The Protagonist. He wakes up in the afterlife, not knowing where he is, or who he is really. He lost all of his memories.He only remembers his last name.When he regains his memories, he learns that his first name is Yuzuru. He had a little sister who was ill. He lived and saved money only to see her. When she dies, he realizes that she had more life than he did despite the fact that she was confined to her bed. He then starts studying medical terms, cuts his hair, and moves out. He was on a train when it crashed. However he did not die instantly. Both ways in the tunnel were blocked by rocks. He helped the survivors live for seven days despite suffering from an internal wound himself. His last act was to fill out an organ donor card, and died just as rescue arrived.
The Caretaker: To his sister, the survivors of the train wreck, and to help his friends pass on in life.
His final living actions in episode 9 can be seen as this in the way that they inspired everyone around him, although they're more unambiguously a Tear Jerker moment (see below).
Decoy Protagonist: Hinata is the protagonist of the Manga, which pretty much depicts the beginnings of the SSS.
The Every Man: Subverted. Otonashi may initially be presented as an average guy onto whom we're meant to project, but he ultimately proves to be far more virtuous than your average person.
Fan Nickname: Brotonashi. Because, just look at the list of what he does when alive and dead!
Otonashi is such a bro, he's basically the Brototype.
Heroic Sacrifice: Debatable. Helping other passengers in the tunnel probably didn't do much for his own condition. Seeing as he died right before everyone was rescued, it's reasonable to conclude that he would have been strong enough to survive until getting help had he only looked after himself.
Hypocrite: After successfully sending away his friends to the other side, Otonashi choose to remains in the afterlife with Angel, thankfully it didn't work, though it's left ambiguous whether he left right away or if he was there for years.
Ironic Hell: For someone who sacrificed everything for the happiness of his friends he himself is denied of his own happiness and is left all alone; however, it all depends on how you interpret the ending.
The Messiah: If episode 9 doesn't make you think of Otonashi as this, you're probably watching the wrong show.
Hell, he should be marked for this by episode 6. Ayato is taking over the school, has beat the hell out of the entire SSS, and is threatening to force them to disappear via hypnosis and brainwashing. The most obvious solution, in Otonashi's opinion? Tackle the guy, yell at him, and hug him. It works, too.
The Mole: Otonashi is determined to fix all of the SSS members' regrets, so he has Angel become the villain again so he can stay close to the group and find out their pasts.
Starting at the end of episode 9; this just reinforces his neutrality.
Apparently, Yurippe already knows about his plan, as shown in Episode 11.
From a different perspective, that also makes him a Reverse Mole.
Only Sane Man: He has touches of this amongst all the various quirks of the SSS, and defintely qualifies in the OVA.
Right Man In The Wrong Place: Otonashi lived a fulfilling life and died content. The setting is specifically designed to help people experience the youth and happiness they never had in life. When he regains his memories, he helps everyone move on to the next plane.
Secret Stab Wound: The train crash left him with internal bleeding, though he hides the injury from the other survivors to avoid demoralizing them.
Tear Jerker: Otonashi's final actions were not panicking or feeling sorry for himself, he signs his organs to be donated for medical use.
Foreshadowing: Since his body was probably the only one in good condition when the digging crews finally came for rescue right after his death, it was used for just that purpose. His heart was donated to a still-living Kanade.
They Killed Kenny: Three times within the first six minutes—of the first episode, yet!
Averted after episode 1, not counting his death in the real world that is.
Trauma Conga Line: First his little sister dies from a terminal illness. Then he gets in a train accident. While trying to find an exit, he finds out that both sides of the tunnel are blocked, and the remaining survivors have very little supplies. Then he finds out he's got some serious internal injuries when blood soaks through his shirt. Finally, he dies just moments before a rescue crew is able to breach the rubble.
Leader of the SSS. She hates God and is willing to lead a rebellion against him. She fought and nicknamed her Angel because people were disappearing because of her, and she presumes that she is an angel from God. When she was little, robbers broke into her house, and told her that if she brings something worth value, her 3 little siblings held at gunpoint would be spared. Every 10 minutes that pass they kill a kid. Yuri could not find anything worth value, and the police came 30 minutes later. By that point she'd been pushed over the Despair Event Horizon and wouldn't recover until late in the series.
Affably Evil: When she's at her worst... See here.Check this one too.. Ultimately limited by the fact that she never does permanent harm to anyone - she's just a very mean boss.
Depends on your perspective - the NPCs that she threatens to kill are just that, mindless programs (very evident from their behaviour) - and whilst starving everyone to 'death' is incredibly cruel punishment, they cannot *actually* die. The morality scale in Angel Beats! is a rather hard one to judge.
A God Am I: Yuri actually thinks about becoming God. Then she realizes that she came there to save everyone.
Anti-Hero: Type III. Until episode 11, this often blended with Villain Protagonist. Following the cementation of her Heel Face Turn at the end of episode 12, she becomes Type II for the rest of the series.
To elaborate: while Disney Deaths are the norm in Purgatory, episode 12 deserves a special mention because Yuri managed to escape with her soul despite being assimilated by the shadows seconds earlier.
Even better, in the OVA she is obviously imitating Lelouch.
Expy: Yuri is often referred to as Haruhi with a different hair color and outfit. Although her headband is supposedly inspired by Yukiko Amagi
Heel Face Turn: It's difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when she pulled this, but it's quite obvious she made the turn by the time she officially "redeemed" herself at the end of episode 12.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: "Humans don't have the patience to wait even ten minutes for something!" Cue destruction of computers and the halt to the shadow attack, as well as her redemption.
Team Mom: In episode 11, when she orders her entire militia to put some serious thought into passing on lest they get assimilated by the Shadows. If that didn't seal her Heel Face Turn, her actions at the end of episode 12 certainly did.
Villain Protagonist: At least at first. Especially evident in the OVA. In the main series, though, this tends to blend with either Type V or Type III Anti-Hero, and she goes to pure Anti-Hero around episode 11, when she decides to have everyone in the SSS pass on before they can get assimilated by the Shadows, eventually going on to Adopt the Dog at the last second by blasting every computer into oblivion that was responsible for the Shadows and cementing her Heel Face Turn in the process.
If anything, this is just played for laughs. How much of a villain protagonist can she really be when she and her SSS honestly assume that Tenshi is evil and disappearing from the afterlife is bad? So far in all the material available set prior to the anime, they are not given reason to assume otherwise. The right and wrong in this story is very much down to personal judgement (ie. in the bhuddist faith of the author, reincarnation is obviously a good thing, but to other audiences, the fear of being re-born as a plankton seems like a perfectly reasonable one).
She is what the SSS are fighting against. The Student Council president.She was assumed to be in purgatory to make people disappear, but she just helps people go to heaven and move on. It is assumed she doesn't have any friends because all of her friends have disappeared, and the remaining people do not wish to disappear.She is now good friends with Otonashi.
Angel Needs An Organ: Kanade's reason for remaining in purgatory was to thank the individual who had donated the heart she had received.
Subverted. She's not really an angel, and Otonashi at least makes a point of calling her by her real name from the moment he finds it out. Well, oneof them, anyway.
Sugar and Ice Personality: She could be a perfect example of an Emotionless Girl in the first few episodes but after Otonashi learns her name he begins noticing that she does subtly display humanity and feeling.
This is partially due to the fact that she realizes that people who get close to her will move on. In the last episode, because almost everyone has moved on she drops the Ice Queen act entirely.
The Protagonist of the Manga adaptation of the SSS, who quickly becomes friends with Otonashi. In his past life, he was a baseball player who let his team down at a major tournament and has yet to really forgive himself, and was given drugs to make himself feel better. He died in a truck accident.
Soundtrack Dissonance: Extreme case whilst the rocket propulsion chairs are happening.
True Companions: In the Manga, Yuri and Hinata team up and form the SSS.
Would Hit a Girl: Though to be fair, Yui is also hitting back throwing and bending him with wrestling moves and it's always slapstick and Played for Laughs.
The original vocalist and also the leader of Girls Dead Monster.When she was alive, she had a troubled home life, with her parents fighting constantly. As a teenager, she discovered music as an escape and inspiration. Later, she found an abandoned guitar and taught herelf to play, busking on street corners and dreaming of gaining independence from her parents by supporting herself with her music. However, during one of her parent's arguments, her father accidentally hit Iwasawa in the head with a bottle, causing a cerebral contusion which eventually led to a stroke. She woke up in the hospital, unable to speak due to aphasia caused by the stroke, and died in the hospital some time later. In episode 3, she disappears after deciding to inspire others with her music in her next life (see the quote above).
Informed Ability: In life, according to her teachers, she could go anywhere with her grades, however, she doesn't want to depend on her parents any more.
The new vocalist of Girls Dead Monster. As a kid, she was hit by a car. She was then bedridden, due to her being paralyzed. Her mother took care of her every day. She watched TV and admired lots of things on it. She wanted to do a German Suplex, hit a homerun, and dribble by 5 people and score in soccer. And Marriage. Hinata ends up "marrying" her. She passes on in Episode 10.
Moe: Too darned cute in spite of her foul mouth and quick temper. Oh come on, just look at her!
My Friends... and Zoidberg: During the Heroic Sacrifices, she didn't even sacrifice herself to an Angel Clone. She gets swiped at the very end by a giant construction beam.
Tomboy: Cuddly and cute as a button though she may be, Yui has an extremely foul mouth by Japanese standards and is prone to using very masculine slang when addressing her seniors.
Voiced by: Chie Matsuura (JP), Elizabeth Bunch (EN)
The lead guitarist of Girls Dead Monster. When she was alive, the main vocalist of her band committed suicide. She blamed herself on her death and gave up music ever since.
Informed Ability: According to Hinata, she's very athletic. Zig zagged, as while we never got to see her play in the baseball episode (she was on Takamatsu's team, apparently), in episode 6, she leapt out of the window very quickly when Naoi showed up.
Mahjong: She's really good at it — unless you believe Sekine's account in the Gi De Mo short story, in which case she's an incredibly audacious cheater. (In Sekine's account, Hisako palms three tiles and then claims victory with only three melds instead of four.)
Name's the Same: Shiori Sekine is the Base Ball Bear's bassist/back-vocalist.
Screwy Squirrel: She enjoys playing tricks on others to see their reaction.
Unreliable Narrator: The Gi De Mo short stories that accompanied the light novel are supposed to be her journal entries. Each one ends with her band-mates discovering the journal and objecting to how they're being portrayed — among other things, Iwasawa is depicted as a crazy perfectionist with an Irish accent, Hisako is shown cheating at Mahjong, and Irie plays tricks on the NPCs.
Taken Up to Eleven in Episode 11after Yuri gives out that speech about everyone choosing their own path. She stares at a bunch of them and winds up another toy. Could be a hint at her own past.
Taken even further in the special episode when she just raised the tension meter to 9999 just for saying CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!!
Dance Battler: Not necessarily battling using his dancing skills. He just dances well and can fight.
Episode 12, he takes out Shadows using his dancing techniques.
Dead Star Walking: Some sources say TK was intended to be a rapper and possibly black. It gives this troper a strange thought: TwopacK. If this was the joke the author intended to make, then this dead star had been walking around outside heaven for more than a decade!
Ensemble Darkhorse: In a recent popularity poll Angel and TK dominated...of course, that they had such a huge amount and proportion of the votes reeks of internet vote rigging, however...
The supposed rival of Otonashi, Noda wields a massive halberd compared to the guns favoured by the rest of the SSS. However, this is mostly played for laughs rather than taken seriously, as Otonashi doesn't take their 'rivalry' even remotely seriously.
Was Student Council Vice-President. He then became President when Angel was kicked out for her "bad" grades. He believes that he is God. When alive, his brother was his father's apprentice in pottery, while he remained in his room, ignored by the world. Then his brother died and he had to take his place, but wasn't nearly as good at the craft as his brother. Having no choice but to live his life as someone else he began to think that his entire life was a charade.
In fairness, his father did acknowledge that he had his own skills. If Naoi had just focused on that he might have had a happy life. His father never really hated him. Naoi was just so blinded by jealousy that he failed to realize this.
His father did acknowledge him briefly, seen in the flashback after the hug, however it was after the events of the flashback he was forced to live like he was never himself.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Is actually pretty good with firearms, wielding two pistols simultaneously during the shadow assault with pretty good accuracy
Even more so, he's the vice president of the student council. who, despite acting like an average student, is in fact a Manipulative Bastard with delusions of godhood who plans to take over the world with his powers of hypnosis through eye contact. Lelouch anyone?
Manipulative Bastard: During the Heroic Sacrifice moments, he hypnotizes Ooyama, making him think he's a clown and the Tenshi clone is a lonely girl, and Ooyama has to make her laugh as a clown.
Men Don't Cry: Averted. It's implied he starts to cry in Otonashi's arms at the end of Episode 6, and flat out sobs during Episode 13.
The Unfavorite: When he was still alive. Due to the fact that his brother was amazing at his father's trade, his brother's death got a lot of stress put on him by his father.
Villainous BSOD: Arguably what happened during his confrontation with Otonashi; he was essentially forced to realize that he himself was ultimately responsible for his own misery.
A genius hacker who Yuri enlists to infiltrate Angel's computer. He insists on being referred to as Christ, but at the time of writing no-one has ever used this name for him.
A member of the SSS and Hinata's roommate. Was thought to be an NPC until Hinata figured out that he wasn't. Notable for excelling in absolutely nothing.
They were murdered when robbers invaded Yuri's home. They depended on her to find something valuable so that the robbers wouldn't have to kill them. Every 10 minutes that pass, they kill a child. Yuri couldn't find anything and the police came 30 minutes later.
Otonashi's younger sister. The only reason why he lived is to see her and buy her random manga. She dies, and because of her death, Otonashi sees that his sister had more life than he did despite being bedridden.
Voiced by:Tomokazu Seki (JP), Mark X. Laskowski (EN)
A man who helped out Otonashi when they were caved in the tunnel. After Otonashi treated his wounds, Igarashi aids him in assisting the other victims. Little is revealed about his character.
The supposed rival of Otonashi, Noda wields a massive halberd compared to the guns favoured by the rest of the SSS. However, this is mostly played for laughs rather than taken seriously, as Otonashi doesn't take their 'rivalry' even remotely seriously.
The remaining student body who do not resist God's influence,