Angel Beats! - Episode 3

Another episode of Angel Beats! means another mission for the delinquent SSS in their continued battle for the truth surrounding their situation, and this particular mission looks set to be the most dangerous yet, with Yuri setting her sights onto breaking into Angel's "headquarters" - Although it hardly looks like some kind of evil lair, truth be told.

To do this, Yuri has secured the services of your typically nerdy hacker type, who frightens the less intelligent squad members with his impressive knowledge of Pi while failing miserably to get anybody to refer to him by his hacking "handle".


That aside, the real story this time around is regarding Iwasawa, the singer of the GirlDeMo band we saw in the first episode - Just as we did with Yuri last time around, this instalment lets us glimpse into the life of Iwasawa before her death both good and bad, giving an understanding of what drives her and why she loves her music so. With GirlDeMo scheduled for another guerilla concert to distract the masses during the SSS operation, Iwasawa's feelings come to a suprising head which could well turn what this series is really about one-hundred and eighty degrees.

Once again, the production values of this series were readily apparent here, particularly in the band concert scenes - How can Angel Beats! afford so much more attention to the band sequences than even K-ON! has ever mustered? In terms of the story there are certainly some interesting revelations here too; one led by Iwasawa, while some data revealed about Angel's abilities provides the other, all sandwiched between the rather more light-hearted and frivolous exterior that much of each episode seems to enjoy. This blend of more casual fan and something rather intriguing is a difficult one to really get a handle on in a critical sense, and it's hard to see what direction the series is headed, but it certainly looks as though it intends on putting some serious and emotional stories together as well as having some fun with its core concept. Right now these potentially uneasy bedfellows seem to be sharing their proverbial pillow quite comfortably, and it'll be interesting to see for how long that can continue.