I have to say, starting the ED song during this guy's demise was a nice touch.
Summary:
Now that Otonashi has joined the SSS, Yuri decides it's time to visit the SSS' underground arms factory called the Guild to get some new weapons. Otonashi follows the SSS crew to a hidden hatch inside the school gym leading to a series of underground tunnels. The SSS crew soon discover that the anti-Tenshi traps in the tunnel are active despite Yuri calling earlier for them to be deactivated. Yuri deduces that Tenshi must have been detected in the tunnels, but she decides to continue with the mission.
Everyone loves Indiana Jones. Everybody hates that giant rolling boulder/ball from his movie.
If her chest is facing towards you, which way should her face be facing?
As the crew journeys down the tunnels, one by one the members are killed by the traps until only Yuri and Otonashi are left. Before heading to the entrance of the Guild, Yuri and Otonashi take a break, and Yuri decides to tell Otonashi a bit about herself. Yuri comes a good family and is the oldest of four siblings, but her younger sisters and brothers were killed during a home invasion, and this tragedy is what drives Yuri to oppose Tenshi. Otonashi wonders how Yuri died, but Yuri declines to reveal the details other than stating that she didn't commit suicide. In fact, Yuri states that no one in this world died by committing suicide.
The home of the Mole People.
After the break, Yuri and Otonashi arrive at the final hatch which opens up to a long ladder leading into a huge cavern full of workers and factories. Yuri is greeted warmly by the Guild workers. Knowing that Tenshi is on her way, Yuri tells all the workers to abandon this location since everything in this world can be made from memories, so weapons can be made out of mud as long as the people have knowledge of the weapon. Chaa, the leader of the Guild, agrees with Yuri and orders his crew to head to the old location. The current location will be blown up so that Tenshi cannot find her way to the Old Guild. As the workers prepare to blow up the factories, Yuri and Otonashi head back up the ladder to buy time for the workers.
Binary sparks and after trails... One effect is just not enough for Tenshi.
At the entrance to the cavern, Yuri and Otonashi spot Tenshi approaching. After Tenshi turns on the distortion field in response to Yuri and Otonashi firing at her, Yuri abandons her pistol and engages Tenshi in a knife fight. Tenshi turns on her Delay ability (image after trail + faster speed) and disarms Yuri, but Otonashi saves Yuri by knocking Tenshi away. The Guild workers lift a giant cannon up into the tunnel to blow up Tenshi, but instead the cannon blows up in their face. Chaa emerges from a hatch and passes out grenades which Yuri and others use to hold off Tenshi. After everyone escapes down an emergency side tunnel, Chaa and Yuri blows up the cavern with the factories, and Tenshi falls into the sea of fire created by the explosions.
He may have survived the explosion, but he is not going to survive the SSS' Elbow.
Some time later, Yuri, Otonashi and the Guild workers arrive at the Old Guild. As the workers get on to rebuilding their factories, Yuri calls the other SSS members (who are alive once again) and tells them to come to the Old Guild. Nearby, Otonashi is watching Yuri and begins to think that Yuri is great leader.
Let's pretend we are helping out by randomly pointing fingers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So I have decided to blog this series, since this wouldn't be much of an episodic anime blog if I only blogged one series. Anyways, this episode was pretty random, but it was fun to watch regardless. It was a mix of action and slapstick comedy, plus a bit of drama in the middle. The first part with the SSS crew moving through the traps was not terribly original or intelligent, but I found myself chuckling a fair bit during the journey. It was the same with the giant cannon blowing up. I guess I'm just into this kind of physical comedy. Since people cannot truly die from injuries in Angel Beats!, I suppose playing "deaths" up for laughs isn't a bad way to go, although it might diminish the effectiveness of any serious drama the series may try to put up.
Speaking serious story line developments, there was only a bit of it in this episode when Yuri talked about her past. Having her younger siblings killed during a home invasion is horrible, but in a way it was kind of expected. People who died and came to this world probably had regrets or grudges that they couldn't let go of, so most if not all of the SSS (even though you can't tell by their looks) probably have some sort of personal experience that keeps them from accepting their fate and disappearing. As such, it probably makes sense that no one who committed suicide would end up in this world. As for how Yuri died, it probably has something to do with the murders of her siblings. I'd be surprised if her death was completely unrelated to that event.
Relating to the story and how the world of Angel Beats! worked, if weapons can be easily made from the earth, why don't the SSS make it themselves? Perhaps only the person who died with the knowledge of guns can make them, or else people should be able to transfer knowledge to each other to make the weapons.
So this episode ends with Yuri and the SSS still not having gotten any new weapons. Yuri had some good moments in this episode, but I don't know if she deserves the hero worship that Otonashi is starting to give. I suppose all the trap deaths can be blamed on the guy who was supposed to remember where they are all (he forgot about them until it's too late) and the individual members. Even though this was an entertaining episode, I hope we get more story line developments in the next episode.
Last thing to talk about is the action sequence near the end. There is no concert this time, but the knife fight was animated well. The camera work is a bit wild, but the motions were fluid and choreography wasn't too bad. I did notice some inconsistencies in the animation during different parts of the episode (mostly characters' faces) but as a whole the production quality was still pretty good. The best animation in this episode was in the OP sequence. It appears that P.A. Works is quite good at animating musical performances and Tenshi playing her piano all over the place was pretty cool. The OP song was average though.
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