Most of the works of the general cross-over series are works of battle and blood. But "Angel Beats!" is not so much a cross-section as a youth story, a youth campus drama with healing attributes and blood.
In the place known as the afterlife, the characters try their best to live another period of youth, in order to face the unfair life of their lives. Youth, regret and memory. The inability to live a fragile life, the dissatisfaction with an unjust reality, the unwillingness to live a short life, and the rebellion against the status quo are all contained in the theme of sss.
The story begins with the perspective of a man who has lost his memories of his life, and suddenly appears in doubt in an unknown school, where gunfights, clubs, normal or irrational factors are present. When he first arrived here, he was involved in a sudden gun battle, so he gradually became confused and discovered that what "saved" him was an organization called the afterlife world front (sss), and it was "angels" who "killed" him. As the plot develops, it is strange that in this world, except for the "battle line", other "people" have almost no will of their own, and they are systematic good student images in both words and deeds and other aspects. According to Yuri Nakamura (the leader of the posthumous world front), who came to this world a long time ago, "In this world, except for the 'ss' and 'angels', everyone else is NPCs. That is, it could be a "game" world here. In order to live better in this world, the male protagonist chose to join SSS.
After experiencing a series of unusual things, Yin Wu discovered that this world is not a so-called paradise, but a world that allows people who have resentment in life to let go of the past and "graduate" from the school of this world to welcome new students. Just like the game, but this game has a rule that must be completed within a certain period of time. If they fail to pass the level within the prescribed deadline (the countdown begins after feeling love in this world), the "players" will be severely punished by the system (npcization, which can be understood as turning the original player into the npc of this world, in fact, to prevent violating the essential meaning of this space. become a permanent paradise). It is the same as the ancient rebirth in our country, but we drink Meng Po soup, forget all the past, and enter a new life.
In the plot of this drama, some people do not receive a crucial ball because they do not receive a crucial ball on the ball game, some people want to sing the song that praises fate in front of everyone, and some people are unwilling to walk for physical reasons, cannot live their due life, and cannot enjoy the happiness they deserve. Those who can't let go because of the tragic past, because of some imperfections, make people feel extremely real.
"Very happy, such a happy view. It's too dazzling for me, everyone lives in such a time. It's so nice, it's enviable. If you disappear from here, can you start again? Is such a natural happiness acceptable to me? Lose this memory, and your personality will change with it, so you can accept it! But what is this so-called reincarnation? That's not my life anymore! It's someone else's life" – Yuri Nakamura
Perhaps because he had experienced the tragedy of his life, or perhaps because he felt his happiness in the world after death, Yuri was reluctant to leave, after all, there was everything he struggled with after death, there was warmth that he never felt before he died, and most importantly, the bondage with his friends. And she doesn't know what kind of life she will have when she lets go of the past, so it is normal to think like this at the beginning, and I believe that if we have also experienced these things, we will also have the idea of not wanting to leave.
Before the plot of the computer destroyed by Yuri, if this space is defined as a transit station that can only accommodate a certain number of people to link the past and the afterlife, the next group of people will come to this world, and the previous group of people will have to be driven away, and the time-limited order may also be made for this purpose. After all, this is a final place for the dead to let go of the past, not for the dead to live forever. According to this understanding, it seems that the plot can also make sense. In order to avoid the "players" thinking that this is a world that can be inhabited permanently, and have concerns about this world, or even become dependent. The leader responsible for guiding the player has also appeared in this world. And that person, according to the plot, is usually the president of the student council (why is it the student council again!). That is, the heroine of this series (although I feel that Yuri is the protagonist but the title of this series is: The Heart of the Angel) Li hua song, or the kind of character that the sound of the knotless string incarnated after Li Hua left the afterlife. The odds of fulfilling her wish are very slim (Lihua wants to meet the person who gave her heart, and The Soundless String is waiting for the next Lihua.) So stay and guide the next group of people. Guide them through reincarnation until their wishes are fulfilled.
Although the system that turns people into NPCs is destroyed in the end, the nature of this space has not changed, but only the countdown to the stipulated time (the countdown after love has occurred). In essence, it is still the space that allows people to let go of the past and start a new life.
At the end of the anime, everyone (except for the sound of the knotless string) officially puts aside the past in the form of graduation and faces a new life. Although it was a poignant tragedy for the soundless string in the end, for him who had lost his friends, everything started from the beginning. He will be here waiting for the arrival of the next Lihua. Everyone else has a new life, a short period of liberation, but it is also a kind of reincarnation. A group of people graduated, and the soundless string replaced the position of the guide of Lihua and became the new guide, inheriting the spirit of Lihua and exercising the duties of Lihua. Waiting in a place where there will be no death awaits a loved one who has crossed time and space.
Overall, this drama is a tale of youth in the skin of crossing, with sad blood and blood, but also with fresh comedy (fishing, tornado battles, etc.). ）。 There's a lot of content in it that we might have experienced, which makes us feel very real, the character portrayal is very in place, the flesh and blood images emerge in front of us, and it feels like this group of players are the unfortunate people who may appear around us. With the gradual exploration of the world, and the sudden "disappearance" of partners to discover the truth, the end of the story slowly comes to us. In the final graduation scene, all the previous preparations were detonated, achieving an explosive tear-inducing effect, (after all, no one wants to be separated from familiar people and beautiful things, and our feelings about graduation are sad, so tear-jerking up) let the audience feel the impermanence of life, and also triggered a series of thoughts on whether we can help them if we have similar unfortunate people around us, let them feel the warmth of the world, and so on. It's an excellent work.
Text: Hui Yu
The above remarks only represent personal views, and all readers are welcome to exchange and discuss together