DESCRIPTION

CAST

ONA AdventureSatsuriku no Tenshi (ONA)
MANGA ActionSatsuriku no Tenshi

REVIEWS

• 

  PixEFit

  20/100
  Game adaption that doesn't transfer to the anime formula. Edgy with a large suspension of disbelief.

  Oh lookie here another edgy seasonal show. Angels of death! Menacing Angels of Death is about a 13 year old quiet blond girl named Rachel, who wakes up without any memories in some basement of an abandoned building. She wakes up and walks around for a bit and runs into this one interesting character. Some guy wrapped in bandages wielding a scythe named Zack. He tries to kill her, but after a series of spoilerly events they reconcile and decide to work together to escape the building they are trapped in. They are held together by 2 promises. The promise that Zack will do everything he can to help get them out of there, and that when they finally get out, Zach will kill Rachel.

  This is sort of confusing, because this is Rachel’s wish. Yes, she wants to die. We can check that motive off the list of edgy anime. But no, wait a minute, she only wants to die by Zack’s hands though. This is because Zack made a mindless comment on how he “swears to god” that he’ll kill her, and due to her devout belief, she takes that as a promise that she must help him keep. She's the smart one. The brains.

  As most of these pairs go, Zack is the muscle of the duo. But not so much muscle as a violent, unstoppable, borderline supernatural force. He’s pretty stupid and relies on Rachel to give him orders a lot of the time. Well, it's not as much as relies on her, its just that he takes what she tells him to do, and takes it as a suggestion instead of something that will get them out of there faster, easier, and without harm. From what I can see, his only motivation is killing. He’s only helping Rachel because 1. He wants to kill her, and 2. He wants to get out to kill some more. All of this is in a character design which looks like a 12 year old child of divorce would create. Bandages covering his body entire, black hoodie, bloodstains all over his body, and one of his most prominent features, his huge fucking scythe he just carries around with him for the entire show. I called him a supernatural force earlier because this fucker just won't die. Over the course of the show, he’s been stabbed, blogdended, ripped open, poisoned, fucking took the electric chair multiple times, and walked away with minimal injuries. To end it off, Zack’s voice is awful and makes ME want to take the electric chair when he laughs.

  Enough about him, let’s get into the wondrous story they give us in Angels of Death. As stated earlier, they’re trapped in a mysterious building, and they’re working to get out of there. They work together to solve puzzles, defeat villains, and get to higher and higher floors. On every floor there’s a villain trying to kill them and who they have to defeat to get to the next floor. These are the characters you’ll see in the poster art. These characters aren’t really notable and are just as edgy as the main characters. Mainly in the sense where they just want to kill without little motivation to do so except they like to. The protagonist also find clues to learn more about themselves and their pasts in the process.

  You may have read back in the previous paragraph and squinted your eyes just a little bit when I said that they solve puzzles to get out. Maybe you thought it was just some bad wording on my part, but, in fact, they are puzzles. Now you see, Angels of Death was originally a game. Not only a game, an rpg maker game. You can find and play it on steam right now. I don’t know how accurately the anime follows the game, but the fact that there are scenes in the anime that directly reference to what I assume were real puzzles in the game. At one point, with no sense or irony at all, they find a switch to open a door hidden underneath a pot. If that doesn’t scream game adaptation, I don’t know what is. The anime also has a fuck ton of these long corridors for these characters slowly walk down, which is very game like. With these unnecessarily perfect adaptations of the game, you gotta wonder what creative liberties they took with the anime in the first place. If I would’ve watched a lets play on the game, would I have the same experience as I had while watching the anime? I mean, as a game, it has a pretty interesting concept. The protagonist teams up with the first floor boss and goes through the game and watches the 2 bosses duke it out. But it just doesn’t transfer to anime I feel.

  The thing about the animation, is that it sucks most of the time. But, for some reason, I don’t know what, the blood splatters that come out of the body looks really good. I the art makes an impression I guess. I mean, its not pretty at all. But it mainly having to do with lots of fun and unique character designs, despite everything being edgy, they look good I must admit. They really represent their character.

  One more thing about this show which, in my eyes, is despicable. At the end of the anime, it's a cliffhanger, you know? Pretty shitty, but the thing is that all the rest will be revealed in the specials revealed in the blu ray release. This is incredibly scummy to me. Having the rest of the story in the specials, means that nobody will be able to finish the story without buying the actual blu ray disk. Legally at least. I guess you could buy the game, but anime onlies are going to be very angry.

  I give Angels of Death, a 2 out of 10. I recommend to whoever just wants to watch an terrible edgy show for the lolz. Or just likes edgy stuff.

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• 

  CaninnTurtle

  79/100
  Angels of Death starts slow, finds its stride, and slows down again for the finale- truly an edgy roller coaster ride.

  And so it's finally over. After 17 long weeks, my edgy seasonal show has finally come to a close. Angels of Death decided to go with a really strange way of releasing its episodes, airing a full cour on TV, before releasing the final 4 episodes as specials with the Blu-ray. I'm not sure why this was seen as more streamlined or even easier than simply just releasing a 16 episode season, but who am I to judge their release methods? Maybe there was a method to their madness. Anyhow, I'm still in the process of making up my mind about how I truly feel about Angels of Death in the end. I think writing this review will really help put my thoughts in line, because there were so many issues that had nothing to do with the substance of the show, but more on the direction side of the show, but more on that was we move along.

  I'm just going to go ahead and say that the greatest strength of Angels of Death, visually speaking, is the character design. And yes, I may just be referring to Rachel alone. Seriously though, all of the characters are wonderfully designed, each with their own interesting color palette and unique feel to them, making them seem like they could only exist withing Angels of Death's world. In my opinion, Rachel is easily the best designed character in the show, but that's almost entirely due to her absolutely gorgeous eye design, I mean look at her:

  

  But anyway, that's enough about her for now. On to the musical side of things, I thought they did a great job with the soundtrack. I haven't played the game yet, so I don't know what we're missing with them being unable to use the game's soundtrack, but I thought they did very well. The most memorable piece outside of the ending is easily Gray's theme, with its heavy organ usage. I sort of came to associate it simply as the Angels of Death theme for the anime, which definitely isn't a bad thing. It has a sort of creepiness and intrigue to it that really represents the anime very well. I really didn't love the opening, so I skipped it most of the time. I just thought it didn't really fit the mood of the show very well. Obviously, the ending is my favorite song in the entire show. I has a sort of creepiness and desperation to it that sort of matches Rachel and Zack's desire to escape from the building. For reference:

  Favorite Character: Isaac "Zack" Foster

  

  As much as I want to put Rachel down here, I have to go with my actual favorite character and that's Zack. Even though he's kinda annoying at first, Zack really cements himself as the best character in the show pretty early on, when it turns out that he's actually the most sane person there. Which is a hilarious irony, given how we're introduced to him and his portrayal throughout. As the show continues, you realize that's he's the only one with any common sense in the entire building, which is quite the achievement. Basically, I'm saying that all the other characters are off their rocker, and yes, I'm including Rachel in there, as sad as I am to admit it.

  I've heard a lot of people complain how annoying Rachel is because of how emotionless she is early on and how much she harps on the fact that Zack promised to kill her (Yes, we get it Ray). I totally understand that stance, even if I don't really agree with it. I thought she was pretty bearable for the most part, especially since she was really intriguing. The questions about her just piled up: Why was she so aloof? Why does she have a gun (lol)? Why is she so obsessed with dying? Some of these questions are answered more satisfyingly than others, but that's the way it goes, especially when the answers are all fairly obvious. It would have been absolutely spectacular if they had managed to surprise us with those answers to be honest. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the show isn't as deep as people want it to be. It certainly pretends it is and there are certainly moments that actually make you think, but it's truly not a difficult show to wrap your head around. I guess that's disappointing for those who are looking to analyze every episode for some meaning. I certainly don't mind anime with deep philosophizing, but for me, being without it was just fine.

  The main problem that Angels of Death faces is its directing. I mean, who decided on that 16 episodes was really necessary when the pacing was already too slow in many areas? The start was extremely slow and the ending was equally so. It took about 3 or so episodes for Angels of Death to display its intrigue, which is the greatest strength of the show. From there, I absolutely loved the tension and puzzles that played out until the specials, where it decided that a snail's pace was once again the right decision. As a result, the ending lost a lot of the meaning and impact that it could have had. I just like to imagine what the show could have been with a reasonably consistent pace, where they don't slow down at certain moments and cause them to drag on an unnecessarily long time. There's also the problem of simple word vomit from pretty much every character at some point, but that's a little more forgivable, especially knowing that it came from a game, where text is far easier to digest than spoken words.

  Like I said in my first paragraph, the issues with the show have more to do with direction than substance of the show. I've heard many a time that the game is really good, so I have no doubt that the story and characters are even better therein. I also have no doubt that those things are presented in a far better manner in the game than in the anime. As it stands, I still appreciate Angels of Death for its ability to generate suspense and intrigue, but I really can't overlooked how poorly paced the anime was. I usually try to stay away from buzzwords like pacing, but in this case, it fits the bill. Angels of Death suffered from extremely poor pacing. That's probably the only time you'll hear me say such a popular buzzword, but I can't deny that it fits too well here.

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• 

  CryingLad

  32/100
  Good idea for a game, not so good for a show.

  [This review will contain Spoilers for the show!]()

  
  
  Satsuriku no Tenshi... a decent but nowhere near good attempt at adapting a game...

  (I would also like to point out that this review won't include the ONA, duh...also cause I didn't see it xd)

  [(SPOILER AHEAD) STORY:]()
  The story revolves around a girl named Rachel Gardner.
  She is trapped in a building with several stories in it. Each level has its own "Boss" which presents a puzzle to beat.

  Rachel is accompanied by Zack Foster. She met him at the lowest level, at first he was trying to kill her too but she has made him a deal which he could not refuse. She'll help him get out while he has to kill her at the end of it.

  The two make their way throughout the several levels defeating each and every character that gives them a puzzle.
  I won't be going through every and each puzzle as they are very long and complex (I suppose).
  Each puzzle consists of Rachel thinking of ways to resolve the issue and Zack beating something in the corner. Yeah if you ask me thats kind of a waste of a character, Zack out of all the characters felt like the best one in this show. The puzzles themself aren't that interesting to be perfectly honest. They try to shed light on their past or their actions but in such a way that it just leaves you more confused than before, I suppose they would work better in the Source (Video Game).

  To rub salt over the wound that this show created, we don't even get an ending.
  We just get a cliff hanger... the rest of the stories is supposedly on the ONAs... yeah cause why not I suppose :v

  

  
  

  [CHARACTERS:]()
  The characters presented in the show are interesting but not that engaging.
  Don't get me wrong, I think that Zack and Rachel combo was nice and there was a really nice contrast between the two but Zack was the only one that stood out the most, not only that his VA (Nobuhiko Okamoto) did an amazing job at delivering his lines his personality was also something to behold. A little tsundere who had a traumatic up bringing. Rachel on the other hand... what we get from the show is that... her parents got killed. Somehow.
  It is clear that in the ONA these plot holes would get resolved but, as mentioned before, we're focusing on this season.

  The supporting cast was also quite interesting and at times creepy.
  Actually scratch that, the supports were 90% of the time creepy. Especially the Doctor with the eye fetish.
  There really is not much to write about the supports. They filled in a role of an obstacle, their personalities varied, yes. But each and every character had the same ideal, to stop the both of them.

  

  
  

  [ART/ANIMATION:]()
  The art of the show was not half bad, same goes for the animation.
  It seems like in all of my reviews I say this but... it was watchable. Of course it wasn't anything spectacular.
  The colour pallete is quite dark, which is fitting for a...well dark show.

  

  
  

  [MUSIC:]()
  The music heard throughout the show was something that you'd expect from a thriller/horror show.
  A soundtrack which builds up tension and anticipation. Though that being said it was nothing that interesting.
  The OP sounded really good though, the same story goes for the ED. But I feel like the ED fits the whole show more than the OP, with it being all sad and more slow which reflects the show quite well. The OP is much more fast paced and edgy which I suppose does sort of fit the show with it being edgy and all but overall it doesn't do it.

  

  
  

  [OVERALL OPINION:]()
  Angels of Death is a show which tries to adapt a puzzle based game into a show but does succeed in it.
  The show is filled with many aspects which would make sense in a video game but not a show where we don't get to play as the character displayed.

  This show does try to put in the work but its futile.

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