angel beats - 5

Just when i think i have this show figured out, it always amazes me.

Summary:

We start with another plan of Yuri's to fight against Tenshi. Knowing Tenshi wants to make them get good grades which could make them disappear, Yuri plans on making Tenshi fail. This will serve two purposes. This first is if Tenshi is a emissary of god, their plain will fail as god will not let them rattle his messenger so easily. If not, this will break her spirit and give them a definite edge over her. I'm not going to go through the details, but they do eventually manage to make her fail all of her courses. Tenshi is removed from her post as student president and a new boy named Naoi is appointed student president.They decide to commit another concert and steal more meal tickets, like they did in the first episode. During the raid, they notice Tenshi approching, but Otonashi and Yuri noticed something weird about her. She ends up ignoring the entire event and simply buys spicy tofu from a vending machine, who's ticket ends up getting lifted. Knowing nobody ever buys the spicy tofu, when Otonashi gets it they know its her. Otonashi starts to feel sorry for Tenshi. Seeing how human tenshi seemed after the loss, they wonder if they did the right thing. Soon after the new school president takes action, declaring to put a stop to Yuri and her gang.

Reaction:

This really opens up a lot of info about their personalities. First, and most importantly, we see more of tenshi. She's seems almost gentle. Even though she must recognize Otonashi, she doesn't act against him and even helps him. Same goes for her and Yuri. She also did really seem human. Reacting to a loss in a very emotional manner.

The second is Yuri. While i still can't seem to blame her given what shes been through, its harder and harder to say shes doing the right thing. While she, and maybe a few others like Iwasawa, had a legitimate reason for fighting, she seems to use fear to control most of them. Besides that is the relentless harassment of Tenshi, who is nothing more than a potential emissary of god. Seems like an awful long time to just start figuring out what Tenshi is.

The third is the new kid, Naoi and the rest of the school. The teachers seem almost inept, at their job. The stupid distractions, the whole fighting thing, even the fact that Tenshi would never ever fail every one of her test which is obviously out of character, they seem almost robot like. following the standards while the school around the crumbles in gunfire. The next point is Naoi. Obviously he has no intentions with playing the cat and mouse game Tenshi and Yuri have been for so long. This sets him up to be a much more real enemy than Tenshi ever was. However this could set up Tenshi to eventually be an ally. Also if Tenshi is human, but developed all this herself, we could have DBZ like running around with super powers. I don't think it'll happen, but its a definite possibility.

The last point is the true nature of the school. I'm starting to lean towards the "its a place to finish your unfinished business" idea over "its a place to accept death". This mostly lies with Tenshi. I don't see her having much denial of death, but it would be very in character to refuse to move on from a loss. Still pissed they killed one of the best character so early. Yui is a poor replacement. The Lyle to Iwasawa's Neil.Especially since they wont be going through everyone's death. Even if they did they would need to squeeze multiple into one ep. And even if they did that, Iwasawa shouldn't have gone first, or so early.