Short Series: Angel Beats, Ep. 10 - "Goodbye Days"

So because the writers (or anybody else, for that matter) decided not to care or worry about the Battlefront members beyond Otonashi and Yuri, only to suddenly realize that they had to resolve them somehow lest their story show its truly stupid colors (it may look stupid and act stupid, but don’t let that fool you; it really is stupid), we have an entire episode dedicated to a character who, beforehand, didn’t matter at all. That character happens to be Yui. Because out of all the potential choices they had – a burly Brock ripoff experienced in judo, a short-tempered fanatic, a tall, lanky blonde whose dialogue consists entirely of pop rock references, and a hacker who insists he be called “Christ”, just to name a few – they went with the monstrously obnoxious little half-pint Yui.

And therein lies the biggest problem with this episode. I rarely talk about Yui in these posts because she depresses me. She’s annoying, yes, but I don’t think I’m accurately covered just how annoying she is capable of being. Her entire purpose in the story up until this point is to be annoying, and she has no perceivable personality beyond that. So for Yui to get an entire episode centered on her is placing a demand on the character that’s completely unsustainable. She is comic relief personified, and you can’t (or rather, shouldn’t) use comic relief like a fully fleshed-out character. But Episode 10 (“Goodbye Days”) tries to do just that, beginning with a random sequence that goes absolutely nowhere.

Because we needed a reason for Kanade to hold a guitar.

Otonashi informs Kanade about his unnecessarily complicated plan to get Yui’s attention, which involves stealing her guitar and criticizing her performance in Girls Dead Monster (yeah, remember those guy?). I guess that works, but you could always just walk up to Yui and say: “Hey! Want to grab a drink somewhere? I want to talk to you and chill, if you don’t mind.” What the fuck is wrong with keeping things simple and polite? I covered this already with Yuri’s stupid plan in Episode 5, so I’m not going to discuss this further. Yui fills Otonashi in on the details of her past; she was paralyzed as a child, which rendered her unable to do some of the things she wanted to do. This is a perfectly legitimate reason for her to be so physical and active in purgatory; the first thing I’d want to do (if I were a quadriplegic) after getting my body back in control is run around a lot, anyway. It doesn’t explain why she’s so fucking annoying, but live and let die, I guess.

So in order to help Yui achieve inner peace, or whatever, Otonashi agrees to help her do a bucket list of things she wants to do, which includes (in no particular order): perform a German Suplex, hit a homerun, kick ass in basketball and soccer, and then marry someone. Barring the fact that the episode is suddenly shedding a sympathetic light on a character it once mocked, it is superficially pleasant to see a person fulfilling their innermost desires and dreams. It would be better if the person in question was likable in the slightest, though.

Everything Yui wants to do is resolved cleanly except for marriage. We learn that it’s not a matter of loving someone in this case, it’s a matter of simply being loved, because she asks Otonashi first with no prompting. Which would be a heartbreaking / heartwarming character moment if Yui had ever shown her vulnerable side before this episode, but whatever. Hinata shows up (yeah, remember that guy?) and declares his love for Yui, saying that no matter what she’d done in her previous life, or what she’d use to be like, he would have loved her anyway. This brings about feelings of passion, respect, and self-worth in Yui, and she finally finds the happiness to pass on, with Hinata’s promise that he would marry her in the next life.

While sweet and touching, it’s all surface-level, because Hinata had never once shown romantic attraction towards Yui until now – in fact, he’d treated her like she was some sniveling git, a brat that liked to wail on people a lot whenever it struck her fancy. There was never a single moment throughout all of Hinata and Yui’s interactions that showcased he was potentially in love with her, enough that he vowed to marry her. Even if he wasn’t being truthful in his confession, and was simply claiming he’d marry her in order to help her pass on, there’s no sign that he wasn’t serious about his proclaimed love for Yui (his shaking hands, his soulful dialogue) or that his feelings were anything less than genuine. This would have been a beautiful character moment and resolution had there been any buildup to it.

There are more ill-advised episodes throughout Angel Beats; the good thing about “Goodbye Days” is that it’s sweet and meaningful, and it’s a very positive episode; there is not a single ounce of darkness throughout this episode, and had the writing been sharper, I might have called it good. But the writing really isn't sharp: Yui is given quite a workout throughout “Goodbye Days” despite the fact that the show didn’t care about her up until this point. She didn’t have to show up at all in this show, and that single choice might have been enough to save this episode. But “Goodbye Days” is predominately mediocre; it is immeasurably superior in comparison to its predecessor and coming successors. It is also the end of any decent writing.

And thus the sun sets; with the morning comes a shitty conclusion.