Anime Friday: Angel Beats!

Everyone wonders at some point in time what life is like after death, Angel Beats brings you one such illustration.

Leave it to the Japanese to generate an idea of the afterlife where purgatory is a highschool and all the kids are pissed off that they died. Anyway, the story follows Otonoashi Yuzuru, a boy who lost his memory of his life, as he's thrown into this confusing afterlife where he meets Yuri, the leader of the Shinda Sekai Sensen or SSS (Afterlife War Front), a group of students who are rebelling against God for how their life turned out, and a girl named Angel who they believe is actually an angel (Student Council President). As the anime progresses the story starts to get more and more in depth on how the characters lived their lives till their untimely deaths and how they blame God for how horrible things turned out. Later in the anime Otonashi regains his memory and decides to help his friends in the SSS come to terms with their lives by helping them fulfill all the dreams they did not get a chance to accomplish during their lives so they can pass from purgatory onto whatever comes next. This anime brings up an interesting way to look at the afterlife from the point of view of someone who died an unfair death and how that might affect their ability to come to terms with death. Angel Beats is also very action heavy during the “operations” where the SSS has some chaotic run-ins with Angel.
The characters that are introduced to you as you watch the anime are very well represented and drawn making them stand out from each other. Angel Beats has a pretty diverse cast of characters who are all quite funny and it’s this diversity that gives the anime a nice feel to it. Along with the amazing story and characters, Angel Beats brings with it a great score of music with their Opening and Ending song along with the music played by the band formed by some of the members of SSS called Girls Dead Monster. With all that said Angel Beats is one of the best animes of 2009-2010 that will make you experience all forms of emotions as you progress through the series and with the end of each episode you'll be left wanting more and more.

Scores

Story: 10/10

Characters: 9/10

Art: 9/10

Overall rating: 9/10