Angel Beats!
Angel Beats!
Key worked in collaboration with ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine to produce the project into a media franchise. Four manga series are serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine and Dengeki G's Comic: two illustrated by Haruka Komowata and two drawn by Yuriko Asami. A series of illustrated short stories written by Maeda and illustrated by GotoP were also serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine between the November 2009 and May 2010 issues. Two Internet radio shows were produced to promote Angel Beats!. The first volume in a six-part episodic visual novel adaptation produced by Key was released for Windows on June 26, 2015.
Angel Beats! received generally positive reviews by critics. The integration of various individual elements together, such as musical performances, humor and action, was commended in one review but panned in another, saying that the story was overloaded with too many elements. P.A.Works was praised for the animation of the action sequences and attention to detail with the weapons used. A major flaw noted by critics, however, was the length of the anime, with its short run leaving many of the characters' back-stories unexplored. The anime was selected as a recommended work by the awards jury of the 14th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2010.
Plot
Angel Beats! is set in the environment of a high school in the afterlife, a type of limbo where people have experienced trauma or hardships in life and must overcome them before passing on and being reincarnated. The story follows Yuzuru Otonashi, a boy with amnesia who ends up in the afterlife. He meets Yuri Nakamura, a girl who invites him to join the Afterlife Battlefront, or SSS, an organization she founded and leads which rebels against an unseen God for their unfair circumstances in life. Their enemy is Angel, the student council president, who has supernatural powers and is believed to be God's associate. After joining the SSS, Otonashi meets others members, including Hideki Hinata, the co-founder; Masami Iwasawa, the lead vocalist of a four-girl rock band, Girls Dead Monster ; and Yui, an underclassman and fan of GDM. Other than the SSS members, the afterlife is populated by fabricated students and teachers, whom Yuri refers to as "non-player characters".Otonashi participates in several SSS operations and missions, despite still questioning the morality of their actions. During one of GDM's diversion concerts, Iwasawa passes on from the afterlife after achieving satisfaction through her music. After the SSS manages to demote Angel from her position, Otonashi partially regains his memories with the aid of deputy president Ayato Naoi's hypnosis. He later befriends Angel, whose real name is Kanade Tachibana, and remembers the rest of his past while in her presence. Otonashi helps her make peace with the SSS and learns of the afterlife's true purpose. He subsequently offers to aid Kanade in helping other SSS members to pass on, and Kanade is reinstated as student council president in accordance with their plan. They are joined by Hinata and Naoi, with the former helping Yui move on by fulfilling her desire of marriage.
Mysterious shadow-like entities begin appearing, attacking the residents of the afterlife by turning them into NPCs. Otonashi reasons with the other SSS members and many of them agree to pass on in lieu of becoming an NPC. Yuri destroys the source of the shadows, which were created by computers programmed to activate when love was detected in the afterlife to prevent it from becoming a paradise. Her affections for the members of the SSS allow her to finally overcome her regret, and by this time, the only other ones who have not passed on are Otonashi, Yuri, Kanade, Hinata and Naoi. The five remaining students hold a graduation ceremony before Naoi, Yuri and Hinata pass on leaving only Otonashi and Kanade.
Otonashi confesses to Kanade that he has fallen in love with her and wants them to remain in the afterlife to help others move on. However, Kanade reveals that her regret was being unable to thank her heart's donor, Otonashi, for extending her life. Otonashi is heartbroken after she thanks him and passes on, leaving him alone in the afterlife. Later, two people resembling Otonashi and Kanade encounter each other on the street in the real world. In an alternate epilogue, Otonashi becomes the high school's student council president and helps lost souls depart from the afterlife while waiting to see Kanade again.
Characters
Main
Supporting
Girls Dead Monster
Production
Creation and conception
The original creators of Angel Beats!, Jun Maeda and Na-Ga of Key, were interviewed in the July 2009 issue of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine. Around the time Key completed the first release of their sixth visual novel Little Busters!, Hironori Toba of Aniplex approached Maeda around October 2007 about collaborating to produce an original anime series. Maeda began meeting with Toba and Aniplex on a monthly basis and the story started to gradually progress. Aniplex wanted Maeda to write a screenplay that would be very "Key-like, with touching moments of laughter and tears," but initially Maeda found himself at a loss to write a story more amusing than Little Busters!, because he thought that he had reached a limit with Little Busters! in regards to a "Key-like story". However, one day Maeda was struck by inspiration, where he thought up the initial idea of a story set in the afterlife. Furthermore, with everyone already dead, Maeda conceived of flashy battles where the combatants go all out without fear of death. According to Maeda, the theme of the series is "life", which in Angel Beats! is depicted as a precious and wonderful thing, despite the characters in Angel Beats! who fight against their fate.Maeda nominated Na-Ga to begin work on the character designs near the beginning of 2008. Na-Ga was worried that other computer graphics work for Key would get delayed, but he took the position because of his accumulated experience in CG. Maeda nominated Na-Ga because of the popular characters he designed in Little Busters!, and because of his frankness. Na-Ga designed Yuri based on her personality as a leader, though it was per Maeda's request that he added the black headband, taken from the character Yukiko Amagi from Persona 4, who was Maeda's favorite heroine from that game. The length of Yuri's hair and the addition of a green ribbon were decided from production committee meetings. Angel's original concept began with the idea of a brave, fighting girl. Maeda cited that Angel's image had changed considerably over the development process and that originally she was similar to Shiki Ryōgi from Kara no Kyōkai. Eventually, Angel's concept changed to being a "silent and mysterious girl". Before Na-Ga decided on Otonashi's design, Maeda told him that anything would be fine and to just draw something, and eventually drew up a prototype for Otonashi and Hinata, among others. Some of the characters had vague initial conditions given by Maeda, such as asking Na-Ga to draw an "all female band bass guitarist" in the case of Girls Dead Monster member Sekine and particularly the cryptic "character who speaks in puzzling English phrases" for TK.
Development
The Aniplex producer of Angel Beats!, Hironori Toba, was interviewed in the November 2009 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, where he commented that a 13-episode anime with about 21 minutes per episode was not enough to tell the whole story of Angel Beats! Maeda had envisioned. Therefore, the various additional media, such as the illustrated short stories and manga, contain some of the story that was unable to make it into the anime because of time constraints. Toba wanted fans of the series to be able to enjoy it to the fullest by exploring all of the media types. Maeda found it tiring to go back and forth between Osaka and Tokyo for business meetings when he was in the process of writing the script, and found it difficult to write an entire script by himself, since he had never done that before with any of the games he produced as a member of Key. It was only after the script was done that Maeda was able to work on the music, which he greatly enjoyed and never tired of it. Maeda composed about 15 songs for Girls Dead Monster and spent about two days each composing each song. He made sure to create songs for Girls Dead Monster that high school girls would compose, including the lyrics. Due to this, Maeda pointed out that the opening and ending theme songs for Angel Beats!, which Maeda also composed, sound like they were composed by a different person compared to the Girls Dead Monster songs.In regards to bringing in P.A.Works as the animation studio, Toba had taken notice of the company from back when they provided in-between animation and production assistance for Fullmetal Alchemist and Darker than Black, respectively; Aniplex helped produce both series. After watching just the first three episodes of P.A.Works' True Tears, however, he was shocked at the high quality and immediately went to P.A.Works' studio in Toyama Prefecture to meet with the production staff in the hope that one day Aniplex could collaborate with them on a project together. The following week, Maeda brought up the subject of deciding on an animation studio for Angel Beats! and mentioned that he too had seen True Tears and had become interested in P.A.Works. Shortly after that, Toba formally made the proposal to P.A.Works to animate the project.
Maeda focused on making jokes an important part of Angel Beats!, leading Toba to seek out Seiji Kishi to be the director, because of his experience in directing and his pulling power influence on the staff of P.A.Works, where there are many that are still young. Kishi was ultimately approached by P.A.Works representative director Kenji Horikawa about working on a "school comedy written by a game scenario writer" and was shocked after taking the director's position to discover Maeda was the screenwriter. Kishi commented how, far from just being a comedy, the series contains many different aspects, including flashy action scenes, live musical performances, and drama. Kishi stated that normally he would be hard pressed to cover this range of aspects, but was motivated by Maeda's uncompromising attitude in regards to the script. The decision to add in the all female band Girls Dead Monster was due to Maeda's intent to add in many different and interesting elements into the series.
Kishi specifically requested that sound and music director Satoki Iida work on the project, who also helped with the proofreading of the script due to Maeda's fixation on the music production. Iida was interviewed in the April 2010 issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, where it was stated that Maeda and the group Anant-Garde Eyes received Iida's approval to employ a minimalist approach to the background music used throughout the anime. Iida admitted that it was uncustomary to use this music genre in anime and that he had to go through various trials and errors with Maeda and Anant-Garde Eyes to get the music right. Maeda and Anant-Garde Eyes strove to create individual quality music tracks, while Iida pursued the goal of having music that would be useful as BGM tracks, which caused problems during the creation process. Iida realized that it was important for the music and the visuals to combine together to create a synchronization between the two. Toba first took notice of Angel Beats! character designer and chief animator Katsuzō Hirata during the production of Gurren Lagann with his skill as an artist and ability to finish work quickly, but thoroughly. It was after Toba saw Hirata's work as chief animator of Strike Witches, however, that he pursued Hirata to join the Angel Beats! staff; Maeda also gave his seal of approval for Hirata.
Broadcast and distribution
The 13-episode Angel Beats! anime television series is directed by Seiji Kishi and produced by P.A.Works and Aniplex. It aired in Japan between April 3 and June 26, 2010 on the CBC television network. The first episode was previewed on March 22, 2010 to a selected number of people who participated in a lottery held earlier that month. The screenplay was written by Jun Maeda, who originally conceived the series. Chief animator Katsuzō Hirata based the character design used in the anime on Na-Ga's original designs. Sound and music direction was headed by Satoki Iida.The series was released on seven BD/DVD compilation volumes between June 23 and December 22, 2010 in limited and regular editions. Three drama CDs, written by Maeda and performed by the anime's cast, were released with the first, fourth and sixth limited edition BD/DVD volumes. The seventh BD/DVD volume featured an original video animation episode, as well as a bonus short which serves as another epilogue to the series. Each of the BD/DVD volumes contained commentaries by the characters performed by the voice cast and written by Maeda. A BD box set was released in Japan on June 24, 2015 and also included another OVA episode. Sentai Filmworks licensed the anime, and along with distributor Section23 Films, released the series on BD/DVD on July 26, 2011. Siren Visual licensed the anime for Australia and New Zealand. The series has also been licensed in the United Kingdom by Manga Entertainment and released the series on BD/DVD on June 25, 2012. In November 2017, Sentai Filmworks announced their release of the series would go out-of-print, and the series was later removed from their catalogue and from online streaming service Hidive. Crunchyroll later added the series to its catalog in the Americas, the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2019.
Music
The anime's music is composed by Maeda and the group Anant-Garde Eyes, who also provided the musical arrangement. The music is released on Key's record label Key Sounds Label. The opening theme is "My Soul, Your Beats!" sung by Lia and the ending theme is "Brave Song" sung by Aoi Tada. The single containing both songs titled "My Soul, Your Beats! / Brave Song" was released on May 26, 2010 in limited and regular editions; the limited edition's DVD contains the opening and ending videos without the credits. The in-story band Girls Dead Monster is made up of the real-life singers Marina and LiSA. Five singles for Girls Dead Monster were released in 2010. The first, "Crow Song", was released on April 23 featuring songs sung by Marina. The second and third singles, "Thousand Enemies" and "Little Braver", followed on May 12 and June 9, respectively, with songs sung by LiSA. The fourth single was "Last Song" by Marina and the fifth single was "Ichiban no Takaramono " by LiSA; both singles were released on December 8. A Girls Dead Monster album titled Keep The Beats! was released on June 30, 2010. A version of Keep The Beats! containing instrumental tracks was released on July 28, 2010 bundled with a 256-page band score book. The anime's original soundtrack was released on July 28, 2010 as a two-CD set. A Girls Dead Monster mini-album titled Rare Tracks was released on December 28, 2014.Events
There were several live performance events to promote the music from Angel Beats!. The first was on April 24, 2010 at the Tower Records in Shibuya, Tokyo where Marina and LiSA performed four songs. The first two, "Crow Song" and "Alchemy", were duets, while the third song "My Song" was sung by Marina, and LiSA sang "My Soul, Your Beats!". On June 5, 2010 at the same venue, Lia and Aoi Tada sang their songs from "My Soul, Your Beats! / Brave Song", Tada and LiSA sang "Crow Song" as a duet, and Lia and LiSA also sang "My Soul, Your Beats!" as a duet for the encore. An event titled "Angel Beats! Fes.: Thousand Bravers" was held on August 1, 2010 at Studio Coast in Shingiba, Koto, Tokyo featuring singers Lia, Tada, Marina, LiSA and Karuta, as well as several voice actors from the anime.A national concert tour featuring LiSA titled "Girls Dead Monster starring LiSA Tour 2010: Keep The Angel Beats!" was held across Japan August 3 and September 2, 2010; all of the venues ultimately sold out. A BD/DVD video album box set titled Girls Dead Monster starring LiSA Tour 2010 Final: Keep The Angel Beats! of the tour's final performance was released on June 1, 2011 by Key Sounds Label bearing the catalog numbers KSLV-0001–0003. The last concert of Girls Dead Monster was held on December 27, 2010 at an event called "Girls Dead Monster Last Live: Final Operation" featuring Marina and LiSA at the Tokyo International Forum.
Related media
Internet radio shows
A four-episode Internet radio show to promote Angel Beats! called Jun Maeda's Brutal Radio aired between May 30, 2009 and March 31, 2010. The show was hosted by Jun Maeda, though guests did make appearances, such as Hironori Towa, the producer for Angel Beats!, and Na-Ga. One month after each regular broadcast, an additional shorter broadcast called Postwar Disposition was released. Another Internet radio show to promote the series titled Angel Beats! SSS Radio had a pre-broadcast on March 18, 2010, and had 51 regular weekly broadcasts between April 1, 2010 and March 31, 2011. Produced by Hibiki Radio Station, the show was hosted by Harumi Sakurai, Kana Hanazawa and Eri Kitamura. Seven CD compilation volumes containing all 51 episodes were released between June 23, 2010 and July 29, 2011.Books and publications
A series of seven illustrated short stories written by Jun Maeda and drawn by GotoP titled Angel Beats! Track Zero were serialized between the November 2009 and May 2010 issues of ASCII Media Works's Dengeki G's Magazine. Track Zero is a prequel to Angel Beats! featuring Hinata as the main character and tells the story of how the SSS was formed. A special extra chapter focusing on Girls Dead Monster was published in the sixth volume of Dengeki G's Festival! Deluxe on March 29, 2010. The short stories were collected into a bound volume released on June 23, 2010 and included an additional chapter along with the other eight chapters. The chapter titles for the stories are taken from song titles from various musical artists. The first chapter was posted online with illustrations by ASCII Media Works. ASCII Media Works published the Angel Beats! Official Guidebook on December 22, 2010. The guidebook contains story summaries of the anime episodes including the OVA, information on the cast of characters, interviews from the voice acting cast and production staff, and illustrations featuring art from the anime.Manga
A four-panel comic strip manga, illustrated by Haruka Komowata and titled Angel Beats! The 4-koma: Bokura no Sensen Kōshinkyoku, was serialized between the December 2009 and October 2013 issues of ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine. Komowata was also in charge of illustrating a manga which showcased the progress of the Angel Beats! project and was serialized between the September 2009 and July 2010 issues of Dengeki G's Magazine. Four tankōbon volumes for Angel Beats! The 4-koma were released between December 18, 2010 and November 27, 2013 under ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Comics EX imprint. Komowata also illustrated the Angel Beats! The 4-koma: Osora no Shinda Sekai kara four-panel comic strip manga, which was serialized between the December 2013 and January 2016 issues of Dengeki G's Magazine. Two volumes were released between October 24, 2014 and April 26, 2016.A manga illustrated by Yuriko Asami, titled Angel Beats! Heaven's Door, began serialization in Dengeki G's Magazine in the May 2010 issue. The manga ended serialization in the magazine's May 2014 issue and continued serialization in Dengeki G's Comic between the June 2014 and December 2016 issues. Heaven's Door is based on the Angel Beats! Track Zero short stories. ASCII Media Works published 11 volumes for Angel Beats! Heaven's Door between December 18, 2010 and December 17, 2016. Heaven's Door is available in English on Kadokawa Corporation's ComicWalker website and app, and is licensed in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Asami also illustrates the Angel Beats! The Last Operation manga, which began serialization in the October 2017 issue of Dengeki G's Comic. Dengeki G's Comic ceased publication with the May 2019 issue sold on March 30, 2019, but The Last Operation will continue on ComicWalker and Niconico Seiga in April 2019. An anthology titled Angel Beats! Comic Anthology was published by ASCII Media Works on December 18, 2010.
;Angel Beats! The 4-koma: Bokura no Sensen Kōshinkyoku
;Angel Beats! The 4-koma: Osora no Shinda Sekai kara
;Angel Beats! Heaven's Door
;Angel Beats! The Last Operation
Visual novel
It was reported in 2010 that Jun Maeda was writing the scenario for a video game adaptation of Angel Beats!, and the game was officially announced in September 2013. Developed by Key, Maeda leads the production team as the designer and one of the scenario writers. Two additional writers include Kai, who previously contributed on the scenario of Clannad, and Leo Kashida, who had worked on the scenario of and Little Busters!. The art director and character designer is Na-Ga. Rated for all ages and split into six volumes, the first visual novel volume, titled Angel Beats! 1st Beat, was released on June 26, 2015 for Windows PCs. The first volume covers up to the tenth episode of the anime as well as Iwasawa's, Matsushita's and Yui's routes with Otonashi as the main protagonist. The subsequent volumes will cover the rest of the character routes.Reception
Critical reception
Angel Beats! received generally positive reviews. In a review by Anime News Network, reviewer Theron Martin praised the series for integrating individual elements together, including the Girls Dead Monster musical performance scenes, scenes where humor dominates, and action scenes. A common theme in supernatural anime, according to Martin, are souls discontent with their former lives, but the concept of Angel Beats! is described as "quite unusual" because it features all the main characters as such souls and gathers them in one place. In the series, "maintaining distinctiveness is essential for survival as an individual," which Martin calls a "sly condemnation of the rigorous conformity impressed upon students by Japanese schooling." Overall, Angel Beats! was lauded for "requir no great familiarity with anime to enjoy."On the DVD Talk website, reviewer John Sinnott praised the plot for advancing and changing in unexpected ways: "The plot evolves quickly and by the end of the series it's quite a different show than what it was at the beginning." Both Martin and Sinnott agree that a major flaw in the anime is that it is too short, and does not go into detail for a large number of characters. Stig Høgset at THEM Anime Reviews, however, panned the series in part because it "overloads the story with too many elements in an attempt to please as many people as possible." Høgset went on to describe Angel Beats as not having "any compelling characters" and the series' humor is largely thought to be annoying. However, Høgset praised P.A.Works for the animation of the action sequences, as did Martin, who added that there is "great detail work on the weapons and instruments used."
The sixth episode of Angel Beats!, which aired on May 8, 2010 on Osaka's MBS station in Japan, achieved a record 4.9% rating for an anime series broadcast during the late-night "Anime Shower" timeslot in the past three years. The Angel Beats! anime was selected as a recommended work by the awards jury of the 14th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2010.
Sales
Each of the Angel Beats! Blu-ray Disc compilation volumes ranked in the top three on Japan's Oricon weekly BD sales chart. Volumes one and four ranked at No. 1, volumes two and five ranked at No. 2, and volumes three, six and seven ranked at No. 3. The DVD volumes, however, ranked lower than the BDs on Oricon. Volume one ranked at No. 5, volume two at No. 10, volume three at No. 13, volume four at No. 11, volume five at No. 8, volume six at No. 12, and volume seven at No. 15.The opening and ending theme song single "My Soul, Your Beats! / Brave Song" debuted at No. 3 on Japan's Oricon weekly singles chart, selling about 80,000 copies in its first week of sales. "My Soul, Your Beats! / Brave Song" was awarded a Gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of Japan in May 2010 for shipping over 100,000 copies. Girls Dead Monster's single "Crow Song" debuted at No. 7 on the Oricon singles chart, selling approximately 16,400 copies in about four days. "Crow Song" sold over 25,000 more copies over the next three weeks after its release. "Crow Song" was awarded a Gold disc by the RIAJ in November 2011 for shipping over 100,000 copies. The Girls Dead Monster single "Thousand Enemies" debuted at No. 4 on the Oricon singles chart, selling about 28,000 copies in its first week of sales. "Thousand Enemies" sold over 18,000 more copies over the next two weeks after its release.
Girls Dead Monster's third single "Little Braver" debuted at No. 2 on the Oricon singles chart, selling about 38,800 copies in its first week of sales. Girls Dead Monster's fourth and fifth singles, "Last Song" and "Ichiban no Takaramono ", ranked at No. 2 and No. 3 on the Oricon singles chart, respectively, both selling about 35,000 copies in their first week of sales. The Girls Dead Monster album Keep The Beats! ranked at No. 6 on the Oricon albums chart, selling about 51,000 copies in its first week of sales. Keep The Beats! was awarded a Gold disc by the RIAJ in September 2010 for shipping over 100,000 copies. The version of Keep The Beats! with instrumental tracks and a band score book ranked at No. 14 on the Oricon albums chart, selling just under 9,000 copies in its first week. The Angel Beats! Original Soundtrack ranked at No. 9 on the Oricon albums chart, selling about 13,300 copies in its first week.