Episode seven making my long standing theory that rather than witnessing a mass murder and going in for counseling, Rachel committed a mass murder and went in for counseling seem more likely by the second.
At the end of the last episode, we see Zack collapse from his wounds faking us out into thinking he’s dead again. Honestly at first I thought that she was hallucinating that, but he did pass out and is losing a lot of blood. She drags him out of the elevator and leans him up against the wall. Running off to find something to stop the bleeding.
She moves down the hallway and comes into contact with a sweet smelling perfume of sorts, she’s not sure what it is and she can’t immediately locate it’s source but it doesn’t seem to be impairing her too much right now. So she’s not overly worried.
The organ music strikes up. Immediately signaling to me that this part of the game is meant to reflect a church. Thus the idea of confessing sins and repenting for them. She is faced with questions, first, her own name and with that she is allowed to pass.
Next, her sin. Which is what she can not seem to remember, her sins that she has shut out. She needs to bottle her sins. The interesting part in this is the picture that had the images of her parents coming from them and it bled when she slashed it and she bottled the blood.
So if she did not commit a mass murder like I suspect, I think she may of at least killed her parents and shut that from her memory. Though here it seems not to bring back any memories or change anything, she is still set on one goal and one goal only and that goal is saving Zack.
After bottling her parents blood, she tosses it upon the picture of the angel and steps through and finds the floor master. A priest with no eyes, that deems that he wishes to judge her character fully before passing judgement. He has nothing that he can help save Zack with on his floor but they could go down to Danny’s floor and get something to help him from there. So she goes and speaks with Zack about this, telling him her plans and while he is hesitant to let her go alone at first he eventually accepts that he would be dead weight. Though, interesting enough, he tells her to go a step further then Danny’s floor down to the floor where they first met and on that floor he first met her. Go to his room and get a knife and bring it back to him.
I think one of the hardest things about this anime for me so far is my tendency to wonder to myself what the game mechanics are like at certain parts. I thought to myself “Alright, so there would be no puzzles here that require force or lifting heavy things because that’s what Zack does.”, kind of like Gary when playing Ib. He moves the statues and other heavy objects because Ib can’t, which is basically what Zack’s role is. When this came up all I could think to myself was ‘Is getting the knife what unlocks the true ending to the game?’
Rachel returns to the priest and says that yes, she’ll take his tests and get down to Danny’s floor to get what she needs to save Zack’s life.Though before that, they stop on Cathy’s floor to begin the test. Apparently, each floor will have a test for Rachel and it will help judge her sins.
The priest appears to be the source of the sweet smell that she has been smelling. A hallucinogen of sorts perhaps? Since she noted that there seemed to be less rooms on her way back to see Zack then when she was on her way through to meet with the priest in the first place.
Not to mention the rise of, without a better term, zombies on Cathy’s level of her previous victims and the fact that Cathy’s body seems to be gone when Rachel runs into the control room? That’s just my guess, but I think it’s something that is making her hallucinate. Either way, she runs through and guns down the zombies without mercy.
Still hell bent on one goal.
Helping Zack.
I’m really glad to see Rachel’s character evolving like this. This is bringing back a lot of the mystery the early parts of episode one laced into her character before she became the dead eyed doll that wanted nothing more then Zack to kill her. That’s still her goal, but she wants it to be Zack and only Zack. She will not die before that, she will not let him die before that. They made a promise before God and that’s important to her.
I can’t wait to see how things pan out. Though, i’m curious. If episodes six and seven can get away with this much blood and be aired on television, just how bad are episodes fourteen through sixteen going to be that they are going to be aired internet only!? I’m mildly terrified and yet intrigued, perhaps it’s not the blood but other content that will drive those last three episodes online? Who knows. For now, we’ll see Rachel battle her way through the priests tests in her goal to save Zack.
I can only hope she listens to him and goes down to the floor they met and gets the knife.
I didn’t expect for such a fast update of this review, so this is a pleasant surprise.
Speaking about the blood and violence, the anime actually did more than in the manga. The manga is still rather bloody, but in certain cases not the to extent of the ones happened in the anime. And after watching this episode, I realized that Zack’s character in the anime is calmer than he is in the game or manga. He is angrier and more against when Ray said she went to find medicine alone and all. Ray has definitely become more expressive and seeing her being protective of Zack animated is very enjoyable. Can’t wait for the next week’s episode! It’s gonna be one of parts that I want to see animated the most! XD
Actually Zack in the game is still the chillest of all the Zacks so far in general. The manga made him VERY moody, like one second he is screaming his lungs out at Ray and the next he has a comforting smile. Anime Zack is consistently more angry(his voice actor makes this impression stronger), he isn’t moody tho. Game Zacks is more grumpy. Anime Zack is more irritable, but on a reasonable level. Game Zack is grumpy, but smiles MUCH more often than Anime Zack and is more playful/childish. I compare those three Zacks every time a new episode/chapter comes out, because I honestly dislike what they did with Manga Zack. In the scene where Ray tells Zack about her plan to get the medicine, he is calmer in the anime, because they actually show how powerless Zack must be in that moment. He doesn’t have the energy to be angry. The manga didn’t really portray that. The game only had little icons to work with, so they only showed his emotions with them.
I hope in the next episode they don’t do the same mistake like manga(don’t exaggerate that scene please) and portray Zacks actual emotions as shown in the game…
In short Game Zack is still the cutest, the most charming of all the Zacks. I heard that he is really charming in the novels too, but I can’t read them ^^°
Well, the characterization of Zack in the manga is actually considered to be canon and was said as pretty much same as in the game. The original creator of the game Makoto Sanada is also writing the story and characters in the manga himself while Kudan Nazuka only provide with the art. This is even more confirmed after reading the interview with the said original creator. Since this coming from the original creator himself, I assume there’s no mistake or anything with the characterization of the characters in the manga.
Haven’t read the novel yet, so I don’t know about novel Zack. The item is not shipped yet to my country (TT_TT)
But either way, I love all versions of Zack equally! Each have the charms that managed to win over me XD
What you said about the manga being written by Makoto Sanada and it being canon, is absolute right. However Manga Zack is still acting differently than the game. But the writer is the same? The text and story has nothing to do with the difference in this case. It’s the artwork alone. Art has much power over how we perceive things and this Artist likes to make scenes more dramatic. Zack can say the exact same things, but it feels different. The most extreme case is the “I’m a monster” scene. Please compare this scene in detail. Compare every sentence. How does Zack react in the manga? How in the game? You will see that one reaction is MUCH MUCH more extrem in the manga than in the game and besides the different wording, the artwork is 80% the reason why it feels different. I can’t see Game Zack reacting like that so I was very irritated when I read that part.
When you closely compare them you will see that all of Zacks emotions are made more intense in the manga with the artwork. So he feels more moody, cause he flips between stronger emotions.
I can’t help but be dissapointed since he feels too different despite saying the same things…
Is that so? I thought that even when drawing the illustrator still needs to discuss it and get the approval from the original writer too because as you said, things can become different depending on the way it’s drawn. If I’m the writer, I’d like the illustrator to draw my characters exactly the way they are characterized in the original, as original as possible.
Having different writer and illustrator feels complicated now. Wish I can ask Makoto Sanada and Kudan Nazuka myself! DX
Oh, and according to a friend of mine who have read the novel, Zack is exactly the same as in the game. Although, I’m still not sure and still waiting to read it myself.
I’m not gonna lie….for about a good 5 or 10 min, I thought I was watching an alternate universe take on Evangelion xD