This is a review on the anime Angel Beats. As it is a review, this post contains many spoilers, minor and major. Watch Angel Beats(I suggest that you do) before reading this post.

Otonashi Yuzuru wakes up at a school he does not know, seeing a girl with a huge sniper rifle, who introduces herself as Yuri, and explains that everyone in that world is already dead, and that they, the Afterlife Battlefront, are fighting against God’s “angel”, the school’s student council president, sent to make them disappear from the world that they are currently in.

Will you fight with us?

Angel Beats gives a new take on the afterlife, specifically those who have “unfinished businesses.” The people who died having regrets, making them bound to their lives and their past, are sent to this world. Naturally, there will be people in this world who hate the fact that they have died, making them rebel (against God maybe) because their lives have ended abruptly.

This world that they are sent to serves as a sanctuary to them, until the time that they are free of their regrets, and are ready to leave their past and move on, making them leave this sanctuary. However, because of their regrets, some people want to live again, continue their lives, do what haven’t done yet in their lives. It is because of this that they rebel against god and fight while in the world they’re in.

Where is this, really?

In the first episodes, Yui and the Afterlife Battlefront, along with Otonashi, perceive Kanade as the “angel,” sent by God to erase them from the world. However, since all of the members of the Battlefront have unfinished businesses and regrets, they do not want to be removed from their world, rather they want to return to their lives and do what they believe they have to do. Because of this, they keep on fighting Kanade, thinking that they will get their lives back once they beat the “angel.”

But as the series progress, Otonashi finds out that the Battlefront is fighting for the wrong thing, or maybe, fighting for nothing. He finds out that the school that they are in, the very world they are in, is a place for them as they take time to start accepting their deaths, leave their pasts, and move on with their lives. It may also be a given with this revelation that everyone in the world they’re in are human beings who, like Otonashi and the others, have regrets and are taking time to accept everything. There is no “angel,” NPCs or anything else.

This is something different for me, the revelation that the protagonists are fighting for something wrong, and that a character, shown as a villain to the viewers, is really one of the major protagonists of the series. Somehow different to the point that I do not want to accept this twist. However, the progression of the series gave a better story with this revelation, leading to a happier resolution than that if the story has not twisted that way.

How could that ANGELIC face be a villain?

After this revelation, the war between the Battlefront and Kanade comes to an end. However, in this world where anyone has the capability of creating almost anything, there are people who want to play God. This leads to a new battle of the Afterlife Battlefront, with the programmer who started the “bug” of love being able to be born in the world, and stay in the world.

However, I do not think that this is the climax, or a different conflict in the series. Rather, I think that this is the falling action of the whole series. This battle starts with the revelation of the real cause of this world for everyone, and ends with everyone’s acceptance of their lives. This is the real end of the story.

And this does lead to everyone’s “graduation” from their sanctuary.

Everyone leaves their past behind, and faces their new future.

The final episode was the most emotional episode of the series, a real tear jerker for those who are moved by this kind of take on the afterlife. Everyone has already accepted their future, and has disappeared from the world, moved on.

The best part of this episode was the revelation of Kanade to Otonashi, that he did save someone with his death, that someone is thanking a stranger for giving her a life. Sad enough, that was what was binding Kanade to the world. Kanade’s only regret in her life was that she wasn’t able to thank the person who gave her a heart. And as she did, she already faced her life and moved on.

I guess Otonashi also moved on after what happened. He was already satisfied in his life by the middle of the series, he only stayed to make sure everyone else had their resolutions like him. He also left the afterlife world. It was also shown that Otonashi saw Kanade in their new life.

A very happy ending for both of them.

Final Notes:
I guess there was really no villain in this series, only a personal conflict of the characters between themselves, of having regrets as they died. And the world they were sent into was their sanctuary, as they fight, rebel, and finally learn to accept their lives. And I guess the real “angel” was Otonashi,

In the beginning of the series, the Afterlife Battlefront wants to relive their lives, because they want to be able to do something that they desired to do in their lives. I think that this goal of the Battlefront (and everyone else) was actually achieved. They relived their lives, but without the desire to return to the unfinished past. Everyone relived their lives, without regrets.

The only problem I had was that the series had too few episodes to emphasize the story. It focused mainly on the main characters’ story, and the whole story of he series. Yes it did show some of the different stories of members of the Battlefront, but that’s why they need a few more episodes to show more. Not that the series needs to show the stories of all the members and characters, but at least give a little more emphasis on the other characters. Also, the story is too good to be packed into just thirteen episodes. They could have done more with the story.

Nevertheless, Angel Beats is a great interpretation of the afterlife, illustrated in a very beautiful manner.