Yui is love, Yui is life.
I’m just annoyed how Key overexploit her “Yui-nyan” expression. It’s not cute again after a while.
Ya know how Otonashi feel about that “smooth ride”!?
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This character is the foundation of something very cool executed in the worst way possible by her being the worst kind of genki, among other things. She’s seemingly designed to just being absurdly annoying and I don’t enjoy it at all- Overshadowed by well crafted genkis or pranksters rather than being detestable and annoying, ie Haruka and Sekine.
I won’t go into what slop the anime was with this, which I can drone on about forever- But rather discuss her potential. The route structure that is built around you supporting something that the protagonist isn’t directly involved with is extremely interesting- That said the anime’s last second ‘oh I got your back’ idea needs to be dumped and replaced with a worthy progression that is seen in some form. She’s a stepping stone for Hinata’s development, which is a new cool thing, but repeats and already understood ideology within the world, which is uninteresting. Furthermore, the idea of having an outcasted character is very smart because we can see some development outside of the SSS masters- which I again lose hope for because as far as I can tell she’s outcasted because she’s obnoxious. At least Noda can hold up, like what’s the deal here?
She’s just… So annoying! And not at all charming in any sense! The future of this series has a lot of work to do to make her likable for me. 4Koma at least made a very select few panels that made her and Hinata cute.
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Notwithstanding that her personality in afterlife seems completely different from when she’s alive, paralyzed or not. I can think that she want to do what she can’t do when she’s alive, but why all that fuss? Is she try to hide her feelings? Her insecurities?
I think part of why Angel Beats is so amazing is it seems like its gonna be “experimental route structure the VN”, so its gonna bring us a bunch of overdue, new, and INTERESTING things.
Yui is hard for me to like because she seems so sparatic. Im not just referring to her overly genki-ness, but her character in general just seems to be all over the place. Im really hoping that they just threw her in carelessly in the anime to show us what this story (AB! as a whole) is really gonna be about, and in the VN she will be expanded upon much better.
Oh look, it is an unappealing character that doesn’t really have any good points and was tied to some frankly terrible writing, pip pip tally ho
Well hey, I was expecting a lot more hate for Yui but it’s pretty subdued, huh 
Let’s get things off the table first and foremost. Yes, Yui is annoying. @Bizkitdoh may even have a point in that the reason she was ostracized was because she was annoying. I can definitely understand people disliking her. Heck, I myself irrationally dislike disrespectful characters (aka bitches) even though they are valuable characters in the story.
When I ask myself whether a character is good or not, I like to think of two questions first:
a) Does the existence of the character bring significant value to the story?
b) Would this value have been degraded if the character had a different personality?
And when I ask myself this, I think Yui passes both questions, in my opinion. Her existence brought significant value, and even if this value was not for her own progression (rather, Hinata’s and Otonashi’s development), I believe this value would not have made Angel Beats the same. Her existence helped achieve the realization that disappearing in this world is a good thing, one that makes the people happy.
To counter that value, we can ask: Could this have been achieved by other people? Now, since we know barely anything about the others’ regrets, we can’t say for sure that it could have been achieved by other characters. But I still think Yui was a good enough character in this regard. Yui was very needy, in that her problem was she needed to be accepted by others for her own values. This desire to need someone else was what brought Hinata and Otonashi to value her disappearance even more. If her problem was more on the lines of self-acceptance, then that sort of impact would not have been effective in making Hinata and Otonashi realize just how important they are in helping instrument the happiness of others.
Like, the feeling that they may have had after Yui disappearing was along the lines of “This person achieving happiness could not have happened without my involvement. Therefore, I want others to achieve happiness through my involvement”.
I kind of put this on the pairings topic some time ago, but the reason I think Hinata and Yui match so well is because Hinata is the guy that has to be needed whereas Yui is the girl that needs somebody. As I said before:
Her existence is a very complementary existence in that it could not have worked without Hinata in there to make it valuable. Perhaps other people are like that, and they could have sufficed, but I feel that Yui is a strong enough example with regards to this point.
Now then, onto the second question: Would this value have been degraded if the character had a different personality? I say yes. Part of the effect of “needing” someone was heightened by her dislikeable personality, even among SSS members. If she was more likeable kind of “genki” such as Haruka from LB was, this effect wouldn’t have been as strong. More people would be willing to get along with her, and her feeling of “needing” someone would have been more easily achieved, thus degrading the value of her story.
Similarly, if her personality was not dislikeable but more despiseable, then it would imply a closed-off personality that does not want to accept help. Similar to Naoi, who also needed help, but refused to think of himself as somebody who needs it. If Yui were like that, then they may not have even gone through the trouble of helping her.
And thus ends my thesis of why Yui is valuable in the world of Angel Beats. I definitely can’t argue for people to like her or dislike her, as that all falls down to personal preference. But she is definitely a valuable character in the cast, much as practically everybody else in the cast is.
Now, to use this info to answer other people~
I both agree and disagree with this. Hinata’s sudden “I WILL MARRY YOU”, I believe, needs to stay. It provides a stark contrast between Otonashi’s hesitance to say it (which Yui does not need), and Hinata’s willingness to come completely out of nowhere and say it (which Yui does need). If, say, Hinata was the one that helped her achieve it and he said yes when she asked, it would definitely cheapen the acceptance because she would feel that “he is only saying he wants to marry me because he wants to help me achieve my goals for some reason”.
HOWEVER, what we do need to see is more of a reason as to why Hinata would go forward and say this, unlike the constant bickering we saw in the anime. We need to see some form of chemistry between them other than constant headlocks, which I am confident that the VN will provide, as we see scenes of Otonashi wrestling her, instead of Hinata.
The reason why her case is different is because she does not want to push herself to be accepted. Noda, as we all know, is very pushy, and no matter how obnoxious people feel he is, he will push himself, pointing his halberd in front of you, for you to accept him. Yui, on the other hand, has this immense insecurity in her that wishes for her to be accepted “as is” without her pushing for you to accept her. Thus, she does not push for people to accept her as that would not be true acceptance.
I don’t think it’s something that she wants to hide, rather she wants to be her own person and be accepted for being that own person. Perhaps, because of watching TV all the time, that is the sort of personality she thought to be “cool”, despite it being totally wrong.
I guess that’s all I’m gonna say about Yui for now and I won’t back down on this one YUI X HINATA DABESSSSS
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I really really hope they got more development.
They’re as good as strangers in the anime. There’s not really any interaction between them apart from their bickering, and what’s the impact of Yui’s disappearance on Hinata? Almost none?
I asked myself a question: “Would I have done what Hinata did for Yui?” No, probably not. I may have done what Otonashi did, but not what Hinata did. I like Yui though. Her personality didn’t bother me at all. On the contrary, she was quite charming and her energy was refreshing. (Of course, Kanade best girl.)
She basically just does what she wants to do and lets herself experience everything that she couldn’t… Even so she can also be reserved. She had all these things she wanted to do but she never went out of her way to bother people about it, with the exception of her audition. (At least iirc.) But I don’t really have a solid opinion on Yui just yet.
Oh, that’s a good way to put it. I hadn’t framed it quite like that, but now I think that makes a lot of sense.
I’m curious about how it will work with Otonashi though, in the VN… (Not to get too off topic.)
I’m also curious about that. In (what I’ve read of) Heaven’s Door, Hinata comes across as a bit of a womanizer… though in the anime he looked like he was being completely sincere.
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I don’t know when two people bicker like that (not as much as wrestling) but picking it can lead to romantic developments here… Speaking from experience XD
Actually… Spoilers because this is from an unreleased CG In KSL Live World, they showed a few CGs from 1st beat never revealed. One of them was Hinata’s “I WILL MARRY YOU” CG. Basically, Hinata x Yui scene confirmed.
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Doesn’t mean it’s the only possibility though! 
That’s true!
Well, unless Otonashi mans up, which I don’t really see him doing, then I don’t imagine he’d go for it :v
Nah man, Otonashi x Masami and Hinata x Yui double date..
But no really, they explicitly stated that only Hinata can provide the proper support for Yui, so….
See, I disagree with your answers to these. I believe that what Yui accomplished in the anime could have been done by any of the characters. You’ll notice that Yui was the only one who got what will be a route in the VN. I think they could have given pretty much any character a route, and it would have had the same value. Maybe not the same message, but a similar effect.
Although, at the same time, they kinda needed it to be Yui for the anime to bring Hinata into this. Hinata only joined Otonashi in his quest to save everyone after he helped Yui. (Though honestly I think Hinata and Otonashi are bros enough that he would have helped him anyway if he had just asked XD.)
ok, let’s get this over with.
Yui is, if I am for a second not baised for Harumi Sakurai, the only character I really cared about in the anime. She has a nice overall character design which really fits her character and was the only character that really got my attention.
Now to what I freaking hate that they did: They changed her voice for the songs to a really unfitting voice for her character. LiSA is by no means fitting for a character like Yui, given her original VA (I may be a bit baised here) would have been a much better choice.
Back to anime: I really liked where they went with her character. Her and Otonashi doing all kinds of stupid things she wanted to do, because she never could, when she was alive. I was really shocked when I heard, what her life was like, but then for her last request they fucked up badly. I know they did hint a lot with her and Hinata, but I still dont like it. It’s like she was just a piece in a game to be used and cast aside as a stepping stone, like it got already mentioned. Like how I felt is, he only did it to help Otonashi and not for Yui, but that may just be me. (Didnt read all above, since way too much text, too lazy)
So now the last bit will be about the things I know about the VN: Her route being a whole HinaxYui wreckage and completly destroying the concept of a route with it. Given it is something new and I dont like it. That’s all I know and probably why I stopped caring about it.
I know most people dont share my opinion on that, but I am used to being a lone sheep with my opinions, but it’s cool. Opinions will be opinions and everyone has his own. (This is kinda off topic, but I felt like I had to add this)
I WILL NEVER GET OVER HOW BAD THIS IS I mean it was good for LiSA and all but I MEAN ERI CAN SING WHY NOT JUST HAVE HER DO IT IT MAKES SENSE
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Oh, I see we are at a same point for at least that.
That’s one thing I’m actually wondering; In the game, will Yui’s route be a separate ending, or will the story continue after Yui’s route, much like the anime did?
Anyway, back on topic, perhaps not the same message, but it might not have received the same value, either. Otonashi was already determined to do it before he even started with Yui. Hinata, on the other hand, only joined in after. I guess it’d be a stretch to say that he wouldn’t have helped out if not for helping Yui, but I just feel that if he did it as a bro to Otonashi, he would be doing it halfheartedly, as he wouldn’t have gained the satisfaction of being instrumental to helping the other person disappear. i.e. the fact that it could only have been hinata makes it all the more valuable. For Key stories, I believe, value is of the utmost importance.
Non spoiler spoiler:
A somewhat more meaty Goodbye Days.
So quick question I asked somewhere but it got buried and there’s people here who have beat it from what it looks: Is there a Yui bad end where she ends up with Otonoshi? My sister seems convinced that’s the case but I can’t find anything leading me to believe that’s the case. All I can find is the Maeda quote saying “only Hinata can help Yui” or something which my sister says he meant canonically only Hinata and Yui can be together.
