What is it? Angel Beats! is a series about redemption, finding meaning and moving on. As detailed in the synopsis above, the setting is an enclosed high school that constitutes an afterlife of sorts for those whose lives were cut tragically short before they could become adults and left life with strong regrets and unfinished business. From being unable to forgive oneself for failing to catch a ball in a decisive game, to being paralyzed from the waist down -unable to live a normal teen life, to having been incapable of saving one's younger siblings from murderous maniacs, all the kids that arrive here are full of pain, frustration or self-loathing and are offered the chance to live a normal, happy (if bland) school life until the moment they reach contentment, self-forgiveness and peace.

Unfortunately, the rules, mechanics and internal organization of the place are not clearly presented and there are those that will not swallow such a preposterous premise whole, creating conflict between those that mistrust the system and those that would protect it. A very limited creative power available to everyone allows each side to deploy heavy weaponry, and so, the afterlife school yard becomes a battlefield.

Amidst this conflict, a new student arrives. He's one of the rare cases that cannot remember their lives or the way they died. Amnesia is a common (and often cheaply used) trope, but in his case it works fantastically as we're witness not to his character growth, but his re-growth: Devoid of memories, his personality is apathetic and mistrustful at the beginning, but he soon grows into an extremely caring individual which, as we later learn, mirrors his character growth while he was alive.

Once he takes the spotlight, the series reaches its emotional heights as he starts helping other members of the cast to face their regrets, achieve their unfulfilled dreams and move on, while inadvertently affecting the system in ways the initial guerrilla tactics never could which leads into a new, more terrible conflict.


What should I expect? To cry like a baby in the emotional scenes. These kids had hard lives and see them facing their pain and reaching catharsis should pluck the heartstrings of but the most cynical individuals.


What should I NOT expect? A satisfactory ending. The one issue with the series is the amount of episodes. With such a huge cast it was impossible to give each character the emotional and heartfelt happy ending than a handful of them got in only 12 episodes. In fact, many of them had rushed endings and others only were just briefly mentioned off-screen, which seemed badly rushed and unfair to those characters and tainted the good taste the series had slowly build up. The ending itself was not bad in my opinion, but the rushing up and lack of closure do the series a big disservice.


Anything I should be wary about? There are several depictions of grisly deaths and a few cases of disturbing cruelty. Since people in this place are already dead, they can die and then "respawn" as if nothing, and die they do in several creative ways to almost a comedic extreme. Additionally, the cryptic nature of this afterlife makes some of the characters theorize about the nature and existence of "God" and some have quite blasphemous ideas. However, it's very clear that the characters are speaking in ignorance and blind resentment and their ideas are never corroborated or supported by the story.


Something worth of singular note? Angel Beats! has great production values for a TV series, has great music and is very easy on the eyes.


SCORING (The score above represents my subjective liking of the series, I'll attempt to be more objective in this section)
Base score: 7.5/10.0

Add 0.5 if:
-You appreciate good production values. Angel Beats! doesn't disappoint.
-You liked The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Angel Beats! is a clear post-Haruhi anime and it learned some good tricks from it.
-You like "moe" character design.
Add 1.0 if:
-You like stories that make you reflect on your life and challenge you to do better.


Subtract 1.0 if:
-If you dislike "moe" character design.
-You condemn the use of firearms and/or guerrilla tactics
Subtract 2.0 if:
-Graphical depictions of death distress you.
-You cannot forgive an unsatisfactory ending.
Subtract 4.0 if:
-You are bothered by characters in your fiction expressing negative sentiments against the concept of "God"

Violence: I gave it a six due to the amount of blood and death that occurs in the series. (However, no one can stay dead.) People are impaled and chopped to bits frequently, and not a single episode goes by without a death with blood. Death is also used comedically, as characters occasionally kill each other to the effect of comedic violence. Spoiler: A character's backstory involves her younger siblings being murdered. You don't see their bodies, though.

Nudity/ Sexual Content: Two jokes that lean towards the sexual side. They aren't taken seriously in show, and nothing comes of them. The show is actually very tame in this regard.

Theological Themes: The members of the SS Brigade are fighting God due to fear of the afterlife and a general cynicism, as they feel like their lives were unfair. Most of them believe in reincarnation.Spoiler: The ending may imply that the characters did reincarnate, though it is left ambiguous

Problematic Themes: The characters swear quite frequently, at least a couple times per episode. They just make use of the regular four letter words, and there are no f-words. I've heard that the subbed version has less swearing than the dub (which I watched), but that information could be inaccurate.

Overall: It's been a long time since I watched it. I straight up loved it when I was younger, though as time has gone by, I've found more issues with it. I gave it a five, since it was pretty average looking back, though it isn't half bad. I'd definitely still recommend it to people.

I remember being a lot more engaged with the first half of the series than the second half. I suppose I found it funnier and I liked the character backstories that were revealed in that half a lot more. The second half did have its moments. Otonashi's backstory was probably the highlight of the second half for me, as it had a lot of meaning. I didn't like it as much as I liked Naoi or the singer girl's backstories, though. (Naoi's backstory almost made me cry and I almost never cry over TV shows.) Yuri's confrontation at the end was pretty cool too. Though, the fishing episode and the graduation episode were an absolute chore to watch.

There are a ton of characters in Angel Beats. Too many. All of them have potential, but most of the side characters get glossed over. It's a shame, since they seem to be more interesting than most of the main cast. The main cast were a mixed bag. I was fond of half of them, while I found the other half either dull or annoying. Maybe sometime I'll pick up the Angel Beats manga to see what they were up to before the events of the show, since that will hopefully lead to more character development.

As for art, it was rather pretty. The concert scenes were very well done. The music was superb and absolutely the highlight of the series. If you are familiar with LiSA (she sings the first two Demon Slayer openings and endings) this is where she got her anime debut, as she provides the singing voice for Yui. I could go on for hours about how great all the songs are.

I'd say teenagers and up for the blood and swearing. PG-13 seems to be an accurate rating.