Angel Beats!

[wedora]

Ok...that was wierd. Too much information spiel, not enough lead-up. People are mentioning Haruhi, and I'm getting that vibe but not from her looks (and that's not a good thing because it was average at best to me). Comparisons will be drawn for sure.

It has some potential, but for the record I REALLY dislike the approach they used for ep 1. Because of the approach, I can't take it seriously and I can't treat it as comedy either, so its kinda...just...there. I hope they don't continue this trend of trying to be too many things at once and failing at all of them.

On a positive note, the BGM is amazing! Anyone notice that little piano bit in the middle? I had to rewind because I was ignoring the captions for the BGM. Also, the ED is very pretty.

 

[Akii~]

A gameplay approach at the beginning? It isn't really effective, IMO.

It does bring back a little bit of the "Clannad" feel, but it feels more like Fate/Stay Night, because you see the ridiculous amount of blood that Otonashi had bled out after the combo hit from Noda... Anyways, I agree with wedora on the BGM, it's amazing.

As for the Haruhi hype... Yuri does look like Haruhi doesn't she? Plus, Yuri's personality traits are similar to that of Haruhi's.

I'll give the first episode a 6.8/10

Hopefully, it'll be better in the next few Eps.....

 

[Puiu]

This is really good show. Who cares if it takes some things from Haruhi as long as it's entertaining. It's like they did copy/paste.
This anime might be the best one this spring if they manage to keep every every episode at least as good as the first.
animation 9/10 - they really worked a lot on this and it really becomes art-like during the concert and the battle with the Angel. Cool special effects that aren't annoying like other CG stuff you find in other anime and the characters move as they would in real life.
sound-music 9/10 - I found my self re-watching the episode just to enjoy the music. The ending could have been better, but the rest is A+. The sounds are also really good and they compliment the animation a lot.
voices 9/10 - With a few exceptions, the cast for Angel Beat is made out of very talented seiyuus. A+
story 8/10 - Being a character driven anime, the story takes second place, but it has many mysteries and could become much better in latter episodes. 8 for how it's told and good humor and for future potential.
characters 8.5/10 - A lot of individual and very interesting personalities. The designs are really good for the girls, but could have been a bit better for the boys (it's always like this in anime).
overall 8.7 - It's a must watch!

PS: i really liked the gameplay approach and the fact they didn't overused it. as for the similarity to Clannad, FSN and Haruhi: it combines the best of all 3 and it adds it's own original content (what more could you ask for?). BTW all 3 are in my favorites list and Angel Beats will most likely make it into my list too.

 

[JCDRANZER]

There was an Angel Beats! special released and I'm not sure if I should watch it or not because I still haven't seen the first episode.

Oh wait, I just checked it out quickly and its an interview with Maeda Jun and the Director of this series.

 

[nijlandp]

second episode and it felt not as good as the first episode. Sure there were some interesting things like Yuri telling her past but as a whole it lacked something. I would have liked to see more about him remembering his past and some more information about Angel. The traps were interesting but after seeing the first one victim with the remark that they will revive the novelty is gone quickly. I wouldn't say that it is a bad episode quite the contrary but it ain't as good as the first episode. Hopefully in the next episode they can give more information on angel (she seems to be able to communicate normally so a nice thing would be a conversation between Angel and Otonashi) and more of his amnesia.

 

[Akii~]

Wow, 2nd episode was kind of epic...

It is just me or does Noda's "killings" actually make you laugh?

Furthermore, Hinata's fall was kind of funny. He accidentally touched Yuri in the wrong place(or Otanashi had accidentally touched her with his leg in the wrong place?) , she slaps him? (somehow) and he falls.... "Baaaaaakkkkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" XD

Yuri's past is pretty sad, but in the first episode it made me very curious on finding Otonashi's past... "Truthfully speaking, I haven't actually join the battlefront. What I want more than anything right now... is to buy enough time to recover all my memories....." -Otonashi

But in short EP 2 , has lots of lolz....

 

[Megiddo]

The deaths are supposed to be of comedic effect. Like how TK was all like "Don't worry guys, you go ahead" and the group was all, "Okay. See you!" with no real reaction.

That said, after the comedy played out they ran through a bit of Yuri's back story. The premise is actually somewhat similar to Ouran's beginning, but the guys involved certain change that outcome.

I'm still not sure what to think. I love the piano and Lia's singing in the OP though. I'll see if episode 3 hooks me.

 

[Shahou]

Love the first episode's GirlDeMo's concert

Also love the comedy behind each member's death. Like that guy who said "your next newbie" but he dies next because he couldn't swim! LOL

But seeing Yuri's past was interesting. kind of gives me insight about her personality =) But i wonder how she died! >_< as well as the rest of the members... Since none is by suicide, could it be murder? accident?

 

[Chila]

After seeing episode 2 and a part of Yuri's past I one way or another got hooked on this series. Plus, the opening is awesome, having Tenshi playing the piano like that is a very nice effect. Will definitely stick around to see what this series will turn into.

 

[Kid-Wolf]

Well with the second episode I get this felling that this will trun out to be a rather fun series out of all of this. From what I can tell it seems that the old meme of "He won't die even if you kill him" is probably written all over this series. Never the less the "deaths" were rather funny and pretty much makes me think of another series that does this, but haven't watched at all though.

 

[Akii~]

QUOTE (Megiddo @ Apr 10 2010, 02:20 PM) The deaths are supposed to be of comedic effect. Like how TK was all like "Don't worry guys, you go ahead" and the group was all, "Okay. See you!" with no real reaction.

That said, after the comedy played out they ran through a bit of Yuri's back story. The premise is actually somewhat similar to Ouran's beginning, but the guys involved certain change that outcome.

I'm still not sure what to think. I love the piano and Lia's singing in the OP though. I'll see if episode 3 hooks me.
Yeah, I agree with you there on the OP... It's awesome.

It's seems like they skimmed out on the traditional openings for example the character then the name in the OP's of Air and Clannad....

It's just a thought.....

 

[Kit-Tsukasa]

Just watched the first OP and I must say that I'm more impressed than I thought. The concept sounds dumb about being dead and yet not dead (sounds like something I've heard of before) and the animation was really off this first episode, so hopefully they renew themselves in these areas. On the other hand the animation for the action scene towards the end of the episode mixed in with the insert song was very well done in my opinion. I really liked the pacing of the fight along with the music and that is what I think really pulled me into the series. Otherwise, I felt at first I was watching another Haruhi especially considering Yuri's personality (but not so much her appearance, which many claim to be similar to Haruhi's).

Although I may have set my bar a bit high now for other shows now considering is the third show I started watching this season I doubt that many other shows will do significantly better at this point regardless of the order I watched them in.

 

[Kaeru-P]

Definitely this show is a top Notch, as a fellow key-fan I have a good impression of this show. Especially the OP by far my be the best in the season as it totally left me breathless and describing it "just" beautiful would be a crime

, I love also Lia-chan's vocals here. Though the show reminds me of Little Busters more(Since Na-ga Did both the Character design here and on LBusters and probably because of Jun Maeda's touch here), It gives me a vibe of Shin Megami Tensei's Persona oddly enough though

Still ever I've seen the announcement of this show 2-3 mos ago I've been patiently(dying) waiting for this to show up and time sure does fly by.....

QUOTE (Akii~ @ Apr 11 2010, 07:49 AM)
I'm still not sure what to think. I love the piano and Lia's singing in the OP though. I'll see if episode 3 hooks me.  
Yeah, I agree with you there on the OP... It's awesome.

It's seems like they skimmed out on the traditional openings for example the character then the name in the OP's of Air and Clannad....

It's just a thought.....

I think thats because Angel Beats is not a visual novel game unlike clannad and air so I guess the OP did break out from the traditional since Clannad, Air, and kanon's anime OPs were purposely made to be similiar to their visual novel OP counterparts (too keep the originality as much as possible)
Well Just pointing it out though

 

[Killer_Ossi]

Ep was pretty good again. First a lot to laugh and then a lot of emotions with Yuris hard past and giving up the Guild.

I wouldnt have thought that Yuri had a past that hard, but with this you can understand whats driving her. But we still havent seen everything. There are two possibilitys that come to my mind. First she couldve searched for the murderers and wanted to kill them but died or her family went insane and killed her for not protecting her siblings.

I really like the black humor of this show with no one taking Death serious and making jokes about it. But I hope they wont overuse that.

Op was pretty nice but nothing special, ED was totally not my taste.

 

[AnimeWiz07]

QUOTE (Killer_Ossi @ Apr 12 2010, 01:36 PM) Op was pretty nice but nothing special, ED was totally not my taste.
Agreed. I think the animation, as well as the piano, in the OP were amazing; but the song itself is average. I think the super HQ animation the OP gives makes the song more than it is... they timed it extremely well and so on, so yeah.

 

[Akii~]

QUOTE (lavenderdays @ Apr 12 2010, 10:12 AM) I think thats because Angel Beats is not a visual novel game unlike clannad and air so I guess the OP did break out from the traditional since Clannad, Air, and kanon's anime OPs were purposely made to be similiar to their visual novel OP counterparts (too keep the originality as much as possible)
Well Just pointing it out though

Hmm, I guess you're right.

Now, I'm guessing that there would be new episodes every saturday(ish?) If that was the case, then the fansubbing is done pretty fast....

I'm kinda amazed by it, since it's a new series.

 

[Shahou]

Man.. one of my favorite characters just disappeared =(
i can't believe Iwasawa just disappeared.. I guess she accepted what her life was about so he passed on...?

 

[AnimeWiz07]

This is getting good, and may very well be the best anime this spring. Episode 3 didn't really suprise me too much, I kind of figured that if you accept death and find what you were yearning for in life you will move on to heaven or wherever it is they go. I guess since everyone there is trying to "rebel against god" that each and every person has some sort of unfinished business or grudge from their past life... Iwasawa disappearing gave the episode a superb moment, and now I would love to know why all the members bear these feelings of having been treated unfairly in life.

Note: I need those songs she was singing, they were great; nuff said.

 

[wedora]

Well that ep was very enlightening. Almost too enlightening if you ask me.

It ends up that this anime is almost exactly like haibane renmei. It appears everyone there has unfinished business with their original life and must resolve it in some way to move on. The difference is there isn't any protectors in place, and they must figure it out themselves. "Angel" is just another student like them, and only appears as a protector/oppressor because she's trying to find meaning in that world just like them, albeit for different reasons.

Definitely gonna stick to this one, it has potential.

 

[julez]

Big improvement in episode 3, it got me a little emotional *sniff*
I'm sad Sawashiro Miyuki's character has passed on, I just love listening to her voice and this role was no exception. Iwasawa had a rough past too, but she came to terms with it while singing. It was a beautiful moment, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of these.
I wonder that if this place is for ppl who died while being in their high school years or if they just look like they are in high school but really died when they were older/younger? In Iwasawa's case I think she was around her teens when she died, but it's still a mystery how the others died.
I wonder if I will get this emotional after finding out TK's past (lol)
Angel has become a more sympathetic character in my eyes after finding out she is like the rest of them. I wonder why she would go through all of that, if that is the case.