These past few days I've been watching the anime Angel Beats. It's already been a while since the anime came out - that was back around April to June 2010 - which is typical for me. I tend to watch older anime first and then gradually work my way up to more recent animes, so I guess I've been making pretty good progress if I'm able to watch some 2010 animes from time to time. (I think there still might be a couple of 2007 animes that I haven't watched yet, like Shattered Angels. Funny that its name is also about angels. :p)

Well, as is the case with me and most animes I've watched, I wasn't particularly intrigued by the beginning, but it got better as it went on (I felt that way about Durarara!! too). I'll try not to spoil it for those of you who have not seen it and might want to see it in the future.

I've heard it mentioned before that Yuri Nakamura, one of the protagonists of Angel Beats!, resembles Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (otherwise called Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu).

Yuri Nakamura



Haruhi Suzumiya



They do look similar, and actually I think they are a bit similar in some ways personality-wise, being the forceful sort of person that takes charge of an oddball organization... Well, their looks aren't as similar as I'd originally thought, Haruhi seems to have thicker hair and different bangs - not to mention hair and eye color differences. So they can easily be told apart. I guess it is possible to still come up with unique characters, you'll just have to keep experimenting with styles, colors, personalities, heights, etc.

Anyhow, though, angels aren't really ordinary living people, and so that's what the anime's about - people who have died. They aren't really angels, nor are they shinigami. The most intriguing thing to me is how the characters can't live ordinary, peaceful lives as obedient students - they will disappear if they do. In other words, they can't follow the status quo. They have to do something different, and so they often do dramatic things that disrupt the status quo, the ordinary routines. And I wonder if I'll disappear, too, if I just go along with everything... I always feel restless, like I have to make a mark, carve myself a place in this world, if I don't wish to be forgotten.

That reminds me, too, of what my art teacher said. He (Mr. B) and another art teacher (Mr. S) don't really agree on what can be considered art. Mr. S says that not every chicken scratch or stick figure can be called art. Mr. B's view is that art is proof of your existence. It is what you put on the world to say, "I was here."










I do like Lia a lot - she's the original singer of the song "My Soul, Your Beats!", which is the opening theme of Angel Beats - but I think the cover sung by the Vocaloid Gumi is pretty nice too. I've recently been finding lots of nice songs by Gumi on Youtube that I hadn't seen before when I was browsing for songs. (Perhaps I should join Nico Nico Douga. According to a friend of mine, you don't need to be from Japan...You just need to somehow know enough Japanese to navigate the website. Some people do repost Nico videos onto Youtube, but there are probably still good songs and other stuff that never make it.)



I love this one, it's sung by Len (not the Vocaloid Len, just a singer who uses the name Len). It's actually in Russian, not the original Japanese, but I thought it sounded good nevertheless.

Labels: angel beats, anime, art, characters, chronological order, comparison, existence, haruhi suzumiya, life, meaning, my soul your beats, nico nico douga, pattern, proof, similar, song, time, yuri nakamura

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