Angel Beats!/Headscratchers

• So apparently, your memories are stored in your heart?
  • It's a series about the afterlife and/or purgatory. If you can't take a little metaphor then maybe you need to switch to documentaries.
• Um, I hate to poop all over Otonashi's belief that he's helped people by signing a donor card, but can't organs only come from a person who has died on life support? By the time the rescue workers retrieved his body and got it out his organs would have failed and be useless. Heck even the card he says "In the event of brain death" i.e. when a person's brain dies but the body doesn't which I am pretty sure only likely to happen in very specific circumstances - dying whilst on life support, and some forms of suicide. I just find it depressing that all things considered, he didn't achieve his life wish.
  • Wrong. The entire reason why donor cards exist on driver's licences is so that emergency personnel who arrive on the scene know to prepare your (hopefully) recently deceased body for the preservation of your organs. The brain is a very fragile organ, requiring a constant supply of oxygen to function properly, but the rest of the body's organs and muscles are very hardy in a healthy individual. It takes a while for the cells in those organs to starve to death from a lack of oxygen (as O2 is required in metabolism, not in second to second functioning), giving medical personnel time to remove, freeze, and implant them into another individual. While in the broader scheme of things, it is indeed a longshot that the organs will be in perfect condition for transplanting into someone else (and even a longer shot that the organs are not rejected by the body), there is enough of a demand and little enough of a supply that it is pretty much worth it. The few organs that hospitals get from this method are still lifesavers, and that's all anyone should care about. Did Otonashi save someone by registering to donate his organs? In all likelihood, probably not. Maybe, but probably not. Was he a massive inspiration to everyone who was saved, people who will probably tell his story for quite some time? HELL YEAH! Otonashi saved someone, either directly through organ donation or by simply being badass enough to become a legend among the survivors. Heck, he might even be posthumously honored by the city, getting a statue and all that.
    • Thanks, you've actually allayed something that has had be bummed since I watched the episode. I forgot about the net effect he had on other survivors and of the stories they would tell. I also didn't think being on the body at time of death was what donor cards were for... which, looking at it now I should realise is a 'well duh' thing. I actually do carry mine around but I'll be sure to hang on to it even more-so with this in mind in future. Actually, getting meta, I wonder if this episode might prompt some people who watched it to sign a donor card?
    • Actually, he did save someone. Kanade reveals in the last episode that he saved her from a heart condition.
      • I sure hope so. Unfortunately though, the series is not that famous..yet.
      • Isn't it bad for him because he had internal bleeding?
• Why is the reason that people disappear presented as such a revelation in episode 9? It is obvious from quite early on that this happens when people have no more regrets about their previous lives and that Angel has nothing to do with it.
  • Of course, Angel could be lying.
  • Related to the previous point: the SSS fights Angel because its members want to stay in the world they're in. Seen in this light, making them find peace and thus disappear would actually be a rather nasty trick, akin to outright killing them for real. Nobody knows exactly what happens when people vanish; they might simply disappear completely, or even wind up in some sort of hell and be tortured forever! Still, Otonashi's actions are presented as something noble.
    • They are not "tricked into" disappearing, it was made clear in their internal monologue before their end, that they all only disappear when they are OK with disappearing. When they consciously decide that they would rather close their past life right now and continue to the unknown than to keep fooling around in this weird place. It is never like "Ooops, it seems hitting a homerun was my key to moving on, and you tricked me into doing it, you traitor! Help, guys, I'm dissolving!"
  • Basically, because it's not obvious to them. It's obvious to the viewer because we have an outside perspective. To the characters people are just suddenly gone... they might not even be seen disappearing, they just don't show up one day. Since people disappear when they find peace and happiness, they can't exactly come back and tell everyone else that disappearing is a good thing.
• Even though I think Yui's story and resolution is presented in a wonderfully emotional fashion, I find it rather odd that someone is supposed to get over their regrets just by playing pretend. She did not get married, not in the previous life nor in the next one. Hinata simply told her he would have done so, and he may not even have been truthful. She also didn't seem very picky about whom she wanted to marry--she asked Otonashi first after all.
  • It wasn't a matter of loving someone, it was a matter of being loved. She felt useless because in her real life she could do pretty much nothing with herself, and was convinced that no-one beyond her own mother could have feelings for her. Cue Hinata and his Crowning Moment of Heartwarming in which he declares that he would have loved her anyway, giving her a feeling of self-worth and a reason to pass on.
• Why does Yuri tell everybody to prepare for "passing on", when she is still working on the solution of the shadow NPC problem and even seems to be rather close to solving it? Moreover, why does she go about it on her own? It's heroic and all, but doesn't make any sense, when you think of it.
  • The longer everyone is still in purgatory, the higher probability that they'll get taken over. Yui was basically telling everyone that they should all get outta Dodge as quickly as possible because if she failed in her mission to stop the shadows, it would've be the end of any long term residency in that part of the afterlife. Pretty much an "abandon ship" order.
    • I know that, but I'm saying it doesn't make much sense. She should have issued the orderafter it becomes clear that the shadows can't be stopped. Moreover, she would have a better change of succeeding if she accepted help. It's completely out of character for her.
      • Because going with her may mean death from shadows. She doesn't know if she'll be successful herself, that's why she doesn't ask them to follow her but tells them to make their own choices instead. Though she knew she had to be successful, Yuri understands the chances of that are low. It's not so much more people with her = better chances of success but more people with her = less she can focus to protect them.
• In the second episode...exactly how did TK manage to hold up that giant slab of rock long enough for the others to escape? And if one person could hold it up, why couldn't they all pitch in and need no sacrifice?
  • Rule of Cool?
  • Don't forget, TK is many times stronger than the rest of the cast put together.
  • More evidence in episode 12: TK's spinning kicks seemingly defeat (or at least knock out) several shadows in one hit, while the rest of the cast has to fight the shadows using guns. Maybe he's just that strong?
• If amnesia in the afterlife can be caused by head trauma at the time of death, shouldn't a character who died after suffering a stroke due to a blow to the head still be paralyzed?
  • That would remove the whole point of the purgatory, which was to give children/teenagers the happy youth they never had in order to help them pass on. Keeping the person paralyzed while in the afterlife wouldn't help this much. It's also been shown that the SSS doesn't know nearly as much about the afterlife school as they believe they do.
• If Angel has her passive skill Overdrive that grants her Super Strength, and that ability is passed on to the clones, then how come the Angel clones couldn't even manage to lift a corpse off of themselves?
  • Err, the blades did go pretty deep into the sacrificed SSS members, and it's not easy to pull out a blade which has been embedded pretty deep. They still have bones and stuff you know, and many of the guys are quite tough.
  • if that's the case, couldn't she just deactivate Hand Sonic and then push the corpse with Overdrive?
  • for Matsuhida 5dan, I could say its understandable since Yuri said Matsuhida taught them Judo(?) and with some of the cast (notably TK and Takamatsu, since they're strong) but for those who have low strength, I guess its rule of funny?
  • Well, the only other * logical* possibility would be all the clones were said to have had individual consciousness, so each one never had any experience trying to deal with an opponent who simply used their body as a pinning sacrifice.
  • I always figured it was just one long parody of Heroic Sacrifice, and that we shouldn't sweat too much over the details because then it wouldn't be nearly as funny.
• How did Otonashi lose his memories if he didn't die being hit on the head, but dies from hunger, or thirst?
  • As it should be obvious by now, SSS doesn't know nearly as much about the Afterlife as they think they do. Perhaps they just drew the wrong conclusions (like usual).
  • Yeah, the problem is Angel also says the same thing...
  • Explained in the 12th episode. Every so often somebody who's lived a fulfilling life comes into the afterlife because of amnesia. He was just un/lucky.
  • This has to do more with Japanese thinking of where the 'soul' is. Similar to Egyptians the Japanese see the soul as existing in the center of your body, ie. your heart. It's explained pretty well on the notes for the Wedding Peach manga because that's where Peach launches her heart/love attacks, from the center of her body under the solar plexis, the center of her soul. Without his heart Otonashi is essentially missing his 'soul' or by extension, his memories.
    • If you are fulfilled you could easily "disappear" from purgatory. Normally you only come to that purgatory if you died unfulfilled in your life. Otonashi died content he would have just disappeared the moment he woke up. He may have been sent there as part of a Xanatos Gambit by God to help the SSS members pass on as well as fulfill Angel's wish to thank Otonashi for the heart he donated.
• Why did Yuzuru confess his love to Kanade again if he knew she was going to disappear if he confessed his feelings? He wanted her to stay with him forever so that he'd never be lonely again...
  • Perhaps he was resigning himself to the fact that they really would need to move on. I mean, it wouldn't be him if he were to try to keep her there by withholding his feelings. Besides, they do meet again after.
• Why did Kanade wind up in that world, when she survived thanks to Otonashi's donated heart?. The only reason I can think of is that people don't necessarily have to die at a young age to get stuck there. But then it's still strange that she appeared long before Otonashi did, unless the time of death is unrelated to the time of appearance. Oh, my brain!
  • Perhaps the heart didn't last long, or she had a sudden death of some other variety, like a car crash. If I remember correctly, wasn't it also said that she had never graduated before? From that I would assume that she died early. I don't understand why she was there first either though.
  • He got there on accident while 'wandering' because of his amnesia, right? It could've taken a while for him to reach that world, instead of going there immediately / very soon after his death like the others (presumably) did.
    • The fact that he arrived in purgatory without his heart could very well be a good hint to this assuming this isn't just a case of Narnia Time.
    • This purgatory is where people end up in when they have shit childhoods. When they die is meaningless, Yuri's childhood was stolen when her siblings were killed she could have lived to 20, 40, or a hundred. It's irrelevant, her childhood was shit. Otonashi is there because his childhood was spent caring for sick a sister who died anyway he had no good childhood because of that. Kanade is there because she had the regret that she never got to say thank you to the man who's heart saved her life She could have also lived to a hundred. When you arrive in this purgatory is irrelevant but God, who obviously must exist because nobody else could create an afterlife, obviously cared about Kanade and Otonashi enough to send them at different relative points in time so they could fulfil each other's desires plus he's a major bro for setting them up together afterwards too.
    • From what I remember, Kanade herself didn't technically regret her life, she regretted the fact that she couldn't thank the heart donor, and she said that in trying to find them (Obviously someone who donated their HEART would be dead and in the afterlife) she wandered into this world. So in a way, she was just like Otonashi in that she ended up in this world by accident, which could mean that they arrived at different times because it wasn't directly after their death.
  • Also, if you believe in the theory that Otonashi was sent down from heaven or by God, not by accident, then his late arrival would make a bit more sense, as the timing (and in some way, his amnesia) is convenient as he joins the SSS (but remains somewhat doubtful of their actions against God and 'Angel'), gains their trust, befriends Kanade and eventually helps both sides reconcile, then he proceeds to help everyone pass on, and the most important one that he helps is Kanade, since it is his heart that Kanade received, he is the only one that can truly give her what she wants, the chance to thank her saviour.
• So ... what happens to "Purgatory" world now ? It's obviously being repopulated when Otonashi and Kaede leave, and Otonashi even mentions that Purgatory is being repopulated with NPCS and the second-chancers, even after Yuri destroyed the second computer room running the place. Wouldn't removing the no love and thus no attachments rule, essentially lead to a worse situation, since new arrivals could be stuck there forever like the creator if they fall in love with a disappearing second-chancer?
  • It'll go on as it has. Maybe it'll change with the times, maybe it'll stay the same. The SSS aren't the first group to stop by and they won't be the last. As for the minor bugs with it, who ever said it was perfect? Maintenance probably stops by every once in a while to get the ball rolling once more for everyone.
    • According to the other epilogue, yeah, "Purgatory" is still the same.
• Okay, so Kanade survived some sort of illness/accident using Otonashi's heart. But if that's the case, how did she end up in the afterlife BEFORE him?
  • I can think of two reasons off hand. One would be that purgatory exists outside the normal concept of time making chronological order meaningless. The second one, less likely but would make more sense is that Kanade is in fact wrong and possesses someone else's heart. The fact that Otonashi recovered the rest of his memories simply by being near Kanade can be passed off as just a coincidence.
    • An alternative, and plausible answer: With no memories to guide him where to go, he was 'lost' for a long time. If he was wandering around with no idea where to go it would have delayed his arrival.
      • Otonashi was sent specifically to help Kanade move on, because otherwise she would forever be waiting.
    • Hadn't this question already been asked already? Do we need double entries?
• From what I understand, the SSS have taken over the school's principal's office for use as their headquarters/meeting room. I'm just curious as to why the faculty never try to do anything about this. I know NPCs generally brush everything off, but they have shown some exasperation with their antics and will makes moves if propped enough, like during the concert in episode 3. Or are they just tired of getting launched out of the building by that giant hammer trap?
  • I don't recall which episode it was exactly, but it was revealed in an episode that, pretty much, no matter what the SSS did, it would be considered "normal" by all the other NPCs. That's why in the sixth episode they're able to get away with eating chips in class, playing a board game, shirtless pushups, going to the bathroom every minute (literally) and sleeping in class (over three student's tables, while they're taking notes no less!)
• Why hasn't anyone tried to move beyond those hills? What's beyond them? There's no mention of it anywhere in the series.
  • On a related note: where do the vapor trails in the picture as shown on the main page come from? Does that world have planes? If so, where do they come from?
  • According to the third drama CD, physical terrain blocks them from moving further... But what if you could fly over it?
  • The light novel describes the terrain as slowly fading out into thick mist and fog outside the bounds of the school, which probably acts as a type of Enclosed Space / Closed Circle.
• The world of Angel Beats resembles the real world quite a bit, to the point that there's is even a sky filled with stars. Now, what would happen if people would look at that sky with a telescope? Would they see the planets normally, or discern galaxies? If so, that world must be rather vast in and of itself. Actually, the same question applies to all series with an alternate or virtual reality, such as the one in The Matrix.
  • Whoever created the world could just as easily project a simulation of the universe visible from Earth that looks just like the real thing, without needing to actually create the various celestial bodies and place them millions of miles away. Presumably.
• Otonashi's Dead Little Sister is heavily implied to have died while he had her out of the hospital without permission. How did he not get in serious trouble for that?
  • Actually, I gathered she died in hospital. The trip was shown since it was important to Otonashi, being the last time he could be with his sister.
• Why on Earth did it take an entire week for help to arrive at the train crash? And why did that guy think it was a good idea to try to run off with some stolen water... in an enclosed space?
  • We don't know the circumstances of the crash. If it had happened as a result of an earthquake (not unheard of in Japan) there would have been major issues concerning structural integrity while digging; it does no good to dig a passage to them if it's going to collapse the rest of the tunnel. In such a case, with all other possible damage to the surrounding area, it could easily be a week until any disaster relief could get close to the crash to dig them out. As for the latter, stress makes people do irrational things.
• If they can make whatever they can remember from using only dirt, why can't they make food? And why does Otonashi end up with just one meal ticket, when they literally get a couple thousand from Operation Tornado?
  • I just assumed it was how their world works. Maybe the structure of food is too complicated to recreate perfectly, or they just didn't want to take any chances. And yeah, that was weird, but maybe he only managed to grab one because, I dunno, he was running from Angel or something.
  • I always assumed that the SSS collected as many tickets as they could afterwards and then gave them out amongst the members until another Operation Tornado was required.
  • It's not about making food, it's about taking food. Angel Beats: Track Zero (the light novel that details the beginnings of the Battlefront) mentions that all of the students have stipends for food purchases that they can draw money from by requesting it at the school office. Operation Tornado isn't something they do so that they can eat, it's something they do because everybody thinks that breaking rules will prevent them from being erased. Monster Stream is the same way, because they're skipping school in order to go fishing.
• Why do they need to eat? Presumably, since one can survive without a heart, they wouldn't need a stomach or anything either.
  • Maybe Otonashi's a special case? Since Kanade had to have some way of knowing who donated her heart to her?
  • They can't really die, but starving just isn't a pleasant feeling.
• What happens if someone dies in an enclosed space, with not enough room for another body? Or if their body is split, what if the parts can't come back together? If someone is stuck in an enclosed room or a deathtrap, wouldn't they not be able to go anywhere?
  • Yeah, probably. Of course, Deus Ex Machina can always work too, since it can be justified due to the overall situation.
• Why doesn't anyone use Angel Player to alter reality, or give themselves powers? Is there some reason why they can't?
  • If the third drama CD is to be believed, with sufficient time and coding prowess, one can indeed change reality.
• A minor thing, but in the second computer room, the monitor behind his head displays two hearts on either side of his head sometimes, and a single heart directly behind his head other times.
  • Different monitors, and different camera angles catch either one or both? (hasn't checked the scene)
• The Guild: why exactly are there so many children with weapons-making prowess in the afterlife in this day and age? Adults would be improbable enough, but teenagers? And this is only from Japan, remember; nowhere else, where the situation is that much less stable. Even allowing for the fact that these are people who have led explicitly unhappy (and probably often rough) lives, it seems rather unlikely.
  • Most of these people may not have even known what the weapons looked like before dying, so long as one person could make the machine there is no reason someone else couldn't work it.
  • Military Otaku exist, either model makers or sometimes actually military nuts. My guess is the Guild leader was one, and then once he made one, he broke it down and showed everyone else how it worked. even then I think it's more about familiarity with the weapon over knowing the science of making it. The large-bore cannon they tried to make failed, even though its probably the same principles as the other guns or rockets.
  • Char (The Guild leader) is heavily implied (if not outright stated) in the prequel novel to have been associated with the Yakuza or something similar. As I recall, he only ever made handguns, but that could have been due to lack of manpower, not seeing the need for anything powerful, or not knowing how to make anything else. Unfortunately, Track Zero! ends with the battlefront consisting of only Yuri, Hinata, Char, Ooyama, Noda, and Shiina, so there's no indication as to whether he taught the other guild members or if they brought their own knowledge.

• During the third episode, why did, when the teachers stop the concert, they actively try to throw Iwasawa's guitar away? I don't claim to be an expert on how NPC's work, but it seems that they would more realistically just confiscate it, instead of just "Hurp Durp, we'll throw it out." The whole reason that confiscation rules exist is so teachers don't just destroy and throw away items that students may have worked hard to get, or may be sentimentally valuable to them.
  • I always assumed it's because of something Angel did.
  • Well she may have decided to stay there forever if she thought she felt she could feel fulfilled by playing for the people in purgatory. After all When love was detected in their world someone decided to create the shadows to intervene since that may cause them to decide and STAY in purgatory. Or it could be that god decided to pull a Gambit to get her to move one.
  • The teacher was probably just exaggerating the punishment to threaten Girl De Mo to stop the concert.

• In Yuri's flashback, before her death, she's seen as a child, so why is it she appears as a teenager in the afterlife?
  • We never learn how Yuri died, only what happened to her in life that caused her to end up in this afterlife. She could have died several years after her siblings were killed and still ended up where she did if she never forgave herself.
  • Considering how she responded to Otonashi in episode 2 when he asked her it seems she committed suicide eventually after her siblings were killed.

• Due to Executive Meddling the show's length was cut in half, leaving us with lots of unexplained back stories and a couple plot holes. Why isn't there a book or website where the creators talk about the things that didn't get in the show?
  • In a prequel-ish series Angel Beats! Heaven's Door it shows the SSS being formed so this may be their solution to this. The series at this point is only about 15 chapters though, with irregular releases. Also, a second epilogue was released with Otonashi staying to help students adapt to the school and eventually pass on, while he awaits Angel's return so a second season or another series is possible. Though it's uncertain if that will take. Plus I kinda like the first epilogue better.

• The SSS is fighting against Angel and God for a good part of the series then have Kanade join to fight the shadow monsters. Perhaps I've just missed this but who or what is God of their afterlife world? Was it the Programmer that Yuri and the Mysterious Youth were talking about at the end of ep. 12? Then, who is the Programmer?
  • There is no God, or at least he never puts in an appearance. Yuri stops wanting to destroy him as part of her moving on and coming closer to reincarnating (like a kid stopping trying to see Santa after learning he isn't real.) The Programmer was another human who got trapped in the Afterlife do to having an unfulfillable desire.

• So why Yuzuru's Dead Little Sister never have showed up or hinted to have shown up in this purgatory since her case is something similar to Yui? Sequel perhaps?
  • Yui was completely bedridden and unable to do anything except watch television, and wanted to try some of the things she saw. That is why she ended up in purgatory. Hatsune was only sick (as opposed to being paralyzed), had a reasonably good (albeit short) life, and never really expressed a desire to do anything aside from spending time with her brother. A better analogy would be Kanade, who, despite dying at a young age from health problems, had no problems with her life aside from being unable to thank her benefactor.
• Fridge Logic: I'm not sure if this is explained somewhere, but Kanade, who had received Otonashi's heart in a transplant, somehow managed to establish her system in the afterlife before Otonashi even arrived there.
  • Considering Otonashi came in through different circumstances and defied the rules of the afterlife world, one could argue that he was probably put there long after he died, and considering that heart transplants has a 14% mortality rate in women for the first year alone, it might not have even been all too long. Still, it's a bit of a stretch.
• Early on, Yuri claims that nothing with life can be born into this world. So why are there plants? Are the plants creations from somebody's memory? Or are they the souls of plants that had died on Earth? How can there be a giant sea creature? Did it live and die on Earth at some point? And if so, how could they kill and eat it? Wouldn't it have resurrected like the humans do? If plants and animals have souls and go to that world too, why doesn't that world have more of them? Do you know how many insects die every day? Unless there is more to that world than just the school grounds?
  • They must be NPC fish and NPC plants (or, most plants don't have souls, so they don't count.) Also, there are implied to be many other afterlives; this one is just for teenagers who lived tragic lives to enjoy the cheerful youth they never had.