Angel Beats Episode 4

This post is oozing with love!

This post will contain about 148% more positive words than yesterday’s post. Not that it would be hard to accomplish that but you know. XD

But yes Angel Beats makes me happy. This episode was less structured than the previous episodes but I think it was important to not be super serious all the time. Even if the characters all might be “dead”.

It is time for screenies, sad back stories, and baseball! Batter up!!!

No one likes you. XO

Episode Summary: The SSS are interviewing new candidates for the Dead Girl Monster’s lead singer as Iwasawa disappeared last episode (insert sad face here). Yui, the crazy fan girl from last week, has offered to take on that position and her try out song ends up being the opening theme song this week. Most of the SSS members are not impressed. Yuri is sad that they won’t be able to use the Dead Girl Monster as a distraction for the upcoming baseball tournament so she goes to plan B. She wants the SSS members to participate in the games illegally and cause Tenshi to get all pissed. The first part of the episode is devoted to Hinata trying to gather members for his team but getting turned down by “good members”. He is forced to have a very loop sided group and Otonashi senses doom in their future. Throughout the episode it is clear that Hinata’s back story is going to be revealed. He was a baseball player when he was alive and it is implied that he lost an important game.

MORTAL KOMBAT!

The day of the game arrives and Yuri watches from headquarters as her minions participate in the games. The SSS members are told to win or they will be punished. Hinata’s group does well as Otonashi is actually a very good pitcher and Shiina is a pretty decent player. Tenshi gets wind of the SSS group trying to ruin things and competes with her own group, made up only of the baseball players. Soon Tenshi battles Hinata’s group and things get tough. Suddenly it gets down to one final point and Hinata starts to shake. He tells Otonashi that in his past life he lost a huge baseball game and he was shunned by his peers. He was then given some drugs by his coach. Otonashi realizes that if Hinata relives his past moments and succeeds this time (actually catching the pop ball) he will disappear. It is a dramatic moment to save Hinata from disappearing but Yui, who has been picked on all episode by Hinata, clocks him and the ball is not caught. Hinata is saved, Tenshi wins, and Yuri is pissed. But Hinata lives and that’s all that matters.

Extremely stressful for Otonashi. XD

That was a bit stressful to watch. Last week it was all fun and games until Iwasawa disappeared. Now I am going to worry about anyone getting screen time in future episodes. That means they are in danger of reaching peace and another SSS member will poof on us. And since I really like Hinata I was spending most of the episode worrying. But now that he is safe the episode is awesome. XD

It's all going according to plan!!!

Well maybe not the entire episode was awesome. The entire plan against Tenshi was a bit shaky. More like um we are out of good ideas on how to destroy/really piss of Tenshi so we are going to mildly annoy her instead. The Haruhi factor was up in this episode as well. The cackling in headquarters, the threatening of the minions, and the general let’s do something stupid and pretend it’s all important factor. XD So yeah, not really feeling the urgency of this episode but that’s fine. Thinking back stealing meal tickets wasn’t really important either. I guess the guns clouded my vision a bit.

Surely we shall die.

This episode also was a bit Clannad like with the baseball theme. Both The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Clannad had rag tag teams of baseball players who pulled off victories despite the odds (even though some magic was involved in Haruhi). Random characters who really can’t play baseball, people that captain loathe and rather see eaten alive by ants, and useless girls. I wish they had more useless boys because it’s too easy to go with useless girls all the time. Ah memories of being stuck in outfield and picked last for teams. XD

Isn't this more balance than concentration?

Hinata picking his team was pretty entertaining. I thought Yui was a bit over the top with her constant “they are an idiot comments” considering she is one herself but meh. I thought that Shiina was entertaining with her anger over Otonashi outlasting her in the second episode. Not sure what the broom really proves but okay. I really could have done without Yui’s friends though. The Dead Girl Monster girls would have been a better choice but that would make sense people.

XD love it.

My favorite recruitment scene was Matsushita denying Hinata XO. Hinata was talking about loyalty and he has just gotten burnt by some of his other friends. He talked up Matsushita to Otonashi and when he got turned down it was dramatic. And Otonashi proved his Kyonness by twisting that knife a little bit in Hinata’s back. XD I love these two together both as friends and because of my yaoi fan girl tendencies.
The actual baseball game itself was a bit boring only because I am not into sports. XD But this rag tag team was pretty good and yay points right? At least no one sparkled. But an epic speech of randomness would have been nice.

Pay not attention to the yaoi fan girl behind the laptop.

I like how Hinata’s back story wasn’t randomly thrown into Otonashi’s face this week. It progressed slowly throughout the episode and it came more naturally in my mind that Yuri’s and Iwasawa’s. I think that Otonashi will start being more proactive in asking the SSS members about how they died rather than wait for them to tell him.

I wish to hug him. :(

Which of course doesn’t matter since no one has told Otonashi how they died goes to the whole theory that either all these kids committed suicide or they attempted to and are still alive in some way in the real world. We can assume that Hinata’s death has something to do with drugs though. Not that he told Otonashi though….

The logical step to losing a baseball game is to do drugs. Obviously.

Hinata’s back story isn’t as sad as Yuri’s and Iwasawa’s. He missed a pop ball during a high school baseball game. He wasn’t injuried by his parents or subjected to the death of his three siblings. In the grand scheme of things what happened to Hinata was pretty common and not that big of a deal. When you are a teenager everything seems like the end of the world though. Devoted three years to your life to a sport and losing during an important moment is pretty crappy. But you will grow up and get a job and your life will go on. That moment will not define the rest of your life. Unless of course you are Hinata’s coach who thinks drug is the answer? Like seriously wtf was that all about?!

Hard to take screenies to capture the moment. :(

I do like that Otonashi has caught on fast to how things work in this world. It makes me wonder why Yuri hasn’t caught on yet but since I think she is denial about how this world works it makes sense. I love how Otonashi was willing to throw the game so he could save his friend. The tense was really high and I felt sick to my stomach knowing that Hinata was going to catch that ball. I mean, we do want everyone to be healed and move on (wherever that is) but since I like Hinata I don’t want him to disappear yet. Which make me a bad person in some way.

Clearly he is rescued....clearly.

I am not sure how I feel about Yui saving Hinata. I think I wanted Otonashi to save Hinata because it would be sweet and lovely in my mind and cement that Otonashi is really important to saving everyone. But then Otonashi would be on Yuri’s bad side and we can’t be having that. Yui was annoying the whole episode but it works that she would be the one to clobber Hinata. So while the episode didn’t end on a serious happy note it ended on a funny happy note which works for me. Yay for Hinata being alive. I don’t want him to suffer but if my theory is correct he can wake up with everyone else at the end of the series. Only looking the way he does now…

So I liked this episode. XD No dead Hinata, Yuri being weird, and the back story being revealed in a new way. I am happy. But now I have to go to work. I shall cling to this happiness. May it last all night! XD