Angels, Big Guns and Dying Over-And-Over Again. (Reviewing Angel Beats!)

So... How is it going?
Me? It's going so and so.
Ever have an idea, then when you try and manifest that idea onto paper or words, the idea keeps changing before you know it? Then what you have as a result does not resemble your original idea at all? Odd, right?
I seem to always be in this situation. Sometimes it is quite interesting and useful, but it can can be such a pain sometimes. It happens the most when I'm painting. That being said, I never actually have an idea/plan of the what I think I want the painting to look like... I just sit there in front of a board and start brushing random colours until something appears. It's not the most fulfilling of methods... Though I come up with some weird stuff.

But enough of my rambling, I'll save that for my "Kaaro's Ramblings" blog posts
.
Let's talk about Angel Beats!

Yuzuru Otonashi, a boy who has lost the memories of his life after dying, wakes up to find himself in limbo, which looks very much like an ordinary high school. It is a place designed so students may learn to give up on any lingering regrets they may have from their past life so that they may pass on. Pain can still be felt and dying is still a possibility but it is not permanent. If a person dies in this limbo, they awaken moments later with no sign of injury.
Otonashi meets a girl with a rifle, Yuri "Yurippe" Nakamura, who asks him to join her organisation, The Afterlife Battlefront, bent on fighting against God for allowing them to suffer such cruel fates when they were alive by disobeying the rules set up in this limbo, and hopefully break free of this system. Their current and only enemy is Kanade "Tenshi" Tachibana, the student council president, who is thought to be an angel ("Tenshi" is Japanese for "Angel"). With her supernatural abilities, she aims to stop The Afterlife Battlefront's disturbances and liberate them from limbo.

I think someone may be
overcompensating for something...

This anime was sort of odd for me. I enjoyed this it very much like the ones I have watched before for this blog of mine but well... I should limit myself to how much you are exposed to with something you are about to involve yourself with, like comments under a video, talking with friends or other review type things. This causes expectations to rise. And then you involve yourself with whatever you are going to do. Then when expectations are not met, it becomes disheartening...

And on that jolly note, I'll begin with what I liked!

She said as they slowly became corpses...

Angel Beats! was so funny. I liked the heartwarming gems which were told, the action was very flashy and fast, but I felt when in a premise where you cannot die, physical comedy is the way to go! Episode 4.5 of Angel Beats will be my favourite "special" episode for a long time coming. The entire episode was just over the top drama at its best.
My laughs ranged from "What the fxck are you doing?!" to "LOL WHAT, HOW?!" throughout the series. It was very enjoyable watching the characters suffer in full confidence that they would be fine later.
(Maybe I'm a sadist...)

The original soundtrack of Angel Beats! is so good. It is so moving and chilling at the same time. There is just something about music played on a piano that sends shivers down my spine. Alongside the stunning visuals, it may possibly bring tears to your eyes. As a purely visual/audio experience, Angel Beats! is beautiful.

Yurippe death stare.

I liked how no two of the main cast of characters were the same. The vast array presented is almost too much to count. There was dance-crazy guy who spoke in nothing but random English phrases, the black belt who did nothing but eat all the time, the born leader who acted too like a villain at times. With such different personalities present all the time you are bound to have some interesting interactions which were very entertaining to observe.

And now to what irked me:

Much Kawaii, So Sugoi.

The issue with having so many different characters is that not much time can be afforded to each of them. Considering how the series is only thirteen episodes long, time is something that can be spent on multiple not-so-important-to-the-plot characters, but it would have been nice to see some more back stories than we were given. I would have love to learn more about Eri Shiina, the strong female ninja character who has a great weakness towards cute things.

But cute girls and dangerous weapons,
what more could you possibly want?

I found that anime with less than fifteen episodes are a lot easier to burn through and enjoy, but the enjoyment is a lot less than an twenty-four plus episode anime. Annoyingly, this is also true of Angel Beats!. With so much going on being packed into six and a half hours worth of viewing time, the whole viewing experience felt rushed and I was not able to particular moments, in particular some of the more emotional scenes (eg, Yuri's back story.) If Angel Beats! had slightly more episodes just to slow the pace down, maybe I would be thinking differently. And considering how the story ends, I highly doubt the making of a second season.

Final thoughts: Angel Beats! is slightly overrated. I teared up, but I did not end up crying my heart out. By all means, it was a good anime to watch, I just did not feel as much emotion as I had hoped I would. Angel Beats! brought up ideas of fulfillment and closure, which ironically, I thought it lacked.

I will give Angel Beats! a rating of a stable 7/10 cute girls carrying guns and other kinds of weaponry. The story's concept is very interesting and it is good for a laugh and some tears, but it was not a story that I fell in love with personally.

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And this is the last review I will be able to do this month!
I know you are all so sad to hear that, but alas, it is true. Holidaying next week, so no ability to stream anime for seven days. It hurts just thinking that.

Well.. Till next time! *Waves*