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Man, it's episodes like this that make me think of how much potential this show has.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think Angel Beats is a terrible show, but in my eyes, it is clearly suffering from a pacing problem. It's as if they're trying to fit a 24-26 episode anime into 13. There are simply too many characters, too many relationships, and too much development.
I think one of the problems is that the show is taking something of a standard Key-approach; each arc has a comedic beginning which gradually moves into drama in the last third. This was possible in Kanon (2006) or Clannad, because there was enough time and few enough characters that each arc could last at least 3-4 episodes. With only 13 episodes, however, Angel Beats has to sacrifice something. They should have cut way back on the comedy, and taken a much more serious approach to this show; considering the inherent nature of the setting and of every character, this would have been a very viable approach. Every character is there because they died in an unfulfilling way, and each has a lesson to share and a lesson to learn about that. This series is a great chance for Key to look at some darker themes that weren't present in their earlier works. It seems that the drama has gotten the shaft, however; I'm seeing too much wacky comedy and too little character development. I love Key's sense of humor, but their characters are what really drew me into their series.
I understand that there will likely be further seasons to AB. Even so, it seems that they are trying to do too much with the 13 episodes they've got for now. The show either needed to be longer from the get-go, have less comedy and more drama, or have a smaller character cast to deal with.
I don't want to get too off topic, so I'll just use this episode as an example. 30 seconds of Yui's past at the beginning, 3 minutes of Yui's resolution at the end. The rest stuffed with little more than comedic filler. And still, I think I can say I actually liked the episode. Not for any of the comedic fluff, but for the few minutes we got a real look into Yui's character. The episode was like a 6/10 for me until the ending, which boosted it to an 8/10. I really shouldn't have liked the ending; Hinata and Yui have barely had any development in their "relationship" (beyond Yui trying to kill him every 5 minutes). They don't really even have that much chemistry. The whole conclusion was crammed into a few minutes right at the end. Still, somehow, I enjoyed it. Which tells me that I would have loved it if the episode had used its time to flesh out the relationship between Hinata and Yui and make lengthen the ending "marriage" scene by a few more minutes. It seems to me that marriage and love was Yui's one true dream throughout her whole life; she could have done without the music, pro wrestling, soccer, and baseball if she could get that one dream. So why not focus more on that?
tldr; Pacing fail rant, decent episode
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