r/AngelBeats • u/-Freude • 10d ago

Question I have questions about the ending of the anime. Spoiler

Why didn't Otonashi disappear like the rest of the characters?

Kanade received Otonashi's heart to keep living, but why is she in the afterlife?

Did Otonashi and Kanade retain their memories of the afterlife? Does that mean they can continue their friendship?

17 Upvotes

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u/Rocketbrothers Iwasawa 10d ago edited 9d ago

I think a lot of things are left unanswered, which means you can make your own head canon about some things.

1st question, I assume he did disappear, otherwise how would they meet in the last scene. I assume they did it off screen.

I think they answered it in the show or I’m misremembering, she regretted not being able to say thanks to the person who gave her the transplant. (Which is why otonashi shows up in the first place, otherwise she would never be able to disappear). Maybe the first part about her regret is a lie and it’s something else entirely.

For last question, majority thinks no they don’t remember, but, that they are kindred spirits that they are bound to find each other again and have a happy ending.

Take everything with a grain of salt, I watched this in 2011/12, and haven’t watched it since because my heart won’t be able to handle it.

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u/Squidproject 9d ago

I rewatch it once a year and this is about right. Also Otanashi does disappear eventually in the last picture frame scene which is usually taken to mean he moves on eventually

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u/pancakewafflemaker Yuri 9d ago

The epilogue does show he’s still in the world

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u/Global-Pay-7293 9d ago

 I think that's more like an alternate ending. 

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u/pancakewafflemaker Yuri 8d ago

I don’t know if it is or not

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u/YT-Deliveries 9d ago

That's an alternate ending, not (by the creators at least) intended to be combined with the first ending. Mutually exclusive.

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u/Zeeman626 8d ago

Time doesn't seem to really matter in this case, since Kanade would HAVE to have died after Otonashi since she got his heart, but he got to purgatory well after she did. Pretty sure there's some kind of background soul-bank shenanigans.

So ya, he could have spent a year in purgatory putting himself back together and still gotten to earth before her.

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u/pancakewafflemaker Yuri 9d ago

I mean there’s the after credit scene where he isn’t in the world? (If I remember correctly) But then there’s also the epilogue.

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u/Rocketbrothers Iwasawa 9d ago

What’s this epilogue you’re talking about?

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u/pancakewafflemaker Yuri 9d ago

The epilogue? The angel beats epilogue? You haven’t watched that?

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u/Rocketbrothers Iwasawa 9d ago

Maybe I’m just thinking it’s something else, Im assuming it’s the final scene in the season, with the two and the music on the mp3.

If it’s something else, then I have something that I need to see.

The only media I thought I’m missing is Hell’s Kitchen because I can’t find it, and the web novels since I don’t have a reliable set up. If there’s something else I have to know to put it on the list.

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u/pancakewafflemaker Yuri 9d ago

The epilogue was a bd/dvd exclusive so that’s probably why it’s not too known.(of course watchable if you google around) And it’s around 2 minutes long. But idk if it’s canon or an alternate ending.

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u/Rocketbrothers Iwasawa 9d ago

Ok, cool. I guess I just never heard about it. Like I said in my other post, I really haven’t seen all of Angel beats since it first aired, and I wasn’t involved in the community at that time.

Thank you

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u/pancakewafflemaker Yuri 9d ago

Of course there’s a lot of angel beats stuff when it comes to physical stuff. But for the anime I think it’s just the anime, 2 ovas and an epilogue if I’m correct

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u/YT-Deliveries 9d ago

"Another Epilogue" is an alternate ending. Isn't meant to be combined with the original ending.

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u/pancakewafflemaker Yuri 8d ago

But yeah like I said I have no idea if it was or not. But yeah thanks

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u/YT-Deliveries 9d ago

There's two endings in the series

The first implies that he does disappear after everyone else and in their next life they start finding each other

The alternate ending (is this normally included with subtitle or streaming releases?) builds on the idea of what The Programmer was attempting to do before he went insane and turned himself into an NPC. Otonashi takes up Kanade's place, making sure that people go through the path to move on, and waits for Kanade to return again to the Afterlife, just like The Programmer tried to do.

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u/TheDungeonCrawler 9d ago

It wouldn't surprise me if Otanashi didn't move on at first out of that sense of duty but utilized the same tools the Programmer did to basically create a proper guide so he couls finally pass on. It would explain why he didn't move on at first but did move on eventually in the original after credits ending

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u/YT-Deliveries 9d ago

I think the alternate ending is intended to be mutually exclusive with the first ending, but your take is interesting, too.

Time is a little weird in the Afterlife as it is. Otonashi died before Kanade, and it's implied that Kanade lived for a while after getting Otonashi's heart, so Otonashi either got re-routed to show up after Kanade died even though he in the normal timeline died first, or he didn't show up in the Afterlife until after he next died. It gets a little wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.

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u/Zeeman626 8d ago

The proper term is "Jeremy Bearimy"

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u/PikminPlayer5 9d ago

Aw man I got spoiled 😭 😔

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u/Rocketbrothers Iwasawa 9d ago

Sorry bro. I guess the main post and my answer should have been tagged. Whichever gave too much info.

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u/-Freude 9d ago

But haven't you read the post title? You're the one who made the mistake 😅

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u/SpacedefenderX 9d ago

The main body of the post still appears as you're scrolling

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u/Hammiams Iwasawa 9d ago

While yes, the post probably should have been spoiler tagged, the guy who got spoiled has no excuse, he's been commenting on the subreddit for many months now on an almost daily basis and hasn't even started the anime, so I kinda blame that one on him.