ANGEL BEATS: RELIVING YOUR DEAD DREAMS. LITERALLY!

 

The story of Angel Beats revolves around a group of high schoolers who attend a school… but… they are all dead. Every “student” there is a teenager or young person who has passed away in real life. The school is acting as a type of

afterlife or purgatory. The students don’t really understand why they are there, including the main character Otonashi. They are aware that they are dead, though.

Many of them have different reactions to being in the after life. Some are confused. Some are complacent. Some are angry, like Yurippe, who decides she is going to fight against God because she believes that he is cruel and unjust.

However, all of the students have one thing in common.

They had a tragic life. They all died while they were still young, all with unfulfilled dreams and wishes. As the story goes on, the purpose of the

afterlife school becomes obvious: it’s to help the characters gain closure. For

them to relive a small portion of their lost dream, even if it isn’t quite what they imagined. They realize that if they move on from this place, they will be able to try to achieve their dream again in a different time and form, in a different, new life.

I am going to highlight and discuss some of the characters’ dream, focusing on some of the minor characters (because they are my favorite and they deserve some love!). I am going to skip over Otonashi and Angel (the other main

character) because their backstories are not revealed until the very end of the series. If you haven’t watched it, I don’t want to spoil the beautiful, heart-

wrenching ending. But her dream ended too early, cut off by the very thing that inspired it in the beginning. In a drunken rage, Iwasawa’s father hits her with a glass bottle, causing brain damage. She died shortly after in the hospital.

Iwasawa took her love of music into the afterlife. She started a band and continued to play rock music. (The band is called Girls Dead Monster, and you

can actually listen to her their music.) At one point, she and the band are able to play on the school stage in front of an audience. Although it isn’t some

grandiose rock show in an arena, Iwasawa still enjoyed herself. In that moment, she was able to bring the joy of music to others. For just a small period of time, even if it was just a couple seconds, she was able to fulfill her dream.

From there, Iwasawa “moves on.” In other words, she disappears from the afterlife and goes back to the world of the living, reborn to experience her dream once again.