Angel Beats! 12

Yuri ventures into the source of the shadow monsters.

Kanade: Angel of Destruction... That'd make a pretty good show.

Here comes TK the (super)Human Spinning Top!!

Summary:
The members of the SSS have agreed to Otonashi's plans after a night of considerations, and Otonashi and the fighters of the group head out to find Yuri while Girls Dead Monster and the support members go into hiding (or disappears, whichever one). At the same time, Kanade is out fighting the shadows. Meanwhile, Yuri ventures towards the old Guild and runs into a lot of shadows. Yuri runs out of ammo, but Chaa shows up and gives her a new machinegun and informs her that the Guild members are headed to safety. Yuri continues on to the old Guild, but she is suddenly surrounded by shadows and caught by one of the dark beings. The next thing Yuri knows, she is in a classroom attending class with other students. Yuri has a feeling something is wrong but can't put a finger on it. Yuri spends most of the class staring out the window and gets picked on by the teacher. Instead of reading the text as the teacher had requested, Yuri comes back to her senses and expresses in an emotional speech that this is happy life is not for her. When Yuri finishes her speech, all of the other people in the classroom are gone and a flood of shadows crashes through the windows. Yuri struggles against the current, but she is pulled out by Otonashi.

Even heroes need a bathroom break.

I will not make any Matrix: Reloaded jokes. I will not make any Matrix: Reloaded jokes. 

I will not make any Matrix: Reloaded jokes...

Yuri has always wanted to try being a crazy villain.

Yuri wakes up and sees Otonashi, Hinata, Naoi and Kanade watching over her at the Old Guild. Kanade had detected something was wrong and led the guys down to rescue Yuri. With Yuri in the lead, the group continues on deeper into the tunnels and they discover that the shadows seem to be guarding something. Kanade and the guys stay to hold off the shadows while Yuri ventures into a small tunnel leading to a computer room. Yuri enters the room and sees a lot of computer running the Angel Player software which seem to be controlling the NPCs/shadows. In the room, Yuri is greeted by a male student who states that he is only following someone else's programming. The student explains that the programmer was a guy who was waiting for a girl that had already graduated from the world. Since the reunion was basically impossible, the guy went nuts and turned himself into a NPC and spread his program throughout the world. However, people like those from the SSS started to show up causing love to take hold in the world. This upsets the balance of the world, and according to the programmer's instructions the NPCs are turned into shadows in order to reset the world. After the explanation, the male student tells Yuri that she can use the computers in the room to take control of the world. Yuri laughs crazily and ponders the suggestion, but she decides that she cannot betray the SSS or even Kanade at this point. Instead, Yuri shoots up all the computers and the male student with her guns, and afterwards she sits down thinking about her SSS comrades and her murdered siblings before falling unconscious. Some time later, Yuri wakes up and finds herself in a brightly lit room watched over by Otonashi and company.

10 out 10 for the spin and drawing out the dualies, but it isn't it a bit overkill for shooting up a bunch of computers?

Yuri: Hey guys, you wouldn't believe the dream I had. I was Neo in the Matrix Reloaded in that scene facing the Architect, but the Architect was a student instead of an old man, and all the screens were displaying hearts like it was some sort of strange Valentines Day. And get this: I was asked if I wanted to become Queen of the world, and for some unfathomable reason I refused!? I was like: what the heck am I doing!? Weird huh?

The others: ...

Yuri: But it gets better from there. Instead of leaving the place like Neo did in the movie, I took out my guns and shot up the joint, dual-wielding and doing 360 spins Chow Yun-fat style. It was so AWESOME!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I guess this episode was supposed to be the big showdown and reveal about how the world works, but it just wasn't that good. The pacing seems off for the entire episode, and it's probably due to the dream sequence and that really long explanation at the end. So the world turns out to be some sort of digital afterlife programmed (but not created) by a lovelorn computer nerd, and by spreading the love, Yuri and friends are "bugs" in the world that need to be taken care of. Angel Beats! is known for its randomness, so I suppose we shouldn't be surprised, but I can't help but think that they are trying to get away with the loosey goosey story by confusing the heck out of us (it didn't work). Questions still remain about the Angel Player software and Kanade, and if we are really lucky we might get some answers in the finale next week. I doubt the show will clear up everything given how this episode went, but I'm glad that at least Yuri found a bit of solace in this episode.

The whole explanation was disappointing, but the episode had moments with the action. Kanade doing the "angel of death" thing at the beginning; Yuri's slow-mo computer shoot-up; and TK and crew doing their thing were kind of cool, but the problem was the action came in brief pulses because of the dream sequence and expositions. The episode would be more entertaining if the fighting was more continuous.

Now that the crisis has been averted, it is time for Otonashi to go through with his plan and make all the people with souls pass on. There are a lot of characters left though, so graduation will have to be done en masse, or perhaps they will graduate in a different sense. Whatever happens next week. Let's hope it'll be better than this week's show.