Angel Beats (Part 1)
Comedy and Tragedy, Life and Death, and Love and Grief
Angel Beats is a show about a lot of things. In its single season of only 13 episodes it manages to thoroughly tackle themes of grief, trauma, love, god, identity, and healing in an incredible amount of depth, more than I would have ever thought possible from a show that can be binged in half a day. In this 7 part article I will go over each and every episode (2 episodes per part, except for 3 in part 6) followed by a long overview of what the show means and what I think it tries to say. And, an important note: I will be quoting the dub and not the sub. I don’t know how different the lines may be, but the dub is what I grew up with and is now the only way I can watch or think about it.
So, without further adieu, let’s start with Episode 1: Departure
Episode 1 opens up with our protagonist, Otonashi, waking up on the ground just outside a high school at night. Asking where he is, he looks around to find completely empty scenery, and is unable to “remember a thing.” Then, a girl named Yuri asks if he's finally awake, startling him as he notices her aiming a sniper rifle at the track field below. She tells him “Welcome, to the Not Yet Dead Battlefront.” Worry not, I’ll primarily go into broad points and save the details for select few important scenes, of which this opening is one.
It’s the kind of opening that throws you right into the action while simultaneously keeping you grounded in the protagonist’s shoes. Neither we nor Otonashi have any idea what’s going on, everything seems normal, but the presence of Yuri with a gun and the lack of anyone else present adds a significant air of mystery to the whole setting. Yuri explains that this is the afterlife, and God will “obliterate” you if you don’t fight back, and asks Otonashi if he wants to join The Battlefront.
Otonashi is however still very confused (as anyone would be), and asks for more clarification to which Yuri responds “accept things as they are.” It's quite reminiscent, to me at least, of “forget everything you think you know” from Doctor Strange. It’s a simple line but one that conveys an important and oddly powerful message. In the case of Doctor Strange, it acts both as a declaration and an instruction: “You only think you know some things, but you don’t truly know anything. Therefore, you must rid yourself of your precognitions to accept the reality you’re about to be thrust into.” In Angel Beats however, both we, the audience, and Otonashi have already been thrust into this new reality, namely the afterlife, but it isn’t one that we would probably have ever conceived of. It is the world (or at least a world) after death, but it is neither heaven nor hell, and even the existence of God is still up for debate as even Yuri admits later on. Therefore, you must “accept things as they are”, even if they don’t make sense right now, you just need to roll with it. This line simultaneously serves as a form of lampshading, an acknowledgement that this world is hard to introduce and may be hard to get used to. Yet it has been introduced through Yuri's previous explanation and this crucial line, making the lampshading feel less like it’s for comedic effect and more an important declaration.
Anyway, from here another character, Hinata, shows up with a much more cheery attitude and gives a brief bit of comedy before Otonashi decides to go down the stairs to the track field to talk to the mysterious white-haired girl Yuri was aiming at, called Angel. Angel tells Otonashi that she isn’t “any kind of Angel”, and is actually just the student council president. Otonashi takes this to mean the whole thing was a joke before saying he should go to the hospital for his amnesia.
Angel responds “But there aren’t any hospitals”
“Why not?”
“Because no one ever gets sick”
“Why not?”
“Because everyone is dead”
These words make Otonashi think that she’s in on the joke and demands that she prove he’s already dead, to which she mutters: “Hand Sonic”, and stabs him in the chest with a strange blade appearing from seemingly nowhere.
Otonashi wakes up in the student medical room, initially freaking out before realizing that he’s completely free of any wounds. But as he reaches over to grab his shirt, he sees a massive tear completely coated in his blood. Continuing to slightly panic about his situation, he tries to leave before a man named Noda appears, blocking the doorway and wielding a halberd. Noda claims that Otonashi disrespected Yuri by refusing to join the battlefront before hitting Otonashi with said Halberd 100 times (in a somewhat slapstick manner). Otonashi realizes that he really is in the afterlife, but seeing no reason to stay there, resolves to try and get himself obliterated. After searching the strangely empty school for a teacher, he comes upon the principal's office, only to learn that it's being used as the base of operations for The Battlefront.
after a bit more comedy as the members argue over what The Battlefront’s name should be (a bit of a running gag, #BarnacleBattlefront) it’s explained to Otonashi that obliteration is probably a form of reincarnation, though he won’t necessarily be reincarnated into a human. Otonashi eventually agrees to join them (at least until he recovers his memories) and is introduced to the other members of The Battlefront: Hinata (whom we previously met), Matsushita the Fifth (martial artist who loves food), Ooyama (average joe), TK (dancer who is perpetually high), Takamatsu (acts smart but is actually a moron), Fujimaki (delinquent with a sword), Noda (aggressive moron with a halberd), Shina (ninja who always says “this is so stupid”), and Iwasawa (the leader guitarist and singer of a band called Girls Dead Monster).
Afterwards, Otonishi is told about a few more important rules about this strange afterlife: 1. Not everyone at the school was a real person, most of them are referred to as NPC’s, beings seemingly created by this world to act as normal high school students and teachers but who do not know this is the afterlife nor have any memories from being alive. 2. Angel, despite her conflict with The Battlefront, never directly goes after them and only responds when they break the rules and resorting to violence only in retaliation or when needing to prove to someone that this really is the afterlife. Otonashi questions Yuri as to whether or not god is real, but finds that The Battlefront doesn’t have any definitive proof one way or another but has decided to fight against God anyway.
With these important world building aspects formerly introduced, The Battlefront begins operation Tornado, whereby Girls Dead Monster hosts a concert for the students while The Battlefront turns on a bunch of fans to steal their meal tickets (since buying them runs the risk of living a normal life and getting obliterated). Angel tries to intervene and a battle ensues outside the concert (using a new ability, Distortion), and once the meal tickets are successfully blown away, Otonashi and the rest of the fighters grab one out of the air and run away from Angel who chooses not to pursue them as Otonashi looks back at her. The episode concludes with The Battlefront eating a meal together with the meal tickets they stole as Otonashi reflects on the strange life they’ve all chosen, resolving himself to stick with them until he can get his memories back.
Overall, the episode serves as a great introduction to the world and characters that explains a lot of important stuff while still leaving a couple crucial mysteries left unanswered. Is God real? Who is Angel? Why are they all here, in this afterlife? And who was Otonashi when he was alive?
Episode 2: Guild
This episode opens with Takamatsu reporting that they are running low on gunpowder and need a new weapon for Otonashi. So Yuri starts Operation Guild Parachute Drop. Otonashi says he isn’t a fan of heights to which Yuri calmly responds “we aren’t parachuting from the sky, we’re parachuting underground.” Fun times.
The Guild is introduced as a part of The Battlefront, a group of students underground that have found a way to create weapons out of dirt and do so to supply the actual frontline members in their fight against Angel. Yuri radios ahead to the guild members to disarm the traps and give them safe passage for the operation. Upon arrival though, Noda is caught in a trap and dies immediately, causing the Battlefront members to panic as Yuri realizes that the traps have been reactivated because Angel is making her way towards The Guild as well.
Despite the not-actually-lethal-but-still-painful danger, The Battlefront members continue to head deeper and deeper, encountering various traps that, at each point, take out one of the battlefront members, giving us small bits of time with each of them and giving each of them just a little bit of character depth. Near the end, only Yuri and Otonashi have made it all the way through, prompting Yuri to say “If this were a real army everyone would have died. I’m a horrible leader.” Otonashi tries to reassure her that this just shows the traps are effective but it does little to help her. Taking a break, Yuri tells Otonashi about her life, how she was the eldest sister of three siblings. She always did everything she could to protect them, seeing them as her responsibility. But one day, while their parents were away, some robbers broke into the house but weren’t able to find any cash. So they resorted to something horrible, and took Yuri’s sisters hostage to make her find something of value for them, Despite trying as best she could… It wasn't enough. In only half an hour everyone she cared about was killed. “It's just too unfair… how could I ever forgive God for that”
After a moment of silence, Otonashi tells Yuri that she is strong for being able to fight back, reflecting he’d probably try to get obliterated right away “if those were the kind of memories I had… but you’re fighting back.” To which Yuri responds “you bet” as she resolves to finish making it to the guild, saying she’ll “make sure nothing happens to [Otonashi]”
Upon arriving at the guild, Yuri takes stock of the situation and decides to have the guild blown up with Angel inside (scorched earth style) and have the Guild relocated back to the “Old Guild” (implying that this fight against Angel has been going on for a good while). A battle with Angel ensues as Yuri tries to delay her long enough for everyone to evacuate, during which Angel uses a skill called Delay. After everyone’s been evacuated and all the explosives put in place, Yuri detonates them and leaves Angel to fall into the flames (though she will make it back out by next episode). The episode ends with Yuri contacting everyone to let them know of what happened as Otonashi thinks to himself about what a great leader she really is.
This episode serves as an introduction to the kind of series you’re really watching, namely one that will undoubtedly make you cry, if not in this episode then in a later one. It also establishes an important theme and message in the form of fighting back against the unfairness of the world. In this afterlife, you get obliterated by following the rules and living a normal school life, which could represent a few different responses to trauma while fighting back represents a different set of responses. Although vague at this point, this theme regarding how people respond to trauma will continue to be developed over the course of the show.