Let’s talk about Angel Beats.

So most people probably know, but back in 2010 Key collaborated with P.A. Works to produce an original anime titled “Angel Beats!”, written by Key’s Jun Maeda and with character design by Na-Ga. It was only a short 13-episode series but thanks to Key’s popularity, it ended up being pretty successful, so a few years later Key decides to turn it into a Visual Novel, which would hopefully fix the problems people had with the anime and also expand on the story.

Angel Beats! 1st Beat was released back in June, being the first in a series of 6 games that will have a route for every core member of the cast. Although 1st beat only includes routes for Iwasawa, Matsushita and Yui, and no release date has been given for any of the others.

Angel Beats follows the story of Otonashi Yuzuru after he wakes up in an unknown location suffering from amnesia and next to a girl named Yuri, who tells him he’s dead and this is the afterlife. Otonashi then realizes he’s really in the afterlife after his meeting with the mysterious girl Yuri and her group call “Angel”, a supposed messenger of God who makes the humans in the afterlife “disappear”.

Due to his amnesia, Otonashi cannot remember who he is or how he died, but he learns that everyone in Yuri’s group woke up in that place the same way he did. Now Otonashi has to learn to live in the afterlife as a member of Yuri’s group, the Afterlife War Front, and aid them in their fight against Angel.

Since this is a Key VN, people familiar with their works should already know what to expect: A really fun and light-hearted first half with bits of foreshadowing, and a bittersweet/sad second half. Most Key works follow a similar pattern, but with Angel Beats it’s pretty clear which direction things will go towards, since they make it very clear from early on that everyone who wakes up in that school led a horrible life, so you already know what you’re getting into.

One difference Angel Beats has with other Key works is its huge cast, something the others don’t have. It’s because of this that Angel Beats got split into six separate games. People actually thought that since it was being split like this, each “beat” was going to be relatively short, and when people heard Key was charging full retail price for what was essentially 1/6 of the story, some people overreacted claiming it was a scam or whatever, but the thing is, Angel Beats isn’t split into six parts because Key wanted to fuck everyone over, they did it because if they want to give each character their own route, they’d need a really huge game. Instead they just split the whole thing in six parts to make things easier for everyone, and 1st Beat still ended up being a decently long game, contrary to expectations. It’s still shorter than most Key VNs, but it definitely has the length of what you’d call a “full game”.

Same as most other Key works, they like to put as much focus on the comedy as they do on the more serious parts of the story, which in my opinion always works out pretty well, even though some people might think this makes the the tone of the story be all over the place.

Music’s really good, as usual. Even the regular BGM for SoL scenes is nice to listen too and doesn’t get too old. They have a pretty good amount of insert songs too, for the GirlDeMo parts, which are all pretty nice as well. I was surprised that they didn’t use the anime’s opening anywhere in the VN, although LiSA’s version of it did play once.

The art for Angel Beats was done by Na-Ga instead of Hitaru Inoue, who is usually the artist Key uses for most of their things. I think both are pretty good in their own ways, and Na-Ga did a great job with Angel Beats. Everything looks really nice, and the high amount of CGs they used for this one was surprising, again, because most people weren’t expecting this much work to be put into just 1/6 of the story.

Another thing worth mentioning about this is the ridiculous amount of missable content Angel Beats has. There’s so many choices to make. They really went all out with this, because you see, usually once or twice each day, you’ll get a chance to go out on your own and talk with other characters, but there’s a whole bunch of them to choose from, not just the main three who have routes. And on top of that, you get to make choices in scenes all the time. I had never encountered a VN where there were these many choices to make. I actually tried going into this without a walkthrough and it didn’t go well at all.

As a joke, I made choices that made the cast think Otonashi was gay, which actually led to some pretty funny scenes, but it wasn’t until later that I found out my choices really made Otonashi gay, so I started over from the beginning. Then I proceeded normally through the game, and then when I was already over halfway through the story, I get a bad end because I didn’t get enough flags early on with a certain character, so I had to start from the beginning, again. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, there’s a ton of missable dialogue and scenes that you won’t get to see them all even when going through all three routes. The worst part being that some of the missable content is actually kinda important, like one of the side characters actually telling you about their life and how they died. But I didn’t know that scene even existed until after clearing all three routes. I only read it when I went back to the beginning to look for missing CGs and stuff.

tl;dr Do not read this without a walkthrough

So about the routes, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from them, besides the obvious “helping them get over their problems” because this was the point where the VN separated itself from the anime to do its own thing. I won’t talk too much about these because I don’t want to give spoilers but I still want to give you an idea of what the routes were like.

I did Yui’s first, since she was kinda prominent in the anime, and she’s voiced by Eri Kitamura which makes her automatically great. Eri Kitamura actually did a great job with Yui, her voice is great and it makes the comedy scenes with Yui very fun to watch, not to mention Yui herself is pretty crazy which just makes things better.

Her route is actually the only one that’s very similar to the anime. It followed the events of the show very closely so this is definitely the one with the least new content. It was still very good though, as one would expect of Key, they managed to balance out comedy and drama perfectly, which I like a lot. Yui’s story itself is also quite good, and it’s really nice to see characters get their happy endings in a story full of characters with horrible lives.

Iwasawa’s route was the one I did next. She’s voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, who is also a top-tier seiyuu and does a fantastic job in anything she’s in. I didn’t know what to think about Iwasawa, since I barely remembered her from the anime, but she was pretty good. She’s the leader and vocalist for GirlDeMo, a popular band in the afterlife, and the ones in charge of acting as a diversion when Yuri starts an operation.

Unlike Yui, Iwasawa’s route actually makes things go very different from how they were in the anime. I’m sure anyone who remembers the anime can imagine why. Anyway, her route’s one you have to get the flags for very early which is kind of annoying, but it’s worth it because the scenes with her, where Otonashi’s just trying to entertain her, are fun to read, and the rest of GirlDeMo’s members join in too making things better because they’re all so great.

Though of course this is Key, so the latter half of her route gets pretty sad and painful to read, but still gives you an interesting look into the character’s backstories and what they went through when they are alive, as well as how to help them get over their problems. Basically, Iwasawa was pretty good too.

Last route I did was Matsushita, the judo guy. Just like Iwasawa, I didn’t remember him very well, since he stayed mostly as a side character with little screentime, but upon reading his scenes in the VN I realized he was a pretty cool guy. His route’s kinda weird because you eventually get a choice that changes things up quite a bit for the rest of the route depending on what you choose, even though it’s completely optional, but it makes things go in an interesting direction anyway.

Matsushita’s actually ended up being my favorite of the three routes, even when I thought I couldn’t top Iwasawa’s, which was pretty great, but Matsushita proved himself to be a great guy with a really sad, but touching story to tell, who just like every other character, just made you want to help them get over the pains from their life.

Same as Iwasawa, this one did everything completely different from the anime, but unlike Iwasawa’s, you don’t see much of what’s happening to other characters, since it focuses mostly on just Matsushita and Otonashi fucking around for the first half, and then just trying to fix Matsushita’s problems for the second half. The scene where Otonashi finally manages to make Matsushita feel at peace with his life was really nice and one of the best scenes in the VN by far.

Angel Beats! 1st Beat was a really nice ride, just like one would expect from a Key VN, and anyone who’s a fan of Key’s works should give it a try. It has all you’d expect from them, with a bigger cast than most of their other stories have had until now. Everyone’s fun, every character is great, the seiyuu all do amazing jobs with their roles, Key truly delivered a great experience with this one, and it’s only the first part of six, so now we can look forward to the next “beat” to see what kind of crazy stuff Key can pull off next.

Also Irie is best girl.