Angel Beats! was listed as one of my personal favorite anime in 2010. This Winter Anime Season 2011, Angel Beats! was listed as one of the OVA releases. While it is considered one of the best shows I’ve seen this year, I’ve never thought I’ll be that excited to watch it again. Hooray! Boy, do I miss the show!!
As expected, this episode special doesn’t continue where from they left off. But fun! As of now, I couldn’t envisage a possibility of a second season since the story is pretty much done.
Warnings – there may be spoilers ahead. I don’t think I have the talent to ramble about an anime without providing references to it.
This episode is a top choice if you’re looking for a good laugh. When I saw Yuri announcing her first unusual operation which goes by the name of “Operation High Tension Syndrome”, I knew it’ll be a funny episode. I believe I’ve mentioned before that Angel Beats! has the tendency of going to the extreme of either side of emotions. This time around, it’s extreme laughter. Lucky! Being sad is the last thing I want this festive season.
How does this operation work, you ask? It’s fairly simple, but can be really hard. The anti-angel gang must be pretending that they’re enjoying their school very much, in a highly tension manner. Yuri was hoping this could lead them to the invisible God by fooling Tenshi a.k.a Kanade. It’s probably an easy task if they really liked school, but the thing is they didn’t. Being quite an evil herself, Yuri threatened them to go without food for a week should they fail this operation. Actually, I should credit her for being smart. The operation may not even be successfully launched if she didn’t threatened them like that. Ask yourself, would you do something like that? There are other ways to trace this God no?
Food being a vital source of even for the dead, Yuri & Co. sans Yuri took the school by storm with intense tension. I like the little tension meter on screen. See that little thing on bottom left on the screen grab above? That little thing made me laughed the most! It’s priceless! It goes up and down according to the level of tension. All the time I was waiting for someone to hit 100% but that’s saved for the best. I should’ve figured that. Anyways, how did the gang go about creating tension was hilarious. Hinata did a great job of keeping the tension going. That guy has always been funny, hasn’t he? Although Yuri gracefully excluded herself from this operation, her tension meter got me laughed the most! Oh, and the calculator – I really don’t want to spoil this for you! Watch it if you’re curious.
If you’re waiting to read if this is a recommended OVA, I’ll say hell yeah, it is. Nothing beats having the craziness of these Angel Beats! characters fill the screen for ya.
P.S I don’t know if this is a OVA/OAV or OAD. The Winter Anime Season 2011 list I have used the term OAD but tons of other people simply just used OVA. The thorough explanation for both terms can be found here. Since majority of anibloggers go with the term OVA, so I follow suit.
World of Yamaguchi Hoshiko 
This was a fun treat to watch. It was so random yet so funny at the same time. I was personally hoping for an aftermath-ish episode showing everyone at the “other side”, but this one was an enjoyable replacement. Shiina yelling kawaii was the highlight of the episode for me.
Definitely a nice treat to have. Gosh, I miss Angel Beats! all of a sudden.
It’s been a while since I’ve heard the oh so glorious “My Soul, Your Beats” so I know exactly how you feel. I miss the words of wisdom form the always wise TK. He has such a way with words.