PROLOGUE
Angel Beats is an original *cough* work regarding teenagers
(ooh really?) in a school setting
(you don’t say!) doing comical stuff
(never heard that one before) with the pretext of staying alive in a bizarre afterlife inside a videogame-like world
(although Gantz does not give them kill points after battles).
ANIMATION SECTION [ Haibane Renmei meets Suzumiya Haruhi ]
General Artwork 2/2:
The series yells high budget all the way and that means a viewing pleasure of delight. The backgrounds are very detailed and have a gazillion filters to make them look shinny, gradient, and generally like gorgeous sceneries in Key visual novel date sims. Yeah, they made it look like that even if it AIN’T a game adaptation. Yet, the intro video has all the characters posing at you with their names attached on them. This can only mean two things. Either the producers think we are too stupid to remember their names or we are suppose to think this is indeed a Key date sim. Which ends up being retarded after awhile, since it isn’t and there are characters with names in the intro who don’t even speak more than twice in the whole series. Trolled or what?
I could argue how silly everything looks during comical moments with the SD and low frame rate during those moments, but it’s perfectly acceptable since it’s supposed to make you laugh and not criticize a Da Vinci sculpture. So overall; great artwork.
Character Figures 2/2:
They went for bijin looks and silly gimmicks and I must say it worked great. All characters are drawn with smooth outlines that hardly look weird. Plus they look like they are fashion models doing a parade, trying to look as cool as possible. Yup, easy way to attract the fans of moe and kawaii. It goes overboard of course but, hey, the setting is supposed to be a virtual afterlife and thus it is excused in-series to be so hunk/hot/drooling
(after all, if it sells, why change it?). No worries here; they look great and don’t deform outside of excused comical moments.
Backgrounds 2/2:
Mostly a typical school setting with a few extras like underground passages full of traps, and military facilities full of weapons of mass destruction. I can’t say there is much variety in here and I usually yearn for much more but the type of the story excuses it nicely. For all I know nothing else exists in this world other than an endless schoolyard, where teenagers do endless studying and take part in endless tests.
My God, this is Purgatory!
Motion Fluidity & Visual Effects 3/4:
Good but not great. A lot of time is spent on gags with low frame movements and superflat looks, while the use of 3D is not always that successful. Also, fighting scenes are just random magic gizmos appearing out of nowhere while explosions and bullets don’t really seem to damage the backgrounds most of the times. As for battle choreography, having people turning their heads to chat instead of aiming at their enemy is plain stupid. Not to mention all major action scenes don’t last more than a minute. Some are even resolved off screen. None of all these are done terribly, like in a title such as
07 Ghost for example, and the series is not action oriented anyway. Heck, you could remove the guns and the shootings and it still wouldn’t matter as a bullet in this series is equally powerful as a slap. But it still feels cheap at times and ruins a part of the fun.
Still, all these can be countered by the few school band festivals. They are as great as in
“that other known series” which by the way has nothing to do with this “original” work. In all, the characters have vividness and move really lively most of the times. It’s just that they overdone it with the comedy SD and stupid action scenes, resulting to taking out a point.
TOTAL FOR ANIMATION: 9/10
SOUND SECTION [So what is the name of our team today?]
Voice Acting 3/3: This is another one of those series where the characters make a lot of jokes and gags based on stereotypes. That is, they speak in a totally clichéd way, just so another one can pull out a comeback one-liner and create a joke out of it. Not a new approach to anime as it has been done better in older series such as
Sayonara Zetsubo or
Bakemonogatari … which have nothing to do with this “original” work despite the odd coincidence of the main lead having the same voice actor as in those older shows. But it’s ok, it was still funny and witty to the most part and I did enjoy it a lot. Even during serious moments, the quality of the dialogue is well done and the voices never feel ridiculous at those times.
Music Themes & Sound Effects 7/7: I didn’t lose my mind over the songs. They range somewhere between elegiac and average pop and they are definitely well made but I am not fond of such types to know if they are really good to the ear. I sure have no qualms about them. The thing I liked most is how they used said music themes in slapstick moments
(slow motion jokes) and even in-story
(a school band playing music to distract the students from the battle raging outside). The rest of the battle or comical sounds are nothing much but thanks to the uniform of music and story, they feel far more relevant and good. Also, it appears that they use a different song in each episode instead of just repeating the same one every time. All these show creativity and variety and for that I give them a perfect score, even if I’m not head over heels about them.
TOTAL FOR SOUND: 10/10
STORY SECTION [ Gantzers meet the SOS Brigade ]
General Scenario 2/2:
But it turns out all that is just smoke screen. In reality
Believability/Reasoning/Realism 1/2:
It’s still a mostly fantasy series and all of the above happen in a very light manner. For example, some can create weapons with dirt or mind-wash others at will. Yet all that are not important, as neither the weaponry nor the hypnosis add anything to the story. They are just flashy extras. It is never shown if the world has boundaries or why the so-called Angel never recognizes in class the people she fights every night. The story ain’t taking itself seriously. Neither did
Suzumiya Haruhi’s story but then again it did not prevent that one from becoming a smash hit. The whole presentation is much closer to a school comedy or an anime parody that is easy going to the mind and simply has a semi-serious premise hanging around in the font. Part of catering all tastes; remember?
It also feels like they
ripped off made a tribute to many other famous works. In the second episode for example, you get a
Resident Evil scene, in the third a
Howl’s Moving Castle reference, in the twelfth a
Matrix Reload scene. The lead girl looks like
Haruhi and even has an armband with a similar name for a brigade, while her headquarters are almost identical to those in
Persona 3 and 4. So imagine taking a hundred ideas from a hundred titles and using most of them as an excuse for a joke and the result is the
Gintama counterpart of soft sci-fi. And I don’t know how much you liked
Gintama ; I for once found it sub-par to the most part. Based on tastes, you may like the whole insanity and Easter egg hunting, or you may not. All that are after all peanuts next to how it’s…
Form of Development/ Pace of Plot 0/2:
…rushed as hell. With such an engrossing story and a large number of characters, it would take far more episodes to unfold properly. Thus when a new development comes along, it happens so fast that the emotional impact on you is ruined to the most part. One moment they are making jokes, the other drama falls from the sky and crashes them. One day someone disappears, the next day they go make fun at each other like it didn’t matter at all. Mystery exposition happens in long monologues, development is mostly flashbacks, and battles are resolved in seconds. But jokes? Nope, those can last for entire episodes. That alone shows how much they cared about the actual story; doesn’t it? So although the series has a developing story that changes from comedy, to drama, to mystery, to something else in a span of only 13 episodes, it happens so fast and rushed that most of the emotional binding and great story ideas are lost. Which in turn…
Side Stories/Extra Spices 1/2:
…ruins all the importance of side stories and throws to the side most characters. Each one of them is there for a reason but the story focuses on only a small part of them. Heck, most of the times you think there are only 5 people in the entire world. Makes things feel autistic and barren at times. One could of course argue that it was never about all the characters and only about 3 or 4, leaving the rest as minor support. Sure, ok, I agree. They are still useless as characters and exist only to make jokes. I have seen series where all characters take part in the progress of the story and this is not one of them. And for that matter, it ain’t no surprise how most of them…
Conclusion 1/2:
… were left flat and semi-developed in the end. There is an ending and it could be a great one if it was given at least 5 more episodes to unfold properly. But it didn’t and it felt dried up and almost boring.
TOTAL FOR STORY: 5/10
CHARACTER SECTION [ Itoshiki Nozomu meets Suzumiya Haruhi ]
Presence 2/2:
It’s all about the looks with this sort of series. Nothing surprising in this “original” work. Yes, they are all attractive, cute, perky,
Haruhi rip-offs , and many more. The high budget animation helps to infuse them with great liveliness and thus they feel far better than the average “frozen caricature with a flapping mouth anime character” out there. Of course, all these count as external or superficial attributes, which are very well done, following the recommended pre-constructed package in the field. This does not apply very well to their…
Personality 1/2:
… personalities, which are pretty simplistic and almost uninspiring for most of them. Most of the cast consists of generic archetypes, whose "character" can be described in just 2 sentences. The hypno-guy, the karate-guy, the ninja girl, all these are characters who are just what they appear to be, plus a quirk at best. You can’t add anything to their characterization thus they may be funny but also shallow and forgettable who add nothing to the plot in the long-run
(Although TK is extremely memorable for his English one-liners). Still, whatever they do is overall eye-catchy and backed up by their lively voices and witty dialogues. They are imposing to the most part even without actual…
Backdrop & Development 2/4:
… immersion for more than 5 of them. Most don’t have a story or development. Even for the major five, development is nothing else but characters talking to each other about their pasts through mostly rushed flashbacks. AniPlex tried to copy the successful Kyoto Animation formula and that all made it a breath of fresh
Air-tv , by following the established
Kanon to the letter. They may as well do a
Clan Add so the tribe will thrive.
(Angel) Beats me why this superficial form of character exposition is so successful. It probably has to do with anime being notorious for spending a hundred episodes for the most obvious exposition to come along and thus this series creates a huge contrast that hits you with a 2 ton hammer. It is sudden and has such a high shock value on you that (Angel) beats the alternative. I still find it terribly rushed and cheap but then again that is just me.
The main three characters are ok all things considered and they save some face.
There also running jokes about some gimmicks that colorize some of the secondary characters’ personalities
(like the glass-guy having a well-built body) but in all that don’t really move them forward. The only thing that actually does…
Catharsis 2/2:
…is them getting catharsis and disappearing entirely. Weird huh? Shooting a million bullets at you does nothing, yet admitting your fears and hopes leads to your removal from the series. Feels almost like if you like someone, you wish he/she never comes to terms with him/herself or it’s game over. How original… Unless you have watched
Haibane Renmei.
Anyways, as weird as it feels having development as synonym to perm-ban, it is excused and rather gutsy to actually see characters being removed. They sure don’t resurrect with Dragonballs or any of that shounen crap. They stay dead… or better say, they come back to life as reincarnated. Or go to Heaven; I don’t know, the series never shows what comes next. In all, this is a far better variant to the usual Key trope, where a person mentions his/her problems and then becomes background decoration. It is also relevant to the purpose of the world and the core story
(and overall thematic). It still happens so fast you feel nothing about most of them but it is still an absolute form of catharsis.
It still happens too fast for most and the truth is none of them “really” ever die, but that is an issue of story and not character.
TOTAL FOR CHARACTERS: 7/10
ENJOYMENT SECTION: 5 [There are all Kagebushin no Jutsu; they go poof when you touch them]
Like most titles of its era, Angel Beats tries to cater all tastes by combining the serious with the silly, the humorous with the dramatic, the cute with the gore. It’s not a bad thing if done right as we live in an era where a series which tries to focus too much on only one genre, ends up being ignored by everyone who is not a fan of said genre. In turn, that translates to low sales, cancellation of further projects, firing staff and making people jump off windows to their untimely deaths. So the anime producers thought right while in the making. They threw in as much as they could and tried to cater as many different tastes as possible. They even went mostly for laughs, as we indeed live in cynical times and trying to pull a successful serious series is not easy at all. Not a bad move; most of the best anime of all times are multi-genre and easy-going. Sadly, most of the times instead of a full course dinner, we end up with a soup where all flavors are thrown in the blender and the end result is this gross pulp with a boring taste that drives you to the nearest sink. Unfortunately, Angel Beats is with one foot in this category.
Why, oh, why is that you may wonder? How is that possible if it obviously used the best of what there is??? Look how good the animation and the music are. And it looks like a Key game.
1) Plagiarism: Well, for starters it plagiarizes thematics and looks from most successful commercial anime of recent years. So down to it, it is NOT an original work as most think, despite being labeled as one for not being based on some game, manga or novel. It is a cameo parade! It counts too much on other works to appeal to the viewer and ends up being weak without them. It failed to break out from its origins and become something special on its own later on. No, it remained a work of tribute to all that came before it, unable to stand on its own two feet.
2) Inferior: Compared to all the series it made a tribute to, it’s less interesting. The same elements have been used in the past and in far more smart and successful ways. It feels weaker next to Haruhi
(far better moe-feast) , Bakemonogatary
(far better witty comedic dialogues) , Haibane
(far better atmosphere and well shown theme) , etc. Just think of how simpler those were and yet made a stronger impression on you. This series threw so many spices in the cauldron and the end result was not a super spice; it was another spice far weaker in flavor than the others. But you know what? That is not really a bad thing as nothing seems to be original anymore. It’s just that if it was made special in the way it presented its otherwise unoriginal story, then we could have another goody on the block. And we didn’t.
3) Rushed: You were also force-feeded to swallow it all in a few seconds too, not allowed to savor the taste on your tongue. The story was better fit as a full 24 episode series and yet they run it on nitro, waste a lot of time on comedy and end up catharsizing everyone in a most boring and rushed way.
I really liked all the references they made to anime and movies. It gave a meta-series parody aspect to it. The humor was generally successful too. But the series itself was not some average storyless school comedy. It had a very interesting scenario that was presented rushed, uneven and silly, practically head shooting all hopes of becoming really good. Thus I half-liked it. Well, let’s just hope the next “original” work Key decides to make will take these simple pointers into account.
VALUE SECTION: 4
It is NOT a masterpiece or even something people will discuss in 5 years from now. It is a high budget pop-corn work that rehashes other scenarios, like what the
Avatar film did with
Pocahontas . It is just another easily digestible piece of fiction, poorly made and aimed as fast food. Well; easy come, easier go.
The aesthetics are done great and the tested formula of success is played along nicely. I am almost certain all Key fans will like it… for being a tribute to Key
(poor Aniplex; can’t even get a credit). It may end up being entertaining and a commercial success since most are suckers for cool animation and cute girls and the recent moe/ecchi plague makes it look great by comparison. But future generations of fans will almost certainly won’t give a damn about it. Because it was made way too rushed and has less to offer than others that were made fairly close to it. Thus it has less than average value next to the titles it plagiarizes and to the people it targets.
By the way, this won’t become apparent for the next one or two years as the series is still fresh and hyped to the moon by zealots. Which is also nothing “original” in the field.
SUGGESTION LIST
The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
Persona games
Gantz
Haibane Renmei
See you next time on yet another “original” take on some “original” anime that for some silly reason a lot of people will think it’s great.
so much at that scene and with Naoi too. I think that the singing was a little ridiculous but Hinata was funny with that scene of him being like a teacher. In other remarks Yuri was cute here=>
about in general that they did not explain the past of people like TK and Noda but it was they did something like this=>
I would personally love a girl like Kanade should I find one around IRL. This being said excellent 10/10 overall despite the many holes that OVAs might cover.
