Short Series: Angel Beats, Ep. 7 - "Alive"

I was almost tempted to stop this episode-by-episode “journey” (more like a nightmarish wallow) altogether after the trainwreck that was Angel Beats’ sixth episode, but I managed to calm down a little after realizing Episode 7 (“Alive”) wasn’t anywhere near as vile, all things considered. I’m giving “Alive” mercy points because it isn’t out-and-out bad; faint praise, I know, but a little praise goes a long way in a shitty show like Angel Beats. “Alive” is a largely harmless extension of the plot, save for a few crucial developments that occur within its running time: namely, the partial revelation of Otonashi’s past (yeah, remember that guy?) and Kanade becoming all friendly with the Battlefront.

So Naoi has joined the Battlefront, and—

Oh, fuck.

Actually, I was kidding. “Alive” may not be outright terrible, but in terms of logic, meaning, and common sense, it fails grandly. So this Naoi kid, a sadistic, rigid, indoctrinated, sociopathic enforcer with a short temper and a nasty right hook has apparently joined the Battlefront without any kind of punishment or compensation for his brutal actions. The kid who ordered the slow, painful massacre of all Battlefront personnel. The justification for this is probably because the Battlefront took pity on Naoi because of his “tragic” backstory, and blah blah blah, boo-fucking-hoo, nobody took pity on people like Stalin and Hitler when they killed a lot of people, so why should the Battlefront (or, for the record, the audience) take pity on Naoi, who was basically SATAN? But, that’s okay! Naoi has apparently mellowed out and become a sympathetic, well-rounded, ethical human being in the eyes of the Battlefront members and they let him join his ranks. But, whatever – that’s their choice, I guess. It’s an awfully fucking confusing choice; I think I’d harbor a little more animosity towards the guy that professionally ordered the brutal slaughter of my fellow comrades.

As a villain, he was passable. As a leading protagonist, he's insufferable and horribly fitted for the job.

But, whatever, let’s agree to skip over that and say that Naoi had a complete change of heart (even though not one ounce of his character development ever matched up with the initial ideas presented about who he is, how he operates, or how the audience should feel about him) and now he’s a good guy! I forgot to mention that Naoi’s shtick is that he has the power of hypnosis (don’t ask, I don’t know why, either), and this finally becomes practically useful in “Alive”. Naoi uses his hypnosis power on Otonashi in an attempt to bring back Otonashi’s memories. It’s actually a pretty creative writing device, even if it is a complete deus ex machina, but I’m willing to overlook that, because finally we get to learn something about Otonashi, who, by this point, has been as far removed from the audience as possible. Naoi does his thing and a handful of suppressed memories are recovered, but not all of them.

Otonashi had a younger, ill sister, whom he saw in the hospital on a daily basis, bringing her stuff like comic books and various sundry things. He manages to etch out a living as a construction worker, but he lacked ambition, sociability, or a general purpose in life; his only given purpose seems to be making his sister happy, because we needed a reminder that Otonashi was virtually Jesus. 

On Christmas Eve, Otonashi spirits his sister out of the hospital to take her on a walk down Main Street, without permission. He walks through the winter wonderland, carrying her on his back; she eventually dies on his back after telling him “Thank you” one last time. Realizing it was time to live his own life, he dedicates his life to helping other people (because, again, Otonashi = Jesus) and begins to work and study hard, hard enough that he successfully graduated from High School and was on his way to take some college entrance exams. However, the train he was on suffers an accident, and then—

The fragmented memories end there and the hypnosis session is over. After all that, Otonashi requests to be alone for a little while. The whole scene, starting from the moment we meet Otonashi’s sister and ending on the shot of Otonashi being alone in his room after recovering some of his memories (a little over ten minutes in total), is genuinely well-directed and well-used, if a bit melodramatic. The use of color and imagery has never been better throughout the series, and Otonashi’s post-hypnosis reactions and thoughts were not only legitimate, but human; I could feel his shock. Any flaws I found during this ten-minute sequence were minor enough that I could ignore them in favor of the stream of thought and logic put into it.

Otonashi decides to remain with the Battlefront. The mood is immediately ruined by Yuri’s announcement of “Operation Monster Stream”; basically, fishing. Otonashi catches wind of Kanade and invites her to come along, much to the shock of the Battlefront. Right, because they’re okay with bringing along Naoi, a sadistic fuck, but they’re concerned about Angel, who’s cute as a button and dangerous only when provoked. Riiiiiight. 

THEY'RE ALL IDIOTS

Anyway, they meet some random guy who’s really good at fishing, Otonashi teaches Kanade how to fish, and for a blissful, innocent moment I thought “this episode is actually pretty okay!”

But then this happens.

Kanade deciding to save the Battlefront from a threat? Believable; there are ways to justify that action. Cutting open an enormous, gravity and logic-defying fish? Not in a million years.

Best character in the whole series. Honest.

Anyway, they decide to cook the fish and Otonashi has the charitable idea to distribute all the fish amongst the students and faculty, because he’s Jesus. They proceed to do just so, and then the guy who beat the shit out of Otonashi in Episode 1 (his name is Noda, but I refuse to call him such) realizes Yuri hadn’t been with them during the charity work. At exactly that moment, she stumbles onto the scene, looking like she’d been considerably thrashed about. Yuri claims that Kanade wounded her… even though Kanade had been with Otonashi the entire time. Otonashi sees a figure standing a promontory, cutting the sky, and it’s apparently a girl that looks exactly like Kanade, but with red eyes.

Oh, and we learn Otonashi’s first name, Yuzuru, but it doesn’t matter because they keep calling him Otonashi anyway. So the good news: “Alive” is, for a stretch, pretty good. It’s a success more often than not, but it has a few major shortcomings (Naoi not being persecuted for his actions is a big one, the humongous, unexplained fish is a lesser, but still annoying, one) that hinder it from being genuinely good. But 60% good is better than no good at all, and "Alive" actually has the benefit of being the landmark where Angel Beats' primary story actually starts going somewhere.

For better or for worse.

Also, as a sidenote, Kanade is by far and away the best character in this series, and we'll get to why that is soon enough.