Story: 9/10
Background: Otonoshi dies. He wakes up to find this mysterious girl aiming a gun. All hell breaks loose as he tries to figure what is going on and why he doesn't remember how he died, only that he died. Is this the afterlife? Purgatory? Hell? He sets out to find out.
Reading some other reviews, I noticed the story received a rather low score for some people. I, personally enjoyed the questions about the afterlife and each character's back-story. It made the anime feel more personal, as if you can feel their pain and empathize their suffering. Each character has a flaw in some way, and is paramount to each of their personalities. Otonoshi, the main character, interacts with others just like him and comes to terms with himself throughout the anime. Oddly, there seem to be a ton of supporting cast, many who barely appear for a couple minutes, then fade into oblivion. They don't seem to contribute much to the story, other than to offer a distraction or comedic relief for a couple seconds or minutes. Also, the story begins markedly slow, yet picks up pace much faster than it ought to (think a e^x graph for you math people). Overall, though, the story was enjoyable, funny at times and made the viewer wonder where the next plot twist would come from.
Art: 9/10
Visually, this anime was stunning. Beautiful backgrounds and settings, detailed characters and multiple camera angles offered a wonderful amalgamation of visually appealing sensations. I continually made mental notes of how the water sparkled or the hair fluttered just so - it added to the surreal mood of the anime. Everything was drawn to near-perfection, and when needed the art become dull and drab to reflect foreboding or light and colorful to indicate happiness or comedy. I couldn't find a flaw anywhere within this beautiful artwork. The school uniforms were pretty, yet the members of the SSS had different clothing on, symbolizing their differences with those NPCs.
Sound: 9/10
The OP was incredible. Beautiful and nostalgic sounding, it perfectly matched the mood of the anime. The ending hit home even more, sounding like a good-bye, but a tearful good-bye. Paired wonderfully with each other, they both foreshadowed and epitomized the underlying theme of the anime. The voice-acting was decent, never getting too crazy but not too dull either. I wasn't much impressed with the background music, but the sound effects were astounding. The gunshots and clashing of metal were accurate; I've shot many weapons before, and those guns sounded exactly realistic.
Character: 9/10
Ok, here's where it gets iffy. I definitely loved Otonoshi and his story, as well as Yuri and especially Tenshi. These three characters drove the story to its climax and beyond. They never faltered in their personal quests, and became a foundation to the overall success of this anime. Then there were the supporting characters. I mentioned before that they did little to enhance the storyline, other than to offer some humor and jokes. Sometimes they became pretty fundamental, but there were so many useless characters I kind of got tired of seeing them appear. I mean, sure I loved their little sound-bites and humor, but I think this anime would have flowed much better if it focused more on the big three (not Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, mind you). I wanted more interaction with those three characters; their development, I feel like, was cut short. There were not enough episodes to fully develop them. The ending seemed rushed and stressful. So, no, it wasn't perfect. But it had potential.
Overall: 9/10
I could have given this a 10/10. It was within my grasp. I loved almost everything: story, drama, action, guns, romance, comedy. It had every tool in the arsenal to make this a perfect story. But alas, it became too much like something else and failed to meet all my expectations; however, it still amazed me and continued to impress me throughout the whole story. It kept me riveted and piqued my interest, but it wasn't perfect. The animation and sound quality were above average, and overall I thoroughly enjoyed most characteristics of this wonderful anime. However, it wasn't perfect and its execution wasn't great. But nonetheless, it is one of my favorites already. Remember: life is beautiful. The afterlife, not so much.
