Feb 25, 2013
*This review is spoiler-free*
I first heard of Angel Beats from one of my friends. She spent hours raving about how amazing this anime was an how it inspired her. After seeing dozens of positive reviews online, I decided to check it out, for it seemed to fit all of my interests . I went into the series with high hopes and expectations, thinking that it would become one of my favorite animes, and I couldn't have been more disappointed.
The anime had so much potential. It really did. But it was played so safely. If Key Visual Arts had actually put in some effort to push
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things out of the norm and not rely completely on all the common otaku-pleasing tropes and archetypes, it could have been great.
Story: 1/10
Angel Beats doesn't really rely on plot. Instead, it focuses on humor and characterization. Which is probably a good thing, considering how dull and generic the story line is. Essentially, a teen boy winds up at a school and is pulled into a questionable organization/group/club by a tsundere girl named Yuri. This group, known as the SSS, fights a mysterious girl known as Angel. Nothing slightly new or original. Except that apparently the school is in purgatory. This all happens in the first couple minutes, and no real exposition is given.
Each episode focuses either on the back story of a single character, explaining how they died, or on the various plans which Yuri puts the members of the SSS into. This isn't exactly a bad idea, but it isn't something that can be effective in only 13 episodes.
Art: 8/10
The art and animation is impressive. Nothing mind blowing, but still very well done. The action scenes were well choreographed and attention grabbing.
Sound: 7/10
The opening theme, "My Soul, Your Beats" was incredible. However, I personally did not enjoy any of the insert songs very much. There is a band known as Girl's Dead Monster which often plays concerts throughout the series. I didn't really care for them. They weren't bad, but it was nothing memorable.
Character: 2/10
The cast in Angel Beats is without a doubt my least favorite cast of characters from any anime which I have seen.
They were all incredibly generic. Most of them either fit into one common archetype or were essentially a walking piece of cardboard. (T.K. and Masami Iwasawa are really the only two exceptions I noticed. They also were the only characters I really liked.) There was also a complete lack of character development.
As I mentioned earlier in the review, many of the episodes were dedicated to the back story a single character. (I'm under the impression that this was supposed to serve as a replacement for the character development.) The back stories were pretty original for the most part, but they just didn't do anything for me. I felt no sympathy for the characters after hearing about their tragic death because their deaths weren't really that tragic. Every back story was either not believable or was simply just the character's own fault. (Iwasawa was an exception to this. She had a solid backstory which was actually emotional.)
Enjoyment: 2/10
Angel Beats relied on being either humorous or tear jerking. The problem was, it wasn't funny and I simply felt annoyed while watching it, not the slightest bit sad. I really wanted to feel the roller coaster of emotions which so many others supposedly felt. I even tried to force myself to laugh or cry a few times. And it didn't work. At all.
Overall: 3/10
I feel really generous with this score.
tl;dr: Angel beats had lots of potential but was poorly executed and little effort was put into creating something unique and fresh. In general, the anime was just frustrating to watch. Also: I cringe whenever someone describes it as "original."
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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