On the television, the anime Angel Beats continued to air.
In the second episode, which aired on October 10th, there was a somber flashback to Nakamura Yuri's life before her death:
When she was young, her family was well-off. As the eldest daughter, she cared for her two younger sisters and a younger brother, and they lived a happy life. But one day, while her parents were away, several robbers broke in and ransacked the house. Unable to find anything valuable, they forced her to search for valuables, threatening to kill one of her siblings every ten minutes if she didn't. By the time the police arrived half an hour later, all her siblings had been murdered.
Only she survived.
This traumatic experience was the reason she resolved to rebel against "God" in the afterlife.
However, when the Male Lead asked her about the cause of her death, she only said it wasn't suicide.
This flashback served to flesh out Nakamura Yuri's character. Since she herself had stated she didn't kill herself out of guilt, the scene, while somewhat heavy, wasn't overly depressing.
The entire second episode maintained its lighthearted and cheerful tone. The Afterlife Battlefront members, while infiltrating the weapon manufacturing base guild, were repeatedly eliminated by their own traps—including those set by guild members—in a series of absurd and comical failures.
Viewers were thoroughly satisfied, and online discussions about the episode remained lively.
Then, on October 17th, the third episode of the animation aired.
This episode focused on Iwasawa Masami, the lead singer of the band Girls Dead Monster (G.D.M.).
Unlike the Afterlife Battlefront, the members of Girls Dead Monster did not participate in the action of the second episode. However, they played a crucial role in the "Tornado Operation" from the first episode, which involved stealing the students' lunch money.
The Afterlife Battlefront was planning a new operation called "Operation Angel Domain Invasion." Their strategy was to use Girls Dead Monster as a diversionary team to draw the attention of the students and the "Angels." Meanwhile, the Afterlife Battlefront would sneak into the "Angels'" quarters to find a way to contact "God."
To prepare for this operation, Iwasawa Masami and her band, Girls Dead Monster, had to practice even harder.
During a break in their practice session, the Male Lead, who had come to watch the band practice, struck up a conversation with Iwasawa Masami.
Through their conversation, the details of Iwasawa Masami's life before her death were revealed:
Her parents were always fighting, and her family life was terrible. She stumbled upon music by chance, was deeply moved by it, and threw herself into it completely. She abandoned her college plans to chase her dream, working tirelessly to earn money and repeatedly auditioning for record companies. She vowed to leave home after graduation, move to Tokyo, and make a living through music.
However, before her dream could be realized, she was caught in the crossfire of her parents' argument. A flying bottle struck her head, causing a cerebral infarction that led to aphasia. From then on, she was confined to her sickbed, and her life ended in the same place.
To attract more students to the concert, Yui, a loyal fan of Girls Dead Monster, plastered posters for the band's concert all over the school bulletin boards.
Later, Kanade Tachibana, the "Angel," tore down the posters one by one, sparking strong resentment among the students.
After leaving the bulletin board, Kanade looked at the posters in her hand and muttered, "I feel like I'm the villain."
Regardless, the concert still went ahead as scheduled at 7 p.m.
However, only a few students showed up at the beginning.
To attract more people, Iwasawa Masami, the band's vocalist, decided to perform their signature song, "Alchemy," right at the start.
Meanwhile, the Male Lead, Nakamura Yuri, and others successfully infiltrated the "Angel's" residence.
But they soon realized that her room looked no different from any ordinary girl's room, and the so-called "control center" was just a regular computer.
It seemed they had misunderstood the "Angel."
Inside the gymnasium, the song "Alchemy" was indeed beautiful, and its popularity among students drew a large crowd. Even the "Angel," Kanade Tachibana, was drawn to the performance, and surprisingly, even the school teachers showed up.
The "Diversion Team" was ruthlessly suppressed by the school teachers.
One teacher, furious, declared, "All your instruments will be confiscated, and you're banned from performing at the school festival again. No more of this nonsense!"
He strode toward Iwasawa Masami's guitar, picked it up, glanced at it, and scoffed, "It wouldn't matter if this thing was thrown away, would it?"
These words instantly ignited Iwasawa Masami's fury.
"No! Don't touch it!"
She screamed, breaking free from the teacher restraining her. In a frenzy, she charged at the teacher who threatened to discard her guitar, tackling him to the ground and snatching her instrument back.
The others also resisted, some openly, others through covert sabotage.
Though she had retrieved her guitar, Iwasawa Masami was quickly cornered.
Several teachers surrounded her, demanding she surrender the instrument.
At that critical moment, another band member raced to the control room and activated the public address system. Iwasawa Masami seized the opportunity, strumming her guitar and launching into a new song:
"The hypocrites are laughing now, what lies will they tell next?"
Can the things I've gained through lies truly adorn my life?
But I can't stop my steps toward tomorrow, so I must sing this song.
You who cry, you who are alone—
You are the right ones, the truly human ones.
...
As she sang, she couldn't help but reflect: This is my life. To keep singing like this, that's the meaning of my birth. Just as music saved me, I can save others with music. Finally... finally... I've found it.
Scenes from her past life flashed before her eyes, and tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
Then, to everyone's astonishment, she abruptly vanished without a trace, leaving only her guitar clattering to the floor.
The Afterlife Battlefront had previously believed that simply obeying the "Angels" and enjoying school life would lead to reincarnation. Iwasawa Masami's disappearance proved this was a lie.
Even in this afterlife, if one finds "healing," they might still vanish in the end, even if they resist the "Angels" and the "God."
Although Iwasawa Masami didn't seem particularly important to the main group, with limited screen time and almost no memorable moments before episode three, her sudden disappearance still left viewers deeply unsatisfied.
The ending theme of episode three also started acting up. While the episode two ending credits had featured all the main characters, including members of the Afterlife Battlefront and the band Girls Dead Monster, the episode three ending credits only showed the remaining main characters, with Iwasawa Masami completely absent.
So, after the episode aired, many viewers couldn't help but complain, "Old Thief Lin, you call this 'joy'?" This was especially true given a recent interview with Lin Zhiyan published in an animation magazine.
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