Angel Beats Quality from the Get-Go

Angel Beats has been touted as a major cross-media production, but the error-riddled first episode has already been made a laughing stock, being variously described as “cheap” and having “pathetic composition.”

The classic mistake.

Apparently nobody trained her how to aim a rifle either – or perhaps she is just having difficulty on account of her hands.

Viewers point to animation mistakes, inconsistent character design, poor scene composition, and an overwhelming feeling of “cheapness” – and all in the first episode, traditionally where the quality is kept unrealistically high – as reasons for their disappointment.

Possibly the overwhelming similarity of the heroine to a certain iconic monomaniac (although in the actual anime the resemblance seems to have deteriorated along with the quality) was a major warning flag about the title.

Theses comparisons, though tired, are unlikely to stop and the similarities must have been obvious to producers from the outset. Just why they went along with the design is quite the mystery – laziness, sheer unoriginality or worse?

In spite of all this plenty were prepared to call the title amusing (although as many were seemingly unable to comprehend its convoluted storyline), so it may be too early to write it off as a failed anime.