutely doable. Take "Anohana" for example. There were two main characters (Jintan and Menma), and a small supporting cast, which left plenty of room for strong character development and made the ending so much better.

Overall a decent series. 6/10, would recommend.

I honestly like this show to the core, but I just don't like how many flaws there are. Honestly the show's plot is very creative and interesting, it's just there's so many things that I question. Such as...

1. When the show continues you realize the SSS and Angel have simply been miscommunicating for who knows how many years. 2. So.. no one has thought about just imprisoning their enemy in like a jail cell or something? Instead of killing them over and over again which has been proved ineffective? Could apply to both the SSS and Angel. 3. I really think this show would have gone better if we knew the other character's histories.

This is just my thoughts, this show is still good, just some tweeks would have helped.

This anime will really make a boy cry. (Which even I did) Only on the ending part. The series is a complete player of the viewer's emotions, will make him smile, laugh, feel the tension, and cry. I wonder if there are any other Anime series with a similar genre as this. This anime proved to me that an Anime series is better than a live-action show, in terms of making the viewer feel the events in the show.

Maybe because I've expected them to be only in a state of comatose made me disappointed. But Otonashi's reason for existence in the Afterlife which was revealed in the last episode suggests my assumption is impossible.

Also, it would be better if the creators would be creating a new season, so as not to waste a nicely-themed anime like this... Thus the 9/10. Good job, anyway!