Angel Beats!
For most, life ends after death, but not for this group of teenagers, trapped in a high school teetering between the lines of life and death. Frustrated at their premature and unfair deaths, the teens stage a rebellion against God, desperate for their lives to have amounted to something. But as time passes, it becomes clear that their purgatory is not what it seems, nor is the quiet angel they fight against.
- 2010-2015
- 1 season
- FUNimation Entertainment
- Animation, Action & Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
- TV-14
For most, life ends after death, but not for this group of teenagers, trapped in a high school teetering between the lines of life and death. Frustrated at their premature and unfair deaths, the teens stage a rebellion against God, desperate for their lives to have amounted to something. But as time passes, it becomes clear that their purgatory is not what it seems, nor is the quiet angel they fight against.
Season 1 Episode Guide
15 Episodes 2010 - 2015
Episode 1
Departure
27 mins
A boy awakens in the afterlife to find himself among teen rebels battling against reincarnation and against a singular girl with supernatural powers named Angel.
Episode 2
Guild
25 mins
With Yuzuru needing a weapon now that he's among their number, the Afterlife Battlefront must travel underground to reach the Guild, their weapons supplier. Noda, who does not accept Yuzuru as their newest member, bars their way, but his objections fall quickly aside as the anti-Angel booby-traps that should all have been deactivated reactivate, picking them off one by one on their journey.
Episode 3
My Song
25 mins
In their rebellion against God, the Afterlife Battlefront plans to attack Angel's lair in three days with the aid of a genius hacker named Takeyama (who asks to be called Christ instead), all while under a public distraction from the girl band Gldemo (short for Girls Dead Monster) lead by Iwasawa. The result of the mission leads Yuri to believe there may be no God after all and to reconsider future strategies of the Battlefront.
Episode 4
Day Game
26 mins
With Iwasawa gone, Gldemo needs a new lead vocalist, and the over-enthusiastic Yui seems the best replacement. With the band in re-group mode (currently unable to provide a reliable distraction), Yuri can't run any big operations. She launches, instead, a psychological attack, sending out Afterlife Battlefront members to form several baseball teams for an upcoming school tournament. Above all others, Hinata wants Otonashi on his team, but once Otonashi's locked in, Hinata finds himself unable to recruit anyone else among his A-list choices. Settling for what he can get, his completed team is rife with infighting, with hothead Noda picking fights with Otonashi at every turn, Shiina maintaining a concentration exercise no matter what (balancing a broom on one finger), and Hinata himself squabbling intensely and all-too-frequently with little Yui. Still, they advance to play against Angel's team composed of school varsity baseball players, but a sudden danger arrives that only Otonashi recognizes.
Episode 5
Favorite Flavor
27 mins
Yuri means to set Angel off on a rampage. To that end, she leads a select group (Takamatsu, Hinata, Ooyama, Takeyama, and Otonashi) to infiltrate the classrooms and sabotage all of Angel's tests so that she'll score zeros. The plan is half-baked and the boys show little ability in thinking fast on their feet or keeping cool under pressure. One important hurdle no one stopped to consider: what's Angel's real name? Their actions do affect a change, but not one any had imagined.
Episode 6
Family Affair
26 mins
With Naoi in Angel's place as student leader, Kuri tells Afterlife Battlefront members to do whatever strikes their fancies in classes and see what happens. Among the results, Otonashi finds himself locked in solitary confinement with Angel for a rule infringement (taking her to lunch during a break between classes); but, Naoi isn't a soulless NPC as others first thought, and by incarcerating Angel, he can unleash a fascist reign of terror on the students unchecked. In the meantime, Otonashi discovers what seems to have deadened Angel emotionally.
Episode 7
Alive
26 mins
Yuri wants Naoi to use his hypnotic power to help Otonashi regain his lost memories.
Episode 8
Dancer in the Dark
24 mins
Cloned through a harmonics program, a second Angel - one devoid of sympathy - confronts the team. The original Angel combats her own self to protect the others. She loses. While comatose and recovering in the school infirmary, Yuri has the others attend their classes, to behave outwardly as perfect students while she breaks into Angel's lair and alters her computer programming; but, while this is going on, Angel's clone has been busy setting up a trap for the team, with the comatose Angel herself as bait.
Episode 9
In Your Memory
26 mins
After the forced reabsorption of her cloned selves, Angel remains in the infirmary, sleeping. The Afterlife Battlefront brainstorms desperately over what they should do should it be the nasty Angel who awakens. As they wait, Otonashi processes more memories of life before his death - the subway train wreck where he helped injured passengers trapped for days in a collapse tunnel. Upon Angel's awakening, Otonashi has an epiphany and Angel makes an unprecedented offer.
Episode 10
Goodbye Days
27 mins
Now that Otonashi has secretly allied himself with Angel, he takes charge in helping others drop their emotional baggage from life. He targets Yui for obliteration - an easy first subject, he thinks - but the little mite has far more goals to reach than he anticipated. If he wasn't already dead, helping her might just kill him, but unexpected support comes right out of left field.
Episode 11
Change the World
27 mins
New dangers emerge - shadow creatures ready to consume members of the Afterlife Battlefront and turn them into soulless NPC's.
Episode 12
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
28 mins
As some voluntarily choose obliteration, others stay to fight the shadow monsters. As a battle rages, Yuri continues down into old Guild territory, looking for the computer nest of the Programmer who has been turning soulless students (NPC's) into shadow monsters. With fresh shadow monsters oozing from every crack, she figures she must be getting close. Finally, joined by Otonashi, Hinata, Naoi and Angel, she reaches the secret computer room where she encounters a mysterious youth and a chance to become - God.
Episode 13
Graduation
28 mins
Three days after her exploits in the underground computer room, Yuri awakens to a nearly deserted school. Only she, Otonashi, Hinata, Naoi and Kanade (Angel) are left. The rest have all moved on. Nothing left to do but graduate from this afterlife existence, which they do but with all the proper trimmings first. Once everyone but Kanade has gone, Otonashi expresses a last minute change of heart, and Kanade finally shares a secret connection that she's had with him all along.
Episode 14
Stairway to Heaven
24 mins
Instructing Afterlife Battlefront members to act hyped-up all day long, Yuri hopes to force Angel into contacting God.
Episode 15
Hell's Kitchen
29 mins
The Afterlife Battlefront members hold a competition where they attempt to kill each other during a picnic.
