Angel Beats is about a group of teenagers who after their death found themselves trapped in an after-life school for reasons not truly known to them. What unites them is that they all died young and lived through much saddnes during their short lives. As soon as they come in terms with the saddness they lived through, they vanish from this world.
Under a leadership of one girl they unite to fight the unfairness they lived through and find God or anyone who is responsible for this sitiuation.
This series to me is a symbol. A symbol of fighting unfairness. Staying strong no matter what happened toyou. With these characters you go through this school from which you can graduate only when you have faced your grief and decided to not get consumed by it. As you watch this show you see how the characers who may start bitter and angry on the things that happened to them, slowly accept them, grow up, mature and learn to stand up and be strong.
It is interesting that the school has been chosen as a setting. One might say thag it is cliche especially for anime, but here it serves as a symbol too. It is a school of life in which you learn to overcome things and can only graduate when you faced the fears and bitterness, and rose above them. This way the series teaches you not to hate life no matter what happens to you.
The characters on this show are likable and you genuenly care for them. Still the anime could benefit from more episodes, as quite a few of the characters have not been developes to their full extent. It does not worsen the experience of the show, but it is still notable. Still the characters that are developed to their full extebt are all likable and you get really attached to them, which makes it all harder to say goodbye.
The animation, design and overall austetics of the show are magnificent. It looks colorful, nice and never fails to set the right mood, wether fun or sad.
To top the good characters and nice austetics, the show has a killer of a soundtracks which includes both a beautiful instrumentals and magnificent original aongs with lyrics. You will return to this majestic soundtrack more than once belive me. I still find myself returning to it every now and then.
Now the show has a few flaws. For one there is a significant plot hole at the end. It ia explained in the manga and I already knew that explanation so it did not ruin my experience. Still the manga and said explanation came after the original show so a lot of people had to experience it without any explanation. As I said the show coukd definitly use at least a few more episode to really show off the interedting characters who sadly did not get their moment to shine.
Still overall this show is highly enjoyable, deep, funny, tragic and engaging. I have had a great time watching it. It really appealed to me on personal level but even beyond that I consider this a very strong show. I urge you to give it a chance.
