As I said, I’ve put my money on clone or her defence program going rogue or something like that. Or maybe ‘Tenshi’ is an aspect of Tachibana Kanade or something like that. All wild speculation at this point. If I have learnt anything from sci-fi, though, is that all clones are evil. If this is rogue AI, then one rendition of Daisy Bell and the SSS are all doomed.

Do I know where I’m going with this? Not really, but I must say that the idea of Kanade having the ability to split into two people is interesting, I mean you could just chalk it up to her “Guard Skill” but It’s still a little weird in my opinion, I mean why would she need something like that in the first place?

Though from your post Passerby I guess we could just say its all for the sake of shock-plot development… but it would be nice to actually have some meaning behind it. *sigh*, I think that’s all I wanted to say… *bows to passerby* Sorry for interrupting your flow, keep it up! *flees out doorway*

With that in mind, let’s consider:

-Angel Beats! 7- “Alive”

or

“My complexes give me superpowers!”

What happened to Naoi? He limelighted as a major villain for about an episode and in a flash has been reduced to yet another gag character in the ever expanding gallery. Not that I really mind; the speed at which they tried to develop him was too fast to build empathy, and making him funny is the second-best option. At least now no one has to take him seriously.

Actually, I’ll have to correct myself. Naoi has an extra role: plot device. In this episode, his psychic powers are needed to unlock Otonashi’s memories so we can have his story too. Yuri is so casual about it. “Hey, you have these dangerous mind warping abilities that drove me cataconic. Do it to Otonashi too”. If she really wanted to fix Otonashi’s memory she should just have knocked him over the head in episode 1; it’d have been faster and less awkward.

By the way, it’s funny it’s always the messed up ones who get awesome powers. I can’t even begin to list the flavours of psychosis that is Naoi. It’s like how blind people naturally have crazy elocution skills and all autistics are human calculators. There’s a strange kind of karma at work. Apparently Naoi’s superpowers are justified by having every complex under the sun and having to hang uncomfortably close to Otonashi for the rest of the series.

Speaking of which, Naoi’s personality 360 in regards to Otonashi may be vaguely disturbing, but we should see this as truly a new era of anime. Otonashi is a modern age protagonist. Traditionally, being the male lead entitles him to get all the girls. In this new era, he also gets all the guys.

Yes, that means Noda is actually a tsundere. Ruminate on this for a moment.

Moving on and away from that line of thought, this episode was actually Otonashi’s episode. You’d think there’d be a bit more fanfare to the whole backstory, but instead it was just another flashback. A very familiar flashback, actually, one that brings memories of Clannad. It was about time the magical Key disease finally reared its ugly head again, and of course it is saved for our new-age protagonist. Apparently, in his past life Otonashi has depression and motivation disorder, but can’t afford therapy. His only ray of redeeming light is his sister. A familiar story indeed, but although Otonashi’s sister plays a familiar role to Ushio, Ushio had the advantage of many more episodes of development as well as a mother we had gotten to know over an entire season. Otonashi’s sister is…cute? Sure, it’s sad when she dies (in the snow) but that’s it. Otonashi has an epiphany, sorts out his life, and…dies in an accident? There’s no tragedy anymore, just random. I think Otonashi agrees, because his personality does not change one bit after the flashback. A bit of tears, then business is usual.

The fishing was amusing, and one strong point of Angel Beats is that it never fails to amuse. But surely Otonashi could have been afforded a full episode of backstory? The limited episode run does not help the story at all. All of Otonashi’s flashback is promptly forgotten in the face of Kanade’s evil clone (rogue AI or whatever it is). Could we have waited? Angel Beats is full of ideas but not enough time to realize them all. I think I’ll keep saying this every week, but it could use a more episodes and more organisation. It’s a bit late at this point in the game for Angel Beats to rethink what it wants to do with itself, so I can only hope it all leads to a big idea somewhere down the line.

Factoid of the week: Otonashi is immortal, and does not age.

Maybe I’ll just settle for looking like a fairly half-hearted spammer. I can compromise.

Starting my own blog sounds awfully like real work, and that just won’t do. Dustin can have this thunder back when he decides the weekend pay just isn’t worth it. Until then…

[Insert evil cackle here.]

Sadly, I can’t do any pictures, seizure worthy or otherwise. Unless I try ASCII art…no, that’s terrifying. Let’s not.