Yuzuru Otonashi
Name in Japanese	音無 結弦
Romaji Translation	Otonashi Yuzuru
Debut (Anime)	Episode 01
Appears in	Anime
Voice Actor (Japanese)	Hiroshi Kamiya
Voice Actor (English)	Blake Shepard
Personal Info
Gender	Male
Is Living?	No
Affiliation/s	Afterlife War Front
Final Appearance	Episode 13

Yuzuru Otonashi (音無 結弦, Otonashi Yuzuru) is one of the newest members of the SSS, and a newcomer in the Afterlife. He wakes up in the afterlife without his memories, and later joins the SSS in his own quest to retrieve them.

Contents 1 Appearance 2 Personality 3 Background 4 Plot 4.1 Waking Up in a Conflict 4.2 The Afterlife Battlefront 4.2.1 A Backfired Plan 4.2.2 His True Purpose 4.3 Facing the Shadows 4.4 A Bitter Goodbye 4.5 Another Epilogue 5 Abilities 6 Trivia 7 References

Appearance

Otonashi is a young man with red hair and burgundy colored eyes. On his first arrival in the afterworld, he sees himself wearing a typical man's black school uniform. Later, when he joins the SSS, he switches to a white long-sleeved polo shirt under a sandy brown coat and black slacks.

Personality

Otonashi is a person who takes extreme caution in his actions; ironic though, as death is but a temporary status for people of the afterlife. As a person inside an unfamiliar world, at first, Otonashi finds himself confused, especially when he encounters Yuri and learns of the conflict between her faction, the SSS, and a girl referred to as Tenshi (Angel). After receiving a fatal attack from Tenshi, he decides to join the SSS, partly due to his own gains: a means of protection against Tenshi, and a companion to interact with as he seeks his memories.

Aside from his tendencies to be cautious, he is also friendly, managing to create new friends from the SSS, especially with Hinata, whom he often jokes about his sexuality. Out of the SSS members, he acts the most well-mannered and collected of the members, considering consequences before acting.

He is skilled in medical treatment, mainly because he frantically studied to become a doctor when he was alive. His medical skills were not exhibited in the Afterlife (mainly because the Afterlife consists of NPCs and dead students and any injury they receive will recover).

In later events, Otonashi has abandoned his cautious tendencies when he learns more about himself (his memories) and about the afterlife, thanks to his interactions with Tenshi, who as Kanade Tachibana, is nothing more than a misunderstood student with a purpose of her own. Also, being able to regain his memories changed his view on life, as shown when he tells Naoi about how life is genuine despite how much deception one has lived through.

Background

Otonashi learns (through Naoi's hypnotism) that he had a little sister and he didn't have a meaning for being alive before.

His sister, Hatsune Otonashi was diagnosed with cancer and has been bedridden for two years. During the period, Otonashi didn't know what he was living for and what was his purpose in life. He detached himself from his friends and soon lives a solitary life, funded by his part-time jobs.

All he wanted was to work enough to eat and live. Even so, he kept on visiting his sister and would buy her manga with the little money he had. He always got her whatever he sees in the book shop from first sight so he didn't even know if he gave her the same one or a different manga. Hatsune would be happy with whatever Otonashi gave her and she would always say "Thank you Onii-chan" to Otonashi.

By Hatsune's request, Otonashi took Hatsune to see the decorations of the Christmas trees on the street. Hatsune passed away while clinging onto Otonashi's back and after that Otonashi finally realises his reason for living. He felt alive when Hatsune expressed her gratitude and that was all it takes for him to continue living. Otonashi realizes that he was happy before and that he has lost that reason for living after the death of Hatsune.

Otonashi was left to live alone after Hatsune passed away and thought there was nothing in him anymore. While walking down the street he saw a little girl saying thanks to a nurse and there he thinks he might be able to find another purpose in life.

From that day onwards, Otonashi studied hard and was finally admitted to a university to study a medical course. During his way to the university for his entrance exams, the train he was on had an accident. When he woke up moments later, he found everything in a mess and everyone either injured or dead. There, he made friends with Igarashi, another youth who survived the train crash. Using his medical knowledge, he helped to treat all the survivors. Unfortunately one of his patients died, leading him to question once again what he was living his life for.

While he was searching for a way out of the underground train tunnel, he found out that he had been critically injured as well, but kept it a secret from the survivors to avoid demoralizing them.

During his last moments, he took out his life insurance card and fills up the information needed for a consent with regards to voluntary organ transplant if ever he was to be brain-dead. He circled all of the choices and said that by doing this, it let him have a reason for living. Every other survivor saw this and followed as well. He dies shortly after having been thanked by Igarashi for giving them hope, just as the tunnel is being opened.

Plot

Waking Up in a Conflict

After dying, he lost his memories of the time when he was still alive. Otonashi becomes involved with the SSS and their fight against God at the very first moment he enters the afterlife. He is seen to have received a fatal attack from Tenshi, but soon recovers completely; it is there that he realizes that he can still "die", but can recover after some time.

He himself does not want to stay with the SSS but joins them for his own safety against Tenshi. Also, he wants to stay in the team until he regains his memories though he does not know what he will do when he does regain them.

The Afterlife Battlefront

In his stay as member of the SSS, he slowly learns of the stories behind the members' discovery of the afterlife, Yuri's past being the first. In episode 3, Otonashi was told about Iwasawa's, leader of Girls Dead Monster, past before she disappears after her performance, leaving the rest of SSS to learn a lesson that they themselve could disappear without Tenshi interfering. Other people's past which are made known to Otonashi includes Hinata, Yui, Naoi, and a little about Tenshi at the end.

A Backfired Plan

Upon Yuri's discovery of the true nature of Tenshi as more human than they first thought, she involved Otonashi in a plan to humiliate her as their plan to weaken their supposed enemy. The plan worked perfectly, but even though the plan succeeded, Otonashi has deep doubts about what they did.

He later finds himself interacting with Tenshi, who seems like a normal human being, and after learning about Yuri's fight against Naoi (who replaced Tenshi as Student Council President), he rushes to the aid of the SSS, foiling Naoi's plans for the SSS to forcefully move on. Also, because of his inspiring remarks, Naoi joins the SSS and becomes attached to Otonashi like a little brother would be attached to his older sibling.

His True Purpose

After Naoi joins SSS, he agrees to let Yuri use his hypnosis ability to help Otonashi to regain his memories. After that experience of reuniting with his past, he becomes a changed person.

Otonashi soon doubts that the conflict he is involved with is as straightforward as it seems; he starts to act on his own, befriending the very enemy which is supposed to be SSS's true target. At first, the members of the SSS are skeptic of Tenshi's "lack of hostility" towards them; but soon, after the events in Operation Monster Stream, they realize that their enemy is really a nice person.

This outlook changed when Yuri was attacked at the same day when Tenshi (that time known as Kanade Tachibana) joined Operation Monster Stream. In fact, the culprit is one of Kanade's clones turned rogue, and after a bloody confrontation between the original and the clone, they begin their descent to the destroyed Guild Headquarters to save her. The descent needed most of the team to do their "sacrifices", but they managed to save Kanade.

Otonashi and Kanade become closer to each other, and he decides to help her in her mission, which in reality is to help the people in the afterlife to move on to the next world. After he helped in fulfilling Yui's regrets in life, they are suddenly faced with another problem; the Shadows.

Facing the Shadows

Otonashi's team-up with Kanade was put on hold when mysterious creatures appear to attack and consume the students in the afterlife; Hinata and Naoi soon join his side to help out as well and they attempt to continue with their plan while keeping it hidden to Yuri. Unfortunately, they haven't managed to keep it hidden from her; thanks to Yusa's surveillance, Yuri discovered their plans. But instead of apprehending them for doing the opposite of their mission, she gives them credit, as she realizes that disappearing would be the only way for the others to be saved.

With Kanade on his side, he leads the members of the SSS to defend Yuri as she tries to find out more about the world. Yuri eventually succeeds in confronting the one responsible in the existence of the Shadows and with that, the SSS are freed of their duties. Later on, most of the members moved on from their regrets, leaving Otonashi, Hinata, Naoi, Yuri and Kanade to do the same thing.

A Bitter Goodbye

After Hinata, Naoi and Yuri bid farewell for one last time, Otonashi takes the time to confess to Kanade about his feelings for her. Kanade, reveals the real reason for her appearance in the afterlife; that the regret she had in life was never being able to thank the person who gave her a heart so that she could live. She then thanks him for a chance to have lived longer and disappears in Otonashi's arms, leaving him in tears.

Another Epilogue

After everyone had left the Afterlife, Otonashi remains and takes up the role of the Student Council President.

Gradually, more youths who had regrets in their lives enter the Afterlife, bringing it back to how it was when the story began, with the school full of students. Otonashi motivates the students around him to gain a courage to live on. Rumors tell that he is waiting for someone, though in actual fact he had already met his 'someone', who had already left for her next life.

Eventually, Otonashi moves on as well. This is proven as in credits of Episode 13, after Kanade disappears he remains there for a short while, before disappearing as well.

Abilities

At first unskilled in any equipment and lacking experience, he is utilized by Yuri as back up; but he manages to pull through for the team when they are in danger. After some self-training, he manages to be experienced in handling a gun, and is able to defend himself well. He carries a Glock 17 which Yuri gives him on his first day as SSS's newest member. Later in the series in episode 5, he is able to use a Heckler & Koch PSG 1 A1 sniper rifle as well.

Otonashi is also revealed to be knowledgeable in academics, commenting that one physics exam he took was "easier than expected".^[1] Later, it was revealed that this was because Otonashi had been studying to become a doctor before his death.

On later events, he is showed to have improved with his shooting abilities to the point he is able to shoot an enemy from behind without looking while talking and has added leadership skills like analytic thinking to his assets.

Trivia

• He is the only character that have "Bad Ending".
• The kanji in Otonashi's last name means "no sound". His first name, on the other hand, means "to bind strings".
• Otonashi is the only male character from SSS to appear during the epilogue scene, where he tried to tap Kanade's shoulder after recognising the "My Song" tune she hummed.
• There is a parallel comparing Otonashi to the human developer of Angel Player in Another Epilogue. Both of them were left in the Afterlife alone after their loved ones disappeared. However, Otonashi did not fall into despair and become an NPC like the other person.
• He is the only character to have appeared in the Another Epilogue scene, where he was the Student Council President after Kanade disappeared
• He was killed 3 times in the first 7 minutes of the first episode. The first time was when Tachibana stabs him in the chest with her Hand Sonic, the second was when Noda hits him 100 times with his halberd, and the third was when he fell for the trap that was at the principal's pffice. This is, considering that the 100 fatal hits Noda gave him count as one death.
• No one (except Kanade) has called him by his given name, because he didn't tell the SSS his given name after recovering his memories.
• He doesn't take his one-sided rivalry with Noda seriously.
• Although a new member to the SSS, he seems to have a close relationship with Yuri.
• In the OVA, Stairway to Heaven, Otonashi doesn't participate in High Tension Syndrome, but reaches a Tension Level of 92 when suggesting a "Sports Festival."
• Also in the OVA, he had said this in English: Nande no reaction? (Why are there no reaction?).
• It seems that he knows the full names of Yuri and Hinata, but the two didn't give their full names to him.
• Despite being one of the newest members of the SSS, Otonashi seems quite popular among them. Yuri and Iwasawa opened up to him about their pasts even after knowing him only for a short time, and Hinata befriended him quickly. In the second Drama CD, when Yuri announced that he was going to be participating in their activity, the others applauded.
• Other than Yuri, Otonashi is the only other person who had seen Shiina's true character over cute things. (Although Tenshi was later made known to this as well in the OVA.)
• The name Angel Beats! most likely came from the fact that the heart of an Angel Kanade Tachibana used to Beat inside of Yuzuru Otonashi.
• It can also be inferred that he is fond of canned coffee, as that is the only beverage Otonashi is seen drinking, often more than once in each episode. Yuri also seems to know this, as she usually has a can of coffee with her while waiting for Otonashi.

References