ANJAIL!l

Badjaune

itch.io

The story follows a young man named Thomas who recently died and is now in purgatory. He's given the job of guarding an angelic creature named Mikhail, but there seems to be something up with this angel, and him as well.

Tropes in ANJAIL!:

• Afterlife Angst: Thomas regrets the way things ended with his girlfriend even more now that he can't talk to her because he's dead.
• Afterlife Tour: Shortly after he dies, Thea gives Thomas a tour around Purgatory, showing him all the jobs they all must do now.
• Alternative Calendar: Those in purgatory keep time through collection cycles. Each cycle is presumably how long it takes for the souls for each golden wheel to be judged, though it's unclear how long that takes.
• Archangel Michael: It's implied Mikhail is actually Michael, given his archangel status and how Mikhail is the Russian version of the name Michael.
• Art-Style Dissonance: The art is distinct, with its bright neon colours and moody atmosphere, but it's still very goofy at times. The banana phone. Is there more to be said?
• Aside Glance: Mikhail looks to the camera after Thomas accidentally makes an innuendo. More specifically, the narration says: "Mikhail looks to the camera like how they do in the office idk i never saw the show". Made funnier by how due to it being in a first-person visual novel style, all of the character sprites are already facing the camera.
• Bananas Are Funny: The phone the pieces use are shaped like bananas.
• Bilingual Dialogue: Mostly everyone on the ship speaks a different language but can all understand each other. Presumably these are the languages they spoke when they were alive. When Thomas is first picked up by Theo, he can't understand him until they pass the "language barrier". Thomas speaks English, Thea and Theo speak French, Commodus speaks Italian, Rani speaks Hindi, Nikolaus speaks German through his puppet, Emil speaks Russian sign language, and Mikhail and Ivaan speak Angelic, which is just reversed English.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: Once someone dies and makes it to purgatory, instead of being rewarded in heaven or punished in hell, they must spend their afterlife working. The Knights are Psychopomps who carry dead souls to purgatory, the Chariots judge the souls and send them to either heaven or hell, the Elephants guard the imprisoned angel, and the Queen is responsible for the whole thing and guides the purgatory ship.
• Chess Motifs: A variant. The pieces on the ship are not tied with modern chess, but with chaturanga, the oldest version of the game. The characters have their own roles based on the pieces. Pawns are the recently deceased souls, Theo and Thea are knights who collect the souls, Nikolaus and Emil are chariots who judge souls, Thomas and Commodus are elephants who keep the barrier in check, Rani is the queen in charge of the ship and Mikhail is the king on the other side of the board.
• Confetti Drop: When Rani tells Thomas happy birthday, confetti shoots out of two cannons that appear out of nowhere and Thomas is suddenly wearing a party hat. They're gone by the next shot.
• Cool Ship: Purgatory is on a gigantic, boat-like Living Ship that resembles a peacock, has an elevator, is ornately detailed and can fly through the sky. There are other purgatory ships, but we haven't seen them yet.
• Dead to Begin With: The story starts with Thomas getting hit by a truck and dying, and what follows is his new job in purgatory. All of the other main characters (except Ivaan and Mikhail) are also dead humans.
• Death Row: Mikhail is actually on death row, and his execution is in one-hundred collection cycles, but it's a bit unclear how long that actually is. In the meantime, the Elephants must prevent him from escaping.
• Died on Their Birthday: Thomas actually broke up with his girlfriend and then died on his birthday, May 21st. He doesn't even realize until he's told by Rani.
• Divine Misfile: Even though Thomas is working in purgatory now, Mikhail claims he actually belongs in hell. He uses this knowledge as blackmail in order to get Thomas to free him.
• Drama Queen: Mikhail is a very dramatic Sissy Villain, throwing his head back and reaching his forehead theatrically when Thomas is healing the barrier. The narration says he "wails femininely" and Thea even tells him to ignore him. He also doesn't like normal Rock–Paper–Scissors, thinking it's boring.
• Eating Optional: The dead in purgatory don't need to eat, but still do just for fun. Mostly cake, it seems.
• Eating Pet Food: Rani gives Thomas a burrito to deliver to Thea. If Thomas chooses to eat the burrito, he'll comment on the odd taste, saying it tastes like oats and grass. later on, it's revealed the burrito was actually for Thea's pet Pegasus, Ricky. Thomas mostly seems embarrassed upon realizing.
• The Elevator from Ipanema: In the elevator, Thomas has the option of choosing between generic elevator music, someone doing standup, and "POV you are lobster". The elevator music option plays Kevin MacLeod's ''Local Forecast - Elevator, a quintessential piece of elevator music.
• Eternal Employee: Rani's title is the Queen, and since there's only one Queen, she doesn't get to sub out, so she's constantly working.
• Fallen Angel: Mikhail is an archangel punished with imprisonment, as well as his wings, memories, and the bottom half of his face being taken away. Thanks to that, he doesn't even know what he did wrong.
• Fantastic Racism: Mikhail accuses Thea of doing this when she says he's "too bad to be an angel, too good to be a devil".
  Mikhail: I'm an ARCH-ANGEL. For the last time. I'm so sick of you calling me a devil; that is like... celestial racism.
• Flipping the Bird: Mikhail thinks regular Rock–Paper–Scissors is boring and thinks it's basically just "fist, flat, and fuck you". When Thomas convinces him to play normally, he just plays scissors, or "the english gesture for fuck you". Thomas starts calling it that as well.
• Frying Pan of Doom: Every Elephant must choose a weapon to wield, and Thomas accidentally chooses a frying pan. No, he can't change it. He uses it to wield magic soul residue to strengthen the barrier keeping Mikhail.
• Gold Coloured Superiority: The Elephants must dip their weapons into the pool of soul residue, turning them gold and granting them the ability to maintain the barrier.
• How We Got Here: The story begins with Thomas recapping everything that happened starting from before his death until when he meets Mikhail. Once it reaches that point, the story continues as normal.
• Jacob Marley Apparel: While the dead in purgatory can change clothes, any injuries they had at the moment of their death are now with them forever, including whatever killed them. But any new injuries they gain in the afterlife will always regenerate.
• Judgement of the Dead: One of the things the purgatory crew must do on the ship is to judge the newly-dead. Specifically, the chariots ring a bell that the dead soul enters, and the soul is sent to either heaven or hell. Each of the chariots represents either heaven or hell, and they are also dead mortals.
• Large Ham: Commodus's introduction is him breaking through a window just to get some cake, and he's always yelling in a very theatrical way.
• Lemony Narrator: The narrator often makes snarky remarks and speaks in a very casual way.
  Narrator: Mikhail looks to the camera like how they do in the office idk I never watched the show
• Love Chart: There exists an official relationship chart for the characters in Anjail. It mostly just shows how the majority of characters are deeply, madly in love with each other.
• Meaningful Name: Mikhail is the imprisoned angel the whole crew revolves their jobs around. The name Mikhail translates to "who is like God", and is the Russian version of Michael, implying he is the Archangel Michael. Rani's title is the Queen, and her name has Sanskrit and Hindu roots, meaning "queen". It's also linked with the old norse word, "Hrani", meaning "rough" or "brutal", fitting her warrior past.
• No Sense of Humour: According to Badjaune's instagram, Rani doesn't understand humour, like, at all.
• Omniglot: Even though every character speaks a different language, they all understand each other once they pass the "language barrier". Even languages like Russian sign language and Angelic are able to be understood by people who have never heard or seen them.
• Our Souls Are Different: Souls appear as little golden figures in purgatory, awaiting their turn to be judged in the bell. Once they are judged, they leave behind a bit of "soul residue" that's used to maintain the angels' barrier.
• Overly Nervous Flop Sweat: Thomas does this upon realizing that he ate a burrito intended for a Pegasus.
• Pegasus: Knights such as Thea and Theo each get their own pegasus to travel between the world of the living and the dead to retreive souls, acting as Psychopomps. The flap of the wings of the pegasus can extract the soul from the body.
• Portmantitle: The title is a Portmanteau of the words "angel" and "jail", as it's about an angel in jail.
• Psychopomp: The job of a Knight is to travel between the worlds of the living and the dead and retrieve newly-died souls. They each get their own Pegasus whose flapping can extract souls from bodies.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Ricky's (Thea's Pegasus) eyes get comically big and watery if Thomas eats his burrito.
• Purgatory and Limbo: Purgatory takes the form of many flying ships that jail divine or demonic beings. Each ship has a few dead mortals operating it all given different roles based on chaturanga.
• Red Live Lobster: If Thomas chooses the lobster mode during the elevator, two red, realistic-looking lobster claws will appear on-screen. Later, the lobster's wife appears the same way.
• Rimshot: This plays after Mikhail makes a joke about the air quality in his prison making him feel like... a prisoner.
• Rock–Paper–Scissors: Or, paper-scissors-rock, as Thomas calls it. He and Mikhail play a round over Thomas's slice of cake. This is also the point where it becomes interactive. No matter what you choose, Mikhail will turn his hand into a dog for the first round, literally turns into a rock for the second, then after Thomas complains about Mikhail not following the rules, Mikhail complains about regular rock-paper-scissors being boring, saying how the options are just "fist, flat, and fuck you". From then on, Mikhail only choose scissors, or "the english gesture for fuck you".
• Running Over the Plot: Thomas dies by getting hit by a truck, which is what sends him to purgatory.
• Sapient Ship: The purgatory vessel the characters reside on is a flying peacock-shaped boat named Ivaan. He's fully capable of thought and even sings little ditties to himself on occasion.
• Sdrawkcab Speech: The two celestial beings, Mikhail and Ivaan speak a language called Angelic, which is just backwards English.
• Soul Power: The barrier to keep Mikhail locked up is powered by human souls... kinda. When souls enter purgatory to be judged, they leave behind residue that collects into a golden liguid that the Elephants have to use to maintain the barrier.
• Supernatural Floating Hair: Mikhail the angel has constantly flowing hair, only stopping when he gets serious.
• Super Window Jump: Commodus does this in his introduction scene. He breaks into the kitchen just to get some cake. He leaves almost immediately by falling backwards through the window he just broke.
• That Came Out Wrong: Mikhail calls the options in Rock–Paper–Scissors "fist, flat and fuck you". If Thomas chooses fist, he wins against Mikhail's fuck you, and goes on a long tangent on his wording, some of it is very questionable.
  Thomas: Haha, fuck you I won.
  Mikhail: But I thought I was the one that chose the "fuck you".
  Thomas: No, no. I'm saying fuck you as in the phrase, "fuck you I won", not like in a "I chose the option to fuck you, therefore I won", because I didn't choose to "fuck you", I chose to fist you instead.
  [Mikhail looks at the camera.]
  Mikhail: SOMEONE IS GOING TO TAKE THIS OUT OF CONTEEXXTTT.
• Ventriloquism: Nikolaus was a ventriloquist in life, and in death can now only speak through his puppet.
• The Vitruvian Pose: The art for the Neutral Ending has Thomas in the Vitruvian pose.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Mikhail, as well as all angels, can change their shape however they can. But it seems like Mikhail was punished for "unlicensed shapeshifting", somehow. No matter what, he still can't get rid of the gap in his head.
• Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: The jail bars in the Angel Jail seem reasonably spaced until you realize that its prisoner is a Voluntary Shapeshifter who can easily change size. Justified as the actual prison is an invisible, magical barrier and the jail bars are just there because Mikhail wants something to lean on and something to visibly separate himself from his guards.
• Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: An interesting variant. It's implied that Mikhail once had a complete face, but his punishment involved the bottom half of his head getting removed. He still has a floating mouth, though.