[Flashback Friday] Angel Beats!

Flashback Friday is a weekly post where I’ll talk about a book, manga, or anime series which I’ve seen years ago. This is more like me reminiscing on stuff I come across way back then.

In a world after death, angels fight for their fate and their future. Yuri, the leader of the Shinda Sekai Sensen, rebels against the god who destined her to have an unreasonable life. On the other hand, Tenshi, the chairperson of the student council for the world after death, battles against the SSS members. SSS members utilize armed weaponry to battle it out against the angels harnessing supernatural powers.

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If you’ve been following my blog for the last two years, you probably know that Angel Beats! was the anime that brought me back to watching anime. While it’s something I’ve decided to drop down from my fave anime list, it will always have a special place in my heart.

Looking back at Angel Beats!, what truly pained me in watching this is that I-don’t-even-know-what-to-make-out-of-it HUGE loop hole ending. OR maybe you can go tell me just what happened there. I mean after watching that final episode, I was like: well that can’t be right (can’t write my full thoughts due to spoilers).

But looking at the good things about Angel Beats!, what I truly enjoyed here is its full blast of funny moments especially during the first half. Some of the funniest episodes I can remember are episode 2 (the Guild episode), episode 5 (the test episode), and episode 10 (Yui’s episode but that one’s also one of the episodes that made me cry a lot). And let’s not forget episode one’s funny moments – the barnacle joke and Yurippe’s member introductions (damnit, those never fail to make me laugh).

Angel Beats! also made me shed a good amount of tears. Perhaps this is the first anime that truly made me cry – that Yui background, Otonashi’s story, and even Yurippe’s story. While I also complain a lot about its concluding episode, it was also one of the episodes that truly left me crying a lot. There’s just so much emotion in that graduation episode – their goodbyes, their words, that moment between Otonashi and Kanade…

In a sense, Angel Beats!, for me, isn’t just an anime series that goes around a very convenient purgatory setup. It’s also an anime series that gives off a message about valuing your life and living it to the fullest (now that kind of reminded me of an Ace of Diamond quote – throw something you won’t regret – or something along those lines).

But you see, the point of it is that Angel Beats! tells you to live your life without regrets. When you come across something you don’t like, do something about it. When you failed to get something you want, work harder to get it. You have to do something to satisfy yourself so that you will not regret anything at the end.

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How about you guys, is there any book, manga, or anime series you’re reminiscing right now? OR is there anything that you were reminded of when I talked about Angel Beats!?

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