Angel Beats!

 So, time to watch the first anime of the "Noshi has seen them but I haven't" goal of this year.

And that is Angel Beats!, a highschool afterlife series where students end up after suffering trauma and hardship in life.  So, not really my cup of tea, but let's have a look, and it comes highly scored on MAL as well.

 

It is also labelled as one of the "saddest anime ever", though I doubt it would wreck my like You Lie in April did...

Yuzuru Otonasho ends up in this afterlife, suffering from amnesia.  He meets the founder of the Afterlife Battlefront, Yuri Nakamura, who leads an organisation rebelling against whatever God has deviced in this cruel existence.  Their enemy is the student council president, a girl named Angel, who with her supernatural powers is believed to be an associate of God.  Other then the rebels, the afterlife seems filled with fabricated students and teachers, whom Yuri refers to as NPC's.

They undertake several missions even though they question the morality of them at times.  One of their members passes on from the afterlife during a concert after having achieved what she didn't reach in life: satisfaction of her music.  They manage to get Angel demoted from her position, as Yuzuru regains parts of his memory.  Yuzuru learns that Angel's true name is Kanade Tachibana, and he befriends her, remembering more of his past when he is in her presence. 

He helps her make peace with the rebels, and learns the purpose of this afterlife, reinstating as such Angel as the student council president as they help others finally pass on.  But mysterious shadow creatures start appearing, attacking the residents to turn them into NPC's themselves.  Many decide to pass on instead of getting stuck in that limbo, as they discover that the creatures where made to prevent love happening in the afterlife, to prevent it turning into a paradise where no-one would like to pass on from.  

Only five of them now remain, and after a graduation ceremony the others bar Angel and Yuzuru pass on.  He confesses he has fallen in love with her, and wants to stay with her in the afterlife to help others pass on after arriving there, but she moves on herself as she was unable to thank her heart's donor, Yuzuru, in the real life, leaving him behind alone.  Later on, two people resembling them meet in the real world, as in an alternate epilogue Yuzuru becomes the student president, helping others while he waits to see Angel again...

So, it is a sad anime indeed, but as I stated at the beginning, it didn't tear me up like April did.  Never the less, for me it was enjoyable, but not as great as it's MAL score reflected, but that is a matter of taste after all...