June 7th, 2010 
AstroNerdBoy エンジェルビーツ Episode 10
Angel Beats! – 10
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
Otonashi decided Yui should be the first SSS member to send on her way and so Tenshi goes along with a plan whereby Otonashi can “save” Yui’s guitar from Tenshi and then get to know what is holding Yui here. Meanwhile, Girls Dead Monster practice has the band not happy with Yui’s guitar playing, so when Tenshi comes and demands the guitar, everyone simply believes even Tenshi sees what Yui didn’t. As such, it is time for Plan B and Otonashi finally gets to save Yui’s guitar from Tenshi and return it to Yui.
Otonashi learns that Yui had been a paralytic in real life and so has many dreams derived from watching TV — performing the German Suplex wrestling move, hitting a home run, and scoring a soccer goal against five defenders. Otonashi realizes that this is going to be difficult but tells Yui he’ll help her by starting with wrestling. She’s not strong enough to do the move she wants to do but with some training, she’s able to pull it off. Next is the soccer goal where Otonashi gets TK, Hinata, Fujimaki, and Noda to help by pretending a letter of 
challenge is from Tenshi. Arriving at the soccer field, Otonashi pretends to understand that it was Yui that sent the challenge and gets the guys to defend the goal. With Yui doing some dirty tricks, Otonashi taking out TK at one point, and Tenshi using her Hand Sonic version 5 from the shadows, Yui makes her goal.
Finally, it is baseball time. Yui works hard to get her home run but fails to do so. 
At the end of the day, Otonashi calls an end to things and they start up the next day. Again, Yui fails to score a home run and that night after Otonashi calls an end to it for the day, Hinata comes up and the two of them having a hitting session. The following day, Yui is worse and Otonashi sees that her hands are bandaged up from so much batting practice. She decides that it is impossible for her to hit a home run but just being able to come out and have such a batting practice is enough for her since she couldn’t do that as a paralytic.
Yui has one final wish and states that it is the wish of every girl — to get married. However, this dream seems even more impossible considering that she’s paralyzed and would be a burden on her mate. She asks Otonashi if he would marry her and he has no answer. Hinata arrives and seriously states that he would marry her despite no matter what illness or infirmity she had. Yui says that’s impossible since there’s no way they could meet. Hinata says that they could meet if he accidentally knocked a baseball through her window. To that end, we 
see that very scene with Yui and Hinata having a relationship and Yui become very happy. Yui passes on from this world and Hinata tells Otonashi that he’ll help him assist their other friends.
At school, Ooyama is attacked and Noda has to fight some shadow thing to defend his fellow SSS member. He defeats it and a report is called into Yuri about the situation, stating that whatever this thing was, it was very dangerous.
Thoughts/Review:
This episode was both funny and extremely sad for me. Let’s start with the funny first.
Even though the joke was spotted a long way off, I still laughed at how Tenshi’s arrival coincided with the band members chastising Yui for messing up her playing. Because Otonashi had planned things out so well, it seemed almost inevitable that his plan would fail but the way it failed the first time was just so funny to me. Yui being Yui meant that Otonashi got a second shot.
The soccer match was great. I’ve never gotten into TK like some of the fans (though I understand how the mix of wacky English and Japanese makes him an endearing character), so his stuff doesn’t really make me laugh. But Yui completely changing hair styles to a simple ponytail and then going after the four guys (we already knew Otonashi wouldn’t oppose her) was very funny to me.
The humor pretty much ends there with the baseball aspects and Yui’s attempts to hit a home run. All the effort she put into getting that hit only to realize that it might be an impossible dream (well, not really impossible but considering the time limitations on the episode…) but the fact that she was able to even attempt it was enough for her considering she was paralyzed in real life.
Her dream of getting married is what got me though. It was already sad that Yui’s real life was spent in bed, completely unable to move from the neck down (it completely explains why she’s so hyper in limbo) but her thoughts on marriage struck me hard and I felt for the character. Hinata coming in and saying he would marry her brought out the tears, especially when I saw the scenes of what I assume are Yui’s imagination of a life with Hinata even though she was a paralytic. I’d stated that her and Hinata had a sibling-like relationship and 
implied in that is a loving relationship. It wasn’t the traditional, “romantic” love but their bickering and teasing each other was something I sensed as being a symptom of a deeper connection between them. I loved their pairing even though it wasn’t romantic. That’s why I totally believed Hinata would marry her and why I totally believe that Yui believed it as well. Thus, the tears and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
I’m going to miss Yui though, I can’t lie. I really liked her and the brand of humor she injected into the series. That’s gone now, but I think that’s because things are going to get serious.
Speaking of that, I really think that this limbo world they are on is a creation of Yuri’s. She’s the only one shown to have a true and deep resentment towards God. If Maeda-sensei is following Clannad’s lead, then Yuri created this world initially 
from her memories. Remember, everything in this world has to be created from memories and that was something touched upon in Clannad (for those who watched that).
Anyway, Yuri’s resentment in this alternate existence she’s created is drawing unfulfilled souls to it IMO. The so-called “NPC’s” were what Yuri initially created to populate her world and then everyone else who’s 
arrived since either passes (because the find contentment) or they join SSS after Yuri locates them. From what little I’ve seen of the”Track Zero” novel content, Yuri didn’t even know about Kanade and didn’t declare her to be an enemy named “Tenshi” until she witnessed Kanade using Hand Sonic for the first time.
Assuming this to be true, then I tend to suspect that Kanade was sent into this world, whether 
by God or regular people (I think of how in Clannad, scientist were studying this alternate world phenomenon), I couldn’t say. Heck, she may have been an NPC that “came to life” as it were to clear the logjam.
While Yuri has apparently mellowed out somewhat from how she was in the novels, I also think that her strong desire to keep SSS members from disappearing (despite her apparent nonchalant attitude about Iwasawa’s 
disappearance) may be playing a role in whatever it was that Noda encountered. Just a hunch.
So, an episode that had some really good laughs, but also some tears as Yui leaves the series. Indeed, I hadn’t expected Yui’s departure to affect me so much, but it did, enough to derail my blogging for a bit. ^_^;
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I found it to be a good episode though I do wonder with so few episodes left (2 or 3 depending on if its a 12 or 13 episode anime) the purpose of having Yui dissapear at this point in regards to the big picture of Angel Beats.
One thing which is curious is that if it is only 12 episodes long then in the 3rd episode the original lead singer from Girls Dead Monster vanished and not 3 episodes from the end the same thing happened again. If this is not a coincidence, given that this series is from Otonashi’s perspective does it mean that the final scene of this series will have him waking up somewhere else after “dying” in the Angel Beats world.
Changing topic I do wonder if we can trust what Yuri believes about the NPC’s and teachers given that it appears she was wrong about Tenshi being a agent from God. A thought that crossed my mind is that the NPC’s and teachers are also dead (or comatose) but have been properly integrated into the Angel Beats world but the non-NPC’s for some reason haven’t and so are aware of the past when they shouldn’t be.
Using Otonashi as an example if he hadn’t run into Yuri or Tenshi when he arrived the chances are he would have gone the “NPC route” and avoided the SSS due to how weirdly they acted. I find it strange that a dead person (if he is dead) would have amnesia no matter how he died given that Yui who was paralysed in real life had no such impediment in the Angel Beats world. Given how Otonashi actually died I find it strange he ended up in the Angel Beats world at all since at his point of death he will probably have been satisfied. This is assuming of course in the previous episode he didn’t briefly return to the real world when he fell asleep.
Some comments for Mister_Random –
Amnesia may depend on the individual in question. Otonashi is the only one that we’ve met who didn’t remember *anything* about his life. Of course, he’s also the only one that we’re having trouble puzzling out as he doesn’t have any obvious reasons to linger in this little afterlife.
Also, based on information from the text, I have my doubts about whether or not there are really any NPCs. In the story, Yuri recruits her Hinata and then tells him about the ‘NPCs’. Hinata then casually dismisses his roommater as an NPC after briefly chatting with him… before something occurs later that causes him to realize that his roommate is a real person. I’ve a sneaking suspicion that NPCs are Yuri’s way of explaining why most of the students don’t follow her.
As for the episode itself… the sending on of Yui seemed a bit contrived. Not that it wouldn’t be possible, but rather the fact that her goals amounted to such simple things (German suplex?) seemed a bit odd. It’s possible that the “marriage” bit at the end was really the key to the whole thing, though, and the rest of it was largely irrelevant. Given her somewhat attention-seeking relationship with Hinata prior to this, it’s possible that she merely felt neglected or had a self-esteem issue and needed some genuine affection as her key to moving on.
The other thing that caught my attention was Hinata showing up in the scene with Yui. Hinata’s comments make me wonder if he’s figured out what Otonashi is up to – though I’m not sure why he would agree to help Otonashi out if that’s the case.
I’ve got to get some sleep, but I’ll *try* to get these read sooner rather than later. ^_^;;;
Please don’t let those things be Mai’s monsters… Please don’t let those things be Mai’s monsters… Please don’t let those things be Mai’s monsters…
Urgh, Kanon flashbacks…
I keep calling Yuri “Haruhippe” because of the physical and personality resemblances… but if she’s actually the one who’s created this world and drew the SOS-dan (excuse me, I mean SSS) to it, that boosts it up to a whole new level. And it would explain a lot.
Two things that I’m really wondering about right now:
1) When people disappear, are they moving on to the next/after-life, or are they going back? Until now, I’d thought it was the former… but I got the strong impression in this episode that Yui believed she was going back to her old body.
2) Could Otonashi be in this world not because he was drawn by unresolved regret, but because he was drawn by the desire to help others? And if so, might that be how Kanade got here as well? I wonder whether she’s just as human as everyone else, and her backstory’s being saved for last.
I found it to be a good episode though I do wonder with so few episodes left (2 or 3 depending on if its a 12 or 13 episode anime) the purpose of having Yui dissapear at this point in regards to the big picture of Angel Beats.
Remove the biggest source of comic relief and kill Girls Dead Monster. With the band gone, a major piece of Yuri’s organization disappears too.
As to the NPC’s, I’ve been thinking they were real people for a while now and that’s why Yuri doesn’t want to harm them. Otherwise, slaughtering them shouldn’t matter if they aren’t real but just decor for the world.
Yuri being at Otonashi’s arrival spot is a bit suspicious though. That’s partly why I suspect Yuri is behind more of this and can sense non-standard souls for the most part, thus she attempts to get them into her “army.”
If I’m right about Yuri, she’s created a soul trap world for the purpose of challenging God. The “NPC’s” are sent on as they do her no good (and I think she sees them as innocent bystanders) but those with issues are immediately drafted. Otonashi simply got trapped upon death, but Yuri mistakes his arrival as another troubled soul when in fact he wasn’t troubled but was a fighter and leader.
Why they forget could simply be a matter of the soul leaving the body and the soul taking time to remember what had been their former life.
I’ve a sneaking suspicion that NPCs are Yuri’s way of explaining why most of the students don’t follow her.
Yeah, that could be it or it could be that NPC’s are non-troubled souls for the most part. I think that Yuri is so angry that in this world, she can sense souls that are troubled (as I stated earlier). Otonashi is her first mistake when she thinks he’s a troubled soul when she’s sensing his indomitable spirit.
As to Yui, I think you are right that it was marriage that Yui was after. The other things were simple excuses but once stripped of them all, the truth came out. I don’t think Yui felt neglected in real life but she did feel as though she were a burden to her mother and that there would be no one for her.
As such, I think you are right that she had some self-esteem issues and that came out at the beginning of the episode when the band wanted her to simply focus on singing and not singing and playing.
As to her relationship with Hinata, I think she really didn’t know how to proceed with him, especially since they are where they are. So she showed her affection for Hinata by teasing him and he did the same in return.
I think Hinata knew what Otonashi was up to when he first appeared at the baseball field and they had some batting practice together. I think that with Hinata having almost passed on, he realizes that it isn’t a bad thing to leave this world where they are in essence prisoners.
Please don’t let those things be Mai’s monsters… Please don’t let those things be Mai’s monsters… Please don’t let those things be Mai’s monsters…
Urgh, Kanon flashbacks…
*lol* I’d forgotten about them but I tend to think they’ll be different this time.
(PART 2)
I keep calling Yuri “Haruhippe” because of the physical and personality resemblances… but if she’s actually the one who’s created this world and drew the SOS-dan (excuse me, I mean SSS) to it, that boosts it up to a whole new level. And it would explain a lot.
The Japanese posted some images on 2CH reflecting this very notion.
When people disappear, are they moving on to the next/after-life, or are they going back? Until now, I’d thought it was the former… but I got the strong impression in this episode that Yui believed she was going back to her old body.
That was a bit of a puzzler but I tend to think that her proposal to Otonashi and Hinata was that IF she returned to her body and Hinata was alive as well, what would their relationship be like. Hinata provided the foundation for that and I think that in her mind, Yui lived that life for a moment and found peace to move on.
Could Otonashi be in this world not because he was drawn by unresolved regret, but because he was drawn by the desire to help others?
As I said earlier, I think this world is a creation of Yuri’s and it traps souls. The NPC’s move on and she doesn’t mess with them. So I think that Otonashi’s soul get’s snared by Yuri’s alternate existence and Yuri senses something different about him and assumes it to be another troubled soul.
As to Tenshi, what little I’ve seen of the books is that Yuri is there and then Tenshi shows up. I tend to think that she was either sent by God or by humans with the purpose of clearing a logjam that Yuri has created with the SSS.
Kyaaaah… the writers managed to throw a pretty nice knuckleball with episode 11. I pretty much whiffed on most of my assumptions about where the plot would go.