She might look like Haruhi, but she's actually more like Simon Cowell.
Summary:
At the SSS clubhouse, Iwasawa performs her newest single, a slow ballad, to the SSS crew, but Yuri doesn't think the song has enough spunk to draw the crowds and distract Tenshi. Yuri then outlines a plan to invade "Tenshi's territory" in the evening. To ensure the mission's success, Iwasawa and her band Girls Dead Monster are going to put on a concert and Yui enlists the help of Takiyama, a bespectacled genius/computer nerd who insists everyone call him "Christ".
I thought idiots are supposed to be immune to math since they don't understand it.
Otonashi finds out first hand that fans can be an annoying bunch.
In the hallways after the meeting, Otonashi runs into Girls Dead Monster assistant Yui who is plastering posters of the evening concert all over the place. Otonashi then stumbles onto the classroom that the band is practicing in. As the band takes a break, Iwasawa chats with Otonashi in the hallways. Iwasawa reveals that she lived in a dysfunctional home with an alcoholic father. Trying to forget the troubles at home, Iwasawa got into music and started performing on the streets after picking up a junk acoustic guitar. Things seemed to be going well for Iwasawa as she was working part-time jobs and going to auditions, but one day she fainted at work. The next thing she knew, she was in hospital and cannot move or speak. A while ago, her father hit her in the head with a beer bottle, and that somehow caused enough brain damage to paralyze Iwasawa, and Iwasawa eventually died in hospital. After hearing Iwasawa's story, Otonashi begins to think that the SSS members may be fighting Tenshi in order to "get justice" for the unfortunate events in their lives. In the hallways, Tenshi takes down a few posters of the evening concert.
I'm surprised that guitar even plays.
Good to see that at least Otonashi has a sense of dignity.
Why do people still use Winding XO?... Well, I still use Windows XP, but that's because I have a five year ago computer.
It's night time, and the members of Girls Dead Monster are in the gym preparing to start the concert. Initial attendance is quite low, but the concert starts anyways. In the girls' dorms, Yuri, Otonashi, Takiyama and several other SSS members break into Tenshi's room. Yuri wants data from Tenshi's PC, and Takiyama brings along his tools to crack the password. After cracking the password, Yuri and company starts sifting through the data, but they need Girls Dead Monster to buy them time. Back at the gym, the crowd has gradually grown larger and has also drawn Tenshi's attendance, but suddenly a group of teachers and staff show up to break up the unsanctioned concert. Seeing that the concert has stopped, Tenshi is about to leave. On stage, one of the teachers grab Iwasawa's beloved acoustic guitar and suggests that it be thrown away, but Iwasawa grabs the guitar back and starts playing her new ballad. Another band members runs up to the control room and airs the performance all over campus, and this draws Tenshi back into the gym. Iwasawa sings her heart out during the performance, and at the end she disappears into thin air.
Last song under the spotlight.
Thanks to Iwasawa's distraction, Yuri's group is able to discover some interesting data about Tenshi's abilities. A day later in a SSS meeting, Yuri states that Tenshi is able to program her own abilities, and that doesn't lead to a very good conclusion. Yuri declines to share her thoughts with the others, but in her own mind she knows the evidence points to there being no divine presence in this world, and she also wonders why Tenshi chooses suicide. The others start to wonder about Iwasawa, and Yuri states that Iwasawa disappeared because she chose to accept her fate. After the meeting, Otonashi wonders about the conditions that causes someone to be erased from this world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Without a doubt, this was the weakest episode so far in this series. There was a lot of concert footage, but there wasn't much in terms of action or comedy. The concert footage was nice the first time around, but the novelty is beginning to wear off, and it's not too exciting when there is no action to accompany it. There were a couple somewhat lame jokes at the beginning, but the fun, physical slapstick comedy was MIA in this episode. Instead, the rest of the episode consists of the story of Iwasawa's derailed musical career and more puzzling bits about Tenshi and the world that the characters live in. Iwasawa's life and death were unfortunate, but I can't tell if the story was supposed to make the audience feel sad. It didn't quite work on me, since I was expecting comedy and action after watching the first two episodes. Or maybe I have a heart of stone.
It looks like Iwasawa is gone for good as she has been removed from the ED as well. I'm not too surprised someone died in this episode, since the series is only 13 episodes and there are quite a few SSS members to kill off. Iwasawa appears to have fulfilled her regret/wishes from life, and that's probably why she passed on. With her gone, I wonder if we'll have any more Girl Dead Monster concerts.
The other interesting bit in this episode is that Tenshi can program her own abilities using a computer, which is consistent with the binary sparks that fly out from her moves. I'm not too sure how Yuri connected that with there being no divine presence and Tenshi preferring suicide (maybe I read the subs wrong), but I'm hoping series will explain that for us. Now that the SSS has hacked into Tenshi's computer, I wonder if they can purposely plant something in Tenshi's programming to make Tenshi BSOD or freeze up during battle.
Overall, this was a borderline boring episode. From the way things look right now, Angel Beats! could fall into a formula consisting of Otonashi learning about someone's story and that person disappearing during a mission. I won't mind it too much as long as there are cool fights and/or fun comedy. Hopefully the next episode will be a bit more entertaining.
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