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I've read the manga, played the game and have now finished the anime series. I'll be doing my best to take into account that there are differences, but will be talking about the game too, albeit briefly. So, THERE WILL BE SOME SPOILERS. Read at your own risk.

While it has been beaten to death that Angels of Death is slow, I couldn't disagree more. At least, until I got to the later episodes that is. But more on that later. The story of a mentally ill girl and a crazed murderous forming a bond shouldn't be appealing, in fact it sounds more like a comedy ... than a psychological horror, but that is indeed the relationship that we spend the most time with.

Rachel and Zack are two very different people, brought together in a game of religion and horror. Playing the game first, I was unsure how the anime would be able to structure their relationship - the jarred first meeting, the unsure but curious fledgling of a friendship and then, unwavering loyalty. But the anime has done that and more, delving deeper into what makes Zack and Rachel special to one another. We spend more time in their past in the anime than in the game, and how their past interlinks them. Both have been pushed aside by people who were supposed to protect and love them, twisting them into the people they are. Zack reacts violently, lashing out to destroy. Rachel, on the other hand, acts only to preserve an image of purity and innocence. The difference between them is intoxicating.

I also appreciated looking more into the other judges, like Cathy, Eddie, and Gray. Danny is just plain annoying, so kudo's to the anime for making him like that still, I guess. In the game I felt that the rest of the judges barely got any screen time, so it was nice for that to be included. I find them all rather interesting, but I wish that we'd have got to know more about their backstory. Still, it was nice to see more of 'the angels' of death.

If there's one thing I can't deny it's that Angels of Death looks damn good. I enjoyed the visuals of the pixel game on Switch, but I'd be lying if I said that the anime was, by any means, bad. Great stuff.

Now onto it dragging. At first, nope. I felt that they handled the episodes rather nicely, up until it got to episode 12 which is where I started to zone out. There's nothing wrong with adding more stuff like backstory and whatnot, but holy crap, two whole episodes dedicated to Zack and Rachel doing ONE specific thing? Nuh uh, that was just plain terrible and it made me feel as though I was just watching the same episode.

Overall though? Angels of Death is a great anime and I think if you were a fan of this, you should go play the game. It's bloody brilliant.

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Okay, so looking at the top review of this anime made me laugh really hard because I've never seen such garbage.

Anyway. I enjoyed this anime, hence the high score. It's the kind of anime I wished I'd watched at a younger age, not because it's completely accurate (not completely, but it's close to what high school was like) but because it would have helped me understand something sooner. Something that is the very heart of this little anime.

Appearances don't matter and who you are perceived to don't matter either. It's up to YOU who you are and you don't have to ... be like anything - the one thing that you have in common is being a human in the same society and doing your own thing. If this anime promotes ANYTHING, it's that of individuality.

Sure it's gratuitous, but I accepted that it was going to be like that from the very first episode. So yeah, I'm going to gloss over it so to speak, because my feelings on it are clear enough.

Story - I didn't feel like there was much story, to be honest. The story of Ojou, Otako and Galko becoming friends was right at the very end of the season and to be frank, there's only so much you can fit in an 8-minute episode. That being said I felt that obviously, the narrative focused largely on Galko and her friendship with Ojou and Otako. So taking that into consideration I'd say the storyline did well because I was invested, but it wasn't groundbreaking.

Art - The art was vibrant and cheerful. General happy-feeling kinda art that I genuinely enjoyed. As I don't pay much attention to art (sorry art fans) then I can't really make a real great guess on what I feel about it. I just genuinely liked the art and really enjoyed seeing anime girls and guys of all different shapes and sizes. It was nice to see and I applaud Oshiete! Galko-chan for this.

Sound - Again I didn't think the sound was anything groundbreaking. The little sounds they made when certain characters walked (namely Galko, lol) was humorous but it wasn't anything to go home about. Made me smile and laugh a few times, so rating it 6 seemed fair.

Character - This is the strongest element of the series. Galko is seen as a typical gyaru and a lot of the characters make jokes about her being promiscuous. However, as the series progresses we learn that is FAR from the truth. She's just a normal, average gal who likes makeup, boys (though some of her interactions with Otako made me wonder otherwise), anime and cooking. More than anything the series states that Galko wants to be a mother. And it is shown in how she cares for everyone around her. When she saves Otako from her period embarrassment (something I can very much relate to) and gives her pills, she apologises for her behaviour about judging Otako before actually knowing her. Earlier on in the series a lot of the other characters end up in a bit of trouble (bed-hair, chipped nails, etc) and Galko goes out of her WAY to HELP THEM. For like, no reason apart from she's so nice? 10 points for Galko. Regardless of her looks and what people may think of her, she's an overall nice person and it's refreshing to see her in this light.

Otako was also another favourite character of mine. I could relate to the whole 'silent loner head stuck in a book' kind of character, and yet when I found my friend group in high school I was also the one who would make perverse, lewd jokes just to get everyone's reaction. So I understood Otako and even though I feel as though her jokes towards Galko were a bit too far sometimes (something Otako herself acknowledges) she does genuinely care for Galko and it made me smile.

Ojou aka beware of the quiet ones! Ojou is a rich, air-head that doesn't really seem to match up to that description. Sure she's a bit ditzy sometimes, but she's also an honour roll student. So perhaps naive would be a better way of describing her. Either way, there is this one scene that made me really think of my perception of Ojou. She hears Otako and Galko discussing movies and wants to join in the conversation, but in doing so she speaks differently in order to imitate the way Otako talks. Both Otako and Galko look confused and then say to Ojou 'just be yourself'. And that...was kind of beautiful. It showed an insecurity of Ojou that I didn't think was there and it really changed how I viewed her significance to the trio.

Of course there are tons of other characters, but the main three were my favourites so only they get a lengthy paragraph about them. ;)

I don't think I have to go into much detail about my enjoyment. I really did enjoy it a lot and hope there's a season 2 as the series itself just made my day that little bit brighter. :)

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THIS REVIEW! Please don't read any further if you don't want to be spoiled!

Okay, so. I really, REALLY wanted to like Tales of Zestiria the X. I truly did. If I hadn't played the game first I think I'd have enjoyed it a lot more than I did, but after playing the game and then watching the series... I can safely say that as much as I didn't like the game like that much, I preferred it to the mess that was this first season.

Overall yes, I enjoyed it. Mostly because I kept reminding myself that the anime and the ... game were going to be separate. It was why I forgave a few things, but the story was just so abysmal that I cannot find it within myself to excuse it. I'm not even sure where to START to be honest, there are just so many things I want to say.

First off, the pacing felt too slow at the start and then too rushed at the ending. I'm aware they had to do this because they can't fit absolutely everything into the game in just a few short episodes, however, it felt far too clunky for my liking. It just took too long to get the ball going, and it suffered immensely by including two Berseria episodes halfway through. It just didn't fit right and while it was fantastic to see my favourite characters from Berseria (Magilou is BEST GIRL) it took away a lot from Zestiria.

There was also just far too many changes for my liking. The explanation of malevolence in the game is a bit more extensive and complicated, but it's a lot better than what we were told in the anime. Yes, humans generate malevolence that thus turns them into hellions, but afterwards, the explanation just falls flat and nothing is mentioned about it again. It's frustrating, extremely frustrating. A change that I also didn't know how to feel about was Rose being revealed to Alisha during the ending of the series... A part of me, a fan of both Rose and Alisha, really enjoyed that reveal as it allowed a growth in their relationship that I thought was pretty nice. It also gave the two a lot more depth, something that both of them sorely needed in the game. But it also made Rose seem somewhat dumb as in the game Rose already knows the real corruption is Bartlow and not Alisha. It's a hard change in which I'm not sure I like or not.

Another change I DID like was Alisha's heavy involvement in this series. I am a huge fan of Alisha, even if she felt very bland and far away in the actual game. It was nice to see her conflict and what makes her the woman we see in the game - just too bad that they couldn't have done that in the game as well because Alisha's journey was enjoyable to watch. It made up for a lot of other crappiness that was scattered throughout, that's for sure.

Sorey is a very likeable character, but just like the game, he is shadowed by the companions he travels with. Lailah, Mikleo, Edna and Zaveid are arguably the most interesting characters that are full of rich history of their own, and yes Sorey is too, but it just doesn't interest me. It's like, I like the universe in SPITE of Sorey rather than because of him. Yeah his good and pure and he struggles with himself sometimes but I just don't care? I feel a lot more invested in the others than him and it makes it hard watching sometimes.

Overall the animation was the real winner of this. Ufotable have always done a good job and they did a fantastic one with Zestiria the X. Everyone and everything looks superbly done and animated and even if certain characters and the story aren't the best, the anime is at the very least pretty to look at.

So while I scored it a 7, I wouldn't watch it unless you're a big fan of the Tales series or if you just want to stare at some pretty anime people for a while.

I'll just put this here: I've only recently just gotten into anime. I don't know all the typical jargon and what have you, so I'll just give an honest review as I can.


WARNING!!! AHEAD THERE BE SPOILERS AND I'M UNSURE HOW TO TAG IT!!!

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The story could have been better and I'd have rated it higher if they had just allowed the characters stories to flow naturally. Instead what you have is a story that had great potential crammed into 12 short episodes. And it simply wasn't enough. While the whole idea of the story intrigued me (what isn't intriguing about a virtual world and its ... effects on real life?) the reality that I was given left me feeling bitter.

I don't want to fall into the same misogynistic feelings thrown at Snow White and I understood WHY she wasn't involved in the bloodbath it all led to, yet I still felt zero remorse for what happened to her. I just didn't care? Characters like Top Speed, Ruler, Sister Nana, etc were all painted as victims in their real lives, some way or another. Snow White doesn't have the same background as either and yet her survival whilst the others died just seems so...ugh. It's hard to describe. It feels as though they were meant to die in the first place because of their use of physical strength versus Snow White's lack of physical strength. It felt wrong to me and to be frank, I felt that the 'main' protagonist should have been Ripple and Snow White to not even be included.

A lot of it just felt very rushed and in the end, predictable. The characters who were to die would get their back story in a few, simple flashes and that would be it. It left me feeling hollow and not in a good way. Like many have said on here already, the anime gave me something to do and it quenched my thirst to watch something but it didn't do much else. Characters were pushed aside for a plot that could barely keep itself together and it just wasn't as good as I expected it to be.

That's not to say the whole of it was bad, because it truly wasn't. The opening intro was fairly good (if somewhat spoilery) and I enjoyed the ending too. Again I say that the story, what little there was, wasn't awful and it definitely had potential. There was perhaps just too many characters to balance in the format that it was and it made some character's deaths feel overly cheap and unsatisfactory to watch. There were characters like Top Speed who I felt was really well done up until the moment of her death, which just left questions unanswered and not in a good way. The gore and suspense that was there kept me wanting to know more, but after the ending it just felt like a cop-out.

So overall, the potential of the series is what made it enjoyable to me, but was also what made it irritatingly disappointing too.


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