Review: Angel Beats!

Anime, completed series, 13 episodes

Rarely do I find anything on TV that can make me laugh with legitimate humor, engross me with a unique visual style, and make me cry on 3 separate occasions. Angel Beats! (Angel Boats after this point, since boats sounds better) is a masterwork than incorporates several different genres without overwhelming itself.

Otanashi awakes one night outside a large school with no memory of who he is or how he got there, watching as a schoolgirl aims a sniper rifle at a strange white haired girl, some ways away. When the sniper, Yuri, tries to recruit him into an "afterlife battlefront," he decides that he may have better luck reasoning with someone who doesn't aim guns at other girls. He tries to talk with the silent and robotic white haired girl, or "Angel" as Yuri calls her. She tells him that this is the afterlife, and when he asks for proof, she promptly stabs him through the heart. Otonashi wakes up the next day, entirely fine, but his shirt still ripped and bloody. He once again meets Yuri, along with a big cast of characters who can't agree on a name other than the "afterlife battlefront" to call their group.

The plot follows Otonashi and the other members of the battlefront, who are waging war in a world where wounds and death are cured the next day, against the mysterious Angel. While things seem serious at first, Yuri explains that by following the rules (attending class, etc) will make you disappear forever, probably to be reincarnated as a barnacle. Therefore, the battlefront basically causes chaos as best they can in a world filled with unresponsive dummy classmates to simulate a real school. While this seems like a trivial plot, what really makes the series shine is the excellent writing and execution of characters and animation.

While most of the battlefront is easily forgettable (except for the most important characters and TK, a hip dancing guy who spouts engrish like a DDR machine) they all play a part in making the world seem alive. Someone is always moving in a group shot, and while this may seem like an obvious choice, it is a breath of fresh air to anyone used to limited animation. The production values are high and well utilized, evidenced especially in the first episode where a concert is expertly rendered with beautiful flowing animation and colors. Dramatic parts are emphasized by intense lighting usually only seen in feature length films. The quality never goes down either, making every episode as visually pleasing as the last.

As the plot unfolds it deftly intertwines comedy, tragedy, and action. We start to learn of the horrific circumstances under which each character died before arriving in the afterlife; each is fantastically hear-wrenching without ever going overboard or seeming to try too hard. The writing is keenly aware of itself and strikes a perfect balance of emotion and realism. Characters who at first seemed important but turned bland were written as growing more emotionally distant from Otonashi, just as the audience grows more distant to them. Angel Boats flawlessly guides your thoughts and feelings just the way it wants you to, making you think that it's just you that started disliking this character and liking that one when it is really a carefully crafted plan to get you to feel that way. It not only does this in its tragic and dramatic moments, but in the comedy where it creates such a good dynamic between characters that you can't help but like everyone Otonashi likes.

Angel Boats is not without flaws. I have trouble recommending it to someone who doesn't watch anime because at first glance it seems to be so terribly steeped in anime cliche. The drawings are the only thing that slips into this style, however, as everything else takes a delightfully original direction. Yuri is a direct rip-off of Haruhi Suzumiya (titular character from a far less creative and original show) but even then the writers seem aware of this and slowly downplay her role. The soundtrack is woefully lacking, but the music it does have is decent in it's own respect.

Overall, I have no choice but to recommend Angel Beats! to every man woman and child that I meet. The writing is crisp, the atmosphere is masterfully manipulated, and the animation doesn't skimp. Best of all at 13 episodes it doesn't overstay its welcome and leaves you both satisfied and craving more. I urge you to look past the style it is drawn in and try watching it. It takes everything bad you've heard about anime, puts it in a sleeper hold, and blazes a trail.

New favorite series.
5/5 stars

(No really, episode 4, 7:00 in. Watch as it literally takes everything terrible about Japan and chokes it.)