Satsuriku no Tenshi

For over a decade now, the anime industry has been producing one series a season that deserves the highly appreciated title of ironic masterpiece. This time around it's a show about suicidal loli and a massmurderer who refuses to kill her. And it has everything. When I say everything, what I really mean is e v e r y t h i n g, and I have been laughing my butt sore since episode 1.

Our story starts off in a spooky hospital where security cameras garnish the walls every 3 inches, doors close behind people's back like it is Ghost Hunt, and possessed typewriters are the ones asking all the questions that matter since our characters don't even bother trying as they are too busy planning to kill themselves. It's bad? No, it's the peak of self-awareness.

The actual events focus around some floor master shit fights because the entire series is based on a video game that was created with goddamn RPG Maker's free trial edition. Need a better prove of quality? That's what I thought. The entire story is real mysterious and apparently everything in it symbolizes some religious nonsense hence why all the 3 different English titles of the show have the word "Angel" in them. Essentially this is lot like Evangelion except fun to watch because the mc only has one mental illness and one of the characters has a pumpkin as a head.

Our cast is beyond incredible. Rachel is surprisingly non-annoying for a 13 yo child who is in angst (even if her every 3rd line consist of the word "kill" and "me"). Isaac Foster is the perfect representation of a generic horror psychopath from any horror game you play on easy and the murderer is an NPC. He also owns a cool scythe and I laugh similarly as he whenever he does anything. His laugh is real sick, reminds me of Orihara Izaya from Durararararara. +1 for seiyuu work. Daniel Dickens is the best character. I have had a blast using the phrase "the plot Dickens" when ever he does anything. MVP material right there.

The art is also beyond incredible. Especially the tight and dark spaces really do add to the overall atmosphere. I mentioned Ghost Hunt earlier and that was favorite horror comedy before this one became a thing. The best arc from that anime takes place in a building highly similar to the architecture in which the entire story of Satsuriku no Tenshi takes part in except more floors this time around. Some of the floors really do offer that video game feeling where the series is its own thing and that manages to serve the immersion the work has to offer.

To me, this Satsuriku no Tenshi offered genuine entertainment. Some of it can be seen to be silly, but I found all of that just add to the overall experience. For example, the dialogue and angst that is best shown in the repetition of the two lines "kill me" and "no" is nothing less than comedic gold, and such lousy cliches as memoryloss were taken exactly as seriouly with this series as they always should be dealt it. Meaning not seriously at all.

J.C.Staff has been fixing their reputation their best since the Rie Kugumiya's loli tsundere era, and thus far, Satsuriku no Tenshi is yet another show from them that looks mediocre, but is everything but. Don't let the criticism ruin the fun as this is what entertainment truly means.

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*I have only watched the anime, not the manga or game. Thus, this review will be based on the anime alone*

After having completely finished the anime, I can safely say that Satsuriku no Tenshi is one of the most frustrating horror animes I’ve ever watched. From the very start of the show, there have been a myriad of flaws involving plot, dialogue, and character development, all resulting in a trainwreck of a show, which is really a shame because it had such an interesting premise.

Plot (1/10): The plot to this anime is one of the worst I have ever seen and most of its issues begin with it’s progression, or rather, the utter lack of it. Right from the beginning and up to halfway through the story, we can see this show following a typical formula: villian shows up -> zack does something stupid -> Rachel finds a solution -> more talking about killing and then not killing. The ‘mystery’ in the show is awfully boring, with the clues being vague and pretentious, constantly talking again and again about ‘sins’ and ‘god’ but adding nothing to the story. Actually that’s the perfect word to describe this shitty show. It’s vague. Really vague. It always felt like it wanted to impress the audience by being ‘intelligent’ so instead of slowly revealing things to the audience (like a good thriller should), it keeps on sprouting ambiguous and often nonsensical details. In my opinion, this show would do better if it was more straightforward so the viewer would get engrossed in the mystery and its progression.

Another big problem I had with Angels of Death (and probably the most noticeable one) is its repetitive, boring, and edgy dialogue. Basically, it goes something like this:

Rachel: I want to die. Can you kill me?
Zack: Your expression is boring. I’ll kill you when we get outside.
Rachel: Can you kill me?
Zack: What the hell are you talking about? I said I don’t want to kill you.

OMG. JUST KILL HER ALREADY!!

(sorry that was me ranting) All of the dialogue in the story is basically 1) stuff that is really vague 2) stuff we already knew. It’s like it can’t even tell the intelligence of the audience. The whole thing feels like it's constantly going around in circles, with no meaning or wittiness. We KNOW Rachel wants to die. We KNOW the doc has a crazy eye fetish. Just tell us something important already!!

Animation (7/10): For a J.C Staff show, the art is surprisingly pretty. It uses a nice color palette and Rachel’s character design was very attractive. Although Zack and the other villains character design do look somewhat generic, I’m willing to give this section a 7.

Sound (5/10): This department is pretty subjective, but I felt the music in this show to be rather average. It’s not bad, but not very good either. I liked the voice actor for Rachel, but Zack’s voice was straight-up annoying and honestly, I felt like punching his stupid face everytime I hear that voice of his. The villains’ voices also felt extremely annoying, with their over-the-top laughter and eccentric attitudes.

Character (2/10): Our female protagonist, Rachel, is the only one in the entire cast who didn’t manage to annoy me. That’s not to say she’s a good character though. In the entire anime she was bland and emotionless and lacked any type of character development. Overall, she’s the classic kuudere archetype but nothing to make her interesting. We learn nothing about her throughout the entire story, only that she wants to die. We don’t know why she wants to die, what was accountable for her 180 in the story, or even her backstory.

The male protagonist Zack isn’t any better, if not worse. Loud, impulsive, and often temperamental, he’s basically your ‘all brawn no brain’ male archetype. He adds nothing to the story, is often very stupid, and is definitely one of the most annoying characters I’ve seen. Not to mention, his ‘tragic backstory’ is one I found to be very generic and a cheap way for viewers to pity him. Overall, it’s not enough to develop his character or make him into a more complex person. Nobody’s expecting an amazing and deep backstory like Kiritsugu’s or even Akashi’s but it’s like this show doesn’t even try.

The villains were all badly made and were all ‘psychos’ with crazy laughs and no personality. They all want to kill the 2 mc’s but for no reason. They were also involved in some stupid plot twist which brought them back to life even though it was stated that they died.

Enjoyment (5/10): I actually enjoyed some parts of the show but most of the time it just felt tedious and uninteresting. Unlike other bad thrillers like mirai nikki or kakegurui, this isn’t very entertaining and is not worth your time.

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Mod Edit: This review was originally written for the final 4 episodes which was previously a separate entry and was subsequently merged into Satsuriku no Tenshi.

At the time of my writing this, the main page for Angels of Death is sitting at a 6.92, and the top reviews are either negative or not seriously written. However, this was one of the shows I enjoyed most during the Summer 2018 season, so I wanted to write a brief review on its behalf.

A major contributing factor to these low scores is that people don’t know what to expect from this show. You wouldn’t know this from the synopsis above, but Angels of Death isn’t really a horror series – it’s somewhere between a buddy comedy and an otome game, except that all of the suitors want to murder the lead rather than date her (Half of them do still want to date her though). It’s difficult to encapsulate the series in its entirety, but that absurdity is part of the fun.

It might clear up some details if I talk about the source material that this anime is adapting. Although a manga exists, Angels of Death originally started as a freeware RPG Maker game. If you’ve ever played Yume Nikki or something like it (My personal favorite is Irisu Syndrome, which does have a free English translation), you know that these sorts of games can be surreal experiences, and this adaptation absolutely nails that tone while still poking fun at its genre conventions. I haven’t played the game myself, but I’ve been told that the plot of the anime diverges, and I’m definitely interested enough to check it out.

The strength of this series lays in the rapport established between its two leads, Rachel and Zack. The two are an odd couple, but they play off each other really well comically, and it was great to see their dynamic evolve over the course of the show. As they rise through the floors, they go from mutually using each other to actually caring about each other’s wellbeing, and this development is strangely endearing. There was one arc about halfway through the series in which the pair is separated, and those episodes felt empty, but they also made me realize how much I cared about their bond. Despite being a campy horror comedy, Angel of Death’s central relationship is a lot more developed than most anime romances, even if it is founded on murderous intent.

Angels of Death definitely wasn’t the best show of the Summer 2018 season - its middle section dragged on, and it probably would have helped if it had been cut down to a standard 12 or 13 episodes – but there’s nothing else quite like it and I’m glad I watched it. There’s no other show where characters are as likely to get oddly sentimental about their blades as they are to conduct a trial that wouldn’t be out of place in the Ace Attorney franchise, and it was this emotional range that kept me coming back each week. If any of this mess sounds entertaining to you, then I wholeheartedly recommend you check it out.

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Watching Satsuriku no Tensei (Angels of Death) gave me perhaps one of the strangest impressions of this year. Set in a mysterious building, we immediately meet main female protagonist Rachel Gardner as she is confused about her whereabouts. It doesn’t help that she has no memories except for her name. The show immediately drops viewers into this sort of storytelling out of nowhere and it’s hard to take everything in from the start. Make no mistake. Satsuriku no Tensei is one of those shows where I lost count how many times I rolled my eyes and asked myself just exactly what the hell is going on.

As the anime is based on a video game, it also does really feel much like playing one. Rachel meets a serial killer named Zack who nearly kills her in the beginning. The show begins to build on its suspenseful plot here onwards as we learn about both characters. An important element of the series is the psychological thriller style of storytelling. The plot can be rather confusing as it sells its ideas through the psychology of the show. With Rachel being in a confused state, she begins to wonder her purpose in the world.

The main focus is Rachel and throughout the series, she wonders around the floors of this mysterious place with no memories. However, she isn’t too desperate to escape and seemingly has a death wish. She mentions many times throughout the show of her desire to be killed by Zack. In order to accomplish that, she hopes to survive long enough and not get killed by anyone else. The anime presents her personality as being a calm girl with a lack of understanding about morality. She finds it difficult to express human emotions and often says what’s on her mind. It’s also noticeable that Rachel believes in the existence of God. In one particular episode, she declared Zack as her “God”. A behavior like this is far from normal but the show emphasizes on her inhuman-like personality at every chance it gets. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Her partner in crime Zack tunes abnormality up to the 11. Known by his full name as Issac “Zack” Foster, the series pushes the envelope to make him a serial killer. He has actually been involved in previous murder cases before and the show explores some of his past through flashbacks. If you’ve seen his personality, then Zack would definitely be someone you hope to never run into in some dark alleyway. For his personality, Zack is bluntly rude and often uses foul language. He isn’t very intelligent either and between the two, he is more of the muscle while Rachel has the brains. However, there’s no doubt that Zack is mentally unstable and has survivalist instincts. The cause of his mentality is not exactly known and this feels more like a flaw of the show. The creators wants the audience to basically accept Zack for who he is without really getting us to understand him. In essence, I see Zack as a monster despite his alliance with Rachel. He’s the type of guy that gets the thrill of killing without any true reason. However, Rachel does bring out some human-like emotions out of him when the duo are together. As odd as it seems, they are like two peas in a pod that are inseparable.

The show features a variety of characters with Zack and Rachel finding that out the hard way as they navigate through various floors. It really does feel like a role playing RPG and the more I watched this series, the more I felt compelled to see what events await them. Unfortunately, I can’t really express satisfaction at the characters they encounter on their dark adventure. It seems the show tries to make its entire character as inhuman as possible. First, we got Daniel Dickens, an insane doctor who has an unhealthy obsession for Rachel’s eyes. Then, there’s Eddie, a boy who wears a mask and is in love with making graves. Cathy is introduced as a floor master and someone I’d describe as sadistic. She enjoys toying with others and inflict punishment for her own pleasure. Finally, there’s Gray, a religious priest who loves to pass judgement on others. His actions in the show should be condemned as sinful as he attempts to burn Rachel alive at a stake. It feels like the creator wanted the viewers to hate these characters as much as possible. And if that was the intention, it succeeded. These supporting characters also feel like video game bosses as they are the main obstacle for Rachel and Zack to overcome.

So what now? Does Satsuriki no Tensei really work as an anime? Or does it fail like a half-polished video game filled with bugs that needs fixing? Honestly, I think it’s a bit of both for the main TV series. I mention this because there are still 4 episodes left to debut in home release format. With 12 episodes, the show is incomplete without a proper conclusion. I have not played the game before but there have been some games I’ve played that resembles this show. Games like The Evil Within reminds me of this series as it adheres to psychological horror and thriller. The downside is that I never did once get scared in this show because it’s hardly any scary. Instead, the more accurate representation is more of a psychological thriller. The anime explores the human psyche as we see how these characters behave in unusual circumstances.

Adapted by J.C. Staff, you can easily tell that they were aiming for a dark and grimy setting. The uneasy feeling of the abandoned building and atmospheric feeling never leaves the show throughout the duration of its run. It paints the feeling of being trapped like a rat. Character designs in the series represent a creative style with our two main characters. First, there’s Rachel with her petite stature and blonde hair. She wears a stripped shirt with a white sweater complete with black boots. In many ways, she actually looks rather normal although her character expressions are often devoid of feelings. On the other hand, Zack has the look of a homicidal maniac. Compared to Rachel, he is much taller and wears a hoodie. His signature weapon is a scythe that almost represents him as a living reaper. His character expressions throughout the series is malicious and he is known to break out of insane laughter from time to time. The other characters in this series are decorated with abnormal traits such as Daniel’s freakish eyes, Eddie’s burlap mask, or Gray’s religious attire. The fact is, the creators definitely put their thought into making these characters distinctive as possible.

As a psychological thriller, expect an eerie OST that’s often quiet to bring an unsettling mood. Indeed, the mood of the show is often eerie even during some of the action segments. There are many moments when the music really amps up to make viewers feel like as if they are with them. Similarly, the theme songs contain cryptic lyrics that ceases every moment to make the show as uncomfortable as possible. Finally, I have to give praise to the voice talent in this series. Characters like Rachel and Zack are able to bring their characters fully to life despite their complex personalities. It’s not easy to step into the shoes of an emotionless character like Rachel but I fully embraced her role if judging by her voice. Zack is voiced by Nobuhiko Okamoto who is well known for his role as Accelerator from the Index franchise. From this series, he displays his full talent to bring out Zack’s personality to a menacing degree.

There’s a lot more to be said about Satsuriku no Tensei but for its TV airing, the show is more of a base game. I’d treat the reminding episode as DLC content to fully explore the story and give this anime a proper ending. Regardless, this show is not easily recommendable to anyone as the unusual style of storytelling will be difficult to get used to. It’s sometimes not faint for the heart either if you’re not comfortable with watching murder scenes. It almost feels like the creators are trying to get in our heads to see what we're thinking. I would say that giving this show is more suited for thrill seekers or those who watch this like playing a video game.

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