This isn’t the end of Satsuriku no Tenshi as there are still four more episodes to come though this show has certainly been taking it’s time for the past few episodes. The general focus has been on Zack getting mortally wounded and Rachel traveling back down the floors to find medicine for him. All the while being tested by the priest who looks to be using this journey to judge her character. While the journey up has been a show of Zack and Rachel growing as people, the journey down for Rachel is much like the degeneration of her mental state, hinting that her true character is of a much darker nature. The priest points out to her that she doesn’t truly care for anyone other than herself and many of her actions supposed to help Zack are really all for herself. All culminating in Rachel’s faith in god getting destroyed and effectively deciding that Zack is her god. I had hoped that the journey down would serve to characterise the floor masters better as they all tended to be fairly onenote and cartoonishly over the top but sadly they remain one note and over the top. It’s a bit hard not to see the last few episodes as a slog considering that not much truly happened in them and all that was really accomplished with Rachel having a slight change of mind and saving Zack. I will say though that I rather liked the flashback of Zack and the old man that took care of him as it reminded me heavily of Frankenstein where a blind old man took care of Frankenstein while being completely unaware of what he was.
Episode twelve is where things feel like they are moving again as we have a floor that looks to be built to look exactly like Rachel’s family home. Something which causes Rachel much distress because the priest planted the idea that “God” does not like unclean things and she worries that if Zack were to truly find out who is is then he would abandon her. The final revelation is something which doesn’t come as much of a surprise at this point with all the foreshadowing it’s been doing but Rachel looks to have killed her parents gruesomely and potentially was a floor master like Zack who killed anyone who enters her floor. it does make me wonder just how messed up Rachel is with her sewing her parents together but considering how this series has handled people in flashbacks so far i have no doubt that Rachels parents were also one dimensional assholes with no moral compass. There is also the revelation that the priest built this place in order to test people which seems to hint that this show takes place in reality and that would make a lot of things highly questionable. The thing that excuses a lot of the game logic and unrealistic aspects of this show is the hint that this may be taking place in some kind of purgatory or afterlife. If it actually takes place in reality then a hefty amount of plot holes are going to appear and i hope this show avoids that conclusion. For one the amount of blood Zack shed was enough to kill twenty people so if it turned out this was actually reality then that would be pushing anime logic too far.
While this isn’t the end of the series, this would be a good time to look over my opinion of the series as a whole which hasn’t changed too much from previous assessment. Again, Satsuriku no Tenshi is interesting but deeply flawed. I like what it is trying to do and what it is trying to be but it’s execution is certainly lacking. While the main characters have nice chemistry and decent depth, the rest of the cast is just insane to comical degrees or unabashedly evil. The story can’t hide the moon logic of it’s source with it having puzzle solving with supernaturally constructed puzzles and Rachel sometimes turning into a makeshift Macgyver just to push things forward. Now while i do say this show is interesting, it is more from a objective perspective rather than personal interest. This show can be rather dull sometimes and as episodes went on I felt more and more detached to the goings on of the story. But I do really like the flawed moral nature of the protagonists and a willingness to drop into darker subject matter.(When it doesn’t go too far and just becomes silly.) I would like to see an anime attempt this again with something that maybe isn’t so tied to Rpg Maker gameplay and more surreal in its approach to horror. For as flawed as this show is, at least it’s trying something different (and not completely failing at it like Occultic;Nine) that the other shows like “I’m a high school boy isekaied to a fantasy land to become a magical overpowered mage and idol singer with everyone bowing at my awesomeness and wanting to mate like rabbits while in a club with cute girls drinking tea. ”
