Put your leg down; I have no interest in your female crotch
Summary:
I'll get you next time Tenshiiiiiiiii, ohohohohoho~~~
Yui tries to take Asami’s place in GirlDeMo, but Yuri leaves it up to the band members and decides to launch a guerrilla baseball operation in the meantime. Various SSS members form up teams to play in the tournament without signing up first (so evil!), and Otonashi gets stuck in Hinata’s goofy team, along with Shiina, Noda, and Yui. The SSS teams have good success in the first round, and so Tenshi and student council VP Naoi Ayato have their own all-star team take out all of the SSS teams, resulting in a finals match-up against Hinata’s team.
The game is pretty tight, and through the episode we get glimpses of Hinata’s previous life. It seems he was in the regional finals and his baseball team lost when he missed a simple fly ball to second base. Afterwards, a teammate called a senpai over to help him, and by help him I mean sell him yaoi doujinshi drugs. Conveniently, Hinata is placed in the exact same position, and he starts thinking about how awesome it would be to catch the fly ball and win the game, even if it means that he will disappear. Before Otonashi can stop Hinata, however, Yui dashes over to the distracted Hinata and puts him in a submission hold as revenge for all the wacky wrestling moves Hinata used on her earlier in the episode. While Hinata quickly reverses the position, Tenshi’s team wins and Yuri gets pissed that she missed her chance to finally beat Tenshi fair and square.
Reaction:
I love how Yui kept tapping each time, but Hinata never released any holds
So I’ve talked before about how I figure Yuri is wrong about the world, but what if she is right? In looking back at how the disappearances come about, wouldn’t it make sense for people who thought they were already dead to want to slip peacefully into their dream happy ending? It seems like too much of a coincidence for Tenshi to always be present when an SSS member is suddenly in the position to fulfill their life’s dream. I wonder if the afterlife is actually a sort of make-a-wish simulation designed to allow trauma victims to pass in peace. This would set up a final moment where either Yuri or Otonashi has a chance to disappear/die before being saved by the other with a moving speech about fighting and refusing to take the path of least resistance.
I’m starting to really warm up to this show. The rock version of the OP this time made me hate Yui less, and seeing her hanged and swept away in joint-lock spam put me at peace with her annoying traits. I especially liked when Yui called out the SSS for their vague criticism. I am convinced now that all the cliches in this show are definitely tongue-in-cheek, and the silliness helps balance out the melodrama. I don’t like baseball, but Hinata’s goofy team was pretty funny with the broom-balancing and the rolling-start catch. At least they kept Yui’s groupies totally inept to maintain a little suspense, because the hitting on Hinata’s team was prolific and Otonashi’s loopy sidearm delivery was surprisingly effective. Too bad no mention was made of whether all the SSS members would be subject to Yuri’s dreaded punishment game.
This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1971 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeah, I think this show is pretty aware of its place, like purposefully making Haruhi more like Haruhi and putting the annoying girl in submission holds because she’s annoying. I’m liking this show.
Agreed about the tongue-in-cheek comment and that Yui’s suffering made her incredible annoying-ness more bearable. I was also surprised by the ending, so I’ll be back for more.
I want Yui-nyan on my team :3
The moment when Yui almost hang herself was comedy gold, also the moment she fell down on the floor afterward.
Yep, that’s almost my theory I have since episode 3. But I think it’s not to pass in peace but to let them recover their trauma. Since there are zeros and ones flying around instead of sparks I presume this is some sort of virtual world which is used by hospitals.
I’m still unsure about the purpose of this afterlife, and I’m about 50/50 with each theory. It just seems like disappearing seems like giving up, even though it could possibly be accepting rehabilitation.
You mean it’s kind of like the movie Vanilla Sky. Interesting theory.
What I want to ask Hinata x Yui is: How many years have you two been married? Obviously Hinata must have gone into it out of duty and, now that Otonashi has appeared, he wants out of this situation!
Yuri gets points for the perfect description of Iwasawa as a cool beauty. Damn, I miss her but I’m glad she got a Good End and really looking forward to the last song she left behind, mentioned in the Next Ep segment. Hope that will be Thousand Enemies rather than Little Braver.
I was also somewhat disturbed by Yuri’s vehement wish that Hinata and Yui would disappear for messing up her (evil) plan. Starting to think that, despite the Angel connotation, Tenshi vs Yuri is more about Order vs Justice rather than Good vs Evil (or even Good vs Bad).
Wait till we find out who they were when alive. Can’t wait to learn that Otonashi is actually Tenshi’s brother who watched Endless 8 until his head exploded in order to get into the trauma machine afterlife and retrieve his beloved imouto Tenshi… only to find that he has amnesia!
Yeah, that was pretty cold, especially given that Iwasawa had just disappeared. It was an interesting juxtaposition of a fairly common anime line that just seemed creepier because of the mysterious afterlife they are in. I wonder how Yuri would feel about the disappearance… of Haruhi Suzumiya!
Has anyone compared Angel Beats to Kanon? Uguu dreamworld digital simulation!
No wonder they removed CCY’s Endless Eight Hitler video from YouTube.
E8 is indeed a danger to public health and safety. /kyonkundenwa
It’s also interesting that some people can only remember their surnames while some, like Yuri and Hisako, go by just their given names. Nobody seems to have bothered to ask Tenshi what her real name is… if it’s is also Otonashi that would just LOL. Speaking of which Otonashi seems quite unusual as a surname… think it literally means ‘no sound’ but connotes ‘quiet and obedient’. Probably reading too much into this.
I remember in Maison Ikkoku, the “Otonashi” was a pun for “no husband” since Kyoko was a widow, but that wouldn’t make sense here… I keep thinking we’ll get a little glimpse of his memory/backstory but surprised there’s been nothing so far. Anyway, as long as we get more Yui getting beaten down by Hinata’s wrestling skillz I’m happy.
I prefer yuri X hinata
you can find out what I mean by reading the prequal of angel beats:
hinata is the main character in here
the preview said they have exam next week.
Exams in the afterlife, definitely not heaven
What a waste of a Make-a-Wish opportunity this would be. If it were me, I’d want to be placed into a cooler video game.
Hopefully Otonashi retires from baseball while he is on top. People were already catching up to his sidearm delivery by the final game, so he’ll turn into Byung-Hyun Kim if he’s not careful.
I think i’m the only one who actually LIKES Yui. >_>
I should shoot myself.
nope i like Yui too lol <3 her type of character gives ya lauggghss
Needs more Tenshi.
This show is getting way too episodic for a drama. I am not digging this “backstory of the week” thing they’re doing here- it simply lacks impact. This episode was still stronger than the Iwasawa one, however because Hinata had already received a little character development in earlier episodes; I will give them that, but up til now, Angel beats has failed to impress me.
I will note however that it seems to be doing really well on the comedy side. That would be fine if that was what Angel Beats was meant to be; it would be excellent if it were a comedy show, but alas it is not.
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