The main protagonist of this anime.

The sixth 2010 anime I have chosen for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ audition is Angel Beats! The previous anime in the audition has already set the benchmark at (somewhat low) 8 out of 10, therefore the question is, can this anime (and the final four unreviewed 2010 titles listed at the right sidebar) exceeded that score and then become the first ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title winner?

And this is the best character in this anime.

Story:-
The main male protagonist wakes up at a high school, and he finds out that he has lost all of his memories. Then a spunky female student appears and told him that he has died, and asked whether he wants to join her terrorist organization. Deciding that she is just crazy, the main protagonist walks away and encountered another female student who has white hair (read: EVIL). The main protagonist haven’t even done anything wrong but the white-haired female student suddenly stabbed him on the chest, killing him instantly. THE END.

This anime starts very slowly as you can listen to some singing, then some sob stories of the week and then some ‘disappearing’. But after a few episodes, the best character in this anime (which is not the main protagonist) takes center stage and this anime actually become more watchable. And funnier too, even if she isn’t in the scene. The anime continues with great pacing and decent story development all the way until episode 10, which focused on the said best character of this anime and resulted on her ‘disappearance’ too. At exactly that point, this anime dies with her too. And this is where my first complaint about this anime will come: the ending arc.

The ending arc is ruined by a usage of a plot device that was written in completely based on the flow of the character developments in this anime, instead of relying on the usual story developments that any other normal anime series do, such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. All the plots from the previous ten episodes went up in air just like that, no links whatsoever with the ending arc. This anime can be reduced to 6 episodes and I bet you won’t miss anything major.

Then there is THAT ‘revelation’ in the final 5 minutes of the last episode. Instead of becoming a very good plot twist, the revelation managed to become utterly pointless instead, just like what you can see in the same scene in the penultimate episode of Allison & Lillia. This is a huge opportunity missed by whoever wrote the story of this anime. Think about it, if the white-haired evil female student makes that revelation in the first episode when she fatally stabbed the main protagonist, this anime would have turned out very differently. And highly likely, for the better too. This anime could have become a romance title too.

My second complaint about this anime relates to its atrocious character developments. There are so many characters in this anime whose background still remains a mystery even after the final episode finished playing. Safe to say, if any given character doesn’t have their own sob story of the week, that character simply has stagnant character developments. And this actually applies to two-thirds of the members of the terrorist organization. The best character in this anime has the best sob story of the week, and has episode 10 (best episode in this anime) dedicated solely for her alone. She is basically this anime’s own version of Ibuki Fuko.

The main protagonist attracts plenty of attention from the same gender…

Character Design:-
Character designs in this anime is just average. And there are no black hairs in this anime, but considering the Bleach-like universe setting, I will just probably overlook it.

Voice Acting:-
Voice acting in this anime is great overall. Special mention should be given to the best character of this anime, the main protagonist and that hypnotic guy who has a crush on him. A positive aspect for this anime.

Music:-
This anime has great OST but none of the OP/ED themes or the inserts are any good.

…and this is another member of his same-sex harem group.

Animation/Direction:-
After two headaches-free anime reviews in the form of Nodame Cantabile Finale and Hakuouki, the bad animation technique that plagues the first three anime titles in this audition, amongst others, made its return. To make it worse, just like Arakawa Under The Bridge, this anime also uses it in normal scenes in addition in fast-paced scenes. There, I’m slapping this tag on this anime and docked one point off this anime final evaluation.

Just like Mayoi Neko Overrun!, this anime also has some problems like jerky character animations in both normal and fast-paced scenes. And just like Mayoi Neko Overrun!, this anime has very good general animations. Some of the nature animations like falling snowflakes are really good, almost on par with Makoto Shinkai’s gigs. Choreography in all of the action scenes in this anime are just average. The director employed some unorthodox camera works especially during the terrorist organization’s mission, which is nice. That’s the only good thing he/she has done though.

The main protagonist spends a lot of time together with his captive harem members…

Conclusion:-
6 out of 10. Hakuouki managed to keep its front-runner status for the ‘Anime of the Year 2010’ title. Now it is increasingly likely that the first winner of the title will not be doing so with a perfect score. Now there are only four anime titles left in this audition: Ookiku Furikabutte S2, Durarara, Working and B gata H kei. Which one will come next? You will only get the answer in the next entry.

…but the competition for the main protagonist's attention do get a little bit heated sometimes.

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