エンジェルビーツ Episode 06 review
Angel Beats 06

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Upon being released from the reflection room for their recent actions, the members of SSS return to their HQ to plan their next strategy. Yuri gives permission to attend class and to do “whatever” as an experiment. As such, the SSS members either sleep, play mahjong, or in the case of Yui, repeatedly go to the bathroom. Naoi arrives with some backup to put an end to this and SSS retreats. Later that day, Otonashi sees Tenshi studying in a classroom and offers to treat her to Mapo Tofu and she accepts. While eating and chatting, Tenshi finds the concept of this being her favorite food strange.

Naoi arrives as Tenshi has violated the rules and she and Otonashi are thrown into a prison cell. With no way out, Tenshi decides to sleep. Sometime later, an explosion is felt and heard and Otonashi tries to make contact with Yuri over his walkie-talkie but fails. He’s frustrated at being trapped when Yuri contacts him. The SSS have attacked Naoi but he is using NPC’s as shields, knowing SSS won’t harm them. As such, he is slaughtering SSS. Since Tenshi is missing, Yuri figures she is with Otonashi and requests he get her aid to stop this.

Otonashi wakes Tenshi and begs for help. She silently agrees but shows that her Hand Sonic Guard Skill cannot slice open the door as it was not designed to be an offensive weapon. She has four other versions of this, none of which seem helpful. Otonashi has an idea as her fourth version is a multi-blade thing shaped like a flower. As such, Tenshi is able to wedge version 2 into the side of the door and then use version 4 to take out the door.

They arrive at the scene of the battle where Naoi has slaughtered nearly everyone. Hinata is still alive as is Yuri, though they are seriously injured. Tenshi stands ready for battle as Naoi decides to force Yuri to disappear by making her live a false dream whereby she’d be happy. Yuri doesn’t like this and Otonashi punches Naoi to make it stop, telling him that their lives were important. Naoi recounts his own life and how after his talented twin died at a young age, Naoi was forced to take his place and learn pottery under his strict father. When his father eventually died, Naoi felt his life had been fake. Otonashi rejects this, saying Naoi is himself.

Thoughts/Review:

Heh!heh! So, Tenshi got her food after all. I guess the Japanese person who photoshopped the screen shot of Tenshi last week knew something we didn’t. ^_^

As expected, Naoi wasn’t what he appeared and indeed had been waiting for his opportunity to have Tenshi removed from power so that he could take over. However, his motivation wasn’t quite what I expected and we got the sob story about his tough life, though not on what he died from. I found it rather unbelievable that a bully like that who enjoys beating on other students while pretending to be a model student would suddenly turn away from the “dark side of the force” and start blubbering to Otonashi, especially after slaughtering the SSS folks and preparing to send them all away for good.

Now we know why Yuri’s terrible past had to be explored so early in the anime as it became a factor here. Having established Yuri’s past, the audience can better sympathize with her not wanting to go out on a false memory, though I suspect her siblings would not blame her for their deaths.

Initially when Yuri gave Otonashi the walkie-talkie, it seemed a little too contrived. On further reflection, I’m sure she saw how Otonashi got along with Tenshi when they dethroned her from power. Since they needed to test Naoi anyway, did Yuri assume that Otonashi would continue to befriend Tenshi and thus she could yell for help to put an end to the fighting? I don’t know. It still feels a bit too contrived.

This leads me to Tenshi and her Guard Skill, Hand Sonic. The first three versions of the weapon I could believe and see potential uses for. The “version four” of Hand Sonic made me think this was being done simply for comedy until this massive, lotus-shaped contraption is used to get them out of prison. Then I started going, “CONTRIVED!” That’s because there was no reason I could see for Tenshi to have created version four.

I still say there’s more to Tenshi than meets the eye. She may not be an “angel” as her Tenshi nickname implies her to be, but she’s always acted in a calm, collective manner and there is purpose behind everything she does. She had to have a reason for allowing SSS to do everything they did and not bring down massive repercussions on them. She doesn’t even develop offensive weapons, choosing only defensive ones, including her bladed Hand Sonic skills (though clearly, those could be used as offensive weapons). I kept having the distinct feeling that Tenshi knew more than she let on, which is why she went to sleep, allowing Otonashi to come to her, as did Yuri through Otonashi.

In this light, maybe I can see Tenshi having a purpose behind version 4 of Hand Sonic, if she anticipated being locked in that cell by Naoi. She sure went along with Otonashi fast enough for lunch to break the rules and she KNEW she was breaking them, almost as if to bait Naoi into action. I may be reading too much into that, but Tenshi has always been the most interesting character to me.

As to the comedy aspects of the episode, I have to say that SSS coming out of the reflection room made me laugh since Takamatsu was still shirtless, carrying over the reverse fanservice joke from the previous episode. Yui and Hinata having a little bickering match was humorous. Then SSS cutting up in class was a hoot, especially the mahjong game. I got a chuckle at how quickly Tenshi decided to go for Mapo Tofu, then how she gulped it down when Naoi took her and Otonashi into custody.

Finally, I’d like to point out that Janette from Black and Blue Socks has been chapter-reviewing the Angel Beats! -track zero- novel (chapter 1; chapters 2-4). I mention this because Angel Beats! is going to tell part of its story in book and manga form and the rest in the anime. As such, picking up interesting details from these other sources may be key to understanding everything in the end.

So, a good episode with some interesting elements to ponder.