Angels of Death Episode 1 Review: Kill me… please.

This anime is weird but in a good way. As someone who has played the game, I have to admit that Angels of Death has quite a unique style, especially in its narrative. It has a lot of mystery, intense scenes, and intriguing characters that will make you want to follow the story even more. And if an innocent little girl begging someone to kill her isn’t your cup of tea, definitely skip this show because there will be far worse things to follow.

Plot

Rachel wakes up in an unfamiliar building after visiting the hospital for counseling. As she has no memory of how she ended up in that place, she starts wandering around in a floor full of cameras. After stepping in a room where she is asked questions about herself, she heads to an elevator that takes her to the floors above, where the intercom announces that she has been chosen as a sacrifice for the inhabitants of the rest of the floors. From her current floor B7, she is taken to B6 where she meets an insane bandaged man that carries a scythe, who chases her and tries to kill her. She manages to escape and she is taken to floor B5 where she encounters Danny, who claims to be her doctor. Danny is clearly insane as well and obsessed with Rachel’s eyes. After wandering around with Rachel for a while, he corners her and tells her that her parents are dead which triggers some memories in her head, but suddenly the bandaged man from the floor below comes in and stabs Danny with his scythe. As someone who has violated the rules, he is considered a sacrifice as well and tries to find the way out. Rachel then follows him and asks him to kill her.

Episode Highlights

The bandaged man: Holy shit, the voice actor they chose for him fits the character so well! His laugh is rather annoying and unsettling and in general, he looks as terrifying as he should.

The injured bird: So, uhm, Rachel stitched and buried the bird to make it hers? Clearly, the girl is not right in her head either. Poor birdie though, being slashed by a scythe like that must have been awful.

Daniel Dickens: Is that guy really Rachel’s doctor, and if so what is the deal his obsession with eyes? If he was her counselor why is he obsessed with her? I mean alright, there is no doubt that he is crazy as well (probably all of them are) but again why the eyes or peepers (an inside joke for those who have played the English version of the game).

Themes & Trivia

The episodes: Apparently Angels of Death will have 16 episodes. However, only 13 will be aired as part of the anime TV show and the last 3 will be aired online only.

My eye is alexandrite: The alexandrite variety displays a color change (alexandrite effect) dependent upon the nature of ambient lighting. Alexandrite effect is the phenomenon of an observed color change from greenish to reddish with a change in source illumination. Human vision is most sensitive to green light and least sensitive to red light, alexandrite appears greenish in daylight where the full spectrum of visible light is present, and reddish under incandescent light which emits less green and blue spectrum. That is why Danny’s eye is like that. The more you know!

Comments

I am very pleased with the first episode. They stayed true to the original plot and skipped some really minor details which made me very happy. Other than that, the soundtrack was very good and they even used sound effects from the game as well. The voice actors that they chose for the characters so far are amazing. It was a great surprise to see Nobuhiko Okamoto and Takahiro Sakurai as part of the cast. The animation and the direction are very detailed and well-made as well, quite atmospheric I would say. Finally, this anime looks like a good production, which is honestly a rarity lately.

I’ll give you three seconds.

My only complaint would be that they kind of rushed all these events in the first episode. Why did they decide to do that if they have so many episodes left? I am scared and intrigued to see how they will pace the rest of the anime. Also, the bandaged man was actually so bloody fast when he was chasing you in the game that you would literally sweat from the stress and the feeling of being like a hunted prey.

Don’t forget that each week MT is bringing you a preview of the next episode’s summary and a few screenshots! Here are a few stills from Episode 1: