Theory About The Ultimate Plothole MAJOR SPOILERS!

StardustNyako said:
BQ: At this point do you think we'll get a remake? The show is so popular ("It sucks, get over that mediocre show OP" OP: You get over NGNL THEN YOU CAN COME AT ME!)

Chopstick said:
I didn't know that was a plot hole. The whole thing about her having his heart made so little sense that I refused to entertain that as a possible plot point. No way they expected anyone to buy that.

The only way that it could make sense is the way in which you describe. They must have thought it was so obvious that they didn't need to mention him being kept alive in a hospital for a while.

-Riptide- said:
The only explanation is "key magic". Well the VN is being made right now so maybe it will explain that.

Chopstick said:
ohhhhhhhhhh

I get it now. Cause the him being alive in a hospital part wouldn't have worked if they took his heart out which would have killed him immediately. I guess I didn't read your second sentence because that rather concisely explained it.

That makes better sense than anything else I can think of, though I'll probably need to watch it a few more times to see if they hint at that happening anywhere. I only watched the last episode once and when I didn't understand what they were talking about I didn't rewind it.

BasedGodzilla said:
It's always been my understanding that we're expected to assume time in the Angel Beats! purgatory is non-linear; Otonashi may have died first, but his arrival at the High School of the Dead need not necessarily have been before Kanade's.

...Personally, I think it's stupid, but most people seem to accept it without much trouble.

blessofcurse said:
Did they really disappear and go to heaven or something? Then why Hinata and Yui hoping that they'll meet and get married? I thought they went into that world bcuz they died and regrets their past lives, am I missing something?

StardustNyako said:
Not sure why you are asking this . . .but I believe they were most likely reincarnatted as you think, based on ,as you pointed out, the hopes they had of remeeting in the new world. They probably remember each other because for sou reincarnation, wouldn't yiu need to be the sameperson (Same soul) with the same memories? KJust locked away?

blessofcurse said:
still confuse but thx anyway , I really want to liked this anime but I can't ignore those plotholes.

MiniLion said:
Maybe he didn't end up in the after life right away and was floating in a limbo for some time before going there?

JollyChap said:
My theory is that Kanade wasn't actually dead but in a form of coma like a near death experience, meaning she was stuck in the "afterlife" because she wanted to thank the one who's heart she had. And the scene at the end is nothing but Kanade humming My Song and the soul of Otonashi responding as part of him is in Kanade.

I know it's far fetched but it could work, I've watched Angel Beats multiple times now 1.) because it is one of my favourite anime of all time and 2.) due to this "plot hole".

So anyway this is what I've came up with not sure if it's a good theory but it seems to work for me.

StardustNyako said:


By the time Otonashi would have been reborn and grown to the age he appeared in the end, Kanade would be like, 30 something.

Thunder45645 said:


Kanade did have a regret in other words she was supposed to be there. Just it was hard to fulfill that regret. In the end hou can see the people vanishing, which indicates after kanade vanished, otonashi stayed there for just a little while more, so no, 30 is too much, max 1 year difference, please wiki this shit. A lot can be read from the wiki.

JollyChap said:


Wow, I never actually thought about that, it makes a lot more sense than my theory xD

MaiTai said:
Just ask yourself this: What was Otonashi's regret?
Oh that's right, nothing. He was instantly at peace when he knew he helped save people and signed the donor card.

Secondly, why must people assume it was his heart that killed her? She could have died from a car accident or anything. It's never implied that his donated heart failed at anytime. Sure, it can be assumed, but I'm just saying we don't know that as a fact. Anyways, this doesn't change the fact that he was only there for her.

He was never bound by the idea that once he had no regrets he could pass on to the next life. If that's the case, what was his regret to pass on? We see that he remains there after Kanade dies just so he can continue helping others (that's kind of his thing y'know). He doesn't stay because he has some underlying regret to get over. We see that both Kanade and Otonashi meet again in the next life.

Also, even if Kanade moved on to the next life "years" before Otonashi, reincarnation isn't necessarily instant and/or that limbo is not instant as well. At least, in what I've seen in anime it isn't. For example (lol) in InuYasha, Kagome is Kikyo's direct reincarnation but was born hundreds of years after Kikyo's death. I was always under the assumption that reincarnation was kind of like a lotto (though I can be wrong there). Regardless of the "fact" of reincarnation, this anime is fiction, so if Kanade and Otonashi exist in the next life together, they just do. That in itself isn't a plot hole.

Like I said though, I do not consider Otonashi's arrival after Kanade to be a plot hole either. Kanade described herself as the student body president who oversees the process of the afterlife (it's on her character bio)....maybe--just maybe she was aware that regrets needed to be let go to move on; however she was sure that since her donor died before her, she'd never be able to thank him. This is a theory I am less keen on, because I don't have any evidence to prove it.

Additionally, the "new" world/life hints at being able to tug at something deep within people's souls, that's why Otonoshi heard and recognized the song Kanade was humming. Someone had asked about Hinata wanting to marry in the next life, and that means that it's a possibility if they did in fact cross paths in the next life. It doesn't mean they remember everything, but the concept is that they have the same souls and therefore are still connected.

Honestly, people can all this stuff plotholes, but I like the wiggle room of interpretation.