The exploits of the Armed Detective Agency are being properly acknowledged by the government at this point, even handing out a prestigious award to Fukuzawa. It’s honestly kind of disappointing that we only get 13 episodes at a time, but we’ll have to deal with that. On the bright side, we go back to seeing Atsushi for the first time in a while. With Kunikida released from jail, he’s now training the young man in using his power properly.
The next job involves the brutal murder of a young government official. His skin has been flayed off. There are other victims who have been killed in equally brutal ways. Ranpo and Fukuzawa explain that this is something called “The Decay of Angels.”
These are the five signs that angels exhibit before their death. Brutal stuff. Five are probably each representing one of the five methods of decay this season. But as Atsushi points out, there’s a fifth murder yet to come.
So we learn pretty quickly afterwards that the government itself has a hand in the Decay of Angels, with even the nice gentleman we saw earlier being involved. Of course these things run deep, you can never fully trust the government. And of course they’re going about it in a pretty awful way. Of course the agency’s members being criminals in their past is something that makes their existence complicated, but we as viewers know they’re good people now. Not to mention the fact that the government itself has had a hand in some of the crimes they committed. Remember kids, the law is not the same as morality. It often will overlap, but it’s not always right. In this specific case though, the law is being used for vengeance.
Of course, Nikolai, who we met the other day, is behind this particular venture. He’s used the government for his own ploys and is now luring the agency into a trap. We finally get a proper introduction of the Decay of Angels, or Five, or V. The Jester Nikolai and the Demon Fyodor are two out of five members of a criminal organization whose goal seems to be wiping out other gifted. They even have someone who can steal information from your mind. Nikolai and Atsushi square off with the latter being completely overpowered. Elsewhere, someone has stolen a page from the Death Note from chief Taneda and killed the man.
The concept of having a book that makes what you write in it come true, but it’s required to be in the form of a novel story is fascinating. It sounds like something I might want to explore in a story at some point. Perhaps through a different artform, but it’s so cool. Death Note didn’t have particularly strict rules but this does, which makes it more subtle. In this case though, it’s used to convince everyone that the Armed Detective Agency is actually the Decay of Angels. Since it was written down that they were the ones under the white hoods, it became so. I do wonder if Nikolai is actually dead. That would be a commitment to the bit for sure. I’m definitely intrigued and curious as to what is going to happen next, and what their eventual goal is. Is it the elimination of the Armed Detective Agency or is that just a step towards getting rid of all gifted somehow? I guess we’ll learn soon enough. Thanks for reading.
Opal Kaharis 