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Purgatory. The world in between. The waiting room of the afterlife. This anime is based in said world. To wake up in this world with no idea why you came here, and to be met by a girl in a school uniform with a sniper rifle who tells you “you’re dead” would sound alarms in your head. This situation is Otonashi Yuzuru’s. After being confronted by Nakamura Yuri (The sniper rifle girl), Otonashi is left with a choice : Join the Afterlife Battlefront, or disappear. Neither of these choices sound too good do they? Not wanting to disappear for no reason, Otonashi chooses to fight ... a being labelled as “Angel”. And so the battle begins.

Now that the quick synopsis is over, let’s begin the review.

~Story~

Angel Beats! story is very lacking in the beggining of the anime. Mostly in the first few episodes is a lot of comedy and humour, which is what Key normally would do with their anime. Later on though, Angel Beats! takes a sharp nosedive into the drama that any who watches Key’s production knows and loves. Snapping from comedy to drama with a tinge of humour is a rather sharp turn. Though this snap occurs, it’s easy enough to handle because storyline deepens and events start to take place. Throughout the rest of the anime, we are met with drama and sadness, Key’s seemingly favorite thing. After battling shadow monsters and split personalities, we are met with the end. Like all Key animes, it leaves most of us in tears. The reason I cannot give you as it would absolutely spoil the ending.

Storyline : 8/10

~Art~

Nothing much to say about this other than absolutely fantastic. The flow of everything seems to be flawless, everything is easy on the eyes and when it comes to CGI, Key reigns on top. This anime is no exception.

Art : 10/10

~Characters~

Character development wasn’t as strong as I’d hoped it’d be. Too many characters made me realize that a 13 episode series wouldn’t be able to even cover HALF of the amount of characters I saw. Most characters were used as comedy than actual storyline. Only the 3-4 main protagonists had even a remote storyline. Unfortunately this anime failed to deliver a deep storyline for characters, and it saddens me to give it this rating.

Characters : 6/10

~Music~

Oh my.. Oh my.. The music in the anime was absolutely phenomenal. It was used in the most appropriate of times and in the best way conceivably possible. Words cannot describe how such an awesome piece of work could trigger so many emotions. If this music was used to promote something, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy whatever it was.

Music : 10/10

Total score? 9/10

With the combination of art and music, Angel Beats! Was saved in my book. Absolute must watch. If you can get past the character development, then you are set for a GREAT anime. I won’t hesitate to buy this when it comes out.