Angel Beats! Review11

The series came to an end for quite a while. However, the end actually didn’t surprise me a lot. Have been thinking about coming up with a review of the series for a while. To be frankly I didn’t take too much of the series in the first place (well, later fell in love with) but I did know that it’s gonna be one of the best of the all. Not simply because it is produced by KEY. As for the reason, I’d like to skip the general thoughts about the series and focus on the line of the story and the relationships of the two couples in the series: Yui and Hinata, Kanade and Yuzuru.

---

Best couple in my mind, definitely Yui and Hinata. The first time Yui shows up in the Anime is after the disappearance of Iwasawa. The first impression of the girl is little, active and energetic. But not until the 10th episode that we get to know about how her life was before entering this world. Should I say quite opposite? Remember what Hinata said? It doesn’t matter how you look like in your life when you are alive, Yui who’s there is not fake. Yes, it was only because Yui cannot move her body and stay in bed for all her life that she desire for living is so strong that to us it seems to be over energetic.

Yui appeared to be very energetic (and she indeed is ) and that’s why Yuzuru thought she is happy and did everything she wants to do in this world and picked her as the first one. While Yuzuru was completing Yui’s requests, I think Hinata has noticed what Yuzuru wanted to do and that’s why he showed up around Yuzuru from time to time. And at the night that Yuzuru and Hinata were playing baseball, Hinata made the decision.

The scene in the end of the 10th episode is one of the best among the series. The word that Hinata said to Yui is really striking. Under the falling sun, we can see two shadows facing each other. The tears on her face looks like peal reflecting her life in this world. It occurs to me suddenly that the Yui I saw in the episodes before is not who she really is. But Hinata denied it. Yui want to do everything that she could not when she’s alive. And to Hinata, this is not the most important thing. The only important thing to him, like he said, no matter what she looks like when she’s alive, he loves her anyway.

The first time that I noticed about the feeling of Yui towards Hinata is the episode that the SSS members went down to the Guild to rescue Kanade. Though it’s late enough I did have a feeling about their relationship because how they treated each other. Yui is active yet only bits Hinata. And when they walked together they always fighting and making fun of each other. It’s a typical sign of high school couples but Yui is not Tsundere and Hinata is not some protagonist of a Harem Anime.

When Yui disappear, Hinata, seems to look like very easy and this is the way he used to be. Quite different between the attitude when he told Yui that he would marry her. But we all know that Hinata loves Yui and will keep his promise.

Here the background music comes, Ichiban no Takaramono (一番の宝物). Quite like the music since the beginning. It fits the scene pretty well and I guess some emotional fans may actually cry and let their tears fall like rain. Though we don’t have many assumption of their life after disappearing in this world, may be they are like Kanade and Yuzuru and finally meet each other and fall in love again. Let’s just wish.

Farewell to Yui and Hinata and here we come to another couple in the series. The relationship between Kanade and Yuzuru, to me, is the main plot of the series. The story began with a Hand-Sonic Version One attack and the fall of our protagonist. Kanade chose the worst way of starting the relation while Yuzuru picked the worst talk. Like Yuzuru later said, if the night the Hand-Sonic thing didn’t happen or he didn’t meet Yuri or SSS, Kanade and he will be great friends. The first few episodes of the series focus on the fight between Kanade and SSS. And when Kanade lost her position as the president of the student union, the story changed. The great distinguish between a little girl going down to the canteen to eat some Mapo Doufu and the crowed yelling for the fantastic live.

Yuzuru is the only guy think deeply into the detail. I am not sure whether Yuzuru had a feeling toward Kanade before she losing her position, but I do think that when he saw Kanade sitting alone in the canteen, he did start to like her. And the little feeling probably started with his intuition about who Kanade is and how she feels. I guess it has a lot to do with Yuzuru’s life before. He had a younger sister and he decided to become a doctor after his sister passed away. It occurred to me that Yuzuru takes Kanade as his younger sister and nothing more in the first place while Kanade, with her characteristic, quite fits the position of being a Kawaii/cold younger sister.

I did not consider that Yuzuru will be together with Kanade even though I do hope they will become lovers. I thought that Yuri will be Yuzuru’s girl friend, with an experience of watching lots of Anime. But in the end, the rich experience did insulted me and it’s a shame to mention it again. Yuri, who appears to have no feeling towards Yuzuru even in the last episode, really surprised me for a while and when Yuzuru suddenly said that he’s going to stay in this world to help other people, together with Kanade and even said that he liked her, I was a little bit surprised. The story has developed in a way that is too far from me. Though there are lots of signs but it’s still too quick running towards the end. Guess I just didn’t want the series to end that fast.

There are lots of nice scenes that Yuzuru being with Kanade. Say, in the garden where Kanade was working on the flowers when sunshine fell on her, quite a beautiful scene and it’s extremely striking; on the bed where Kanade was unconscious after the fights with her copies and later stroking tenderly on Yuzuru’s hair after she coming back to Yuzuru after fighting against illusions of herself.

Kanade was a person didn’t talk too much. However, the image of Kanade to me in the last episode changed completely. I am way too surprised to see her singing Iwasawa’s song, as well as her lyrics for the graduation song though Mapo Doufu (麻婆豆腐) is my favorite Chinese dish.

Though the last episode surprised me a lot, the ending is still acceptable but not creative enough. The couple disappeared and somehow came to another life with exactly the same look. Not quite satisfied with this kind of ending but it did keep away from the sad ending which KEY used to be famous of.

---

If you have to sum up with one word for the series, it will be “Love”. It’s not only about the love between men and women, also the love among us. Every person in the series has his/her own story and it will be a nice idea to make several OVA for each of the SSS member. What about the legend 14th episode and when will it come or whether will it come or not? Truly the series left too much for us and it’s something that cannot be covered in 13 episodes or a thousand words. Looking forward for the coming whatever episodes, OVAs or movies.