Babylon is a psychological thriller that emphasizes the psychological factors that the MC (Zen Seizaki) faces in his investigation of the unusual suicidal deaths that have occurred during the mayoral election within the fictional new Shiniki district in Tokyo.

Zen Seizaki the MC starts off the anime surrounded by his pack (fellow investigators) and then ends up as a lone wolf, he grows more and more as a character that no longer thinks with logic but with emotion and ends up becoming a character whos only aim is to eradicate Ai-Magase. He has his heartfelt moments like the drinking scene at the bar that shows how Magase has broken him mentally and physically as a man.

Moving onto Ai-Magase, who I believe is a top tier villain in my eyes, has the ability to use her sexual presence and voice to manipulate others into suicide that is difficult to resist. Ai-Magase can also pose as other characters within Shiniki making her extremely hard to track down in order to integrate. As a result, she makes you question every female character that is newly introduced into the anime. You don’t know whether to trust her or not for the basis that she may be Ai-Magase. I believe that she’s possibly referenced to the “whore of Babylon” a symbolic figure mentioned in the book of revelation in the bible who could corrupt people to do evil deeds. Hence, I believe this is where the actual name of the anime came from.

The anime does take a very dark turn in a certain episode that is visually depicted like one of those creepy pasta’s you read about that is shown on the dark web. The way the scene was directed and communicated to the viewers as well as seeing Seisaki expression and body language you can’t just help and imagine what emotional pain he went through during the live stream of the event and the extreme pain and fear that the victim must have felt made it even more difficult for me to witness.
In the later episodes of the anime after the dark scene, it does take a slow turn with a new character being introduced as the President of the United States, who himself doesn’t know whether the suicidal law is beneficial or detrimental to the human race. Unfortunately, this is where I believe the anime goes slightly downhill after the promising first half of the anime. During these last few episodes, political leaders are gathered during a summit to discuss the implications of the suicidal law and discussing what makes a choice good or bad which in turn provides knowledge to the president who then gets the answer that he was searching for.

The ending for the anime is anti-climactic and does not provide us with a satisfying conclusion, we also never end up getting the true explanation as to how Magase powers worked, was she a supernatural force or just a regular person using drugs to hypnotise her victims into committing suicide. I guess that’s the mystery element to the anime. We will never know unless explicitly mentioned in the future by the writers.

Overall, this anime should definitely be watched by viewers who love psychological thrillers and are a fan of political discussions on important social policies and their implications. Babylon was one of the anime’s that I didn’t watch until midway into the Fall 2019 season. And boy was I glad that I found it, a good story presented in an intricate fashion minus the obscure and disappointing ending.