- Applicability: The anime can be easily read as a story about misogyny and women's rights. All floor masters prove to be misogynistic in a way, only seeing Rachel as a weak object — Danny only wants her eyes, Eddie "loves" her and won't take "no" as an answer, and Cathy focuses only on Isaac while getting past Rachel's personal space at times — and Gray calls her a witch and puts her on trial for "corrupting" the floor masters, which looks a lot like sexist Blaming the Victim. However, Rachel herself quickly proves to be not so weak and plays a crucial role in defeating all of the masters, while also showing Gray that the masters were all deranged serial killers. That's also the reason she bonds with and trusts Isaac — he doesn't desire her in any way and their relationship is based on a deal on equality, thus respecting her choices and actions.
- Awesome Music:
- First Quarter Moon
, a BGM playing during Rachel's floor. A combination of violin and dubstep makes the song astounding and fitting the tragic circumstances she faced. - VITAL
by Endoh Masaaki, the opening theme of the anime. Fits the dark and edgy atmosphere of the series while showing each character throughout and highlighting some cool visuals. - Pray
sung by Rachel's seiyuu, Haruka Chisuga, a melancholic yet beautiful song that captures her character's personality and the series' more somber mood.
- First Quarter Moon
- Catharsis Factor:
- Isaac murdered his abusive foster parents, who were responsible for deaths of countless other children and forced him to bury them. Seeing them die while knowing what harm had they done to Isaac can be very satisfying.
- After three whole episodes of sadistically toying with Rachel and Zack and emotionally abusing them, Cathy's shocked face after Rachel shoots her (while also giving a pretty epic Ironic Echo) is better reward in itself than her actual death.
- When Mr. Gardner finally lost it, he first murdered his wife (who was abusive to Rachel), and then tried to kill his own daughter. Unfortunately for him, Ray was done with his abuse and alcoholism and simply shot him several times with the gun her mother bought. Seeing a downfall of two such horrible people actually made some people cheer once the horror of the scene was gone.
- Complete Monster: Catherine "Cathy" Ward, the B3 floor master, was once a manipulative girl who strung Lucy into killing her school rivals, before growing up to become a sadistic prison warden who punished the "sinners" under her charge, forcing Lucy into helping her, later killing Lucy herself. Helping Danny Dickens recruit killers for the Tower, when Ray Gardner and Zack Foster encounter her, Cathy tortures both of them, and also makes Zack relive traumatizing memories from his past, before drugging him to force him to kill Ray. Additionally, Cathy keeps several Tower prisoners withered and trapped to enjoy their unending pain.
- Cry for the Devil: As the Tower explodes with him, Danny, and the bodies of Eddie and Cathy, Father Gray laments that the ones he chose as his Angels were really just sad humans at heart rather than angels (including himself). He does, however, seem happy that Zack was able to find his humanity and admits that Ray is not a witch.
- Draco in Leather Pants: All of the Floor Masters have received plenty of love and sympathy from the fandom despite being serial killers. The fact that all of them have sympathetic backstories (with the exception of Cathy) doesn't hurt in the least, a popular theme for many fans is portraying them as normal people with happy lives.
- Fanon: In regard to the Ambiguous Ending, it's mostly accepted that Zack and Rachel escaped and made it out alive. The novel confirms that they do escape, but it's unknown if they are still alive right after that.
- Fan-Preferred Couple:
- A really big number of people ship Rachel and Zack despite the big age difference due to the interactions they share as the game progresses. Some people age Rachel up just to be safe.
- If Pixiv is to be believed, another favorite couple is Daniel/Cathy. It helps that Daniel and Cathy act as the Villain Protagonist and Deuteragonist, respectively, in the prequel manga, Episode: 0. The two even went out on a "date", or something similar to one, in Chapter 3.
- Fridge Horror: Just how many people were killed in the prison? Isaac's floor is full of blood, but there aren't any actual victims shown; Danny keeps a lot of eyes in his jars, but it's never confirmed if they belonged to his victims; Eddie has around a dozen of graves on his floor, but it's unknown if there are corpses in them; on Cathy's floor at least eight people were trapped, either already dead or left to starve; and on Rachel's floor, there's a skull in the spike trap. The ambiguity means that even several dozens of people could had been killed there.
- Friendly Fandoms: With Ib, Forest of Drizzling Rain (A game by the same creator) and Noel The Mortal Fate.
- Genius Bonus: People familiar with guns know that Glocks usually have 10 to 17 bullets in their magazines, depending on the model. Because Rachel's gun is empty after only four to five shots, it means that Rachel must have already used it at least several times before — the Glock is eventually revealed to have been used to kill her father.
- Magnificent Bastard: Reverend Abraham Gray is the B2 floor master and the Tower's creator, having done so after becoming repulsed by evil actions committed in God's name, so he could himself could experience being God. In Episode 0, Gray has Dr. Danny Dickens and Cathy Ward recruit killers to serve as the masters of the Tower's floors and kidnaps people to be put through the Tower's Deadly Game. Though sinister in intent, Gray truly cares for his followers like family. When an amnesiac Ray Gardner comes to him for medicine for Zack Foster, Gray puts her through a dangerous trial with the intent to have her confront her past sins. Guiding Zack through floor B1, Gray helps him rescue Ray from Danny and helps her and Zack escape from Danny, resolving to stay behind and die in the collapsing tower for his own sins after realizing his shortcomings.
- Moment of Awesome:
- By episode 6, Rachel was mainly characterized by her intellect and fast thinking during dangerous situations, mostly relying on Isaac to protect her. However, when she confronts Catherine, she proves to be not-so-weak after all, pulling a gun out of her bag and shooting her in the stomach.
- To find a medicine for Isaac, Rachel has to visit all of the previous floors, facing the phantoms of defeated killers, and then Cathy's prisoners. She manages to kill all of them all by herself.
- Narm: The running sequence where you first flee from Zack can result in this if he gets stuck against various objects only to appear right behind you unimpeded if you load into another area, especially if you've been taking multiple tries to do this.
- Shocking Moments: Let's face it — no one was suspecting that Rachel was carrying a gun in her bag and was going to use it to shoot Cathy.
- Squick: Danny's fixation on Rachel's eyes is extremely creepy and resembles a very disgusting case of pedophilia, especially considering that Rachel is only 13. When he pins her down at the end of the first episode it looks like he's going to rape her, and when the video about Rachel's past is played he's seen embracing her and almost licking her face.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/AngelsOfDeath
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