ANGEL BEATS DVD review

(Immortal school-kids fighting with guns? God forbid! Oh wait, that is the point... )

As mortal humans we cannot help but wonder what the afterlife will look like, if there is one. This has always been an endless source of inspiration for art, and in movies we have seen the hereafter explored in religious, fantastic or scientific ways.
In the 13-episode anime series "Angel Beats" the afterlife is a huge boarding school where kids run after each other with knives, axes and guns (LOTS of guns).

Now I've been warned by fellow Otaku that this series poses a hazard. It has the reputation that it is silly, it is fun, it feels somewhat rushed, but at the end it WILL manage to make you cry. It's from the creators of the two "Clannad" series, after all.

Sure sounds intriguing enough! And with Australian distributor Siren Visual releasing "Angel Beats" on both DVD and BluRay, I think we now have all regions covered in English-friendly editions.
Time for a review. Did I laugh? Did I cry? Read on!


The Story:

After death, Otonashi wakes up as a student in a huge boarding school. It's a place were the recently dead can catch their bearings a bit and try to resolve their issues with themselves, before moving on to either heaven or reincarnation.

Dazed and with a bad case of amnesia he gets snatched up for enlistment by a very odd student committee: the SSS, also called the Battlefront.
The SSS (the meaning of which changes constantly, to prevent easy detection) consists of students who do not want to move on. Students who have had a life that was so bad that they do not want to resolve their issues but confront God instead, and challenge Him for either an explanation, an apology or a fight.

The Battlefront has a cunning plan to lure God to the school: there is an angel (called Angel) guarding the grounds in the guise of the student council president. If the SSS manages to conquer her in combat, God is sure to appear... right?
Conquering is not easy though in a world where basically nothing can kill you or your enemy (as you both are already dead). So while Otonashi's new friends are stockpiling resources and weapons for the upcoming fight with his help, he tries to get his memories back and he also tries to avoid taking a shine to Angel. Oops...


The Series:

After seeing one episode of "Angel Beats" I thought I had sussed it all out: it was basically "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" meets "Haibane Renmei", only with guns. The leader of the SSS, Yuri, has everyone obeying her every command and is almost Haruhi's spitting image. And "Haibane Renmei" also dealt with young lost souls in the afterlife, having to fix each other's mental wounds before "moving on". Thankfully, the series turns out to have a few surprises of its own and manages to become something unique, although with only 13 episodes it is a shame that by the time this happens it's also almost over.

This lack of length makes sure "Angel Beats" does not overstay its welcome but it rushes the narrative forward at great speed. This anime is actually meant to be seen as a part of a bigger whole, a project involving illustrated novels, manga, Internet radioshows and even music CDs, and as such "Angel Beats" was a very successful multi-media event in Japan upon its initial release.
But when you just watch the anime it does make you wonder why this wasn't turned into a 26-parter, allowing the world and each of the many characters in it somewhat more breathing space. In the 13 episodes we have now, by the time you've figured out a new rule in this world you are already confronted with the next storyline. Like what is the role of computers in this afterlife? Apparently they are very important as they can be used to boost people with extra powers, Matrix-style. It's just one of the many pieces of exposition flying by at great speed, after which you'll just have to take it for granted.
It makes this series sometimes as bewildering for the viewer as it is for its amnesiac lead.

On the plus side the anime is of a high technical quality. "Angel Beats" was produced by Aniplex but the creative forces behind it are Jun Maeda and Na-Ga, known for making illustrated novels. The animation is often cgi-enhanced, looking slick and polished. Character design is consistent (if often none too original), the story-arcs that get resolved within the anime end nicely, and the use of music is exceptional. In the story, the SSS employs its own all-girl rock band to divert the enemy at choice times. Instead of using existing or commissioned music all songs were written and composed by Jun Maeda himself specifically for this series, and several of the songs featured in the series have been released separately as singles. This includes the opening and closing credits songs which are both quite catchy indeed, and have become successful hits in the Japanese music charts.

So, to answer the questions: did I cry? Did I laugh? At several times, especially when the background stories of the main characters are revealed, "Angel Beats" gets almost laughably melodramatic and that artificial string-pulling did not do much for me. But near the end Maeda manages to put a sucker-punch in there which, combined with the music, manages to be very emotionally effective indeed. Humh. Yes, I watered up. Sissy is me. Bastards.


Conclusion:

"Angel Beats" is a fun series, which looks derivative at first but grows into something special. despite being part of a larger whole it can actually be watched on its own and it ends with an impressively emotional finale.

So, yeah. Recommended!


On to the DVDs:

Siren Visual has released "Angel Beats" as a two-disc DVD-set, and indeed has singled out this series to be their first ever Bluray release. The review here is for the DVD version though, which is region 4 PAL encoded (so make sure your equipment can handle that if you plan on buying this).

Visually there are no complaints: the series is a fairly new one, digitally drawn and looks good on DVD, if a tad soft maybe. The upcoming BluRay will undoubtedly be sharper and show off the cgi better, but as this series relies more on its story than on its artwork I suspect there will not be a huge difference in visual impact between the DVD and the BluRay. As usual, Siren Visual has defaulted the discs to run the Japanese stereo soundtrack with English subtitles, but rest assured there is a Dolby 5.1 English dub as well. "Angel Beats" at times leans strongly on the music in its soundtrack so it is good news that both dubs are very good.

Next are the extras and unfortunately there aren't many, not even textless opening and closing credits have been included. It's just a few trailers for other Siren Visual titles (granted, good ones: "Clannad", "House of Five Leaves", "Durarara!!", "The Tatami Galaxy" and "Welcome to the NHK") and an OVA.
Actually, OVA is a bit of a misnomer here as it is a fourteenth un-aired episode. Given the cast line-up you can even see where it would have fitted in the series, which is between episodes four and five. No mention is made of any of the other media which were part of the Angel Beats Project, none of the manga stories are included here and we also do not get the alternate epilogue which shows... No, I cannot tell that. It would be a spoiler.

What we do get here is a barebones version of just the anime, which actually is only part of the story, the rest of which was told in the illustrated novels, manga, Internet radioshows and the music CDs. It's a shame that all these additional materials are missing in this edition (no mention is even made of them) but this is probably due to intentional sabotage by the Japanese rights-holders, to prevent the Japanese from importing these far cheaper foreign versions. Many of the materials not in this release were exclusive to the Limited Edition releases in Japan itself, and getting them included on the Australian discs would probably have cost an arm and a leg.

But if you are interested in the anime and JUST the anime, this release looks and sounds fine.


"Angel Beats!" can be ordered worldwide through Siren Visual's website.