History Anime / AngelBeats

* OntologicalMystery

* INeverToldYouMyName: After Otonashi finally remembers his past and tells [[spoiler:Kanade]] his backstory, he [[FailedASpotCheck doesn't notice]] [[spoiler:her calling him "Yuzuru"]] despite never actually mentioning his family name, hinting that [[spoiler:she might already know of him.]]

** Angel has a lesser example but [[spoiler: her rank as Student Council President was taken away, the teachers and students have lost all respect for her, and her comfort food was taken away from her all because of the SSS's actions.]] It's also sad when you realize that [[spoiler: Angel is a human like the rest of SSS and was just trying to fulfill her duties as Student Council President. Her reputation and life in the afterlife are ruined because she was trying to play by the rules. Not that her past life as the IllGirl Kanade Tachibana was much better.]]

** Otonashi's sister is an IllGirl. Her voice actress played an IllGirl in [[VisualNovel/{{Clannad}} another Key property]].

* CryCute:
** Ooyama after Angel turns down his love confession.
** [[spoiler: Yuri in Episode 12, after seeing her dead siblings comfort her.]]
** Despite being a boy, [[spoiler: Naoi]]'s tears in the final episode were very cute and sad.

* NiceHat: Yuri wears one while issuing commands at headquarters. Naoi has a nice one too, as part of his uniform, and Angel wore one in episode 7 in the garden.

* {{Determinator}}: The traps on the road to Guild, which took out all but two of the SSS, will only slow down Angel. [[spoiler: Taken UpToEleven when it's revealed that she's not any kind of divinely-powered superbeing, but an ordinary (if dead) high school girl]].

* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler:Kanade and the entire reason the SSS are in Purgatory. [[UpToEleven We're talking so bad that a war broke out because she was bad at getting her point across]], and since nobody truly dies due to physical injuries, this war has lasted a ''long'' time.]]

** To be precise, the OVA is an [[UpToEleven Apocalypse of Ham]] [[HamToHamCombat where the characters try to out-ham each other]] with '''Tension''' Meter included. [[spoiler: Shiina wins]], and then [[spoiler: everyone but Yuri loses]].

* IHaveTheHighGround: [[spoiler:Red Angel.]]

* KnifeNut: Angel's primary weapons are blades that extend from her forearms. Yuri shows that she's also very skilled at knife fighting.

* ProngsOfPoseidon: [[spoiler: Angel's Hand Sonic version 3]]

* HiddenEyes: TK's are always obscured by his wide bandana.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: SSS has a ''lot'' of members. See the [[Characters/AngelBeats character page]] for details.

* AdultFear:
** [[spoiler: Yuri's younger siblings were murdered while she was babysitting.]]
** Yui [[spoiler: was hit by a car and paralyzed when she was little]].

%%* DangerouslyShortSkirt: Each of the {{Action Girl}}s have one, combined with ZettaiRyouiki.

* DeflectorShields: Angel has her own personal one capable of deflecting [[strike:bullets]]pretty much any kind of projectile, including grenades.

** Also, in episode 8, Yuri attempts to reprogram Angel's Harmonics technique, but has trouble because she doesn't quite understand the programming language. Remember that SSS has [[strike:Christ]] Takeyama, who is a ''master hacker and computer expert'', and he doesn't even show up in the episode at all! Although Takeyama became ATwinkleInTheSky in the last episode, he was seen again during the fish barbeque, so his absence from episode 8 is even more jarring.

** To be precise, the OVA is an [[UpToEleven Apocalypse of Ham]] [[HamToHamCombat where the characters try to out-ham each other]] with [[strike: Ham]] '''Tension''' Meter included. [[spoiler: Shiina wins]], and then [[spoiler: everyone but Yuri loses]].

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: It's probably easier to list the characters who don't have a hair color that makes you doubt your display settings.

* {{Megane}}: Takeyama, while Takamatsu is more [[StoicSpectacles standoffish]]. See StoicSpectacles below.

** Yuri: "Operation Start!" ([[{{Engrish}} "Oppo-ray-shun... Start-o!"]])

---> '''Hinata:''' Besides, watching someone blast off may have a big impact, but everyone's going to get sick of it. "Oh, he's [[Anime/{{Pokemon}} blasting off again]]."

* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler: The mysterious Programmer who changed the purgatorial world the first time by setting up a system that he used to create the [=NPCs=], the Angel Player software, and the Shadows as a clean-up program should the amount of love in Purgatory exceed a certain rate. This set in motion the bulk of the problems faced in the actual story, but he is not an active character in it , as he turned himself into an NPC a long time ago, leaving his identity forever unknown.]]

* GratuitousEnglish: "Angel Beats", "Girls Dead Monster", "Guard Skill", ''everything'' out of TK's mouth (despite having a native English speaker for a voice actor)... Most of TK's lines are actually [[ShoutOut lyrics from songs]], actually. Which also explains why he's dancing all the way through. But...

* SpecialEditionTitle: Episode four has the [[ThemeTuneCameo opening sung by Yui]], integrating it directly into the show. There are some CreditsBrandProducts and different visuals, and the visuals that ''are'' retained have a very different aesthetic.

* ZeroesAndOnes:
** When [[spoiler: Angel's clones are reabsorbed]], they dissolve into this.
** If you look closely, the flashes of light around Angel's powers are all zeros and ones.
** Also, the [[spoiler:shadows]] in episode 11 are made of these in a MatrixRainingCode sort of way.

* AnAesop: Life is what you make of it, and a life lived by you holds irreplaceable value to you regardless of the unfairness and cruelties you might have been faced with in that life. [[spoiler: Throughout the whole story, there is absolutely nothing about the school that actually requires the guerrilla warfare, weapons, and epic duels to the death. All of that is solely invented by the main characters who are unable to make peace with they lives they'd led and accept passing on to the afterlife after finding fulfillment in the school.]]

* AnAesop: Life is what you make of it, and a life lived by you holds irreplaceable value to you regardless of the unfairness and cruelties you might have been faced with in that life. [[spoiler: Throughout the whole story, there is absolutely nothing about the school that actually requires the guerrilla warfare, weapons, and epic duels to the death. All of that is solely invented by the main characters who are unable to make peace with they lives they'd led and accept passing on to the afterlife after finding fulfillment in the school.]]

* GratuitousEnglish: "Angel Beats", "Girls Dead Monster", "Guard Skill", ''everything'' out of TK's mouth (despite having a native English speaker for a voice actor)...
** Most of TK's lines are actually [[ShoutOut lyrics from songs]], actually. Which also explains why he's dancing all the way through. But...

* HealingFactor: While immortal, everybody can still be seriously hurt. If they are injured or die, they will eventually heal and revive regardless of how much damage their bodies have taken. The OVA shows that they will even revive after dying of starvation or dehydration.
** They do still feel pain, so this provides an incentive to stay out of harm's way.

* HeroicSacrifice: Played with, since nobody actually stays dead.
-->'''Yuri''': "TK's sacrifice will be-"\\

* LotusEaterMachine: Episode 12, [[spoiler:Yuri imagines life as an ordinary student while the Shadow consumes her. Luckily, she breaks out of it and is saved in the nick of time.]]

* LoveConfession: Yuri's plan for Ooyama to distract Angel during the exams. Angel tells him to name a time and a place, which effectively stuns him until the teacher tells him to sit down.

* MeaningfulName: Aside from a few of the characters, the series itself. To elaborate, the finale revealed two key things: [[spoiler:Kanade's regret tying her to the Purgatory-world was that she never got to thank Otonashi for his heart, which kept her alive.]] This is also true of the opening theme --''My Soul, Your Beats'' -- which alludes to the series' climax: [[spoiler: Kanade has Otonashi's heart, and it's listening to the sound of his own heartbeat while sleeping on her chest that awakens his latent memories.]]

* MindRape: [[spoiler: Naoi attempts to use his hypnosis ability to implant fake happy memories into Yuri's mind so that she can disappear. Unfortunately for Naoi, things don't exactly go as planned]].

* MouthfulOfPi: Call him [[RunningGag Christ]].
** Played straight to the point of it affecting one of the listeners physically.
--->'''Ooyama:''' Stop, stop! That guy's an idiot!

* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: In Episode 8, during everyone's [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice to stop an Angel clone]], Naoi is sadly unnoticed (Yui doesn't even know his name).

-->'''Naoi''': "You're all imbeciles. [[HoYay With the exception of Otonashi-san]], of course."

* MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels: TK, [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish when speaking Japanese.]]
** When he was holding up the falling block in Episode 2, he was actually singing lyrics to a song. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFn1kAUY9cU The video]] replaces his lines with the actual song.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: No one seems to know what Angel's real name is. (Except, one of them actually does.) She stops getting called Angel later, though.

* ThePowerOfRock: Stopped the teachers intent on shutting down the concert in their tracks.

* ProductPlacement: Key Coffee is most likely a ShoutOut to Creator/KeyVisualArts (bearing their logo and all), but it is still suspect since it's also a [[http://www.keycoffee.co.jp real life Japanese brand of coffee]].

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Yuri disappearing in episode 13 following her redemption in the previous episode.]]

* RiddleForTheAges: It's never made clear whether [[spoiler:God exists or not.]]

* SayMyName: Episode 8, whenever someone in the SSS [[spoiler:pulls a HeroicSacrifice to stop an Angel clone]], the rest of the SSS have a SayMyName shot for the character in question. Lampshaded, no less:
-->'''Everyone:''' TK!\\

-->'''[[spoiler:Naoi]]:''' *gets stabbed*\\

*** Also this one as mentioned in Episode 8:

** In episode 7, the monster that Otonashi imagines when hearing 'Operation: Monster Stream' is a large, red, dragon-like monster, with a striking resemblance to a [[VideoGame/MonsterHunter Rathalos]]

*** Also in episode 13.5 (Another Epilogue) it says "NEXT STAGE" which might leave the series open for a second season.

-->'''Yui''': [[spoiler:(After threatening Hinata into a HeroicSacrifice)]] Senpai, wait for me...\\

** Also, they don't seem to notice the fact that they carry around ''working firearms'' on campus.
*** Yuri even holds one of the teachers at gunpoint. She has what turns out to be a fairly neutral conversation with him, all the while still pointing the gun at him. He never notices.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: While [[spoiler: Iwasawa]] was the most obvious example [[spoiler: due to vanishing by the third episode]], most of the rest of the SSS fall into this trope. For some reason, they introduce characters in the opening and episode 1. But by the time the series ends, you only get to know about half of the main cast, and they throw some more characters in later that get much more development. Characters like Shiina, Ooyama and Noda don't even get a backstory (and only bare-bones characterization), while [[spoiler: both Yui and Naoi]] get much more screentime and development, even though they're introduced much later. The reason for this is most likely that the show was originally planned for 26 episodes but was then cut down to 13.
** The manga thankfully gives much more development to them, including rarely appearing characters like Yusa or Chaa.