Discussion of Otonashi’s character in Angel Beats! As of now all known information about the Angel Beats! anime may discussed without the usage of spoiler tags, so be wary if you’re not familiar with it.
Enjoy~
The Hype Train is not held back by the shackles of time.
(For the record, I have not read Heaven’s Door at the time of this writing, so this opinion is entirely based on his character in the anime.)
Otonashi really doesn’t stand out much, kind of like a generic dating sim protagonist.
He kind of acts like he doesn’t care about things, but at the same time, he’s kind of an extrovert. Even when we see his backstory in the anime, we don’t really get much of a clear personality from him. We do know that he loves his sister very much and would do anything for her, which is what drives him to work, so at least he has motivation. But when he dies, all that goes out the window. He has no motivation, no personality, and spends most of his time watching the people with actual character do things. Even his interest in Kanade feels forced, but then again, every ship in the anime was forced, so what can I say?
At least it’s better than giving him an unlikeable personality… (looks at Yuri)
Im gonna be the same as Eisen here, my view and opinions will be based on anime cuz I havent read HD.
Otonashi is a character I really like. To me Otonashi is a character that fits in the series, and if he wouldnt be there, it would feel kinda weird tbh.
This is kinda weird to say, but I think one of the main reasons I like otonashi is his behaviour about friendship and that he wants to get everyone back, and realises there are things living for - so basically psychology and that hes the only one that realises stuff like that.
I dont know why, but I get this really strong feeling that hes mentally strong and can handle serious situations. I think one of the main reasons why I feel like this is because of the opening and the scene where he opens his eyes. (Gets me everytime I need a gif of that).
Also I love how he was the only one who got near Kanade and thought differently than the others of her - yeah his psychology again I guess?
@EisenKoubu and @IkaCZ for once its A-OK that you haven’t read Heaven’s Door. Otonashi literally only shows up on the first three pages (without a face, I might add) and then never comes back. After all, it is a story about before he arrived XP
I’m currently kinda conflicted about how I feel about him. Because, indeed, he is very bland. Which, if you think about it, while is somewhat stereotypical for VN protags, is unusual for Key. I mean, he pretty just goes along with everything, gets along with everyone, seemingly having no (current) character flaws or even real problems he has to solve.
On the other hand, his story, episode 9, is the best part of the anime. Period. I don’t even have anything else to say about it. It just is.
So, I mean, I guess its understandable for someone who has amnesia to be lacking in the personality and values, etc. departments, but only at first. Luckily, its been promised that his personality will change and develop in the VN depending on what choices you make. So I can only hope that I will come to like him for more than just his backstory.
The magic of Otonashi is his good intentions. He’s got a very untainted view of things.
This innocent and humble perspective however is actually pretty great and not really found in this kind of character. Sure it’s a bit of a bland approach with him not having any outright struggle at first, but this makes his recollection of what brought him here so much more powerful and is why his episode is so outstanding- Not to mention his motivations in post that we barely see at all. There’s a lot of passion in him that I think we’re going to be seeing more of for once.
Probably supposed to be flat for self inset because VN.
That’d be because he’s explicitly presented in the anime as such.
A little more Otonashi background in the VN (or somewhere) would be helpful. We only really get to see a little bit of him from the train incident and his time with his sister, but nothing else.
Otonashi himself doesn’t feel completely bland to me, just… under-explained and out-of-place. The latter in part because there are capable people all around him, and that leaves him with pretty much nothing to do. Until he realizes they’re going about things the wrong way, that is.
I mostly agree with what everyone has said here, at least partially, so far. He’s somewhat bland, but has a more unique (in their situation) psychology (or as @IkaCZ put it, a “strong psychology”) than those around him.
As @Yerian pointed out, he’s different from other Key protagonists. Though, unlike other Key protagonists, he’s actually a nice guy. (Similar view to @Bizkitdoh’s.)
This didn’t really feel that way to me. I would think his interest in her was natural given that he is already a very out-of-place character, and what had happened throughout. With everything the SSS did against Tenshi, he kept on seeing her human aspects. For example, when they infiltrate “Tenshi Space” he tries to stop them once he realizes that it’s a rather ordinary place – that she isn’t in some way putting herself above the others.
Aside from that I agreed with nearly everything else.
I kind of like how Otonashi remains a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of the cast. He’s pretty level-headed (and not in the way that Takamatsu is), and gives the other members a different way of looking at things, to say the least. The fact that he entered the afterlife without any memories just gives him even less bias, and the ability to look at things from an impartial perspective. I like those kinds of characters.
Then again, he was partially attuned to Kanade, even without his memories, so I can’t say that he was entirely unbiased xP
I think that he’s one of the most reasonable person there, that he doesn’t just start doing things out of the blue without some reason. I mean, really, you can’t start shooting at someone you didn’t know just because another someone you didn’t know told you to do so.
About his atonement with Kanade, I think he at first start to “pity” her as someone who got bullied by others, and by the time, start to understand her more. But, yeah, while he didn’t easily influenced by Yuri et al., he seems to head over heels to Kanade pretty quick. I’d like to know how he develop his reason more.
I have to agree that he is a character that blends in nicely in Angel beats, he’s sort of like the voice of reason in the middle of a very radical and overly energetic group. So I think it is a nice balance to characters in the series. Also, even his caring attitude is kind of under a realistic level of a human, or at least it was presented as such.
And now regarding his relationship with Kanade, how do I say this? It’s both good and bad. Good in a sense they’re paired up nicely.The bad is that I felt that their relationship is kind of rushed and underdeveloped. It just felt too sudden, > especially when the made their feelings known to each other in the last episode of the anime.
I’ve said it many times on the forum and outside, but I am still of the opinion that Kanade herself has no romantic feelings towards Otonashi, which is why I don’t look at their relationship anything more than one-sided, or at least, platonic. If anything, the lack of development was from Kanade’s side, as I am convinced that Otonashi fell for her.
Hopefully the VN Kanade route will fix that.
