Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5513888-20130903031231/@comment-108.248.64.43-20160801204325

Ok I will address some of your points so that the evaluation and reinterpretation of the theory can be execute in a proper manner.

First off, let's try to refocus on what we are trying to discuss here. The thread title for the theory is Otonashi is the creator of the Afterlife. In the response above, it is unclear which side is being taken.

Next let's discuss  the couterpoints to the theory posed above.

In order to do this let us take a loo at the two main beliefs in Japan:

Buddhism:

Buddhists believe in the idea of reincarnation and Nirvana. Reincarnation is described as this:

"Life is a journey.

Death is a return to earth.

The universe is like an inn.

The passing years are like dust.

Regard this phantom world

As a star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,

A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,

A flickering lamp - a phantom - and a dream."

This state is often described as a candle being lit with the previous candle's flame

Next, there is Nirvana.Nirvana is the state of final liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. It is also therefore the end of suffering. This is often described

Shintoism: Shintoism believes that there are several worlds after a person dies that they can go to. For example, there is one that is like heaven with their own gods and then there is one like we see in Death Note where it is like death realm with shinigami. They also believe that their ancestors turn into those types of gods and watch over their current family.

Now that we know this, let's apply this to the anime.

In the anime the students go to the high school setting after their deaths and then aftewrward when they move on they reincarnate. So, this anime blends the two ideas together. This is sort of what Japanese people do. That practice the ideas of Shintoism in their daily lives but will go and have a Buddhist funeral as well as visit Buddhist Temples.

With this I can begin to discuss the counterclaims to the arguement.

1. For this claim, the fact that he went to a form of purgatory was not mentioned and so the arguement is not applicable. In the anime it discusses the fact that aa person who has not had a regret in their life when they died at an age under graduation, they come to the afterlife. Otherwise, they move on. So, the idea of the purgatory being mentioned is not appicable as Otonashi did not go to purgatory when he first died in the subway.

2-6. You claim that these are unnecessary because of what we know. The question then becomes what do we know? Just because something is not stated directly in the anime does not necessarily mean that the writers didn't intend for it not to be there. It may have been something that the viewer had to figure out. Secondly, you are disregrding the theory when in reality there has not been a counterclaim to support them, however you claimed that it was based on what we know. The issue here is you used a broad term that didn't give a specific counterpoint to the points specified. In essence, you are disregarding them because they were not directly stated with all that the anime has given.

7. In the Shinto religion, that is exactly correct. There are multile realms that a person can go to after they die. As discussed before addressing the counterpoints, there are places like the death realm and the higher realm(shinto version of heaven). So, in saying that there are multiple purgatories for many different people is correct. This purgatory in particular was meant for Japanese high school students who died having some sort of regret in their life. When you talk about the fact that the purgatory is not affected by IRL time, I get what you mean. The people there do not age, I get that. However, when talking with Yurri, Otonashi dscovers that she and the others have been there a long time(about 50 years). Sure the people may not age in the purgatory that they are in, but that doesn't mean that real time does not pass. And then  to use that as the idea to confirm the fact of infinite number of purgatories is not applicable because a space of time that is nt affected by time does not mean that there are an infinite number of purgatories.

8. When you say this, you contradict yourself later on in the response by saying the following: "As human population grows we are also destroying local habitats and lowering animal populations and deforesting so it makes sense to have more souls cycled into human form as time progresses." Could this quote not be applied to modern Japan. People are building new houses and tearing down forests and such for factories and other things. Does that not mean that the conditions could be met for an increased chance of a human reincarnation based off your statement. So, it is entirely possible to reincarnate as a human again. I do have to correct myself here. I mentioned that the original sould could be tracked but that is not true based on Buddhism, as they believe that there is no soul. So, to trace back several incarnations, one would have to look for five things: physical body, emotions, sensory perceptions, responses to said perceptions, and finally the conscience.

9. I agree with you here.

10. Based on number 8.

11. yeah the feels...KANADEEEEEEEEEEE

However, when mentioning number 8, I have to bring up something else: the fact that the anime is more based on shintoism than Buddhism because of the NPC system used in the anime. It talks about the eating of the soul, but in an earlier post of mine, I claimed that it might just force you to move on to the next life. However, that evidence there suggests that the people in the anime actually have souls, which is a main belief about the afterlife in Shintoism, but they can still reincarnate. So, here is an idea for how the afterlife in Angel Beats works:

A human dies and goes to one of the many afterlifes out there and they stay there until they find a way to move on. Then they are reincarnated into another life. But, only humans can be reincarnated because they have souls, so that means that all of the humans that die will reincarnate as humans because of that soul.

With this, the idea that the base soul could be tracked is a possibility. And, since they are in the afterlife, a lot more things are possible. So, Otonashi could very well have made the NPC system track the original soul from the first reincarnation.

All in all, the theory I have stated still could apply even now, though it may need a few revisions. So, why not all work together and try to make the most plausible timeline together.