Angel Beats! (エンジェルビーツ! Enjeru Bītsu!?) is a 13-episode Japanese anime television series produced by P.A. Works and Aniplex and directed by Seiji Kishi. The story was originally conceived by Jun Maeda, who also wrote the screenplay and composed the music with the group Anant-Garde Eyes, with original character design by Na-Ga; both Maeda and Na-Ga are from the visual novel brand Key, who produced such titles as Kanon, Air, and Clannad. The anime aired in Japan between April 2 and June 25, 2010. An original video animation episode was released on December 22, 2010. The story takes place in the afterlife and focuses on Otonashi, a boy who lost his memories of his life after dying. He is enrolled into the afterlife school and meets a girl named Yuri who invites him to join the Afterlife Battlefront, an organization she leads which fights against the student council president Angel, a girl with supernatural powers.
Key worked in collaboration with ASCII Media Works' Dengeki G's Magazine to produce the project into a media franchise. Three manga series are serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine and Dengeki G's Comic: two illustrated by Haruka Komowata, and one drawn by Yuriko Asami. A series of illustrated short stories written by Maeda and illustrated by GotoP were also serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine between the November 2009 and May 2010 issues. Two Internet radio shows were produced to promote Angel Beats!. The first volume in a six-part episodic visual novel adaptation produced by Key will be released for Windows.
Angel Beats! received generally positive reviews by critics. The integration of various individual elements together, such as musical performances, humor and action, was commended in one review but panned in another, saying that the story was overloaded with too many elements. P.A Works was praised for the animation of the action sequences and attention to detail with the weapons used. A major flaw noted by critics, however, is that the anime is too short, which leaves many of the characters with untold back-stories. The anime was selected as a recommended work by the awards jury of the 14th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2010.
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Not to be confused with the Anime, Angel Beats is also the name of a German trance DJ whose main alias is "DJ Dean" and has other projects, in different styles of music that go by the aliases of: Das Licht, Angel Beats, Barbarez, Dynamic, D's, Sylver Liquid, Impegement Syndrom, and Van Nilson Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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