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Angel Beats...

I had a hard time trying to compile and finalize an accurate yet fair judgment about this series. On one end of the spectrum, it was a brilliant anime that explored new frontiers in creativity and uniqueness, with excellent animation quality and a great setting and scenario from which it's based upon. On the other end: it lacked perfection; far from it in fact. Like many anime series, Angel Beats contains problems that made it fell short from achieving something grand and excellent distinction. With that said, my conclusion is fairly simple: It HAD potential.

As an avid fan of KEY works, I came into ... the Angel Beats universe with high expectations. Having watched and thoroughly enjoyed Maeda Jun's previous works, (Air, Clannad, Kanon - with Clannad After Story in particular...yay! ^_^) each was better than the last, fixing upon which the previous lacked. I was hoping Angel Beats would follow that trend and continue the legacy from which After Story had left off...which is arguable whether it succeeded or not. (To me, it's par at BEST.)

Back to my earlier point: ANGEL BEATS HAD POTENTIAL. Why I say that?

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Story: 7/10
Welcome to the rock bottom on Angel Beats. This was the bread and butter of the show's potential, which also ended as its fatal flaw.
Firstly, the episode count NEEDS to double, AT LEAST. 13 episodes is just WAY too short to fill in all the open gaps in the plot, leaving many questions unanswered and the audience confused.
This leads to the second issue: confusion. By the end, everything seemed rushed. Parts of the story jumped from one idea onto another, while offering very little explanation as to why or how it happened.
This leads to the last and biggest issue: presentation. Because the series was rushed so hard, many parts had fairly poor resolutions to presented conflicts. This left a certain disdain as it often occurs after a high climax or cliffhanger in which many would expect a grand, thrilling, or just plain exciting solution. (In short, some parts felt like filler...)

Angel Beats' story does boast some positives. The story is very fast paced and has an ample amount of action and activity to satisfy. Comedy also plays a big role in this series and it usually does a great job in entertaining. It also retains the dramatic elements presented in all KEY works and, while it did fall short in this department, does stir up emotion from time to time throughout the story.

All in all, the story was an entertaining and enjoyable one but does need improvement. Some more episodes and details in the plot would make it much better.

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Art: 10/10
Really not much to talk about here. The art in Angel Beats is absolutely fabulous and lacks close to nothing. It's very fluid and some of the animation is seemingly breathtaking. Undoubtedly one of the show's best strong points.

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Sound: 10/10
KEY never fails. Music has always been one of the greater joys in their works and Angel Beats boasts some of the best of the best thus far. The songs represented their intended themes and/or emotions very nicely, making it a definite highlight of the series. The range in variety only makes it more appealing. As far as sound quality goes, it nailed it perfectly. The quality is crisp and clear and has nothing lackluster.

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Character: 8/10
Ahh yes....my second biggest issue of the series. Let’s get one thing straight: All the characters were great. Each one of them boasted a unique personality or trait that made the series a lot more enjoyable and just more fun to watch overall. However, while this is a strong point, it also brings along some critical issues. Due to the short episode count, the series only put background focus on most of the main characters and some of the minor ones. This is where the confusion comes in as to why some were selected and others were singled out, especially if it didn’t affect the plot much as a result. (TK for example…I would’ve loved to see how that guy’s previous life was like. : ( ) This underdevelopment among the cast in turn affects the overall story, which (as I stated before) was a crucial weakness in the series. I’m not saying the background info of the current characters we’re bad choices, but more detail on other members as well would’ve made everything so much better, brought more character development and overall less confusing. Again, this could’ve been accomplished IF THE SERIES WAS JUST A WEE BIT LONGER. (big emphasis on the episode count and how it affected so much.)

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Enjoyment: 9/10
Despite what it lacked, Angel Beats was a very enjoyable anime. There’s a lot of content that makes it feel refreshing and worth your time. At times, it helps overshadow the faults and makes people focus more on what’s in the anime rather than what’s not. There’s a little bit of everything for everyone to enjoy in this series.

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Overall: 8/10
Angel Beats was an ambitious series. It tried to accomplish a lot than it could handle with its short length; in which, they did a good job, but needs to be better. There were a lot of issues in this series that held it back from achieving a much higher status than it deserved. Nonetheless, Angel Beats is definitely a good series that has a little bit of everything that made it very worthwhile to watch.

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Bottom line: Is Angel Beats a ground breaking anime? No. Is Angel Beats a good anime. Yes.
It’s the kind of anime that entertains. It’s the kind of anime that allows people to see things at various perspectives. It’s the kind of anime that brings up emotion. It’s the kind of anime that has flaws but was enough to pull itself above the mediocrity. It’s the kind of anime that brings fulfillment to the viewers. It’s the kind of anime I would highly recommend people to watch AND finish before presenting their full judgments. And with that:

Great job KEY. You guys did it once again. And to everyone else, I hope you will enjoy this series as much (if not more) than I had. :)

The Kingdom Hearts 2 manga is the sequel series from it's predecessors KH1 and Chain of Memories. Like it's prequels, it brings back the characters from the previous novels plus add new ones introduced in the original game.

One thing that this manga series has yet to forget is the creativity. Like it's prequels, this manga is based on the original KH2 game. If you've played the game before, you will notice a lot of similar stories and concepts throughout the series, a lot of which is slightly altered to make the situation more comedial than how it was in the original game. Most (if not ... all) the alterations tends to be very well done and it keeps most of the general ideas in play. The characters are amazing as usual as right off the bat, you'll meet tons of new and old faces; Something that's different from it's prequels, which tends to slowly introduce their characters as the story goes on. Art and style of the manga is still very nice and clean, might be better in some cases.

One thing that is noticeably different about the KH2 manga compared to it's prequels it that there are a LOT more fighting scenes. Although I've only read two volumes so far, I can say that I've seen more action in this one then all the other series combined...and that's only the first 2 volumes. This is a good thing considering that one giant fault in the prequels is the lack of combat and more sped through of the story. While we're on the topic, the combat is still one of the lower aspects of the manga. Although it's done much of a better job than the prequels, it doesn't match up completely to the game's standards.

All in all, KH2 is a very great read. The story is the closest to the original game thus far in the series. Tons more action, new and old characters and worlds, awesome art, and a funny setting. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who hasn't read it yet.

Okay, first and foremost, this is my 1st review so I'm pretty new at this. :/ (Onto business...)

The Goods:

The Kingdom Hearts series in itself is a fabulous game series. Many elements in each of the game forms together to give a generally satisfied level of entertainment to it's players. Likewise, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories took some of the main elements from the original game and blended it into a more comedic version of the game, while keeping most of the general idea in place. Readers from the previous kingdom hearts series will understand the flow of the story given they understand the general concepts ... of the kingdom hearts universe and the plot thus far. The characters in the manga version are, in particular, the ones who really stand out for the comedy in this series. Players from the original game will notice how some of the characters personalities or actions will reflect the same in the original game but with a funnier twist to it. (Like Axel would be reading a book or Organization members would be forced to do chores, that kind of soft sense humor which ties into the main story one way or another :l) The art is decent as it captures the primary features of the original characters, settings, objects, and the like.

The Bads:

IT IS SHORT! Ok, sure the two volumes can probably add up to the 4 from the 1st 4 volumes if u stacked them next to each other. But lets face it, summing up a 30-40 hour game into about 500 pages is like eating the bread off a deluxe sandwich: you miss some of the best parts. Since the manga is short and tends to put 85-90% of the focus on the story, it's greatly takes away one of the best things from the original game: combat. In the game, it might take you hours to beat a boss, constantly attacking or using powerful spells. In the manga, throwing water pretty much solves the problem. (On a brighter note, Donald and Goofy actually does something (: )

Overall: Criteria 1: Do you like Kingdom Hearts? (Yes) Continue to #2 (No) Suggest reading something else. Criteria 2: Story or Gameplay: (Story or Even) 70% says you will enjoy it. (Gameplay only) 70% says you won't enjoy it.