DVD/Blu-ray Review: Angel Beats (Enjeru Bitsu) Complete Collection

Has the ability to leave viewers wanting more!

Angel Beats, or Enjeru Bitsu as it is known in Japan started out as a manga in Dengeki G’s Magazine where it was part of a two-part series written by Jun Maeda and illustrated by Haruka Komowata before being made into an anime. The basic storyline takes place after a young boy, Otonashi has died and passed onto the afterlife. He soon finds out that after death, life still goes on as normal, and once he attends school, he is approached by a girl, Yuri who wants him to join their organization called the Afterlife Battlefront which fights God in every way, but they also fight against a girl called Angel.

(Courtesy of Manga Entertainment)

Yuri is the leader of this organization, and she fights for the awful lives her classmates have led while alive, these are pupils who don’t want to go to heaven, but have a need to work out why their lives went so bad in the first place. Otonashi is different as he has no memory of what has happened to him. Yuri tells him that this school version of heaven is just a halfway house between their transition from life to death, and in it they have time to shed all their neuroses, problems, and hang-ups they had while alive. Once they have done that they can become better people.

The school isn’t what it seems though; there are others around who aren’t part of Yuri’s organization, and high school kids who aren’t really like them. This is all strange, but can be explained through the anime. The cast of characters is vast, and all of them seem interesting as they have all been given different attitudes and mindsets, but the problem of this is that they aren’t explored enough in the series as there appears not to be enough time to do so.

(Courtesy of Manga Entertainment)

The anime is well done, the script fun and engaging, while the overall plot is one that will stay in the mind. As a series, it is a short one like High School of the Dead, so it has the ability to leave viewers wanting more.

The story of Angel Beats can give us an insight into what heaven might be, but armed girls is the sort of theme the Japanese can come up with in order to shock less experienced anime watchers. Fans of the series will like the fact Yuri and her other members of the organisation want to go to God and get the answers to their burning questions, or battle with him – either way they want answers and know how to get them.

(Courtesy of Manga Entertainment)

Details:

Label: Manga Entertainment

Release date: 25th June 2012

Certificate: 15

Running time: 350 mins

Genre: Anime/Fantasy

Director: Seiji Kishi

Format: DVD & Blu-ray

Author Profile:

Sandie has a keen interest in Anime, Manga and all things Japanese. Her interests other than reviewing are Japanese Language, dress and culture, liking Harajuku Girls, Gothic Lolita, folding some neat Origami, drawing her own Manga characters, writing her own Manga stories and everything in between.

(Courtesy of Manga Entertainment)

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