Angel Beats!

Wait, there are people who watch anime other than mine? I guess you can talk about them here then...

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Kagami
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Angel Beats!

Post by Kagami »

Angel Beats is the latest offering from Key; the production studio that made Clannad amongst others. Unlike Clannad though this series takes a bit to get going (some may disagree with that opinion...). Initially it was pretty repetitive but I am starting to enjoy it. The OP is growing on me too.

I don't really know what to make of it though. There is a surprising amount of gore for what can be such a lighthearted series. Still, the animation is excellent as is the voice acting, but I feel that there are too many plot holes. Also I cannot help but feel that setting a fantasy style anime between-heaven-and-hell realm in a school campus is a total cop out. It is quite lame...

Also a cop out is the character design for the female lead, Yurippe. Carbon copy Haruhi except with a more rational personality.

Watch the series, see what you think.

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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Sinistromanual »

...Is it wrong to ship Yuri/Angel from when they were first introduced before, without even watching beyond the first episode?

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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kagami »

I don't quite know what you are asking here...
Sinistromanual wrote:...Is it wrong to ship Yuri/Angel from when they were first introduced before, without even watching beyond the first episode?
Ship? Yurippe is not angel either, they are separate characters.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Sinistromanual »

Ah, I'm sorry, I'm using strange terms. I mean support the two as a pairing, like HaruhixKyon.

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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kagami »

So you want some girl on girl action then? Angel (Kanade) and Haruhi wannabe Yurippe?

Or perhaps you mean a true Kyon/Haruhi pairing with the OH SO SIMILAR TO KYON Otonashi-kun. Aw man, yet more evidence that Angel Beats! was made up by tracing over Haruhi and photocopying the major plot elements...
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Sinistromanual »

Yes, I suppose it could be just that I am a fan of shoujo-ai and shounen-ai, haha. orz;;

I only like this Angel Beats because of the gorgeous animation. The characters and the plot don't appeal to me whatsoever.

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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Taiga »

Who's animated this series?
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Sinistromanual »

I'm not entirely sure. I think it's the same studio as Clannad.

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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Taiga »

Clannad was Kyoto Animation, unless you mean the film?
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kagami »

You are right, the Clannad animation was a Kyo-ani production. But it was still authored by Key. Aniplex and P.A works are producing Angel Beats.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Taiga »

Angel Beats is a strange one, since it's a Key piece, but not game?

They should have made it a game :<
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Sinistromanual »

I'm not sure how it would have worked as a game, or am I just too used to things such as Call of Duty and Drakengard?

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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kei »

He's talking about a type of game known as a visual novel. Most of Key's works such as Kanon, Air and Clannad were originally visual novels.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kagami »

Would you call a visual novel a game, Jasper?

Don't know how Angel Beats would of fared as a visual novel, but then Clannad is my only experience with that whole genre.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kei »

Yes, Kagami, a visual novel is a type of game.

From Wikipedia:
A visual novel (ビジュアルノベル bijuaru noberu?) is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Taiga »

The fact that many came out for PS2 sets it as a game, in my books :3

Key's glory has been in their games and I always find anime tend to be beter when NOT the original media.

Haruhi, Shana, Bakemonogatari, kino no tabi, shangri-la, read or die... all light novels
tsukihime, fate/stay night, kanon, clannad... all visual novels
FMA, Elfen Lied, lucky star... all manga

That accounds for pretty much all of my favourites. Only one that doesn't really fit is Chobits which started as both at once, if i recall.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Sinistromanual »

Ah, thank you for clarifying! I've never played a visual novel, so... Haha.

For me, it honestly depends. Speaking about anime, that does tend to be better, like Bakemonogatari or Baccano, but the manga or novels are better too, such as Suzumiya Haruhi (for me) and Toradora! in which I prefer the manga.

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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by halfey »

I prefer the original works. For instance, Hayate no Gotoku! is originally a manga title so I prefer the manga more although the anime is as deadly funny as the manga is (I enjoy both BTW). As with Angel Beats, the anime is the original work of it so at this stage I prefer the anime. People may come up with forks like manga or visual novel later but that's another story. Chances are I'll just enjoy it all (anime/manga/visual novel) if I can get any of them. Which one is better is not a big deal for me.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kagami »

How many episodes left? Can't be many now. Story is wrapping things up a bit too conveniently if you ask me. That said, I am still enjoying the series immensely. It really has grown on me.

As for original works, there are plenty of examples where the second in line from an original work (such as an anime after a manga, or vice versa) takes more fictional liberty with the plots and as such is better. I like the Clannad manga for example. In some cases its a lot more emotional then the series ever was.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kei »

Yeah, it has one more episode left. I'm going to make... er, ask Kagami to write a review about it once it's over.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by halfey »

I don't really mind which one people do prefer (original work or fork-work) as long as the love is "genuine & legitimate". For instance, one might like Touhou characters although s/he never played the game itmself, which I'm fine with.

yea I tend to agree that Angel Beats plot move so fast and it feels like a 26-episode stories being cramped into only 13 episodes, unlike Key's previous flagships such as Air, Clannad & Kanon. But I beg to differ when people keep mentioning this series as Haruhi clone. It's not clone, it's a parody, a serious one (and "parody" isn't the same as "clone", if you ask me). Yeah, Haruhi is more of a slice of life drama so a parody of it should a tear jerking one.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kagami »

Ritsu wrote:Yeah, it has one more episode left. I'm going to make... er, ask Kagami to write a review about it once it's over.
MAKE? Puh I'd like to see you try! *flips one twintail in disgust*

Also, Angel Beats! being a parody of Haruhi? Parodies mock the subject they are based on and this series has none of that. In terms of Yurippe looking like Haruhi and acting like her in a lot of respects is just poor character design on behalf of Key, and with the whole "Kami-sama" thing going, it undermines the credibility of the plot somewhat.

After all, there can only be one god(dess) :wink:
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by halfey »

Kagami wrote:Also, Angel Beats! being a parody of Haruhi? Parodies mock the subject they are based on and this series has none of that. In terms of Yurippe looking like Haruhi and acting like her in a lot of respects is just poor character design on behalf of Key, and with the whole "Kami-sama" thing going, it undermines the credibility of the plot somewhat.

After all, there can only be one god(dess) :wink:
making a serious, Haruhi-like anime can be considered as a form of mocking too, if seriousness is the opposite nature of the original Haruhi. Parody is about making the opposite of the nature of the original subject, like how people making fun of certain political issues, because politics itself is a serious business to begin with.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kei »

Actually, I've heard that Yuri's decision to
Spoiler:
not become God
in the most recent episode is an intentional deconstruction of a Haruhi-type character. So, yeah, I can see how Angel Beats could be seen as a parody of Haruhi.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kagami »

There really isn't much about Angel Beats! that is directly opposite to Haruhi, is there? Both share common elements but have completely separate story lines.
Spoiler:
That said, in the last episode where Yuri is told she can be god if she wants to, I groaned.

All in all, I don't really care about those 'common elements' as I described. I like the series a lot. When the others started accepting that the other world was a means for them to experience their lost childhoods; that was a really cool development. Key has always been good with emotional twists like that, even though in this case its kinda weak compared to the 'Nagisa Event'. Looking back at Clannad, the Nagisa Event was a biiiiiiig emotional impact, and kinda made the series memorable.
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Kagami »

Well thats all they wrote (and it wasn't much). Episode 13 was just supposed to be a wrap up, but spent most of the 24 or so minutes fiddling around before ending abruptly. Too many of the characters also had personality adjustments not suited to them and not appropriate for the final episode. The usually quiet Kanade (Angel) suddenly became more verbose, and Yurippe the exact opposite. She failed to finish so many sentences it became annoying; perhaps the writers were trying to make up for a lack of tsundere in previous episodes.

As a series as a whole, the story concept was fine but it was spread too thin, even for 13 episodes. It's like one episode of every three was laden with plot, while the sequential episodes just filled in the gaps between those elements.

Some of the questions I wanted answered were the basics. Where the heck do the NPC's go at night? Where do the main characters go at night? Why is Angel so powerful?
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Re: Angel Beats!

Post by Sinistromanual »

I also thought it was quite... strange to not show background on any of the other Battlefront members and instead only showed an object affiliated with them. It seems sort of disappointing to not know about any of them.
Spoiler:
...Plus I wasn't happy with the "romantic" confession at the end, as I felt it kind of came out of nowhere.
Last edited by Kagami on Wed Jul 14, 2010 6:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Spoiler...

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