Encyclopedia of the universe part 2 Angel Beats!
Yuri Nakamura (仲村 ゆり Nakamura Yuri) is the deuteragonist of Angel Beats! and the female protagonist of Heaven's Door. She is the founder and leader of the Afterlife-based school organization Afterlife Battle Front. She leads the campaign of a number of students who fight against God, whom they blame for their cruel fates.
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AppearanceEdit
Yuri's appearance
Yuri is a 160 cm tall (5'3) girl with upper-back length fuchsia-purple hair that has bangs hanging over eyebrows and sea-green eyes.
In the events prior to founding of the SSS, she wears the default school uniform, consisting of a white polo shirt under a sandy brown blazer and a short black pleated skirt along with black shoes. After she founded the SSS, she issues a different uniform to its members including herself, with features similar to a typical sailor fuku uniform. The uniform has a blue collar, skirt and a dark pink ribbon for girls. Yuri often holds a pistol (typically a 9mm Beretta M9, which is silver) in the anime.
She also wears black thigh-high socks and adorns her hair with a hairband that has a yellow/green ribbon dangling on the right side. At times she wears a white beret, most often in operation briefings, as well as glasses when she is using a computer.
As long as the SSS are gathered in the Anti-Angel Headquarters, Yuri will be seen either on the principal's seat, or standing by the window. It isn't said how long she has been in the afterlife. However, in the special episode "Hell's Kitchen", Yusa told her she would have been a grandma if she were still alive, indicating she could have been in this afterlife for over 40 years because she is quite young.
PersonalityEdit
Yuri possesses the traits of a charismatic leader, as her determination and her ability to stay calm even in difficult situations always earns her the respect of the rest of the SSS at the end of the day. She is very intelligent and able to understand situations and think on her feet. However, she can be somewhat scatterbrained at times, as she once involved newly-recruited Yuzuru Otonashi in a conference on whether the name of their club should be changed. Occasionally, she lets out a large, haughty, ojou-sama-esque laugh whenever events go her way. Yusa once commented that she sounds like a villain.
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Her nickname is "Yurippe", a nickname suggested by Hinata because his mother had the same name and he felt strange calling her that. Almost all of the known SSS members only call her by her nickname (except Otonashi, Shiina and Iwasawa). Despite being the leader, Yuri gives full respect to her other members as well. This is seen when Yuri calls Iwasawa and Shiina with "-san" at the end of their names, acknowledging their strengths and capabilities.
She is also not afraid to make necessary sacrifices, usually involving her subordinates' deaths since she is fully aware that they will recover from being "dead." Despite this, she feels responsible for the lives of her subordinates and is badly affected by their loss.[1] When it becomes obvious that a situation has arisen where death (or conditions similar to death) is permanent, she assumes the burden of fighting alone and attempts to ensure everyone else is safe [2] even if she knows that it is pretty much suicide.
Similar to how the anime stress on Angel loves for Mapo Tofu, in Heaven's Door and the 4-koma, it is heavily stressed that Yuri HATES nattō (even in her child days).
BackgroundEdit
Yuri with her parents and siblings before the tragedy.
This section contains content from the Angel Beats! anime series.
Yuri was the eldest of the four Nakamura siblings, with two younger sisters and one younger brother. They lived with their parents in a middle-class residence, and were described as being very well off in life.
When their parents left the house one day for personal business, a group of robbers broke in and attempted to rob the house. Unfortunately, they couldn't find where the family's valuables were, so they turned to Yuri, the eldest daughter, to take them to the family's prized possessions. They required she bring them valuables or else they would kill off her little siblings at ten-minute intervals. Yuri wasn't sure which items were particularly valuable, and fell while carrying a large vase down a flight of stairs. She wasted too much time and the robbers ended up murdering all her little siblings. She had never been told by her parents where in the house the expensive items were kept.
The way her sisters and brother were murdered is never clear, but images of blood splashed onto the walls shows that the robbers may have killed them brutally.
After that, she began to question life in a deeper manner, 'Why did her siblings have to die when they were just innocent children? How could she have lost everything within 30 minutes?' Her failure to save her siblings became her inspiration to incite a rebellion against the "higher being" who looks after the afterlife (who she assumes is God) and those who work for Him. She assumed Kanade to be an angel who worked for God upon meeting her, due to her position in the school as a regulator and disciplinary. Her initial viewing of her Hand Sonic ability also served to mark her, in Yuri's mind, as something supernatural or extraordinary (This is later disproved in episodes 3-12, where it is revealed Angel had been crafting her own abilities using a computer program called Angel Player).
The manga reveals that she died after being hit by a car while waiting at a bus stop. Yuri explained to Otonashi that the police arrived thirty minutes after her last sibling had been killed, but how the police knew about the murders is unclear.
PlotEdit
Yuri drags Hinata into a commotion inside the school.
Yuri, like all teenagers admitted to the school, is a student who is to undergo the curriculum designed to help them move on from regrets in their life. However, her past causes her to turn against the school, and this starts her founding of the Shinda Sekai Sensen (Afterlife War Front).
The Spark of the RebellionEdit
This section contains content from Angel Beats! Track Zero.
Yuri drags Hinata, a newly-admitted student to the Afterlife School, to her plans of luring God, which is her primary mission. Although she presents an inhumane approach to attain what she wants, she reconsiders her plans by Hinata's request.
Eventually, Yuri and Hinata become involved with an incident that causes them to discover the nature of the Student Council President's ability. She describes it as supernatural and thinks that she might be linked with God somehow. This marks the start of Yuri's attacks on the Student Council President, now referred to as "Angel".
The First GunshotsEdit
This section contains content from Angel Beats! Track Zero.
Their first encounter with modern weapons such as guns turned out to be a genuine experience for Yuri. Despite Hinata's warnings and her personal experiences with having someone injured by a gunshot, she still pursued the source of the gunshots — a fellow student named Chaa — culminating in a duel which Angel abruptly ended.
Chaa later agrees to join her mission, largely due to how much Yuri reminded him of his wife, and there Yuri learns from him how to create things in the afterlife from dirt. However, they are still unable to learn how to craft weapons, and so upon their descent to the underground tunnels Chaa discovered, they are unable to prepare themselves from the dangerous being that lived in its bottommost level: a mysterious girl named C7.
A Need to Join ForcesEdit
This section contains content from Angel Beats! Track Zero.
Yuri and Hinata — away from their companions Chaa and a new recruit named Ooyama — unexpectedly face Shiina on their quest to find another student named Noda, whom they just found wandering around in the underground. Since they are lacking vital weapons to defend themselves against Shiina, Yuri and Hinata retreat, with Hinata suffering terrible injuries from being a decoy. They later regroup with Chaa and Ooyama, and after barely managing to restrain Shiina, they head back to the surface to plan a follow-up attack against Shiina.
Although initially they were surprised by Shiina's emergence on the surface, Yuri successfully pulls off a team maneuver, defeating Shiina with some help from Hinata.
Later, with Noda tagging along with them, Yuri asks Shiina to join her crusade against God, which she agrees to hesitantly, and it is there that the Afterlife War Front is officially formed.
The Rebellion ResumesEdit
This section contains content from the Angel Beats! anime series.
An unknown period of time has passed since the first day of the Afterlife War Front, and Yuri's assault against Angel continues, although it has become such a chore to the point that even Yuri has experienced lack of interest in taking it seriously at times.
In one of her operations to assassinate the Student Council President, Yuri stumbles upon a boy named Otonashi, who like many of the students in the Afterlife have no idea about the current conflict. She witnesses Otonashi's "death" in the hands of Angel and brings him to the infirmary, where he eventually recovers. She then acts as Otonashi's guide in the afterlife before he decides to join the Afterlife War Front.
Operation DescentEdit
One of the primary concerns of Yuri involves the safety of the students who work under Chaa and the weaponry specialists in the Guild, a subdivision of the Afterlife War Front. In one of their routine trips to restock supplies, she initiates Operation Descent.
Guild discovers that due to the presence of Angel inside the Guild's compound, and Yuri must lead the SSS into the lowermost level of the Guild while surviving the traps laid for Angel. Only Yuri and Otonashi are left standing after Operation Descent, and they made it out alive, with Angel buried along with the entire base of the Guild. Yuri later oversees Guild's migration back into the Guild's old headquarters.
The Angel's True NatureEdit
Yuri soon pushes through plans to know more about their enemy. She orders SSS's computer hacker Takeyama to extract information from Angel's computer, but Iwasawa's disappearance in one of Girls Dead Monster's performances also unlocks a bigger revelation: that students of the afterlife can disappear on their own, even without Angel's direct intervention. Takeyama eventually reports his findings to Yuri, and the SSS discovers that their enemy is in fact gifted with powers that she herself crafted.
With this new insight on their enemy's nature, Yuri plans on dethroning Angel from her position as Student Council President by sabotaging her test papers. It turned out a success, with Angel's failures in all subjects enough grounds for dismissal from her position. However, it caused an unexpected turn of events to take the SSS by surprise.
Ayato Naoi, the Rebellion's NemesisEdit
By orders of the faculty, Ayato Naoi replaces his superior Angel (whose real name is Kanade Tachibana) as the Student Council President and immediately presents himself as a leader with an iron fist. He orders all of the members of the SSS to serve detention time, but this does not faze Yuri and the SSS. In fact, Yuri plans to test the limits of Naoi's intervention while trying to find out more about Naoi himself.
A battle soon broke out between the SSS (except for Otonashi, who is detained with Kanade due to an unrelated event) and Naoi and his personal army of NPCs that he hypnotized to do his bidding. The battle ended with the blood of the Afterlife Battlefront soaking the sports field, but Otonashi manages to rescue everyone by confronting Naoi face-to-face.
The Kanade Rescue MissionEdit
Without the duties of a Student Council President, Kanade becomes a simple part of the entire school body. While Yuri is still uncomfortable with Kanade's presence, she allows her to join the SSS in some of its activities. In one of those activities, Kanade displayed the ability to produces clones of herself, a mysterious new ability called "Harmonics" that none has witnessed before.
The SSS later discover that the clone that Kanade created who had saved the battlefront from being killed by the Monster Stream, has gone rogue, and has abducted her after an intense battle that severely injured the original. Yuri soon realizes that the Harmonics Skill that Kanade created was mysteriously bugged — allowing clones to multiply itself indefinitely — so she is forced to rescue Kanade and fix the problem before it makes the Afterlife a dangerous place for the SSS.
The rescue mission brings them back again to the Guild headquarters recently destroyed and with the help of Yuri's previous tweaking with Kanade's computer, the Harmonics clones were reintegrated, leaving Kanade to a battle that only she must face. The SSS soon performs additional fixes to Kanade's computer under Yuri's orders.
Shadows in the AfterlifeEdit
Yuri's secretary Yusa reports of an unusual object that attacked Ooyama inside the school grounds. Described as a "Shadow", it begins to attack members of the SSS and was initially suspected to be Kanade's doing. However, Yuri later finds out that even NPCs are also vulnerable to their newest foe.
In order to warn everyone about the new threat to the SSS, Yuri organizes a meeting for all of the members of SSS. There, she exposes that Otonashi is planning with Kanade behind her back, but she now considers moving on an option, realizing that being devoured by the Shadows is a worse fate than disappearing. While she leaves everyone to think about what they need to do, she moves alone in finding out the culprit behind the existence of the Shadows.
Yuri's Greatest EncounterEdit
Yuri returns to the old base of the Guild, and finds herself overrun by a massive number of Shadows. Although she fought to the end, she eventually becomes an NPC for a short period by a Shadow, only to fight her way back into her old self with the help of Otonashi, Kanade, Hinata and Naoi. Yuri soon continues on her march towards the computer room where the Shadows originate, and she finds an NPC who talks about the computer program Angel Player and its creator. When the AI offers her the chance to become God herself, she violently refuses by destroying all of the computers in the room, and after feeling fulfilled for the first time in her life, she loses consciousness.
Final DaysEdit
Three days after the Shadows have finally disappeared, Yuri joins Otonashi, Kanade, Hinata and Naoi in a makeshift Graduation Ceremony after waking up from a long sleep. After a short period of antics between the last five humans in the afterlife, Yuri laments having treated Kanade badly throughout her stay in the Afterlife and wishes that she had more time to be with her as a friend.
As a last gesture for Kanade, she embraces her and turns to everyone else with a wave before disappearing.
AbilitiesEdit Yuri carries a stainless steel Beretta 92 as her general weapon but uses a CheyTac M200 for sniping in episode 1 and a TDI KRISS Super V Vector submachine gun in episode 12 initially but switches to a M4-A1 Carbine with a Beta C-Mag, and Mk 18 SBR after receiving it from Chaa. Besides using firearms, she also excels in hand-to-hand combat, carrying at least 2 short knives at the back of her belt and is able to fight on par in melee combat against Kanade Tachibana. RelationshipsEdit
Family Afterlife
Her parents Her siblings
QuotesEdit (From the English dub version of "Knocking on Heaven's Door") - "This is really wonderful. This is such a happy environment. It's too dazzling for me. This is the way people live their lives. Isn't it just beautiful? I'm envious. If I vanish now, could I start over anew? Could I accept normal happiness? If I lost my memories, and got a different personality, I might be able to. But then, what does it mean to be reborn? That isn't the life I had any more. It's someone else's life. Everyone only gets to live life one time, and it's right here. I only get it once. This is my life. I can't entrust it to someone. I can't steal a new one. I can't force it on others. I can't forget it, or erase it. I can't stomp over it, laugh it off, or beautify it. I can't anything, I'd have to- I'd have to accept my one shot at life no matter how cruel or merciless or unfair I thought it was. Sir, don't you understand? That is why I must fight. I must keep on fighting, because- because I could never accept that kind of life!" (To The AI when he said she has all the time in the world to think) - " Let me tell you something. Humans don't even have the patience to wait even ten minutes for something! " (Remembering about her siblings) - " Either way, I'm a failure. I ended up loving them just as much as I loved you. I wanted to be a sister that loved only you, so much that you could be proud. What's this feeling? What's happened? Everything that's kept me going is fading away ... And if it all fades away ... I'll disappear. Even though life took you away so unreasonably, but the time I spent with everyone is just irreplaceable. And now ... I want to follow them ..." (Yuri's sibling to Yuri) - " Thank You. You've done enough. Sis, you don't have to suffer alone any more. You've worked so very hard. For a long time Sis." Etymology Edit Yuri's surname Nakamura means "relationship" (仲) (naka) and "town, village" (村) (mura). TriviaEdit In the Heaven's Door manga, Yuri was more violent than in the anime where she was kicking Hideki Hinata out of the roof, poking his eye ball with chopstick, stabbing his head with a hoe, and shooting Chaa in the head with an arrow. (most of this became a joke, as she will answer "We are immortal though") In the manga, Yuri and Hinata are often mistaken for a couple. In the manga, Yuri and Hinata have romantic tendencies, not evident in the anime. Yuri was a bassist once and played with Eri Shiina as Hisako and Masami Iwasawa's first bandmates. However, after their first gig, she and Shiina were kicked out much to her disappointment. Yuri's main character design is inspired by Yukiko Amagi from the game Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4. Yukiko is Jun Maeda's favorite character in the game. Yuri looks very similar to Haruhi Suzumiya, a similarity that raised criticisms with many fans of Haruhi at the release of the series as the two also share many similar character traits. Yuri is the only SSS member that is able to match Kanade Tachibana in close combat. In the manga, Yuri acknowledges Shiina's fighting skills, even pitting her against Kanade in a plan to bring Kanade out. It seems that Yuri always insults Hinata or hits him. Yuri was a contestant of the voting contest Anime Saimoe Tournament 2010, but she lost to Shana in the first round of the main tournament. To see her other result, visit here Yuri 'borrows' an archery club uniform and equipment, and fires an arrow with a challenge letter to Chaa, but due to her inexperience with the bow, the arrow lodges in Chaa's forehead. In the manga, Yuri's first suspicion of the source of Angel's power was Angel's bikini. Aside from Yuzuru Otonashi, Yuri was the only one who has seen Shiina's true character over cute things. (In the OVA, Angel learned of this as well.) During Yuri's confrontation with The AI, it is revealed that the source of the high amount of love that existed in the Afterlife (which causes the Shadow Conversion Program to activate), was no other than Yuri herself. Her love for all SSS members is revealed to be the cause; possibly soaring up after the misunderstanding with Kanade has been resolved, thus making her feel responsible for everyone. Yuri shares the same English voice actor as these characters that are all titles from Key, despite having completely different personalities from each other: Ryou Fujibayashi from Clannad Ayu Tsukimiya from Kanon Rin Natsume from Little Busters In the manga, Yuri seems to dislike Natto calling something that "reeks like a jock's week-old gym socks."
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Kanade Tachibana
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Kanade Tachibana
Anime Manga Visual Novel
General Info
Name
立華かなで Tachibana Kanade [1]
Japanese Voice Actor
Kana Hanazawa
English Voice Actor
Emily Neves
Personal Info
Gender
Female
Nickname(s)
Angel (by SSS members)
Status
Deceased
Reincarnated
Partner(s)
Yuzuru Otonashi (formerly; reincarnated)
Affiliation(s)
Student Council of Afterlife High School (formerly)
Shinda Sekai Sensen (formerly)
Occupation(s)
Student Council President of Afterlife High School (formerly)
Debut Appearances
Anime
Angel Beats!
Manga
Heaven's Door
"Please let me believe what you believe in too. Let me believe that life is wonderful." ―Kanade to Yuzuru Otonashi
Kanade Tachibana (立華 かなで [1] Tachibana Kanade), also known as Angel, is one of the students of the Afterlife school and is said school's Student Council President. She is also referred to as Angel by the Afterlife Battle Front, which is a nickname coined by Hideki Hinata and later used by the group's leader Yuri Nakamura to refer to Kanade after discovering her unusual abilities.
As the school's Student Council President, Kanade is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that all of the students are able to cope with their personal problems. This eventually clashes with Yuri's determination to blame God for her hardships in life, and she becomes a target of the Afterlife Battle Front upon its founding. Kanade is the titular heroine of Angel Beats.
Contents [show]
AppearanceEdit
Kanade is a very beautiful white-skinned girl with waist-length silver hair (it is often mistaken to be a shade of blue in the Light Novel) that is half tied by a hair clip, gold eyes with hints of auburn/brown in certain lighting and her eyes appear to be slightly cat eyed/curved up to fit with her mysterious/kuudere vibe.
She wears the standard uniform of the Afterlife School, a skirt over a white petticoat, white knee-high socks, brown loafers and a pale blue barrette clip on the back of her head, which keeps a part of her hair up. Kanade is one of the shortest characters in the series, being only 150 cm (4'11") tall. After her seeming reincarnation, Kanade is shown with short hair tied in a ponytail.
Angel with her wings
PersonalityEdit
Kanade does not appear to be any less foolish than a typical human being in physical form, but this is contrasted by her lack of detectable emotion, even in skirmishes with the SSS which usually end up with her being injured. It is difficult to understand what she is thinking due to her rarely showing any outward emotion. Her lack of expression also makes it difficult to determine whether or not she has any consciousness, but she is revealed to be rather intelligent, as she was able to make use of the Angel Player program, creating weapons and giving herself monstrous defense mechanisms, even leading the Afterlife Battle Front to believe she is an angel from God. In later events, she is shown to have abandoned being friendly because of the rules of the world she is in, as her newly-found friends inevitably leave her when they disappear.[2]As the series progresses, she shows a little of her emotions, mostly to Otonashi. In Episode 13, Kanade goes as far as to give a small pout.
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She is fond of eating Mapo Tofu, even going so far as to ignore school rules to eat it. She also includes it in her self-made school anthem at the close of the series.[2]. She spends portions of her free time gardening.[3] She is actually part of the disbanded gardening club.[4] She recently became friends with Otonashi, even though she didn't realize this until Otonashi said so. Although this did not alter her personality much, she allows him to call her by her first name, Kanade, and seems to exclusively talk to and hang around him. Kanade helped him fight Naoi and saved Otonashi and the SSS from being eaten by the River Monster.[3]
Later on, she opens up to Otonashi, talking to him casually and even helping out in Otonashi's plans to help the SSS get over their lingering feelings. After spending more time with her, Otonashi discovers more of her personality and her startling lack of common sense. Otonashi describes her as a "Clumsy Angel". She seems to have a large amount of pain tolerance, as she has been shot several times by the SSS without any reaction or indication of suffering.
BackgroundEdit
Although there is not much known about Kanade's past, it is revealed that during Otonashi's last moments alive, he used what strength he had left to sign his donations card and from options that were listed, he circled to donate his heart, and as it turned out, Otonashi was her donor.
It's not been revealed how exactly Kanade died, but it is very likely that while she survived with Otonashi's heart, it eventually failed to support her after some time.
Although, it seems that Kanade has spent a while in the afterlife. As she says that everyone who has been her friend before vanished or was obliterated. This would make it seem like she spent a good deal of time in the afterlife and has tried to help everyone "graduate".
PlotEdit A Servant of "God"Edit
This section contains content from the Angel Beats! anime series.
Kanade is the main target of Yuri and by extension, the SSS, as she is seen as a servant to a higher being (God) and thus, receives her namesake "Angel"; their assumption was formed after seeing her unusual powers first-hand. Even before Hinata's arrival in the afterlife school, Yuri starts planning to lure God out. Upon her discovery of the powers of Angel, the Student Council President at that time, their focus shifts to plans on how to get rid of her.
As Kanade becomes involved with conflicts initiated by Yuri, she stays true to her duties, watching over the school as the Student Council President for some time, and at times, ignoring Yuri's assaults altogether.
The Afterlife Battle FrontEdit
Angel approaches the school gymnasium.
Upon the forming of the new "anti-Angel" group called the Afterlife Battle Front, attacks against Angel intensify with the help of Guild's weaponry. At this time, Otonashi has joined the group and has been witness to how much of a threat she was to his safety. Thus his decision to join the said group.
A Backfired PlanEdit
Later on, the SSS discovers that Kanade does not have the nature of someone working with God; in fact she is human like them. The discovery forces Yuri to devise a plan to humiliate her to serve as additional proof for her humanity. The plan involves sabotaging Kanade's test results to tarnish her clean record and thus, giving her grounds for dismissal.
Their plan succeeded flawlessly; Kanade was dismissed from office as Student Council President, with Vice President Ayato Naoi taking over her position. At this period, she experiences being put into a detention facility with Otonashi due to the latter insisting to treat her for lunch despite the time constraints. Meanwhile, Otonashi hears news of his friends confronting Naoi and turns to Kanade to help him escape. After she and Otonashi break out from the detention facility, she goes to help Otonashi in saving the SSS from Naoi's plan to get rid of them.
Reaching OutEdit
In an attempt to become friends with her, Otonashi invites Kanade to fish with him and the other SSS members, despite the others' rejections. She agrees, and eventually, she becomes a big help to the group, taking down the biggest and most-feared fish in the river; she also stays to assist the SSS in sharing the catch with the rest of the school.
During this time, Otonashi tells her they are friends and requests to address her by her first name, and that she will do the same for him, in return. Although she does not seem to be particularly appreciative of Otonashi's efforts due to her emotionless demeanor, she does agree to become friends with him and allow him to call her by her first name, Kanade.
Kanade faces off against one of her clones.
Soon, she is compelled to face a foe who shares the same powers and form as herself, which causes them both to kill each other. In later events, they discover that it is one of Kanade's clones who developed an independent conscience after being summoned. Kanade is then captured by another of the clones and was contained in Guild's lowermost underground ruins. The SSS, led by Yuri and Otonashi, push through to rescue her from the clones, which unattended would be a bigger threat than Kanade herself, and they succeeded in saving her, though most of the battlefront is lost in the process and she is forced to fight a more difficult battle: one against the many consciousnesses that her Harmonics ability created.
Misunderstandings and a PlotEdit
After a long time unconscious in the infirmary, Kanade manages to wake up from the ordeal victorious.
She then explains to Otonashi who by sleeping on Kanade's chest, regained all of his memories, that her fighting with the SSS has been a very large misunderstanding.[5] Her "role" in the world of the afterlife is to help young souls that feel life or God was unfair to them, find comfort with themselves and relieve themselves of regrets so they may pass on or "disappear." Despite what the SSS made her seem to be (an evil "angel" who carries out the will of an unfair god; partly because Kanade used weapons against them, which unknowingly were created for self-defense, and due to her being unable to express herself effectively) she is extremely kind on the inside and only wants to help people's souls move on.
Kanade is later seen resuming her position as the Student Council President and the SSS members have to retake their exams for tampering with her test paper. She continues helping people in the afterlife pass on, but this time, with the assistance of Otonashi as her ally and companion.
An Unlikely AllianceEdit
Eventually, Kanade teamed up with the SSS in order to fight against the Shadows, who were threatening the safety of non-NPC and NPC students in the world. She acts as the primary defense of the newly-formed alliance as the SSS gathers the remaining members to assist.
Kanade single-handedly fights the shadows.
She also detected the Shadow attack on Yuri, and led Otonashi, Hinata, and Naoi to her. They managed to rescue Yuri and brought her over to the Second Computer Room, where the culprit behind the Shadows appearing was located. After the fight, Yuri was left unconscious for three days, during this time Kanade and Otonashi worked together to prepare a surprise for Yuri.
My Soul, Your HeartEdit
After all the Shadows were obliterated by Yuri's assault on the Second Computer Room, Kanade and the remaining SSS members plan a graduation ceremony while Yuri is recovering in the infirmary. Since most of the SSS members already have moved on, Kanade, Otonashi, Naoi, Hinata and Yuri are the only ones left to experience the graduation ceremony.
Naoi, Yuri and Hinata soon move on and disappeared, leaving Otonashi and Kanade. Otonashi then invites her to walk outside with him saying that he wants to feel the wind on his face. While outside Otonashi confesses to her that he loves her and he finds out that Kanade has his heart, which he donated in his final moments. Kanade soon reveals that the true reason that she was in the afterlife was that she was looking to thank the person who had given her the gift of life through the heart; as it turns out, it was Otonashi's heart beating in Kanade's chest at the last moments of her life.
After thanking him for giving her an extended life, she disappears leaving Otonashi in tears and despair.
A Fated MeetingEdit
A fated meeting in the real world
Sometime later in the world of the living, a girl that resembles Kanade, with shorter cut hair and a hat, is humming while waiting on the streets. A passing boy that resembles Otonashi recognizes the tune she is humming as Iwasawa's last song, "My Song" (Most likely subconsciously). He turns in recognition of either the song or her. In the scene, the girl checks the time on her phone and then proceeds to walk in the opposite direction of the boy after he passes by, but he then chases after her to tap her on the shoulder in order to get her to stop and turn round so they can meet. The scene fades to white just before the boy makes contact with the girl. This is likely that Otonashi and Kanade meet each other again in the real world as Otonashi was confirmed to have reincarnated back into the real world by the writer.[6]
AbilitiesEdit
Kanade fights with supernatural abilities, whose origin is probably artificial in nature. Her abilities are voice-activated, and can take effect almost immediately. Combined with her advanced skill in hand-to-hand combat, this makes her a formidable opponent for the members of the SSS.
In SSS's attempt to infiltrate Kanade's dormitory room, they gain information about her abilities, which are compiled in her personal computer. This discovery deeply disturbs Yuri, who wonders why Angel is not getting her abilities from God like she first assumed. This leads her to question if there is even a God, meaning that at all of their fighting has been for nothing. Later events support their earlier discovery and a manual called Angel Player is even discovered which is related to the program they discovered.
List of Guard SkillsEdit Hand Sonic: Calls forth a single blade or a pair of blades, one on each hand. The blades are capable of slicing through steel or even easily dispatching Shadows. It has been shown to have many variations: Hand Sonic [Version One]: Regular shape resembling a longsword. The main version she uses when fighting the SSS. Hand Sonic [Version Two]: A thinner, longer version than the previous. It has a curved-diamond shape on its tip. She made this version thinner for higher speed. Hand Sonic [Version Three]: Is shaped like a traditional sai. She once remarked that this version is "inelegant". Hand Sonic [Version Four]: A variation which is shaped like a lotus flower with no edges other than, perhaps, its petals. Apparently more of a bludgeoning weapon than a slicing one. Kanade admits to have created it in her attempt to make her weapon "cuter".[2] Hand Sonic [Version Five]: Kanade's most recent variation of Hand Sonic (Excluding the version in the 3rd Drama CD). It is basically a pair of pincers secured on the arm by a violet gauntlet-like accessory that resembles a demon's head, horns and shape. She created this version due to Otonashi's advice that she should give herself a more ruthless image. She also used this version as a makeshift slingshot and for dispatching the Shadows or hitting certain targets from afar. Hand Sonic [Version Twenty-Eight]: This is Kanade's latest version of Hand Sonic. However, this variation is only known to have been used in the 3rd Drama CD. Otonashi and Hinata has stated that it excels in bringing pain and that one would merely know just by looking at it Distortion: Allows her to deflects bullets and other projectiles away using an invisible shield in front of her. The drawback of this skill is that she has to take it down should she want to switch from defense to offense. This skill does not deflect physical attacks as she is show to dodge physical attacks Delay: Creates a sort of after-image for close range. It is effective in dodging melee attacks by confusing the enemy into attacking elsewhere. Harmonics: Makes a clone of herself which is identical to her, except it has blood-red eyes. Clones created through this ability have their own consciousness, as well as all the abilities of the original - including Harmonics itself. The copy are forms of whatever she is feeling at the moment of their creation. Absorb: A "hidden ability" which acts as the reverse of Harmonics. It allows the reintegration of clones created through Harmonics into her body. This, however, poses some risks as Harmonics clones also possess their own consciousness. This ability is connected to Harmonics using a command called timewait, which is simply a wait command which delays the execution of this ability. This ability was created by Yuri as a method of dealing with the Harmonics clones. Overdrive: A passive ability that gives her superhuman strength. The word "Passive" is supposed to refer to a fact that, unlike other guard skills, this skill can be used without an explicit invocation. Overdrive's passive effect is strong enough to lift both the Master of the River and nearly all of the SSS members combined into the air by jumping. Howling: Emits powerful high-frequency, high-amplitude sound-waves from crossed Hand Sonic blades, meant to make an enemy faint. Created by one of the Harmonics clones. Angel Wings: Sprouts wings from her back that, while they don't enable her to fly, can be used to slow her descent. They also allow her survive long drops, such as jumping from the roof of a building. Sonic Rotation (unnamed): This technique when activated, produces a blue aura when used. Kanade produces a Version One Hand Sonic on each arm and spins rapidly, effectively destroying everything in the vicinity. It was stated to be as powerful as a jet bomber by Naoi, after it demolished a mass of Shadows and left a circular crater in the ground.
Hand Sonic
Hand Sonic [Version One]
Hand Sonic [Version Two]
Hand Sonic [Version Three]
Hand Sonic [Version Four]
Hand Sonic [Version Five]
Delay
Distortion
A Harmonics-Clone
Absorb
Howling
Angel Wings
Sonic Rotation
Angel Player: The software used by Kanade Tachibana (Angel) created by "The Programmer"
Add a photo to this galleryRelationshipsEdit AfterlifeEdit Yuzuru Otonashi Yuri Nakamura Ayato Naoi Masami Iwasawa and Hisako Shinda Sekai Sensen Etymology Edit Kanade's surname Tachibana means "standing" (立) (tachi) and "flower" (華) (hana/bana). TriviaEdit In the 3rd drama CD, Kanade tells Yuzuru Otonashi that she loves him. In the opening credits, Kanade is shown playing the piano, but it is unknown if she actually plays the instrument. In the 3rd drama CD, Kanade had a later version of Hand Sonic called Hand Sonic Version 28. She commented that it is made out of fear, sadness, etc. She also said that she has already made Hand Sonic Version 6-27. During the first broadcast of the anime series, many Japanese fans were admiring Kanade saying "Tenshi-chan, maji Tenshi" (天使ちゃんマジ天使, lit. "Tenshi-chan truly is an angel"). Even after it became apparent that she wasn't a real angel, as she had claimed in the very first place, they still kept on hailing her as such (as "_ is truly an angel" is a fairly common phrase assigned to particularly lovable characters in general).
Kazunobu Tachibana name in the list in Kanade's computer.
In Episode 3, when Yuri Nakamura and the others infiltrate Kanade's computer, a name of someone called "Tachibana Kazunobu" is listed in the school roster. However, because the kanji for the last names differ (Kanade is 立華 while the list shows 立花), the person is likely an NPC with the same romanized last name as Kanade and not related to her. Also, Kanade's name is strangely not listed in the school roster. In the last scene, Otonashi spotted Kanade outside of a large department store building. This building was the only setting in the show that was modeled after (a) place(s) actually existing in the real world. The name of the original building is Shibuya 109. 109 is located in Shibuya, one of bustling shopping districts in Tokyo. 109 is extremely popular among teenagers in Japan. Since the Angel Player program is fully written in English, it could be possible that Kanade knows the language. But, it is never implied if she reads it. There is a continuity in Kanade's existence; Otonashi's heart was transplanted to her so she would have been alive when he was dead yet Kanade was already in the afterlife before Otonashi (It might be that Otonashi's soul wandered around and eventually ended up in the Afterlife which may explain the time gap). Some fans have theorized that Kanade's lingering feeling to thank her heart donor is what brought Otonashi to the world, even though Otonashi had lived a full life prior to his death. Interestingly, Kanade shares the same English voice actress (Emily Neves) as Minene Uryu , from the anime Mirai Nikki and Kotomi Ichinose, from the anime Clannad.
Yuzuru Otonashi (音無 結弦 Otonashi Yuzuru) is one of the newest members of the SSS, and a newcomer to the Afterlife. After suffering from an accident during his lifetime [1], he wakes up in the Afterlife without his memories. After discovering the ongoing conflict between a group of students who call themselves the Afterlife Battlefront and a mysterious girl known under the nickname "Angel", he joins the SSS to seek refuge in the group while he tries to recover his memories. He eventually becomes one of the most key and influential figures of the Battlefront as he was not only able to bring forth changes to the ideals of its members, which ultimately allowed the SSS to survive the greatest trials to the group, but single-handedly turned the tide of the war through his intervention with "Angel". Otonashi is the main protagonist of Angel Beats!.
Contents [show]
AppearanceEdit
Otonashi's appearance
Otonashi is a young man in his late teens with short red hair (When he was younger, his hair was longer which covered the left side of his face) and has Dark red eyesUpon his first arrival in the afterworld, he finds himself wearing a typical man's black school uniform. Later, when he joins the SSS, he switches to a white long-sleeved polo shirt under a sandy brown coat and black slacks. He is 175.5 cm (5'9") tall.
PersonalityEdit
In his middle school days, Otonashi didn't care much for school or socializing with his classmates. He admitted to his sister that he would honestly rather be alone and play video games than study and make friends. His main focus in life was mostly working to pay for food and buying manga for his younger sister. His personality eventually changed when his sister died.
After his sister's death, he became a more responsible person. He worked and studied hard to become a doctor and to pay for medical school to help people like his sister. He became a very smart and kind person. When he got into the train accident, he helped the other survivors by taking care of their injuries and helped find enough food and water for everyone. At one point he even sacrificed his share of water. Before he died, he signed a donor card stating that he would donate all of his working organs.
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During his time in the Afterlife, he had the same personality as before he died though he was very confused most of the time due to the battlefront's antics.
In the Visual Novel, Otonashi's personality can be altered based on the decision made by the player throughout the game.
BackgroundEdit
Otonashi when he was young
Not much is revealed about Otonashi's family, except that he had a younger sibling, Hatsune (and perhaps one other elderly relative; his grandmother though this is unconfirmed). The absence of his parents suggests that both he and his sister were orphans.
In Otonashi's emo years, his younger sister, Hatsune had an unconfirmed medical condition and was in the hospital. During the period, Otonashi didn't know what he was living for and what was his purpose in life. He detached himself from his friends and soon lived a solitary life, funded by his part-time jobs.
All he wanted was to make enough money to eat and live. Even so, he kept on visiting his sister every day and would buy her manga magazines with the little money he had. He always got her whatever he saw first in the book-shop, so he didn't even know if he gave her the same one or a different magazine. Never the less, Hatsune was always happy with whatever Otonashi gave her and she would always say "Thank you so much brother" to Otonashi.
As Hatsune's condition worsened, Otonashi decided to do one good thing for his sister in his life. His idea of doing a good thing was to save enough to take his sister out, resolving to sneak Hatsune out if she didn't get permission from the doctors. Ultimately, Otonashi did sneak his sister out and took her to see the decorations of the Christmas trees on the street. Hatsune passed away while clinging onto Otonashi's back and after that Otonashi finally realised his reason for living. He felt alive when Hatsune expressed her gratitude and that was all it took for him to continue living. Otonashi realizes far too late that he was happy before and that he has lost that reason for living after the death of Hatsune.
Otonashi was left to live alone after Hatsune passed away and thought there was nothing in him anymore. Then, whilst walking down the street he saw a little girl saying thanks to a nurse and realises he might be able to find another purpose in life.
Otonashi helping Igarashi
From that day onwards, Otonashi studied hard and was finally admitted to a university to study a medical course. On his way to the university for his entrance exams, the train he was on had an accident and crashed. When he woke up moments later, he found everything in a mess and everyone either injured or dead. There, he made friends with Igarashi, another youth who survived the train crash. Using his medical knowledge, he helped to patch up and treat all the survivors. Unfortunately, one of his patients died, leading Otonashi to question once again what he was living his life for.
While he was searching for a way out of the underground train tunnel, Otonashi discovered that he had been critically injured as well, but kept it a secret from the survivors to avoid demoralizing them. Otonashi and Igarashi, effectively became the leaders and did their best to ration the remaining food and water among the rest of the survivors. Otonashi notes that they only had enough supplies to last three days.
Otonashi dies as rescue arrives
Otonashi and the rest of the survivors ultimately remained trapped for a week, gradually losing any hope of rescue and survival. During what would become his last moments, Otonashi recalled how his sister had once told him she wished that she had a donor, which could have saved her life. Resolved to help others, Yuzuru took out his life insurance card and filled out all the information needed for consent with regards to voluntary organ transplant if ever he was to ever be declared brain-dead and said that by doing this, it let him have a reason for living. Every other survivor saw this and followed suit as well.
Yuzuru Otonashi died shortly afterwards after having been thanked by Igarashi for giving everyone hope, just as the tunnel was being opened and help finally arrived.
PlotEdit Waking Up in a ConflictEdit
Otonashi stumbles upon Yuri Nakamura aiming at Angel from a distance
Yuzuru arrives in the middle of a battle without a single memory of his past. He stumbles upon a girl who is aiming a sniper rifle at a younger-looking girl with silver hair from a distance. This girl, who would later introduce herself as Yuri Nakamura, also explains the comings and goings of this unfamiliar world called the afterlife, and that she wants Yuzuru to enlist to the Shinda Sekai Sensen (Afterlife War Front) or SSS, a renegade group of students aimed to confront God for the misfortunes of its members.
At that moment, Yuri was targeting the group's main enemy, only known under the codename "Angel". Yuzuru was confused at the situation he is in, especially with having someone with a sniper rifle aiming at a seemingly normal girl, so he refuses Yuri's invitation and ends up trying to converse to the girl called "Angel". Alas, after failing to understand what Angel meant when she points out that he is in a world where everyone is dead, Angel decides to show it to him instead by summoning a sword from thin air and stabbing his chest with it.
After that ordeal with the girl called "Angel", Yuzuru finds himself in the school's infirmary, only to be killed once again by a student wielding a halberd, who showed up to punish him for insulting Yuri and refusing to enter the Shinda Sekai Sensen. It was minutes after that Yuzuru fully recovers from his wounds discovers first-hand the "mechanics" of the afterlife.
Yuzuru initially thought of letting himself "disappear" like what Yuri was warning him about and heads to the Principal's Office for some answers. Unfortunately, the room has long been the headquarters for the SSS and has traps installed to deter intruders. After being caught in one, Yuzuru wakes up in the middle of a meeting between members of the SSS trying to argue about the official name of the group, which was currently the "Like-Hell-I'm-Dead Battlefront". The members soon enter an argument with Yuzuru about his decision to disappear from the afterlife, and Yuzuru was eventually persuaded into rethinking his decision when the members of the SSS explain the possibilities of reincarnating as a nonhuman living thing based on Buddhist reincarnation principles. Yuzuru also ends up joining the SSS afterwards, and was given the SSS uniform to wear. At this point, Yuzuru only introduces himself by the only name that he can remember "Otonashi".
That afternoon, Yuri explains more about the afterlife, revealing the presence of "other entities" Yuri calls NPC and the role of "Angel" as the one who maintains the peace and order in the school complex. She also reminds Yuzuru to avoid acting like a model student to avoid disappearing and to avoid provoking Angel to avoid getting killed.
Although he was warmly welcomed by the Battlefront, Yuzuru still does not consider himself a member of SSS. At that moment, he wanted a refuge until he regains his memories, though he is not sure what he will do when he does regain them.[2]
The Afterlife War FrontEdit
Yuzuru in the aftermath of Operation Tornado.
To Yuzuru's surprise, he was immediately assigned to join one of the basic activities of the SSS: Operation Tornado, which is basically SSS's plan to steal meal tickets from students. In the operation, as the diversionary division of the SSS, the all-girls band Girls Dead Monster, plays inside the Academy Main Dining Hall, Yuzuru and the others try to slow down Angel's approach. Yuzuru ends up confronting Angel before the others, but the rest of the SSS was able to cover for him as Yuri initiates the main part of the operation — turning on the massive fans located throughout the Main Dining Hall, sending the meal tickets of the other students into the air. The SSS quickly retreat soon after, but not until getting enough meal tickets for the entire battlefront. The operation left Yuzuru still confused about the workings of the Afterlife and the conflict between Angel and the SSS, but he decides to put aside his questions for the meantime.[2]
In his stay as member of the SSS, he slowly learns of the stories behind the members' discovery of the afterlife, Yuri's past being the first. In Episode 3, Otonashi was told about Masami Iwasawa's, leader of Girls Dead Monster, past before she disappears after her performance, leaving the rest of SSS to learn a lesson that they themselves could disappear without Angel interfering. Other people's past which are made known to Otonashi includes Hideki Hinata, Yui, Ayato Naoi and very little about Angel at the end.
A Backfired PlanEdit
Upon Yuri Nakamura's discovery of the true nature of Angel as more human than they first thought, she involved Otonashi in a plan to humiliate her as their plan to weaken their supposed enemy. The plan worked perfectly, but even though the plan succeeded, Otonashi has deep doubts about what they did.
Naoi succumbs to Otonashi's words of encouragement.
He later finds himself interacting with Angel, who seems like a normal human being, and after learning about Yuri's fight against Ayato Naoi (who replaced Angel as Student Council President), he rushes to the aid of the SSS, foiling Naoi's plans for the SSS to forcefully move on. Also, because of his inspiring remarks, Naoi joins the SSS and becomes attached to Otonashi like a little brother would be attached to his older sibling.
His True PurposeEdit
After Ayato Naoi joins SSS, Otonashi agrees to let Naoi use his hypnosis ability to help him to regain his memories. As it turned out Naoi was only able to restore a portion of Otonashi's memories (up until the crash itself), but even so, Otonashi was left devastated by the recollection of the life he had lived and wept openly, especially when mourning the loss of his sister. As a result of this experience he becomes a changed person.
Whilst he is now fully behind Yuri Nakamura and the SSS, Otonashi soon doubts that the conflict he is involved in is as straightforward as it seems; he starts to act on his own, befriending the very enemy which is supposed to be SSS's true target. At first, the members of the SSS are skeptic of Angel's "lack of hostility" towards them; but soon, after the events in Operation Monster Stream, they realize that their enemy is really a nice person.
This outlook changed when Yuri was attacked the same day when Angel (that time known as Kanade Tachibana) joined Operation Monster Stream. In fact, the culprit is one of Kanade Tachibana's Harmonics which turned rogue, and after a bloody confrontation between the original, the battlefront begin their descent to the destroyed Guild Headquarters to save her. The descent needed most of the team to do their "sacrifices", but they managed to save Kanade.
Otonashi awakes to the sight of a fully recovered Kanade.
Otonashi watched over Kanade as she slept, recovering the rest of his memories in the process. Upon waking he and Kanade start to become closer to each other, and he decides to help her in her mission, which in reality is to help the people in the afterlife to move on to the next world. After he helped in fulfilling Yui's regrets in life, they are suddenly faced with another problem: the Shadows.
Facing the Shadows FiguresEdit
Otonashi's team-up with Kanade was put on hold when mysterious creatures appear to attack and consume the students in the Afterlife; Hinata and Naoi soon join his side to help out as well and they attempt to continue with their plan while keeping it hidden to Yuri. Unfortunately, thanks to Yusa's surveillance, Yuri discovered their plans. But instead of apprehending them for doing the opposite of their mission, she gives them credit, as she realizes that disappearing would be the only way for the others to be saved.
With Kanade on his side, he leads the members of the SSS to defend Yuri as she tries to find out more about the world. Yuri eventually succeeds in confronting the one responsible in the existence of the Shadows and with that, the SSS are freed of their duties. Later on, most of the members moved on from their regrets, leaving Otonashi, Hinata, Naoi, Yuri and Kanade to be the last members of SSS remaining.
A Bitter HelloEdit
Kanade and Yuzuru talk to each other for the last time.
Otonashi and Kanade plan a graduation ceremony for the remaining members, since Kanade never got to graduate when she was alive. After everyone "graduates", Hinata, Naoi and Yuri bid farewell to everyone for one last time, then pass on. Otonashi takes the time to confess to Kanade about his feelings for her and begs her to remain with him. He hoped that they would be able to guide anyone who wandered into this world and let them leave with no regrets. It is then that Kanade reveals the reason for her appearance in the afterlife that the regret she had in life was never being able to thank the person who gave her a heart so that she could live. She then thanks him for a chance to have lived longer before disappearing in Otonashi's arms, leaving him the only remaining person in the afterlife, and in depression.
It is implied however that he did eventually pass on and met Kanade again, in his new life.
AbilitiesEdit
At first unskilled in any equipment and lacking experience when he first arrives in the Afterlife, he is utilized by Yuri Nakamura as backup, but he manages to pull through for the team when they are in danger. After some self-training, he manages to be experienced in handling a gun, and is able to defend himself well. He carries a Glock 17 which Yuri gives him on his first day as SSS's newest member. Later in the series in episode 5, it shows he is able to use a IMI Galil sniper rifle as well.
Otonashi is also revealed to be knowledgeable in academics, commenting that one physics exam he took was "easier than expected".[3] Later, it was revealed that this was because Otonashi had been studying to become a doctor before his death.
On later events, he is showed to have improved with his shooting abilities to the point he is able to shoot an enemy from behind without looking while talking and has added leadership skills like analytic thinking to his assets.
RelationshipsEdit
Family Friends Afterlife
Hatsune Otonashi
Hatsune was Otonashi's little sister. Despite his general aversion to people, Otonashi loved Hatsune dearly and constantly worried about her declining health. During her hospitalization, he worked several laborious jobs in order to support her and buy her gifts (specifically manga). Otonashi stated that Hatsune's gratitude gave him purpose, although unfortunately, he did not realize this until she passed away.
After Hatsune's death, Otonashi fell into depression, blaming himself for not recognizing her importantance in his life sooner. However, after witnessing a child give words of thanks to hospital nurse, his sister's death inspired Otonashi to become a doctor. Her memory gave him the motivation to pusue this career and ultimately helped him break his negative outlook on life. Later, it was because of his sister's failure to receive an organ donation that Otonashi decided to donate his before death. Hatsune was in Otonashi's last thoughts before he passed away.
Visual Novel Edit
In the Angel Beats 1st Beat Visual Novel game, the player will take command of Otonashi and dictate his actions from a first-person perspective. Depending upon the choices made by the player, he could become an idiot, a jerk, homosexual, lesbian addict, or retain his anime personality. Since this mechanism affects the overall story-line, other characters will react or behave differently to Otonashi depending on the chosen personality. Whilst there are many options to explore three main character routes exist in the first game (Yui, Matsushita and Masami Iwasawa) each with their own unique traits and endings.
Etymology Edit The name Yuzuru means "tie, bind" (結) (yu) and "string" (弦) (zuru). No one (except Kanade Tachibana) has called Otonashi by his given name (Yuzuru) because he didn't tell the SSS his given name after recovering his memories. However, he did say his name at graduation. Yuzuru's surname Otonashi means "sound" (音) (oto) and "nothing" (無) (nashi). TriviaEdit Otonashi can be inferred as one of the oldest members of the battlefront. Since he was about to take his university entrance exams this would make him around/just over eighteen years old when he died. The only other known person around a similar age was Masami Iwasawa who was revealed to be a third-year student in the Angel Beats Heavens Door Manga series. Otonashi doesn't have any regrets, the reason why he appeared in afterlife was because of Kanade Tachibana as it was explained in the last episode that Kanade's regret was that she couldn't thank the one who donated the heart for her. In order to leave afterlife, she have to meet him and be able to thank him. Otonashi is the only male character from SSS to appear during the epilogue scene, where he tried to tap Kanade's shoulder after recognizing the "My Song" tune she hummed. There is a parallel comparing Otonashi to the human developer of Angel Player in Another Epilogue. Both of them were left in the Afterlife alone after their loved ones disappeared. However, Otonashi did not fall into despair and become an NPC like the other person (at least, not explicitly). Otonashi was killed 3 times in the first 7 minutes of the first episode. The first time was when Tachibana stabs him in the chest with her Hand Sonic, the second was when Noda hits him 100 times with his halberd, and the third was when he fell for the trap that was at the principal's office. This is, considering that the 100 fatal hits Noda gave him count as one death. Although a new member to the SSS, he seems to have a close relationship with Hideki Hinata and Yuri Nakamura. In the OVA, Stairway to Heaven, Otonashi doesn't participate in High Tension Syndrome, but reaches a Tension Level of 92 when suggesting a "Sports Festival." Also in the OVA, he had said this in English: Nande no reaction? (Why are there no reaction?). It seems that Otonashi knows the full names of Yuri and Hinata, but the two didn't give their full names to him (Hinata being his roommate and Yurippe being the leader may explain it). Despite being one of the newest members of the SSS, Otonashi seems quite popular among them. Yuri and Iwasawa opened up to him about their pasts even after knowing him only for a short time, and Hinata befriended him quickly. In the second Drama CD, when Yuri announced that he was going to be participating in their activity, the others applauded. Other than Yuri, Otonashi is the only other person who had seen Shiina's true character over cute things. (Although Angel was later made known to this as well in the OVA, along with Ooyama, Fujimaki, and Yusa.) The name Angel Beats! most likely came from the fact that the heart of an Angel (Kanade) used to Beat inside of Otonashi. It can also be inferred that Otonashi is fond of canned coffee, as that is the only beverage Otonashi is seen drinking, often more than once in each episode. Yuri also seems to know this, as she usually has a can of coffee with her while waiting for Otonashi. He is one of the characters with a revealed death, the others being Iwasawa and Hinata. It is implied in Episode 3 that Otonashi received an indirect kiss from Iwasawa. Following a brief conversation with her, the lead vocalist gave Otonashi her bottle of water, which if he drank from would have resulted in an indirect kiss. Unfortunately, for any fans of the couple, he was not seen drinking from it. In the Alternative Epilogue when Otonashi walks back to the Student Council Room, if you look carefully to the left of the screen, you could see pictures of the main members of the SSS. It is unknown on how he got those images. It may be possible that in the Alternative Epilogue that the photos of the SSS are made from dust much as how the Guild makes weapons out of Dust The game also shows Yurippe to have a portrait of herself in her SSS uniform hanging in the Anti-Angel HQ, so this isn't too surprising. Otonashi resembles Kyousuke Natsume from Little Busters! The two have different voice actors in Japanese, but share the same English voice actor. Otonashi and Meiko "Menma" Honma (the protagonist in Anohana) have many similarities: Both died of an accident Both are cheerful and kind to people Both have a younger person in his/her family Otonashi has a younger named Hatsune Otonashi Menma has a younger named Satoshi Honma TheoriesEdit
Otonashi's death does not fit in the timeline as he appears in the world of the Afterlife after Kanade Tachibana has. It implies that Yuri Nakamura and Hideki Hinata has been there for a long time (the game now confirms this, stating that they have indeed been there for several decades), having gained enough experience and knowledge to know what Kanade's abilities are, and what the NPCs can/cannot do, and also having established the Guild that supplies them with their weaponry. Also, with a flashback scene showing that Kanade has had friends in the past, but always being Obliterated, it implies that she was there even longer than Yuri. (Note he comes in later due to his soul being "lost" and it takes him much longer to reach the afterlife. Expand accordingly.)
Otonashi could also have been a way out of the world of the Afterlife for Kanade and the reason why he appeared there in the first place. Since he died before her and prolonged her life with his heart, her regret, not thanking him for his heart, made him wander in between worlds waiting for her to arrive in the Afterlife. Once she got there, he could and had to appear, since she couldn't stay there forever and had to have a chance to fulfill her regret and move on due to nature of that world. Maybe Otonashi lost his memory during this long period of wandering or maybe he needed to lose his memory in order to come close to Kanade, who held the key of the rest of his memories, which even Naoi couldn't unlock with his hypnosis. That way he needed to become close with Kanade and give her a chance for her passage to a new life, which she in the end succeeded to do. Consequently, he became a chance for others from SSS to move on, thanks to his undying will to help others, which he developed during the last period of his life, and Kanade's selflessness, since she postponed her fulfillment and helped others pass over to a new life, before she passed over too. It is also possible that he was sent for others too, not just for Kanade, which is something that happened before with the creator of Angel Player program, as it is said to Yuri by the NPC in the computer room in Episode 12. He said that on a rare occasion, someone who lived a fulfilled life would wander in due to amnesia for the sake of others, which is exactly what happened to Otonashi.
In Angel Beats - Heaven's Door in the first chapter it appears that Otonashi was talking to Hinata which implies he was in the world a while back but Hinata never knew of his existence. Although, another explanation that is mentioned in the anime, though unspecified, is that maybe Otonashi's soul may have wandered around between worlds for an unknown amount of time before finding his way into the Afterlife. In another theory that was supported by Shiina appearance in Track Zero (Shiina was born in Ancient Japan, long before any other member of SSS were born) is that the timeline in Purgatory is mix and the person can come conscious whenever, regardless of their time of death.
There is another possibility why it took Otonashi so long to come in the Afterlife. If Otonashi died without regret, there is a possibility he was immediately reincarnated into another person, therefore led a whole new life, lets call it "Life B", with "Life A" being Otonashi's life. Kanade received his heart and survived, but developed her regret that some time later led her into the Afterlife. Since Otonashi is already living "Life B", Kanade has to wait for his "Life B" to end in order to thank him and move on into another life. In the meantime, Yuri, Hinata and others appear and start their fight against Kanade. Otonashi's "Life B" finally ends, after unknown amount of time, and he is sent into the Afterlife in order to help Kanade and others to move on, but the memory of his "Life A" is literally a lifetime away and he can't remember anything about his life, until Naoi and Kanade help him. He also cannot remember his "Life B", because it is not important for Afterlife and because he is needed as Otonashi, from his "Life A". At that point, Yuri and Kanade are fighting in the Afterlife for a very long time, maybe even decades, but Otonashi just got there and, as the series progress, starts to help everyone.
Hideki Hinata (日向 秀樹, Hinata Hideki) is the co-founder of SSS along with Yuri Nakamura. He is a young man with a bright and dependable personality. Being one of the strongest and most skilled males of the group he often puts himself in situations where he will protect his companions at any cost, in many occurrences, Yuri herself. He is the main protagonist of Angel Beats! Heaven's Door.
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AppearanceEdit
Hinata has soft royal blue hair that ends at his neck along with somewhat messy bangs. He has sharp royal blue eyes (in some appearances have been a lavender/purple colour) that match the shade of his hair. He wears the same mandatory uniform as the rest of SSS (excluding Naoi). A sandy/beige long-sleeved collared uniform coat with buttons going down vertically on its right, and a breast pocket on its top left along with horizontal pockets on each lower side. The pockets, outer collar and sleeve-tips are rimmed with a chocolate-brown colour. On Hinata's left shoulder the SSS battlefront symbol can be seen. Unlike some of the SSS males He chooses not to wear the red tie originally paired with his uniform. Instead he leaves his coat open which exposes the plain white buttoned down collared shirt, underneath he sports a maroon red T-shirt. He has the same height as Otonashi which is 175.5 cm (5'9") tall. Before his death, Hinata had a shaved head shown in episode 4, "Day Game" in his flashback. His usual neck-length blue hair had been around a mid-buzzcut.
PersonalityEdit
He becomes the first unofficial member of SSS (he becomes partners with Yuri before the founding of the SSS and decides he will follow her no matter what) along with his human roommate Ooyama, and he also is the one who started calling Yuri as "Yurippe" because Yuri was his mother's name and he felt strange calling her that. He also becomes Otonashi's friend, and his flirtatious nature causes Otonashi to suspect that he might be homosexual, which he always denies. He sometimes gives nicknames, such as "Yurippe" (Yuri) and 'Shiina-chi" (Shiina). He also once called Ooyama "Yampaii" because he thought it had more personality. He was the first one to use the term "Tenshi(Angel)" when addressing Kanade. He is also the most friendly in the SSS and the most happy-go-lucky in the group. He's cheerful and flirtatious. Although he is friendly to anyone, he is only aggressive to Yui, Noda and Naoi.
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Hinata is often used as a source of comedy throughout the series, one example being his conflicts with Yui and Naoi. Many unfortunate incidents befall upon him, such as when he is kicked down a pitfall trap by Yuri for touching her in the wrong spot in the first shown trip to Guild, when he was propelled into the ceiling of a classroom twice by a rocket under his chair during one of Yuri's plans to demoralize Angel (the second one is spinning, with his head inside the ceiling), being subject to cry out his inferiority to a clothespin, and almost to how easily toilet paper is flushed (both by Naoi due to hypnotism).
BackgroundEdit
In life, his team played an important baseball match. He once missed a fly ball during an important baseball game, and received drugs from his senior after the game to curb his depression. He also remembers being involved in a vehicular accident before finding himself in the afterlife. It can be speculated that the drugs weaken his health, to the point where his focus is low and made him late to notice the vehicle. Still, there is no evidence which ties the drugs and his traffic accident and it was never stated if the crash was due to drugs or not.
PlotEdit
This section contains content from the Angel Beats! anime series.
Before the events in the anime, Hinata is the protagonist of the Angel Beats ~Heaven's Door!~ manga. After his death, he arrives in the Afterlife to meet Yuri and join her in the battle against Angel. It is heavily implied that he developed romantic feelings for her, after he vows to stay with her at all times and never let her feel lonely. He rooms with Ooyama who joins both him and Yuri in their quest to find God. The manga contains their adventures prior to meeting Otonashi.
Hinata catching another fly ball to second
Before the ball game tournament, he receives same flashbacks on the important baseball tournament when he was still alive. When the ball game tournament started, his team (consists of Otonashi, Noda, Shiina, Yui and 3 other ordinary students) won match after match and the only team that made it to the finals, fighting against the student council team (consists of Angel, Naoi, and other ordinary students). In the last part of the final match (there was another fly ball to second), he had a second chance to fulfill his dream making him nearly vanished, but Yui had stopped him thinking she was doing revenge not noticing she crushed his happiness, making their team lose the baseball match. After that, Hinata became furious to Yui.
Hinata promising Yui to marry her in the next life
In Episode 10, Hinata helped fulfill Yui's last regret by proposing to her. Then showing her what would have happened if they had met in the real world, before they died. He said he would break her window with a baseball, and they'll meet when he comes to retrieve it. After that, they'll get along and before he knew it he'll be visiting her everyday. Then he'll relieve Yui's mother of her duty to take care of the bedridden Yui, and they'll marry sometime after that. After Yui's disappearance, he told Otonashi that he'll be helping him fulfill his plans. After some conflict with Naoi, he and Otonashi encountered the Shadows.
After the rest of the SSS disappeared, he was one of the members to fight the Shadows. He was reunited along with the other members. They fought the Shadows and defeated a horde of them. He, along with Otonashi, Kanade and Naoi, went to Yuri's aid (she was being consumed by the Shadows in the Guild) and rescued her in time. He was left by Yuri along with the others to combat the Shadows in the Guild. Three days later, they held a graduation and all of them receive a diploma. After the graduation, he bid farewell to Otonashi and he believes he saved up enough luck and he will use it all in the next life (to meet Yui again). This is in reference to his conversation with Yui when he states that if he and Yui met in that 1 out of 6 billion chance (a reference to the world's population), he would still marry her and that he would beat the odds for her. Then, he was the third one to disappear after the graduation.
AbilitiesEdit He uses a Smith & Wesson 645 as his favoured side arm but packs a RPK-74 light machine gun when prepared for a combat operation such as in episodes 1 and 8. In cases where his role is sniping, such as in episode 5, he uses a M14 DMR sniper rifle. In the manga, he uses a spear. RelationshipsEdit
Friends Afterlife
His baseball team
QuotesEdit "Yes, but she's a valuable asset." (Talking about Shiina) "C... clothespins... pin things... they keep clothes from falling and GETTING DIRTY!" (Under Naoi's hypnosis) "Hey, hey! Wait a damn minute! Why did you send me flying?!" (Talking to Yuri) "I'll marry you! No matter what kind of handicap you have! Even if you can't walk or stand, or even if you can't have kids, I'll still marry you. I'll always be with you. The Yui I met here isn't fake. It's you. No matter where or how I meet you, I'll fall in love with you. If I can meet you again, against the 6 billion to 1 odds, and even if your body can't move, I'll marry you." (Proposing to Yui) TriviaEdit He was the one who gave a nickname to most of the characters. For example, he calls Yuri "Yurippe" (because his mother has the same name), Shiina "Shiinacchi", he comes up with Kanade's "Angel" nickname, and his reference to NPCs when talking about the 'normal' students in the afterlife school. In the Angel Beats! Track Zero Chapter 1, he once asked Yuri to call him "Hinacchi". He is shown to be enjoying his immortality and is often excited when he gets badly injured (Manga). In the manga, he is shown to have a large knowledge of RPG games as he compares the afterlife world to a game, calls Ooyama as "Villager A", and refers to NPCs and the protagonist's point of view with multiple choice. In the manga, Hinata is shown to have proposed to Angel upon his first legitimate encounter with her, as an attempt to distract her and impress Yuri. This ends badly when Yuri kicks him off of the roof of the school before Angel can reply. In the manga, he is shown to have a desire to protect Yuri no matter what, which is not truly seen in the anime. He also has some romantic feelings for her, as shown in his desire to stay by her side. In the manga, Hinata and Yuri are often mistaken as a couple. In the manga, he constantly takes risks in order to protect Yuri, despite the many times he has called her violent and annoying. In the manga, Ooyama claims that the After Life is a game and Hinata as the Protagonist. In the manga, he sometimes has an imaginative view of his move (for what he is supposed to do) which looks like a multiple choice for a main protagonist like in Persona series. And one of the choices is to flirt/tease, Yuri. In the OVA (Stairway to Heaven), he cooperates the most in Operation High Tension Syndrome. He was always seen throughout the episode in high-tension. He is a source of comedy throughout the series and is the most skilled in baseball. Shown from Otonashi's POV, it is a running gag that Hinata will compliment/flirt with Otonashi, giving space for him to wonder if Hinata is actually gay. At the end of the 3rd Drama CD, it is revealed that Hinata is actually gay for Otonashi, and has changed his mind about marrying Yui in the next life. Although Yuri insists the Drama CD is a second season (breaking the 4th wall) and the story supposedly takes place after the end of the first season, the Drama CDs themselves can be just considered a compilation of gags. He always succumbs to Naoi's hypnotism. He, along with Otonashi and Iwasawa, are the only ones that have a revealed death. He has the same voice actor as Kise Ryota from Kuroko no Basket and even slightly resembles him. In the English dubbed of Angel Beats!, he has never called Shiina by her nickname. He was the first and last of the characters to be "chair rocketed" to the ceiling in episode 5. His best friend is Ooyama, but he seems to be around Otonashi a lot more in the anime. In the English dub, he has the same voice actor as Tomoya Okazaki in Clannad.
Yui (ユイ, Yui) is a big fan of Girls Dead Monster, also acting as an assistant for publicity and other matters. She became the lead vocalist after Iwasawa disappeared. She had sung "Thousand Enemies" as a lead vocalist while the other song, "Shine Days", was not fully sung in the series, but only its chorus. Her singing voice is LiSA. She's one of the heroines of Angel Beats! -1st beat-.
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AppearanceEdit
Yui's appearance
Yui has long, pink hair with two bunches tied up with dark red laces, and two twintails on the sides of her face, held together by small cross-shaped barrettes. Her eyes are hot magenta. She wears the same uniform as Yuri and the other girls, although her shirt appears to be small enough to see her belly. She wears crossed black ribbons up to her knees and black boots. Though they don't seem to be in use, she also wears garters on each thigh with the addition of black choker around her neck.
On her wrists she sports single handcuffs with few slabs remaining on each (possibly, both parts formed a common pair of handcuffs). She wears wings that are hidden behind her hair. Another particular trait of her is her "demon tail" which seems to twitch and move whenever she is excited, happy, or emotional in any way. She also has two pointy teeth like a cat.
PersonalityEdit
Yui (Bathroom Scene)
Yui is extremely bright, cheerful, crazy and even a bit wild. She is known to be hyperactive and talks extremely fast. Even within the members of the SSS, she comes off as very excited and loud. She is often flirtatious with others, and takes advantage of every opportunity she can. She usually tells the other SSS members that they're "morons", mostly because under the surface she is actually quite intelligent. She is also a huge admirer of Hisako, because of her 'murderous' guitar rift.
Her upbeat personality is most likely inspired by her past life in the living world where she was paralyzed since she was four years old from head to toe.
BackgroundEdit
Yui paralyzed
In the living world, Yui was hit by a car when she was four years old. Due to this, she was paralyzed from her neck down ever since and has been taken care of by her mother.
Within the indefinite time she stayed in her room, she was usually seen watching television. Seeing different things on television became her only pastime, and she once wished of doing the things she watched when she manages to recover. Unfortunately, that time did not come.
It is unknown how she died, but it can be assumed it may have been due to a quadriplegic complication, or that her body somehow broke down in some way. In the afterlife, she is ecstatic to have full mobility and rejoices in being able to do all kinds of things she had never even dreamed of before.
PlotEdit
A vision of a happy memory.
Yui briefly appeared in Episode 1 as a fan who was taking pictures of Girls DeMo. She was the fan who said Hisako and Iwasawa's names.
After Iwasawa's departure, Yui assumes her place in the band as the lead vocalist.
Upon being introduced to the SSS, she instantly gets along with Hinata, whom she usually gives a variety of wrestling holds to. Hinata always returns the favor, and at one time, he initiates the exchange. She was only seen performing "Thousand Enemies" as a diversion for "Operation Tornado". Although the only GirlsDeMo member (after Iwasawa's disappearance) to be in the Anti-Angel Headquarters, she does not contribute much in the missions, except as a diversion squad.
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As the series progresses, Otonashi was able to fulfill her regrets. He helps her by doing the German Suplex, playing 5-on-1 soccer game (Maradona) and playing baseball (though she doesn't hit a homerun). After telling Otonashi that her last regret was marriage, Hinata later helps her fulfill her last regret by proposing to her, and giving her a vision of what could have been had they met in the real world. They'll meet when Hinata breaks Yui's window with a baseball, then he'll come and retrieve it and he'll start visiting more frequently, finally even relieving her mother of her duty to take care of her and they'll marry sometime after that. After thanking Hinata and Otonashi, Yui disappears, having fulfilled her regrets and moved on, leaving only her baseball bat and the baseball helmet she was wearing at the time.
AbilitiesEdit Yui has little combat ability to the point even Yuri does not rate her as an effective threat against Angel, merely as a general distraction. However in non-combat situations, she displays surprising ability in wrestling (her favorite is "German Suplex " and she did this to Otonashi). She has caught Fujimaki with a heavy kick in a soccer game and Hinata in the second Guild Descent Operation. RelationshipsEdit
Family Afterlife
Yui's mother
TriviaEdit
Yui's dolls
In the special opening credits focusing on Yui (and which doubles as Yui's audition performance), she is playing a Gibson SG Special. Yui is very similar in appearance to Etna from the Disgaea series. It seems that she doesn't know Naoi as what she stated on Episode 08. The song played during the scene where Hinata helped Yui to fulfill her last achievement (get married) was "Ichiban no Takaramono", which was later re-used in Episode 13 (Otonashi confessed his feelings towards Kanade), albeit with slight modifications like the song being played on piano rather than guitar and a different singer. Her back story seems to be a reference to Taiyou no Uta, a movie that the singer YUI starred in. The title of the episode Yui dissapeared in is "Goodbye Days" which is also the title of the main song YUI sings in Taiyou no Uta. Yui's dolls, in her bedroom in back story on Episode 10, come from 'Air' and 'Clannad'. She has the same english voice actor as Fuko Ibuki from Clannad and shares a similar personality and story as Fuko. Like some of the Angel Beats girls, Yui entered Saimoe Contests. To see here result, visit here: wiki/Yui QuotesEdit "Even death can't cure idiocy." "She's a moron, right?" "This world has no cops. Just get a bat from the baseball club. Now off you go!" "Yui-Nyan" "I'll keep singing for everyone, even when I'm wetting myself! I'll show you what I got!" "They're all morons!" "Yea, Yea. I saw the whole thing. That's why I've come to offer my help, Mew."
Masami Iwasawa (岩沢 雅美 Iwasawa Masami) is a character in Angel Beats, featuring as the founder and original leader of the band Girls Dead Monster, where she is the band's lead guitarist and vocalist.
She is voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro in the Japanese version and Luci Christian in the English dub, whilst her singing voice is by Marina. She's also the heroine of the visual novel Angel Beats! -1st beat-.
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AppearanceEdit
Iwasawa's appearance
Iwasawa has chin-length pink-red hair that has two longer locks of hair than the rest where it extends to her shoulders and red eyes.
She wears the uniform of the SSS with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. She wears flat calf high black boots instead of normal school shoes as well as black sweatbands on her wrists. She carries an acoustic guitar that is a tan or orange colour which she found in a trash heap. She is 160 cm tall (5'3").
PersonalityEdit
Iwasawa has a calming demeanor that she has been described as the "cool beauty" by Yuri Nakamura. While usually she is rather quiet, she is able to fascinate listeners by striving to create music that speaks her thoughts and feelings. Iwasawa later reveals that she feels uncomfortable when interacting with other people as she experienced being gossiped about behind her back when she was still living, and has once showed a facade to people to actually talk to her, hiding her true feelings inside. This eventually changed when she meets Yuri, who aside from Hisako (Iwasawa's bandmate and co-founder of Girls Dead Monster) was the first person to show kindness towards her.
The clueless Iwasawa giving weird names to Girls Dead Monster in the beginning.
In the manga, Iwasawa can be seen to have a rather comical attitude towards Hisako, which often results in Hisako getting angry over Iwasawa. She is often seen as stubborn (as Angel whom she mentioned to be very persistent) at the beginning but as she got to know Hisako better, Iwasawa was actually a clueless, innocent bad-in-naming-the-band girl.
PlotEdit Origin Edit
Prior to her death, Iwasawa was born into a turbulent family - her parents often fought during her childhood, with some scenes suggesting that her father was an alcoholic. Whenever her parents started fighting Iwasawa would curl up in her room, covering her ears to block out the noise. It also appears that she didn't have many friends during her school years as she recalled an incident when a group of girls mocked her openly about the way she behaved.
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While staying away from home during one such fight, she listened to music from a band called Sad Machine that struck a chord within her. Inspired, she started to play the guitar and eventually began singing as a way of expressing her emotion. Although her grades were good, she began to focus on her music career planning to save up enough money, buy her own place and then live off her music. Unfortunately, just as she seemed to be getting into the business (and away from her dysfunctional family) she collapsed while working at her part-time job as the result of a severe cerebral stroke that left her unable to move or speak. The cause of the stroke was head trauma she suffered as a child while trying to stop a fight between her parents, during which her father hit her on the head with a beer bottle. She spent the rest of her life in a hospital bed paralyzed and silently cursing her fate.
Heavens Door Edit
Iwasawa is the leader of the band Girls Dead Monster, also known as GirlDeMo. As well as being the leader she is in charge of the vocals and lead guitar. She is also the one who writes the lyrics and composes the music for the band's songs. The songs are then used as performance pieces for concerts which turns out to be a diversion for the NPC students while the SSS proceeds with their plans to eliminate Angel.
On one occasion, she is forced to flee when she continues her guitar-playing antics, and there, she meets Hisako. Hisako asked Iwasawa to form a band with her which the latter refused. It was only after their first live performance then Iwasawa agreed to form a band with her.
Anime Edit
Iwasawa appeared as a very minor character in the Angel Beats anime, disappearing at the end of the third episode. Having come to terms with her past, she no longer had any need to remain in the world and Yui eventually replaced her as the lead guitarist and singer. However, her influence remains throughout the entire series. Her song, "My Song," is hummed by Kanade later in the series and in the epilogue when a person who resembles Otonashi reaches out to someone humming it.
Angel Beat's First Beat Edit
Masami is one of the main heroines of the Angel Beats 1st Beat Visual Novel. Along with Yui and Matsushita, Iwasawa has a designated character route, which means her role can be expanded significantly. What happens to Masami depends upon the player's choices as Yuzuru Otonashi, so Iwasawa's fate can vary from route to route.
If the player remains faithful to the anime or chooses to follow one of the other routes, Iwasawa's fate stays the same and she will disappear at the end of the second mission, after finishing her solo song. There is, however, still an opportunity to "save" her. If the player chooses to disregard Yuri's instructions and interrupt her singing of My Song, Iwasawa will remain in the afterlife for the rest of the story, whether the player is playing her route or not. Depending upon how strong your relationship is with her, Iwasawa may start to drop subtle hints that she has developed a crush on Otonashi. Iwasawa's route (BEWARE OF SPOILERS) Edit RelationshipsEdit
Family Afterlife
Her parents
Etymology Edit The name Masami means "elegant, graceful" (雅) (masa) and "beautiful" (美) (mi). Masami's surname Iwasawa means "rock" (岩) (iwa) and "marsh" (沢) (sawa). Trivia Edit Angel Beat's Heavens Door revealed that Iwasawa was one of the oldest members of the battlefront in terms of age. Since she was confirmed to be a third-year student, this means she would have been around eighteen years old when she died.
Ayato Naoi (直井 文人, Naoi Ayato) is one of the students of the Afterlife school and is said school's Student Council Vice President. He temporarily takes over Kanade Tachibana's position after the faculty forces her to resign.
The self-proclaimed "God", Naoi initially uses extremely violent methods to remain in the Afterlife, but later joins the Afterlife Battle Front after encouragement from Yuzuru Otonashi.
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AppearanceEdit
Naoi is a young male with chin-length dark green hair with fringes swept slightly to the right. He wears the default uniform of the afterlife school which consists of black pants and a white polo shirt worn under a black gakuran (he is the only SSS member in the Anti-Angel Headquarters that doesn't wear the standard SSS uniform). He also wears a variation of a Mao cap, with a dominant dark blue and black color scheme. Whenever he goes on his rounds on the school's classes, he is usually followed by a small group of NPCs. In the manga, he wears the same uniform as in the anime, excluding his Mao cap.
PersonalityEdit
Before joining the SSS, he is much stricter than Angel was and his first action as president is to punish the SSS for their constant disobedience. He even massacred the SSS after Otonashi and Kanade were sent to the reflection room. Later on, when he joins the SSS, his affection for Otonashi and antagonistic attitude towards the others are used as a constant source of comic relief. He often says negative remarks on others, and then says that with the exception of Otonashi. He also claims that he is a God, though the SSS insist that he is not. Hinata is usually the target of his hypnotism, due to Hinata's constant teasing.
"TK" is a mysterious character who speaks in semi-nonsensical English quoted from pop culture depending on the situation of the scene. He saves the team many times and does know some Japanese but rarely speaks it, and it seems he understands what the others say to him. And he is talented in almost anything (mostly in dancing). He was always seen dancing even though fighting his enemies. His real identity and his name are unknown to characters in the show, even to the SSS, so they identify him as "TK", a nickname given to him by Noda. However behind character names in the opening sequence their Romaji name can be seen written in faint letters, and behind "TK" it says "Thei Kai".
One particular trait of his is his inability to remain still, as he is in constant movement whenever he is not doing anything at all (although at times he can be seen not in constant movement). His catchphrases appear to be 'Just a wild heaven' and 'kiss you'.
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Appearance
He is a tall young man with blond hair wearing a red scarf in his forehead (which represents that he is a mysterious character). Not having the SSS uniform, he has a large dark-red bandanna that practically hides his eyes (Shown for a brief instance in Episode 10 during the 5 on 1 soccer match against Yui). He has also two small earrings on the sides of both his ears and a "necklace" that holds of a pair of handcuffs.
Phrases
Throughout the series, TK has said these in English:
Episode Phrase 1 C'mon, let's dance! Okay... don't be afraid. Feel the groove, man. Yeah, nice and slow. Music is the test Mmm, this is so delicious. Yeah, step on. Get your little kiss 2 Alright let's go Just wild heaven Freakin' crazy Hurry up! (after that, he said: "You can make it! Oh, run to her and hug her tight!" in Japanese) Give my love to jesus man (while he was holding the fallin roof) 3 Get chance and luck 4 Crazy baby (When Yui accidentally strangles herself.) Wow Don't stop dancing 5 Aww yeah 6 Ouch, are you serious? Just a wild heaven I'll be back 7 One, two, here we go. Let's dance Zetsubou no carnival Crazy for you Chop chop chop chop 8 Hey, yo! Check this out! It's a Moonwalk...It's a Moonwalk...Head-spin! A trap It's my turn. Get chance and luck 10 I kiss you! Don't let me cry In the mountain Here we- (He would have said "go" had Otonashi not tackled him.) Kiss you Easy come, easy go Scrambled it trouble down 11 I kiss you! Woah! Dancing in the shadow! like an invitation to the crazy carnival 12 Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on! Knockin' on heaven's door Taaasty Candy! Goodbye Wild Heaven Extra Episode I'm TK! I'm going my way!
That's easy, yeah. C'mon and dance, right now everybody dance easy, alright, alright, let's dance, follow me ha-ha-ha, yeah, that' right. That's an easy task.
Woo! ... Sexy-sexy baby. Sexy!
Dive into your body!
Crazy night with Mabo Tofu Mabo Tofu give me back!, woohoooo! Total destruction... Second OVA "Smells good"
Most of these catchphrases are actual lines of songs, mostly from bands TM Network and B'z, rock bands from the late '80s to the present.
Abilities Though fully capable in unarmed combat as shown in episode 12, TK uses a mismatched pair of a L.A.R. Grizzly and a Browning Hi-Power as his dual sidearms. When heavier firepower is called for, TK calls on a PP-19 Bizon submachine gun. Trivia In Episode 11, at about 19:43, he is shown to be dancing the moves of Michael Jackson, with the moonlight as the spotlight. He has taught Matsushita some dance moves. He is seen dancing while fighting the shadows in episode 12. It seems that he doesn't tire out after moving or dancing. The word "THI-KEI" appears behind TK's name in the opening which is likely the phonetically spelling "TK". He actually isn't very fluent in English, as stated by Hinata in Episode 9, despite the fact that he speaks it. In the Third Drama CD, Otonashi stated that without his bandana, he was a handsome, double-lidded person. Along with Matsushita, TK has a cameo appearance in episode 7 of the anime Charlotte. In Angel Beats! OVA 2 (Hell's kitchen) TK says to Ooyama "Hey, you!" in English, then in Japanese says, "Right now, she's waiting at the airport lobby," which could be a possible hint of his past. (Either his or Ooyama's) In writing and copy editing, "to come" commonly abbreviated to "TK". It is used to signify that additional material will be added at a later date. Gallery
Matsushita Godan (松下護騨, Matsushita Godan), also known as "Matsushita 5-dan" ("Matsushita the 5th" in the English dub), has a large build and is a master at judo. He never forgets a debt he owes, especially in food. He carries heavy weapons such as rocket launchers in battle.
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AppearanceEdit
Matsushita's apeparance
He has brown hair and has slit eyes (his eyes were shown when he was stabbed by a Harmonics clone). He has a large, muscular body. As the series progresses, his body became slim due to lack of food whilst training in the mountains. He wears the standard SSS uniform.
PersonalityEdit
Matsushita being slim
He is calm and everyone relies on him. He was always seen training in the nearby forest. According to TK, Matsushita goes into intensive training in the mountains near the school from episode 10 and is not seen again until episode 12 when he returns, being much slimmer. Over the course of the series, he gets TK to teach him various dance moves and from Yuri's words has taught the SSS some judo moves before as well.
AbilitiesEdit When equipped for heavy fighting Matsushita arms himself with an AT4 rocket launcher, and a MG3 machine gun, as seen in episode 1. As a sidearm he carries a Heckler & Koch P7. His abilities are further supplemented by his unarmed combat skills, which stem from his how he earned 5th Dan in Judo while he was alive. His unarmed capabilities are further enhanced after he travels to the mountain to train. RelationshipsEdit AfterlifeEdit Takamatsu Hideki Hinata TriviaEdit He is the only known member besides Shiina to be skilled in martial arts such as judo and karate. He is able to play baseball and eat noodles (meat udon) at the same time. It seems that he will do anything in exchange for food. In the visual novel he wanted to nickname Otonashi "Loli-con". When he became slim, the SSS does not recognize him. He also taught the other members of the SSS basic grappling moves which proved useful when they went to rescue Kanade from the Harmonics Clones in Episode 8. He is the only one in the SSS to wear a different shoe style than everyone else. Matsushita appears as cameo in anime Charlotte in episode 7 along with TK.
Chaa (チャー, Chaa) acts as the supplier of weapons that the SSS uses. Despite looking like a middle-aged man, he is about the same age as Otonashi and the others attending the Afterlife School.[1] He is the leader of the Guild, which makes weapons out of dirt based on memories of Guild members when they were alive. However, if they have never seen a weapon before, the weapon will not work or will explode catastrophically. He is the fourth member to join the SSS.
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PersonalityEdit
As his appearance suggests, he likes acting toughly and unfriendly. He is behind the first armed revolt that Yuri experienced and taught her that it was possible to bring firearm weapons into the Afterlife world, such as handguns, grenades, rocket launchers, etc. He was hostile to Yuri at first but she managed to get him to cooperate with her, despite having been a threat to her even greater than Angel herself, since he had firearms, and would not hold back at all in any way. Yuri feared him even to the extent of considering burying him alive in order to make him unable to escape.
HistoryEdit
In later events, he eventually loses the team which he has worked on for the entirety of his stay as the leader of Guild and for some time, falls into lethargy; however, he manages to give Yuri the last gun he has crafted before disappearing.
It was revealed that in his life he had a wife, while he was attending high school. They both had left their families and friends to be together. Along the way they separated and died. Yuri reminds Chaa of his wife.
Due to his knowledge of firearms it is possible that he had intimate knowledge of weapons prior to his death suggesting that either he or his parents has some military training in weaponry.
In the manga, he was the one who showed Yuri, Ōyama and Hinata how he got his gun by moulding clay into a single metal part. He told them he moulded clay into individual parts based on knowledge of the gun's structure, and assembling them. This consequently led to greater production of such weaponry, to the point of arming SSS members as seen in the anime.
TriviaEdit In the manga he was shown without a beard. In the manga, he was shot in the head by Yuri twice, during Yuri accidentally firing an arrow to his head and during the gun shot duel.
Eri Shiina (椎名 枝里 Shiina Eri) is a member of the Afterlife Battle Front and a "self-proclaimed female ninja" who fights with traditional Japanese weapons such as dual-wielding kodachi and shuriken. She acts as one of the front liners of the club and is an enigmatic character whose past is covered in mystery.
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AppearanceEdit
Shiina's appearance
Shiina, like all of the members of the Afterlife Battle Front, wears the group's special seifuku, along with a long black scarf covering the bottom part of her face and her neck (usually seen during operations). Her skirt is slightly different from the usual, as it has two short slits which are probably to aid her in movement. She is also the only female character who has short sleeves. Shiina wears black coloured arm guards on the back of her palm that extend to her elbows, as well as lower thigh guards. Black bandages can be seen under those guards, right below her knees and near her elbows. Her weapons are tucked into 2 slots on her back, hooked by a belt-like strap. Her shirt is often left unbuttoned at the bottom.
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Despite having dark blue hair, during certain episodes (e.g. episode 2 Operation Descend), her hair is seen as black with reddish-burgundy colored eyes.
PersonalityEdit
Shiina usually puts up a tough and quiet front, but she is extremely fond of cute things, especially stuffed animals, even though it may be a set-up or a trap of the enemy. It also seems that she is overprotective of the stuffed animals she has, and she often mistakes them for real animals which leads her easily into traps.
She is able to sense when danger is coming. She is good when it comes to concentrating and is very strict in her training and would continue with her training even when she is needed to do something else. Shiina's training mostly consist of balancing objects such as broomsticks, scissors, and mops on her fingertip,
Shiina's concentrating skills.
sometimes balancing one on each of her fingers simultaneously while doing something else. She also says in the later episodes that Yuzuru Otonashi should consider the fact that when she's fighting or in battle with them she makes the team seem like it's 100 men stronger.
She also usually says the phrase "how shallow-minded" (あさはかなり, asahaka nari) when she remarks on her colleagues' actions. But in the English Dubbed version her phrase has been translated as "this is so stupid" instead.
In the Anti-Angel Headquarters, Shiina is often seen at the corner of the room being covered in shadow.
BackgroundEdit
Much of Shiina's past remains unknown, and she heavily implies that she came from the past (a.e Feudal Japan), where she worked as an assassin who was trained continuously to kill people using her skills which she had honed over time. Her training has caused her to show little regard to her identity, only calling herself by the callsign "C7" and not even thinking of naming herself otherwise. It's currently unknown how Shiina died and when she ended up in the Afterlife that even the Manga fails to explain, and it remains a mystery what her regret was to cause her to end up in the Afterlife. She obviously suffers from a slight culture shock as she is unable to differentiate from a fake electronic dog to a real one; since she was born in Ancient Japan and does not understand modern day technology.
PlotEdit The Underground's Final BossEdit
The Final Boss who goes without an opening speech.
This section contains content from Heaven's Door.
Before joining the SSS, she lived in the deepest point of an underground system of passageways located just outside the perimeter of the Afterlife School. She was first discovered by Noda, and later by Yuri Nakamura and Hideki Hinata in an exploratory trip in the underground.
Shiina's first encounter with the SSS was with Yuri and Hinata. However, this meeting ended disastrously for Yuri and Hinata, as Shiina attacked without even providing a prologue speech, which they expected Shiina to do as a final boss of sorts. Furthermore, she proved to be more than a match for the duo. As a result of this, both Hinata and Yuri were forced to retreat, though it still didn't prevent their respective deaths. This would have continued had Hinata not managed to restrain Shiina by sacrificing himself, allowing Ooyama, Chaa, and Noda to rescue them and capture Shiina. However, after Noda runs off forcing Chaa to chase him, Shiina manages to escape. This allows her to begin a relentless assault upon the remaining group, as they attempt to escape the underground.
After much struggle, the group manages to make it back to the Afterlife School where, to their surprise, Shiina is waiting for them. To further the astonishment of Yuri, Hinata, and Ooyama, Angel appears and protects the now defenseless group. During this time, they regroup with Chaa and Noda to form a counter-attack plan. Shiina finally faces defeat after being backed into a wall by Angel, Noda, and Chaa.
In the infirmary, Shiina is invited to become a member of the Afterlife Battle Front by Yuri, to which she cautiously accepts.
The Silent Arms of the RebellionEdit
This section contains content from the Angel Beats! anime series.
As Yuri continues with her plans to lure God, Shiina remains as one of the members of the Afterlife Battle Front, acting as its front-line offense whenever it is needed. However, she is not that active when it comes to less intense operations like Operation Tornado, even if Angel is involved.
Joining SSSEdit
After her recovery, Shiina joins the activities of the SSS, although she has minimal participation, particularly because of her puzzlement over the things they do. Yuri decides to guide her into the SSS, seeing as she is still confused over the world she is currently in.
Etymology Edit The name Eri means "branch" (枝) (e) and "village" (里) (ri). Eri's surname Shiina means "oak, mallet" (椎) (shii) and "name" (名) (na). TriviaEdit Shiina's blood type is A. Shiina was a contestant of the voting contest Anime Saimoe Tournament 2010 but lost to Alisa Bannings in the first round of the main tournament. She compares her abilities to 100 men.[1] The broom balanced on her fingertip did not fall in episode 4, even though she was playing baseball. Later she is seen balancing the broom as well as a pair of scissors and a ruler on the same hand. On the Drama CDs, she can be heard laughing. On the OVA Stairway to Heaven, she reached the tension meter up to 9999 just by saying "Cute!" in front of Kanade Tachibana. Many anime fans compare this to the now infamous meme "It's over 9000!" spoken by Vegeta from the Dragon Ball Z series. Although Shiina is often silent in the anime series, she speaks frequentlyin the Drama CDs. There could be a possibility that Shiina's given name is "Eri" 枝里 as in Episode 3 when Yuri and the rest of SSS intruded Kanade's computer and found a name list. A name stated 椎名枝里 "Shina Eri" is seen on the screen which Yuri mentioned that their names are on it too. However, romaji "Shina" cannot be typed into Shiina's kanji name "椎名", although the English spelling could have just been spelled wrong. It is possible that this name may or may not be an NPC. This later proved to be false after the release of the 24th Chapter of Angel Beats! Heaven's Door, which her name 'Shiina' was given to her by Yuri that came from Shiina's codename "C7" (Shii-nana) When Shiina died in Operation: Guild Descend 2, Yuzuru Otonashi, Ooyama and Hideki Hinata cried. Shiina is no longer a ninja in Drama CD 3, instead, she's a professional programmer, who programmed the 'large puppy' that attacked the former SSS. Shiina's weakness to cute things is still present in Drama CD 3, even though she had a new life after getting obliterated. Shiina has the same trait with Yuiko Kurugaya of Little Busters! due to their crazy interests over cute things. Most of the time, a wooden like click sound would play when Shiina begins to speak in the original series. Shiina doesn't wear a bra. Instead, she tightens her chest in bandages to help movement speed. Shiina is the only character who is never seen wielding a gun at some point. Instead, she uses shuriken for ranged attacks. According to the 1st Visual Novel, Shiina has been in the afterlife the longest with her being there for 100 years.
Fujimaki (藤巻, Fujimaki) is one of the main members of the SSS. He is a delinquent who fights with a shirasaya.
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AppearanceEdit
He has black hair (often mistaken to be a shade of dark green) and black eyes. He wears the standard SSS uniform. He is mostly seen carrying a shirasaya sword.
PersonalityEdit
He is a snobbish guy who picks on new people like Otonashi (reason for this is unknown), though as the series progresses he torments Otonashi less and less. He is one of the most reliable members of the group, along with Noda. Although he displays a tough bravado, he is unable to swim and he drowns very easily. It seems that he is good friends with Ōyama. Though as the series start heading towards the end, he wants to be remembered when everyone leaves instead of just being the kind of person to be forgotten.
AbilitiesEdit He uses a PPSh-41 submachine gun when prepared for heavy action such as in episodes 1 and 8. He was seen fighting Shadows using both firearms and his sword at the same time in episode 11. TriviaEdit He is the only member to fight using a sword and a gun at the same time. He has the same voice actor as Akio Furukawa from Clannad. His English voice actor, Andrew Love, was married to Angel's English voice actress, Emily Neves. In the Drama CD 3, he has a 'buzz' device used to answer in a quiz show contest and uses it every time before he speaks. It appears that he can not swim. Not much is known about his past, but he says he was part of the yakuza, but only for one day. It was supposedly a very tragic story, as Ōyama cried and begged to be his friend, and Hinata thought he might cry too.
Hatsune Otonashi (音無 初音 Otonashi Hatsune) is a minor character in Angel Beats. She was the younger sister of Yuzuru Otonashi.
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Background Edit
When Hatsune was young, she was diagnosed with an unknown medical condition and she was bedridden for at least two years that Yuzuru acted as her guardian within this period and the absence of parents suggests that they were orphans.
Yuzuru visited Hatsune everyday, in order to keep her company and give her a manga that he bought for her with his meagre wages. Compared to her brother, Hatsune enjoys studying and couldn't wait to start school. However, her sickness kept her from going outside.
She is also gifted by her brother's love, who despite having a meagre income from part-time jobs, also depended upon her love to keep on living. Even though Yuzuru bought the manga randomly (acknowledging that he perhaps even the same issues) Hatsune was always grateful and these gestures of gratitude, in turn, reassured him.
Hatsune clinging onto her brother's back while slowly passing away.
Gradually, the effects of Hatsune's condition took its toll upon her, and her condition worsened. Despite this, she was still very keen to go outside see the Christmas decorations, a fact that she mentioned to Yuzuru who decided to do one nice thing for. Working hard to save up enough money from his part-time jobs, he planned to take her out for Christmas.
When she was refused permission to leave, Yuzuru snuck her out carrying her on his back.
The pair made it out of the hospital to the high street, admiring the Christmas decorations. As Yuzuru promised to take her anywhere and buy anything she wanted, Hatsune thanked her brother one last time before passing away on Christmas day[1]" with her arms still wrapped around him.
Legacy
Hatsune's death had a huge impact on Otonashi, who immediately fell into a deep depression, recognising too late that it was Hatsune's gratitude and love, which kept him going in life. Eventually, however, Yuzuru snapped out of this, and began working hard to better himself so that he could become a doctor, and help others the way Hatsune had helped him. Unfortunately, he never fulfilled these ambitions.
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Just before he died, Otonashi remembered his sister wishing that she had a donor, which could have made her treatment easier, perhaps even saved her. With his last ounce of strength signed a donation card, voluntarily offering his organs to people who needed them. He died, shortly afterwards, but not before inspiring the dying people around him to sign their own donation cards.
Upon entering the afterlife, Yuzuru originally had no recollection about who he was nor about Hatsune's existence. He was devastated when he found out what had happened and wept openly for her. [2]
Etymology Edit The name Hatsune means "first" (初) (hatsu) and "sound" (音) (ne). Hatsune is also the last name of a top Vocaloid named Miku Hatsune (初音ミク Hatsune Miku). Hatsune's surname Otonashi means "sound" (音) (oto) and "nothing" (無) (nashi). Trivia Edit Hatsune was a contestant of the voting contest Anime Saimoe Tournament 2010, but she lost to Natsume in the first round of the main tournament. Hatsune bears some resemblance to Urumqi Salinas from the "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" series. In Angel Beats 1st Beat - if the player plays Iwasawa's route, Yuzuru Otonashi never regained his memories and so he never consciously remembers his sister. However, both he and Iwasawa agreed to call their child Hatsune, when he suggested the name for their daughter, indicating that at least subconsciously he does still remember her. Mai Nakahara (Hatsune's Japanese voice actress) does the voice of Nagisa Furukawa in Clannad, another work by Key.
Hisako (久子 Hisako) is second-in-command/co-founder of Girls Dead Monster who plays the guitar.
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AppearanceEdit
Hisako's appearance
Hisako has long brown hair that is usually kept in a ponytail with bangs hanging over her forehead and gray eyes.
She wears the standard uniform with her sleeves rolled up to her elbow. She also wears the GirlsDeMo accessory in her left thigh. She is seen carrying her guitar, mostly she used it in the performances during the diversion practices.
PersonalityEdit
She has a candid personality and likes to play mahjong, which she has incredible luck with. She cheats to win. She is strict when it comes to practising their new songs and she's always angry with Yui (probably because of messing the rhythms or if Yui had said something that she didn't like).
PlotEdit Beginnings of Dead MonsterEdit
Iwasawa and Hisako performing to Crow Song in the manga.
Hisako finds Iwasawa running from teachers who want to stop the latter's guitar playing in the middle of class period. She offers refuge to Iwasawa because she is personally moved by Iwasawa's performance and she invites her to play with her on the music room; at this time, Iwasawa discovers that Hisako has a playing style very similar to a band named Sad Machine. Hisako then offers her a chance to form a band with her.
Although Iwasawa is not yet ready to form a band with her, Hisako continues to play alongside Iwasawa; at this period, Iwasawa has finished composing "Crow Song". Hisako still wasn't able to recruit Iwasawa into the band she is planning to form, and she instead decides to ask her perform with her in an unexpected concert at noon.
RelationshipsEdit
Friends Afterlife
Blood the Beautiful
Etymology Edit The name Hisako means "long time" (久) (hisa) and "child" (子) (ko). Trivia Edit Hisako is possibly a D cup. Hisako is noted to be good at athletics. Hisako slightly resembles Rin Natsume from Little Busters [1].
Hitomi (ひとみ) is an NPC who has a brief appearance in Episode 12. She is seen speaking to Yuri Nakamura during her time as an NPC after getting swallowed up by the shadows. She is later revealed to have been a figment of Yuri's imagination.
Igarashi is a student from an unknown institution who was among the many casualties in the train crash where Yuzuru Otonashi was also involved in. After surviving the collision, Igarashi rescued as many of the injured passengers as he can. He later meets Yuzuru, and they became one of the very few people who tries to organize the resources they need for survival after the accident blocked all possible exits.
With his and Yuzuru's leadership skills, most of the rescued survivors were able to survive seven days with only water and a small amount of food as a source of nourishment. However, Yuzuru wasn't able to make it as his stomach wound gravely worsened his condition, causing his death at the very moment rescuers arrive.
What happened to Igarashi after being rescued was not stated.
Miyuki Irie (入江 みゆき Irie Miyuki) is the drummer of Girls Dead Monster who, despite being dead herself, is bad with hearing stories about ghosts or spirits, which Sekine likes to take advantage of. Irie is best friends with Sekine. She has a very gentle, kind, innocent personality which balances well with Sekine's more mischievous personality.
Contents [show]
Appearance Edit
Irie's appearance
Irie is a girl of average height with a slim figure with long, lavender hair and purple eyes.
She dons the standard SSS uniform and a black band on her right thigh with the words "GDM".
PersonalityEdit RelationshipsEdit AfterlifeEdit Shiori Sekine Hisako Masami Iwasawa Yui Etymology Edit Miyuki's surname Irie means "entering" (入) (iri) and "bay, inlet" (江) (e). TriviaEdit Irie was a contestant of the voting contest Anime Saimoe Tournament 2010 but lost to Yuno in the first round of the main tournament. Irie plays a Pearl FZ725/C-CX drum set. Irie always seems to be with Sekine. Irie and Shiori Sekine look very much alike together as they both seem to have strands at both sides, but the only difference is that: Irie has lavender hair Sekine has blond hair
Noda (野田, Noda) is a self-reliant young man who executes the strategies formed by the SSS and fights with a halberd. He does not listen to anyone other than Yuri, whom he has adoration for, resulting in him not being afraid of threatening or killing anyone who questions Yurippe's leadership. He quickly developed a one-sided rivalry towards Otonashi for no other reason than that he refused to enlist to the SSS, and disgracing Yurippe by doing so. This silly rivarly only faded as the shadows started appearing and Noda had no choice but to cooperate if he was gonna be able to assist Yurippe. Noda eventually passed on like all the other members, leaving his halberd resting against a wall inside the headquarters.
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AppearanceEdit
Noda is a tall and fit young man with purple hair and eyes and tanned skin. In the anime, he is almost always seen in his SSS uniform, except for the scene in Episode 4 where he was shown shirtless. In the manga he wore the normal NPC school uniform. He carries around a huge halberd which seems to always be in his hand.
BackgroundEdit
Not much is known about Noda's past or regrets. In the drama CDs, Noda's past was referenced when he recollected on being "a person who burdens his mother as a hikkikomori". This would explain him believing the afterlife to be a game when Yurippe and the others first met him.
It stills remains a mystery on how Noda died and when he ended up in the Afterlife or what his regret was.
PlotEdit
He is discovered by Yuri, Hinata, Ooyama and Chaa upon their descent in an underground network of passageways in the mountains (which would become Guild's headquarters). According to him, he is the main protagonist of a video game with the mission to defeat the "underground boss" who'm he refers as "That dude." The boss is located further down the underground cave (who turns out to be Shiina). Yuri tells him that he is not the main protagonist, which caused him to flee in disbelief with tears flowing from his eyes. He did (after running away a few times and getting beaten by Chaa) eventually become a member of the battlefront though, making him the fifth member to join.
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AbilitiesEdit Though his halberd remains his favored weapon, Noda falls back on a Stechkin APS pistol for ranged combat. Despite the fact that he prefers not to use it due to the fact that it tends to jam a lot. Noda isn't as quick or agile as the other close combat fighters in the group, as he relies more on brute strength. He has however proven himself to be very skilled when it comes to using his Halberd, swinging it and killing his foes with one (or many) quick swipes. Yurippe notes in how low his combat abilities are where she calls Noda a "paper tiger" as he is simply just imitating a game character. TriviaEdit He was pumelled twice by a pendulum hammer trap in the Anti-Angel Headquarters (which was designed and built by himself) and in the Guild. During the initial trips to the guild, Noda was constantly the first to die. He mentions during the first battle with Kanade that he hates guns. In the 3rd Angel Beats! Drama CD instead of a giant halberd, he uses a knife, a fork, and a spoon as weapons. He carries a picture of Yuri in a side view thinking pose, which was shown at the ending of the 11th episode. Takeyama was able to subdue him by repeating pi to a large number of decimal places, proving how dumb Noda truly is. Hinata was able to use him to enlist in his baseball team simply by telling him that strength alone wouldn't impress Yurippe. Noda's halberd might be from a video game he played whilst he was still alive, which would explain his love towards it.
Ōyama (大山, Ōyama) is an ordinary young male who has no special talents. He is the third character to join the SSS. His roommate in the afterlife world is Fujimaki (formerly Hinata) and he was the first character to be suspected of being an NPC.
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AppearanceEdit
Ooyama's appearance
Ōyama is a noticeably average looking boy with medium length dark reddish hair, large, innocent-looking green eyes, and fair skin. He wears the afterlife school uniform in the manga. In the anime, he wears the standard SSS uniform. He tucks his shirt in and buttons his it up to the top, leaving his blazer undone, and wears a tie. He seems to be shorter and less muscular than a lot of the other boys. He says he's not very athletic, preferring to watch sports rather than play.
PersonalityEdit
He does not excel at anything but can do what any normal person can do. In other words, he is a jack-of-all-trades. He is very sensitive and easily gets embarrassed in fake confessions. He has been in the afterlife world for longer than Hinata and Yuri, but most likely not as long as Shiina.
Socially, he does not stand out much to the point that Hinata mistook him for an NPC (even being given the nickname "Villager A" during their first meeting); it was only during Hinata's third conversation with him that he clarifies his status as a dead person. Though he admits that he was once fearful of Yuri (because of what she did to Hinata), he helped Hinata in his relationship with Yuri. When Hinata became his roommate, his first impression of him was that he was incredibly sweet and nice, but that there was absolutely nothing interesting about him, as if he had been made from a template. Ooyama does his best to do his assigned tasks and does what he is told (unless he thinks it is morally wrong or scary), seemingly happy to be needed, but he is very forgetful and messes up very often, making him somewhat unreliable. He is timid and very easily frightened, and the others think of him as a wimp or a scardey-cat. He is affectionate to his closest friends, and in the manga is often seen clinging to Hinata in someway, usually when he's scared, though sometimes he clings so much that Hinata starts to get annoyed. He is generally reserved and somewhat shy, usually staying quite when the group is talking to a new person, but he's still friendly and warm. Ōyama is very innocent, childlike, enthusiastic, optimistic and cheerful when compared to the rest of the group. He seems to see the best in others and is very forgiving, as seen when Yusa killed him cruelly and he forgave her easily because he thought for someone to do something like that they must have some reason. He is overly emotional and easily hurt, and cries very easily. Because of this sensitivity, he is prone to being emotionally scarred and traumatized, which is a running gag in the series. When Takamatsu was turned into an NPC in front of him, he felt terrible and blamed himself, even though there was nothing he could do. The whole situation upset him a lot, and he seemed to find it hard to accept that it had happened and they couldn't do anything. He seems to have a strange imagination, and has very weird and sometimes unrealistic ideas and jokes( in an audio special Yuri even yelled at him for "going off into his own little dimension again"). He says he believes in true love and takes his crushes very seriously. He is generally gentle, encouraging and incredibly caring. He seems to like helping and caring for people who have suffered badly in the past (like Fujimaki). He pays attention and has good intuition when it comes to how others must be feeling, and likes it when others are happy. He hates any kind of conflict and violence. At the beginning of the manga, he was all alone, with no friends, and was very touched that Hinata actually wanted to be his friend. It seems the main reason he joined the SSS was because he didn't want to be alone. In the manga, he 'casts' pretend healing and protection spells on Hinata. Whenever the group needs to test or demonstrate something dangerous, they use Ōyama ( for example,when Yui wanted to try her new wrestling move on Hinata he said that he'd ask Ōyama if she could try it on him). BackgroundEdit
How he died and ended up in the Afterlife remains unknown, but in the manga, he is frequently shown to have sad and dramatic expressions whenever the others are discussing the past. His mood always drops immensely after talking and refused to tell about it, which implies that it is a harsh one—although there is currently no proof of said that the first present ever was Hinata-kuns Natto. Due to him joining the SSS to avoid loneliness implies that he was lonely and had no friend whilst alive. When he says that Hinata was the first to give him a present could mean that his parents were to poor to give him Christmas presents, or simply didn't love him enough. His anxiousness when made to confess his love to Kanade proves that he hasn't had past relationships and is inexperienced in this field. There could also be a possibility that he played many MMO's while alive as he pretended to cast healing spells and potions on the others. His parents must have been very strict and disciplined him often or he was a natural goody-two-shoes as he was overwhelmed by eating in class. His hostility toward violence and conflict suggests that he was either bullied or abused when living.
PlotEdit
In the anime, in Episode 2 it could be assumed that everyone already shares their past stories with each other since Iwasawa mentioned that she already know Yuri's (albeit, in no full length). Whether Ōyama already shared his story too or not, is unknown.
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In Episode 5, Yuri made him confess to Angel (later known as Kanade Tachibana) he said to Hinata, "You just got away with physical damage, but I'm going to take critical mental damage." He also said, " This is my first time asking out a girl!" Hinata and Ōyama keep on fighting until Yuri shouts, "Enough! Knock it off all of you!"
In Episode 6, Ōyama did an amusing scene where he was told to do something not-normal and eat snacks in class to see what former substitute school president Naoi would do. So he specifically said, "Oh man, My heart is pounding! I'm eating snacks in the middle of class! I ate it! I totally ate it! Boldly eating snacks in the middle of class! I'm so reckless!" That could show that he was possibly picked on and forced to follow the rules in his past.
In Episode 12, he helps the others from the shadow using the sniper.
In Episode 13, he and most of the SSS are revealed to have passed on.
AbilitiesEdit
Though normally tasked with sniping duties where his M24 SWS variant of the Remington 700 rifle comes into use, in times of emergencies, he can also pull out his SIG-Sauer P226R pistol. It is not known if he has improved his close combat capabilities since braining himself with a flail type weapon soon after he first met Yuri and Hinata. In the anime, he is kind of a sharp shooter.
TriviaEdit Ōyama has the same voice actor as Yukine Miyazawa's little brother from Clannad. Although this character only appears during Yukine's Arc. During Episode 8 Dancer in the Dark, Ōyama was hypnotised by Naoi to act as a sacrifice, under the role of a clown to make "the lonely girl in the corner" laugh. His name literally translates into large mountain, but he isn't tall. In Angel Beats! Track Zero Chapter 1, Hinata once called him 'Yampaii'. In Angel Beats! Drama CD 3, his personality has changed to the exact opposite of the one he shows in the Anime. In the OVA2, he was also out of character as he was happy that he managed to successfully kill Takamatsu and that he recovered extremely fast after seeing Matsushita's bloody limbs and vomiting. Hinata thinks that he is very cute. Yuri seems to find his jokes hilarious in an audio special. His hobbies are reading and listening to J-pop, which Hinata states is as boring as you can get. He has a habbit of saying the same sentence twice in the same conversation. In the visual novel, he thinks Otonashi is handsome and wants to nickname him ' Ikeman', which could be translated as " handsome" or " handsome guy". In the manga and drama CDs, he has the catchphrase "Nante _!", which could be translated as " Such _!" or " What _!". His most common phrases could translate as " Such violence!" and " What survival skills!" He loves nattou, which a lot of people (including Yuri) hate. He's very popular with the lunch ladies. In a life before his previous one, he was a huge playboy, with the complete opposite personality. He says he " Messed around with some older women" and talks about how he misses his favourite hotels and bars, though he isn't even old enough to drink anyway. This is a running joke in the drama CDs, in which he occasionally swaps to his opposite personality He begged to be friends with Fujimaki after he heard his past and felt such strong sympathy from him he was brought to tears. His birthday seems to be in either October or September In Angel Beats! OVA 2 (Hell's kitchen) TK says to Ooyama "Hey, you!" in English, then in Japanese says, "Right now, she's waiting at the airport lobby," which could be a possible hint of his past. (Either his or TK's)
Saitou, nicknamed "Fishing Saitou", is a member of The Guild. He was born out of excessive passion for fishing.
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AppearanceEdit
Saitou does not wear the standard SSS uniform, instead he wears a t-shirt, pants and a straw hat, which makes him look like a picturesque farmer or Huckleberry Finn-like fisherman. Saitou only appeared during Operation Monster Stream, and is then seen with fishing rods and a large amount of other fishing equipment.
PersonalityEdit
He spends his time fishing on sunny days in the river near the Afterlife School (which is off limits to the students). His main goal is to capture the giant fish, known as "Monster Stream". It is heavily implied that he made his fishing rods strong enough to capture the giant fish. Saitou catches fish with extremely exaggerated movements, he also appears to be a firearms expert, yet he is also considered a moron by Yuri. He is also an expert when it comes to firearms. He catches fish with unbelievable strokes.
AbilitiesEdit From the show he is not shown to have any real combat abilities. He is shown as being the most capable fisherman in the Guild, SSS and School. TriviaEdit Although his fishing equipment look normal, he upgraded all of it so that he could capture the River Monster. It was shown that he has incredible jumping skills while he was catching a fish. [1] It is unknown if Saitou passed on with the Guild after they disbanded, along with the rest of the SSS as he was never mentioned. It was assumed he did though, seeing many of the members also moving on nearing the end of the anime. His character is presumed to be homage to the protagonist of a fishing manga (and of its anime adaptation) titled "Tsurikichi Sanpei " (釣りキチ三平, lit. "Fishing Enthusiast Sanpei") , which was popular in Japan throughout 1970s His name "Saitou" likely comes from a recurring name in Jun Maeda's works, examples are Bush Saitou from Kanon, Jet Saitou from Clannad, Masked Saitou from Little Busters , and Skyhigh Saitou from Charlotte.
Shiori Sekine (関根 しおり Sekine Shiori) is the bassist of Girls Dead Monster, with a G&L L-2000 bass guitar as her playing instrument and Hartke HA3500 or 5500 (external aesthetics identical) as her amp, she likes to play pranks on those around her to see the surprised faces of her victims. She also likes to abruptly improvise during performances, which makes Hisako get mad at her. She is best friends with Miyuki Irie, whom she calls "Miyukichi". Although she isn't good at playing the bass, Hisako stood up as her guide during their practice performances. She is also seen singing backup for Masami Iwasawa when the band first performed "Crow Song" in the anime.
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Appearance Edit
Sekine's appearance
Sekine is a slim teenage girl of average height with slightly spiky thigh-length honey hair that has two strands of hair from behind her ears are usually seen down her shoulders with a small ahoge on her head and deep blue eyes.
RelationshipsEdit AfterlifeEdit Miyuki Irie Hisako Masami Iwasawa Yui Etymology Edit Shiori's surname Sekine means "barrier" (関) (seki) and "root" (根) (ne). TriviaEdit Sekine was a contestant of the voting contest Anime Saimoe Tournament 2010, but she lost to Mio Akiyama in the first round of the main tournament. Sekine has the same name with the only female member of the band Base Ball Bear. Sekine bears a resemblance to Yusa Nishimori from Charlotte as they both have long blonde hair and blue eyes.
Takamatsu (高松, Takamatsu) is an honor student at the afterlife school and a member of SSS. He is assigned to gathering information and affairs.
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AppearanceEdit
Takamatsu's appearance
He has dark blue hair and dark bluish-purple eyes. He also wears glasses. He wears the standard SSS uniform. Though appearing to be slender, in episode 5 of the anime, when having to act as a diversion, he reveals himself to be actually well built muscle wise and appears slimmer with his clothes on. He is even more muscular than Noda. After this, he is often seen throughout the rest of the series (prior to turning into an NPC) without his shirt on for various reasons.
PersonalityEdit
He has a calm and polite personality. He contributes to the SSS with mainly intelligence gathering and other affairs, but does not actively go out and fight. He tries to avoid trouble as quickly as possible.
Yuri herself says to not be fooled by his glasses and that he is actually stupid (he and Takeyama were the only known members to wear glasses), though he really looks like a smart person because of the intelligence and information he contributes to the group.
PlotEdit
Takamatsu is turned into an NPC by the shadows in episode 11 but recovered off screen as pointed out in the conversation between Hinata and Yuri in episode 13. Yuri posits that it stems from his strong will that allowed him to recover from being an NPC as she herself experienced in her near NPC transformation.
AbilitiesEdit Takamatsu's weapons include a SIG SG 552 assault rifle and a Desert Eagle pistol, both of which availed him little in the events of episode 8. RelationshipsEdit
Friends Afterlife
Mitsumura
TriviaEdit In Episode 5 Favorite Flavor, he is the second one to be "rocketed" into the ceiling, and is rotating at high speed. Also in Episode 5, in the outro he is seen shirtless and surrounded by sparkles. In the OVA Stairway to Heaven, he has said this in Japanese dub in English: "Hey! teach me. Hey! come on", and he was shirtless in the whole episode. He was the only member to be fully consumed by Shadows. His last name could be known as Toko. But the four and sixth letters of his first name is "e" instead of "a" and "i" instead of "a". However, it could simply be an NPC's name and not his real last name. Despite the profile saying he is an honor student, in Episode 1 Yuri reveals to Otonashi that he's actually stupid. He has same personalities and appearance as Jōjirō Takajō from the anime 'Charlotte'. Both of them have the same voice actor. His nickname for Otonashi in the visual novel could be translated as 'Glasses Comrade', even though he doesn't wear glasses. He says that maybe when Otonashi regains his memories he will remember he has bad eyesight and begin to wear glasses.
Takeyama (竹山, Takeyama) is an intelligent young man who is good at hacking computers. He wrote the "Briefing Manager" program that Yuri uses to brief the SSS prior to the mission. He insists everyone call him by his username "Christ", although everyone still calls him by his real name and he is usually ignored or interrupted by others. He tries to execute all plans as perfectly as possible. He does not engage in combat or any other physical operations, but rather gathers data and information.
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AppearanceEdit
Takeyama's appearance
PersonalityEdit AbilitiesEdit Takeyama is not called on for combat duties but is relied on for any aspects that require understanding of programming. He is somewhat hindered by his level of English fluency (which is likely about the same as a normal Japanese student) but Yuri anticipated it and has called on a few unnamed SSS members who were proficient in the language to accompany him whenever they need to investigate the Angel Player software. Takeyama is also able to knock out people with lower IQ than him (E.g: Noda) by reciting pi TriviaEdit Every time his name was called, he will always respond "Would you please call me Christ?" He and Takamatsu are the only members to wear glasses. It is unknown how Takeyama died, when he end up in the Afterlife, and what his regret was. In the 3rd Angel Beats! Drama CD, all of them calls him Christ, but he didn't like it being called, despite he wanted to be called Christ in the anime. Because after getting reincarnated, he was known to be a 'storekeeper'. Thus, he wanted to be adressed as "Takeyama-storer."
The mysterious Artificial Intelligence of the Second Computer Room that Yuri encounters while on her quest to defeat the Shadows in Episode 12 from destroying the Afterlife.
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BackgroundEdit
Not much is known on how long The AI has been in the Second Computer Room that the SSS or even Tachibana Kanade (Tenshi) were not aware of. According to him, he states he was "Simply obeying the rules" which means that he had been programmed (Most likely by The Programmer) to keep watch over the computers and watch how much love is in the Afterlife. When love began to manifest in the Afterlife, he most likely activated the Shadow Program to begin wiping out all the humans who are in the purgatorial world: the SSS.
AppearanceEdit
The AI appears as a boy with short dark hair (mistaken to be a shade of dark blue) and dark blue eyes. He wears the Afterlife School's male school uniform.
PersonalityEdit
The AI lacks human emotions, as he stated to Yuri in Episode 12 that he lacked any emotion of the thought of becoming God.
TriviaEdit It is unknown whether or not The AI is real or not. When Yuri shot at him, his dead body was not shown. Instead, it just showed a computer at where he was sitting.
An unknown student that Yuri learned on her quest to defeat the Shadows in Episode 12. The Artifical Intelligence that she encountered tells her of a human who, long ago, turned himself into an NPC to await the minuscule chance that the girl he fell in love with would reappear in the Afterlife. He is referred to as The Programmer as he was the one who made the NPC-to-Shadow conversion program.[1]
BackgroundEdit
The Programmer's real name is unknown. But like Otonashi, he was never supposed to have entered the Afterlife, but somehow ended up there anyway. He may or may not be the maker of the Angel Player program, as it existed before Kanade ended up in the Afterlife. [2]
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During his time in the Afterlife School, he fell in love with an unnamed girl who disappeared when her regret was fulfilled. Unwilling or unable to accept that, he decided to wait for her to return, which from the Afterlife School rules would require her to:
Die during her teenage years (13 to 17 or so for a 4-year gap) Have a heavy regret
If the girl lived an average of 85 years[3] and reincarnated each time, there would be a 4/85 (teenage years)*9.83/1000(Japan death rate [4])*1%(Ad hoc chance of heavy regret)=~0.0004% every reincarnation. Each failure to hit this chance would lead to 85 years of waiting. A 10% chance to see her again would require 2.125 million years. The above calculations do not consider that the majority of the death rate is actually from the elderly rather than from teenagers.
As expected, the amount stunned Yuri, due to the massive time required to be spent waiting. The AI explained that The Programmer lost his grip on sanity after waiting so long, and decided to create a program to turn himself into an NPC. He also created the AI to activate the program, should a similar situation arise in the afterlife.
As The Programmer felt that people who had resolved their sadness should not clutter the Afterlife School (much like patients should be discharged when they are cured rather than staying in the hospital), he created a program that kept track of the amount of love in the Afterlife School world. When the amount of love exceeded a certain amount, a "cleaning" program would be activated where NPCs would be changed into Shadows, which would in turn target humans and forcibly change them into NPCs, thus resetting the world into one where no humans existed.
He still exists as an NPC in the Afterlife, but who he is or what he looks like is not known. It is not known whether The AI that Yuri talks to is based on The Programmer's real look.
The AI that Yuri talks to states that she wouldn't know The Programmer even if he did say his name. He also denied creating the Angel Player program when Yuri asks if he knew about it as he replied, "Beats me. It's not like I invented it".
The Programmer must have been a very intelligent student to be able to create such a program like the NPC interface in the Afterlife; such advanced technology that doesn't even exist in the real world.
ReferencesEdit