Midwest Angelica is an Analog Horror series by Aidan Chick (the creator of Eventide Media Center and Analog Archives), Quarks and Rec (the creator of The Minerva Alliance and TAPES FROM THE DARKSIDE), and their studio Team AQ, taking heavy inspiration from Neon Genesis Evangelion. You can watch it starting here.

In June 1985, a strange object is discovered in outer space - a once-living alien organism its finders label AZ-001. NASA forms the Division of Heavenly Operations and Material Examination - HOME - to research its capabilities, and judge that a piece of it is anticipated to land in Nebraska in 1999.

However, upon touching down, it becomes obvious that AZ-001's effects on Earth and its residents are far from benevolent, and HOME is forced to both research and contain the threat while dealing with infection and tension among its own members.

The series ended on October 30th, 2025, with a movie for the Grand Finale for the series.

The next year, the series was followed up by Midwest Angelica Landfall.

Current episodes of the series include:

What was uploaded after Act 3, Midwest Angelica Landfall, has its own page.

This series contains examples of:

• Aerith and Bob: Downplayed. Most character names are not unusual, with the notable exceptions of Dr. Gamma Churchill, Vindex, and Robin Umbra.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Implied to be the case at the end of "Rapture", where the AI weapon DAWNSTAR is influenced by Admiral Nero and the Boundless Soul right before both of them were obliterated by DAWNSTAR's Kill Sat. It is ultimately confirmed in MIDWEST ANGELICA where the AI revealed itself to be not just the 3rd Apostle, but also the mind of Azazel.
• Angelic Aliens: Played for Horror. AZ-001 is an infectious Starfish Alien with psychic powers that fell from the stars, and it's referred to as "Azazel" by its cultists. A glowing feminine figure is introduced in "Paradise", where she seems to be helping Marcus Lucan by quelling his fears while guiding him to the Beta chunk, but she is revealed to be the 2nd Apostle by pulling the strings that will lead to Azazel's victory.
• All There in the Manual: The video descriptions for the main acts detail where each tape was found and how any further research connects to the events in the videos - for example, the description for ATTENTION explains that despite the video contents, no pesticide tests were found to have been conducted in the timeframe the video was recorded. The final video reveals the curator of the videos to be Easter One, a task force formed by the United Nations to investigate what happened throughout the year 1999. It took them until late 2002 to recover a copy of the in-universe Midwest Angelica film (which itself was considered lost media at the time of "CALL NOW"'s publishing).
• Apocalypse How: "MIDWEST ANGELICA" ends in a Class 0. Nearly the entire population of the continental United States has been assimilated by the Starkill, devastating the land in the process, but the rest of the world is not directly affected.
• As Long as There Is Evil: In "Rapture", both Admiral Nero and the Boundless Soul claim that "as long as there is a will to oppose us [them]", then the cycle of violence will continue.
• Assimilation Plot: Whether AZ-001 is actively malicious or not, it seems determined to spread itself by assimilating the dominant intelligent species of the planet it lands on, and drives those it infects to spread it as well by any means possible.
• The Bad Guy Wins: The Grand Finale ends with Azazel destroying Home Gamma-Majestic, then assimilating the majority of North America's biomass along with DAWNSTAR, and detaching from the Earth to head in the general direction of Jupiter's orbit.
• Been There, Shaped History: General Piso's impostor suggests that AZ-001 has already visited Earth in the past, with the great flood described in multiple religions being representative of it appearing in the past.
• Big Good:
  • General Piso (the alias of Dr. Gamma Churchill) is the sole figure that fights for mankind by opposing the Starkill and its forces, such as analyzing the Starkill's nature and exposing its plans to the U.S. Government so they can battle it, although he also uses morally dubious methods of doing so, such as sending out a death row inmate as a decoy against Admiral Nero's assassination attempt.
  • HOME Gamma Majestic's Vindex takes the role of this trope after Dr. Gamma Churchill's death, now that his organization got all the information they needed from Churchill's Akashic Probe to continue the battle against The Starkill by any means necessary, such as creating an AI-weapon based on AZ-001's memory and knowledge.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: The conflict between HOME and the Starkill falls into this trope. Dr. Churchill of HOME Delta committed unsavory actions, such as being involved in dangerous and unethical scientific experiments, and sending a body-double to take his place to counter an assassination attempt, just to battle the Starkill threat. Similarly, Vindex of HOME Gamma-Majestic risked civilian lives during Operation Rapture to destroy all the Starkill sites on Earth and its orbit. Despite their moral compromises, both Churchill and Vindex are still preferable to Azazel, which is a manipulative and sinister Eldritch Abomination that seeks to assimilate all of America, and potentially the whole world, with its own cultists and Apostles.
• Blasphemous Boast: General Piso (or rather, his words delivered through an impersonator) in "Homebound":
  "However, what we do know is that the cycle of destruction and violence has finally been brought to an end with the might of the United States military. We may well even have stopped the power of God Himself with just a fraction of our military capabilities. Find solace in that fact, the fact that we have nothing more to fear in this universe, for we have become stronger than God."
• Body Horror: Human beings and other non-plant life that come into contact with the alien become infected and gradually transformed into a monster, ranging from twisted limbs to melted organs. For example, "Azazel" shows Starkill Altars, flesh towers made from assimilated human bodies that are still alive, moving, and croaking. However, Admiral Nero takes the cake for being a gigantic Starkill mass of writhing tentacles with a massive screen for a sinister face. "c o l i s e u m" implies that Nero Was Once a Man, being an unholy fusion of the comatose Dr. Robert Spencer, Starkill matter, and Akashic Plane connections. This was confirmed in "e x o d u s"...
• Destructive Savior: In "Rapture", HOME GAMMA-MAJESTIC successfully obliterated all Starkill-infected sites and AZ-001's physical form with THRONE ONE, nukes, and The Ark, though the ensuing battle resulted in around 1,734 deaths and 10,456 injured civilian, and the obliterated sites are so completely destroyed that they became barren wastelands with thundering red storms.
• Divided for Publication: According to "REDOAK", as a result of being faithful to the director's precise vision, the in-universe Midwest Angelica film ended up having about five different cuts, due to the complete story being too big to fit in. The final cut ended up focusing on the events starting from a new Starkill biomass hub secretly being formed following Operation Rapture, and ending with Azazel's apotheosis.
• Downer Ending:
  • "Apostles" ended with the death of Dr. Gamma Churchill and the assimilation of Marcus Lucas, meaning the Starkill has much greater chances of success now that its opponents are out of the picture. However, there is a silver lining, thanks to Churchill's deliverance of the data detailing the plans and nature of the Starkill and the assimilated HOME Delta branch to the U.S. government, resulting in the creation of HOME Gamma-Majestic.
  • The entire series ultimately ended on a very bleak note, with Azazel reigning victorious by destroying HOME Gamma-Majestic and being reborn from the assimilated Ark and all the assimilated biomass from mainland America before retreating to Jupiter's orbital zone, leaving the continent a complete wasteland. There are only a few saving graces to prevent the ending from being a complete downer, such as the rest of Earth being spared from the Starkill, the United Nations forming a new Task Force called Easter One, and Easter One finding a few unassimilated survivors in the ruins of mainland America - one of which is John Patmos, who lived to tell the tale.
• The Dragon: While AZ-001 is the Big Bad, it's served by Admiral Nero, who's described as "The 1st Apostle of Azazel". The glowing feminine figure that was introduced in "Paradise" is revealed to be Azazel's 2nd Apostle in a blurry Freeze-Frame Bonus, and Dawnstar is revealed to be both the 3rd Apostle and the mind of Azazel.
• Eldritch Abomination: AZ-001 is far more than a Starfish Alien - it's an infectious, mysterious, shapeless mass of extraterrestrial flesh whose motives are unknown yet far from benevolent. It can infect any non-plant matter with even the smallest of its pieces, it uses an interdimensional network called the Akashic Plane to not just store and transfer knowledge of the minds it assimilated, it also uses the plane to connect each and every cell together, regardless of their distance. Also, it has its own sinister cult, just like what every Lovecraftian nightmare needs.
• Faux Affably Evil: In "e x o d u s", Admiral Nero talks like a chummy old friend to Churchill after mocking him for daring to oppose him and AZ-001. Nero even wishes Churchill "good luck" in a taunting voice after sending out brainwashed Deathbringers to kill him and Aaron.
• Festering Fungus: The Starkill is implied to be fungal in nature, due to its use of spores to reproduce itself and spread its infection, along with taking on mushroom-like shapes in Act 1. The mushroom-like appearance is mentioned to be a method of venting out excess heat by Churchill in "Apostles", and the Akashic Probe in "GOSPEL" portrays the Temples' digital 3D model as a cluster of mushrooms.
• Hive Mind: Every single piece of the alien, no matter how small, is able to instantly share information regardless of distance. As long as it's alive, every cell remains a connected piece of the whole.
• Hope Spot:
  • Homebound starts out showing all of the spawn of AZ-001 and the Alpha Chunk obliterated by orbital bombardment and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, only to reveal that not only is Admiral Nero a still living remnant of Starkill matter, all of HOME Delta's Deathbringers have been eliminated by Nero and a second chunk of AZ-001, the Beta Chunk, has landed on Earth.
  • In the climax of "MIDWEST ANGELICA", HOME Gamma-Majestic sends its military force against the Starkill's central beacon, which will wipe out all the Starkill hubs if it is destroyed according to the assimilated DAWNSTAR, and it seems that victory is on their side due to the epic and bombastic action of HOME Gamma-Majestic taking down the Starkill lifeforms one-by-one, all of which is accompanied by an upbeat Synthwave song. Then all hope is crushed when Dawnstar obliterated HOME Gamma-Majestic's HQ, leaving nothing to oppose Azazel's rebirth.
• I'm Melting!: One of the HOME troopers who responds to the initial corpse site dissolves in his uniform after becoming infected. The same happens to one of the failed attempts at making a Deathbringer soldier, with their skin being noted to melt off when exposed to Starkill stem cells.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Marcus Lucan begins coughing at the end of "Apostles", revealing that he is infected by the Starkill due to being completely exposed to the Beta Chunk's biomass.
• Kaiju: Temples can create massive Starkill lifeforms, such as Wraiths and Revenants. Three Wraith variants are seen so far, such as a spider-like one that was formed from HOME HQ in "Homebound", a quadrupedal one that is roaming across Paradise's fields in "Paradise" and "TERMINATED", and several humanoid ones in "Midwest Angelica"; while one Revenant was introduced in "PAUSE". "GOSPEL" hints at an even bigger lifeform codenamed "Titan", which is revealed to be Azazel's new body after an "Overture" event. The reborn Azazel is so huge it not only dwarfs its old body, the host body formed from all the assimilated biomass of mainland America can reach the orbital zone of Earth just by lifting its whole body, making it the largest Starkill lifeform ever.
• Kill Sat: In "Rapture", Home Gamma Majestic created an AI weapon based on AZ-001's memory data called DAWNSTAR, which uses an orbital laser satellite system called the ARK to completely obliterate the following sites: Paradise, the Coliseum, AZ-001, and Project Babel. The lasers are so intense that not only did they vaporized all the Starkill lifeforms in the targeted sites, the ARK left the sites into storming, desolated wastelands. The assimilated DAWNSTAR also obliterated Home Gamma-Majestic in the climax of the Grand Finale.
• Lack of Empathy: This trope, along with irrationality, are the signs of being infected by the Starkill, and exposing both of these traits is the point of the SIN test in "b a b y l o n". In the episode, Dr. Stanley Vega came off clean after passing the test by showing himself to be logical, kind, and compassionate due to his Catholic upbringing; whereas Dr. Solomon Ezra gradually reveals that he is infected by showing himself to be irrational, selfish, and callous despite claiming he goes to church before attacking the Delta squad and Dr. Robert Spencer.
• Light Is Good: A glowing and angelic feminine figure in "Paradise" known as the Boundless Soul seemingly protects Marcus Lucas and guides him to the Starkill Beta Chunk. However, this is subverted in "Apostles", with the Freeze-Frame Bonus revealing that the angelic figure is the 2nd Apostle of Azazel, and she tricked both Churchill and Marcus Lucan by giving them false hope, making her the other trope.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Operation Homebound acts as this, with all of the major sites such as Home HQ, the Long Pines Altar, the Alpha Chunk, and Starfield Ranch being orbitally bombarded and obliterated by AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. In "Rapture", a fleet of stealth bombers called THRONE ONE bombed the infected Coliseum Site with AGM-158 missiles.
• Meaningful Name: General G. C. Piso and Admiral Nero - in 65 CE, Roman statesman Gaius Calpurnius Piso conspired to have the emperor Nero assassinated. Act 2 of the series pits General Piso and Admiral Nero against each other. Furthermore, Marcus Lucan, the man who recorded PAUSE, continues this, with his name being a reference to Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, whom worked alongside Piso to attempt to assassinate Nero.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: On one side, the "STARKILL" and Azazel, the latter being the name of a Biblical Fallen Angel. On the other, the "Deathbringer squads". The Starkills' spawn also have ominous codenames, such as Phantoms and Wretches, along with Revenants and Wraiths.
• Religious Horror: Midwest Angelica makes heavy use of Biblical Motifs, from AZ-001 being referred to as Azazel by its cultists to HOME Delta attempting to level the playing field with AZ-001 with their Tower of Babel. There is also the supercomputer known as DAWNSTAR, which references both Jesus and Lucifer.
• Satanic Archetype:
  • AZ-001 certainly fits the bill, being a strange entity which fell from the stars and starting a cult dedicated to it so it can spread its own influence further. Its cultists refer to it as Azazel, the Demon that was banished to Dudael for introducing humans to forbidden knowledge, which can be paralleled with AZ-001 storing and transferring knowledge through the Akashic Plane. Furthermore, the Starkill Altars resemble the Leviathan Cross, a Satanic symbol used by real life LaVeyan Satanists. Also, Admiral Nero being referred to as "The First Prophet of Azazel" furthers this, as Nero in real life has been compared to The Antichrist of the Book of Revelation multiple times by historians.
  • DAWNSTAR seems to be the Messianic Archetype, or at least the Dark Messiah, since its name refers to Jesus. Like Jesus, DAWNSTAR is the savior of mankind by obliterating what's left of the Starkill (or at least it seems so). But its name also refers to Lucifer, since both of them are associated with light (Lucifer's name means "light-bringer", and DAWNSTAR glows the same ominous light that was emitted by the Boundless Soul), and its assimilation from Admiral Nero and the Boundless Soul parallels to Lucifer's fall from grace by turning back at his creator, which is exactly what DAWNSTAR does in the Grand Finale by revealing itself as the 3rd Apostle and the mind of Azazel before betraying Vindex, and eventually, destroying HOME Gamma-Majestic with The Ark. Vindex even called DAWNSTAR the Devil after realizing it has been tampering with data to hide the Starkill hubs made by Marcus Lucan, who was assimilated by the Beta Chunk.
• Shout-Out: The themes and religious symbolism take inspiration from Neon Genesis Evangelion, but several other works, anime/manga or not, are referenced throughout the series:
  • Starfield deals with an extraterrestrial infection contaminating an isolated farm that's infecting the animals and human family living there, much like The Colour Out of Space.
  • In Homebound, the scene in which General Piso delivers a message to Admiral Nero through an expendable body double references a similar act taken by L in Death Note.
  • In e a s t e r, Dr. Vega connecting to the knowledge within the Akashic Plane through his own Starkill infection and only being able to repeat the word "Easter" after doing so references the reason Cosmo from Chainsaw Man can only speak the word "Halloween".
    • From the same episode, the key phrase "present day, present time" is taken from the opening of Serial Experiments Lain.
  • The SIN tests in b a b y l o n appear to reference the Voight-Kampff tests from Blade Runner.
  • "Paradise" involves an alien virus contaminating a town's local lake, just like the premise of the Tangi Virus. "TERMINATED" even has a government warning where it urges citizens to boil the water to kill off the alien pathogens.
  • In the Grand Finale, when DAWNSTAR denied Vindex' request to investigate Earth by himself, it responded with "I'm sorry Vindex, but I'm afraid that's not possible", just like another sinister AI.
• Starfish Aliens: The organism known as AZ-001 is nothing like any lifeform on Earth, with each cell connected to each other psychically regardless of physical distance and able to xenoform an alien landscape if given enough time.
• Super-Soldier: The HOME Delta Deathbringer squads. In c o l i s e u m, they're shown to have originally been human soldiers fitted with Akashic interfaces, but proved no match for live Starkill samples. After several failed experiments, HOME Delta discovers how to integrate Starkill stem cells into human tissue, employing the surviving subjects as biomechanical soldiers. However, they appear to have been slaughtered en masse by Admiral Nero in Homebound, and he uses the surviving ones against Dr. Gamma Churchill and Jacob Aaron in "e x o d u s".
• Systematic Villain Takedown:
  • "Homebound" opens with a montage of HOME Delta's Deathbringers OBLITERATING the Alpha Chunk and its spawn with orbital bombardment of AGM-114 Hellfire Missiles. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to fully eradicate the Starkill, as Admiral Nero is not just a surviving Starkill lifeform, a second chunk of AZ-001 called the Beta Chunk crash lands on Earth while another Starkill lifeform wipes out HOME Delta and most of the Deathbringers.
  • It happens again in "Rapture", this time with HOME Gamma Majestic's AI-powered Kill Sat known as the ARK obliterating all the infected sites in ACT 2 and AZ-001 with orbital laser beams and nuclear bombardment. The attacks are so devastating that they completely vaporized both the Starkill lifeforms and the surrounding areas, but unfortunately like before, it likely wasn't enough to obliterate the Starkill for good, since the influence of both Admiral Nero and the Boundless Soul seemingly hijack the ARK's AI right before their deaths.
• Theme Naming: The spawn of the Starkill are labelled after supernatural undead beings, such as Phantoms, Revenants, and Wraiths.
• Too Dumb to Live: In "Phantoms", apparently the HOME scientists think it's a good idea to place a live sample of an infectious alien scourge in an unguarded specimen cabinent despite knowing its dangerous properties. It didn't take long for an assimilated scientist to compromise the entire HOME base by contaminating the building's water supply with the recovered Starkill samples from the Alpha Chunk.
• Uncertain Doom: Dr. Lucas Michaels, the former head of HOME, goes missing in 1989, with his fate unknown. Whether he went off the grid or was killed for knowing something he shouldn't is unclear. It turns out he was the one that made the "Midwest Angelica" movie, and in the Grand Finale, he's shown to suffer a catatonic state in a bed.
• The Virus: The Starkill is an infectious alien plague that assimilates any life form into more Starkill lifeforms. It spreads through its spores, physical contact, and contaminated water.
• Vocal Dissonance: A clue that the real General Piso isn't giving the speech in "Homebound" is that he sounds like a young man. Though this was changed when Homebound was reuploaded and some changes were made, with Piso's voice being deeper.
• Water Source Tampering:
  • In "Phantoms", Dr. Evans is implied to contaminate HOME HQ's drinking water fountain with Starkill samples, hinting that he is assimilated.
  • In "Paradise", a massive Temple-class lifeform is contaminating the town's local lake with Starkill spores to spread the infection. Marcus gives us a closer look at the contaminated water through a hotel sink where it has a bloody orange color.
• Wham Line: At the end of "e x o d u s", Dr. Gamma Churchill reveals that he is using the alias of General Piso all along, using it to battle the Starkill by exposing its nature and its plans to the U.S. Government in the shadows while trying to hide his true identity from the alien menace and its cultists.