Mars Red

In the year 1923, a vampire crisis takes Tokyo by storm. Provoked by the illegal trade of "Ascra," an artificial blood source, the population of vampires begins to rapidly increase within the city. Under orders from Lieutenant General Sounosuke Nakajima, the Special Forces Unit 16 gathers vampires within the military to create a new undercover vampire-hunting unit known as Code Zero.

Leading the unit is Colonel Yoshinobu Maeda. Responsible for locating the source of the Ascra trade as well as capturing and killing vampires, he is pressured into producing fruitful results amidst the growing criticism that threatens to decommission the unit. To make matters worse, the vampires within the unit are struggling to grasp their newfound powers and identities now that they are no longer human. With the world at odds against them, the members of Code Zero must find a way to curb the crisis or otherwise fall victim to their own demonic natures.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Suwa Main

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Maeda, Yoshinobu Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Kurusu, Shuutarou Main

Hatanaka, Tasuku Japanese

Takeuchi Main

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Yamagami, Tokuichi Main

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Deflot Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Nakajima, Misaki Supporting

Takagaki, Ayahi Japanese

Glen, Rufus Supporting

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Tenmaya, Shinnosuke Supporting

Kokuryu, Sachi Japanese

Shirase, Aoi Supporting

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Inoue, Kentarou Producer

Terakawa, Hidekazu Producer

Iijima, Emiko Producer

Reviews

Jun 28, 2021

ExemplarCayman

Recommended

This review contains an optional spoiler section at the end.

- How does it end?
- It’s a tragedy.

One word: cinematography and theatrics.

If someone told me before I have seen Mars Red that it’s a TV anime entirely drawn in cinemascope size (2.35:1), my first thought would’ve been, “Well, that’s pointlessly pretentious. Not like a TV anime is shot on 70 mm film and meant to be projected on cinema screens.” Boy, am I happy to be wrong on this one. Every other scene of Mars Red is an absolute masterpiece of shot composition, properly utilizing the wide aspect ratio for grand panoramic views and pensive camera ... pans. It wouldn’t be weird to think you’re watching Quentin Tarantino’s work, so skillful the presentation on the pure craftsmanship level is.
And it’s not like I’m implying this is a case of style over substance - in Mars Red style IS substance. The show is adapted from a stage play, and it wears that origin on its sleeve. The cast members can’t walk three steps without quoting some classical drama (the fact that several of them are actual thespians helps). And then the storylines of the early episodes mimic the very same classics in a deliberate, ostentatious manner. So the wide shots don’t just exist for the sake of pretty pictures - they are contributing to the show’s extravagant theater-like atmosphere and to its exclusively visual storytelling, the much-vaunted “show, don’t tell” principle, which many like to use as a buzzword but few appreciate when it’s seriously put to practice, as lack of spoonfeeding makes the story cryptic and genuinely hard to follow (I had to watch the first episode twice to fully understand what transpired there - and I saw many not only completely miss the ENTIRE story of that episode but also miss even the fact that they’re missing something - but more on that later).
Also, it’s about vampires, which I hope is something I don’t have to explain because any self-respecting vampire fiction fan should understand that vampires means pathos and pathos means vampires.

Do note that the show has two distinct “phases”, and so far I’ve been talking about its first half. The second half ditches the episodic structure and the theater homages in favor of a single main plotline, but what it loses in aesthetics gets compensated twofold in weight of its dramatic writing - Episode 6 is a particularly profound highlight.
Here, I ought to elaborate on the show’s setting and how it contributes to the tone and the narrative. It’s Taishou Era (the early 1920s) Japan - no doubt the consequence of Kimetsu no Yaiba’s success, that nonetheless has more significance than just being a marketing gimmick. The Taisho Era was the golden age of the Japanese Empire - coming out of World War I on the winning side with massive territorial gains and ushering the decade of prosperity, progress, modernization, and social change. It’s not an accident that the male characters of Mars Red are manly military men with iron-cast jawlines, nor is it one that the female characters are plucky, go-getting “modern girls” (the Japanese name for flappers). There couldn’t be a better stage for a theatre-inspired story.
So, what the central plotline of the second half of the show does on that stage is denouncing the militaristic ethos birthed from that decade (embodied by the character of Lt. Gen. Nakajima) - the ethos responsible for railroading the Japanese Empire into World War II and spelling its demise. Furthermore, the main plot is counterpointed by personal dramas of the cast members playing out amidst the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 - another defining event of the Taishou Era.

Returning back to the “show, don’t tell” point. Honestly, at times what this series does feels more like “don’t show, don’t tell.” Important plot developments happen off-screen between episodes, with the audience left to figure out wtf had happened only by the breadcrumbs in characters’ dialogues and reactions to the aftermath of those. It’s like the show was purposefully trying to filter out the “plot” audience that watches anime to see if aliens will explode the earth with a blue laser - instead of watching it for character arcs, exploration of themes, or audio-visual presentation - as figuring out the plot here is a nigh-impossible task. This is the first series since The Tatami Galaxy that feels intentionally designed for rewatches. The first rewatch is a much more enjoyable experience than the initial watch-through - and I don’t mean this as an abstract impression, but as my actual first-hand experience. I have rewatched the entire show before it finished airing to confirm for myself if things that I felt were unexplained/plot holes actually were those things - or if I just missed/didn’t get it the first time. Rest assured, it’s the latter - not a single question about the plot points, character motivations, etc. that I had on my first watch was left unanswered after a rewatch. So, yeah, look at the screen when watching anime.
Still, don’t expect a Madoka-tier perfectly-structured, easily-digestible screenplay. Watch this show only if you’d like to appreciate some amazing cinematography and submerge yourself in some stageplay pathos. I really don’t have all that many words to describe those, as it’s kinda a misguided effort trying to describe with words what’s so beautiful about the sunset over the ocean - one just has to see it.

11/10 (on a 15-point scale) for “historical drama that epitomizes the art of visual storytelling.”

P.S. Below is a list of plot points established in the first episode purely by visual/indirect storytelling. The list is meant for those who have seen the episode. It’s there for a case study of how a “deep” anime actually looks like.









*Spoilers begin here*

1) Misaki was Maeda’s fiancee. I’m not explaining this one, it should be obvious to anyone who looked at the screen when watching this episode.

2) Maeda has recently lost his dominant right arm and wears a prosthetic. You can see him struggling to write readable kanji with his left hand around 00:50, as well as generally using only his left hand for everything while holding his right arm in an unnaturally stiff way. Later, around 10:35, Lt. Gen. Nakajima apologizes for summoning Maeda three days earlier [than his medical leave ends] and inquires about the arm, to which Maeda replies, “I can use it.”

3) Misaki’s first name is revealed around 11:15 by a case file, and then her full name is spelled on a letter Maeda holds around 12:45 - and it’s Nakajima Misaki. Meaning, she is a relative (an educated guess would be - a daughter) of Lt. Gen. Nakajima. When Nakajima instructs Maeda to dispose of her if she is not usable, and makes a point that personal feelings should not interfere with the duty - he talks to himself just as much as he talks to Maeda.

4) Defrott is a vampire and he’s the one who turned Misaki. She was mortally wounded in an accident that happened in his presence, and expressed regret about missing the chance to show her performance of Salome to Maeda - and so Defrott gave her a second chance. Defrott reveals his and Misaki’s motives in a conversation with Maeda around 15:30, and then with Salome quotes around 17:30.

Bonus: the title Mars Red alludes to the god of war and the color of blood - it’s a story about using vampires as a military force. Something tells me that the Venn diagram of people that got this meaning on their own and people that disliked this show is nil.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Aug 10, 2021

PixelB

Mixed Feelings

"Do my words not reach you anymore?" Kurusu's voice actor speaks with powerful delivery, yet only his mouth is animated, and he's standing stock still because the animators were lazy.
Mars Red is truly what you'd call, "theatrical." I'm not quite impressed. Just on a purely animation standpoint, it cuts corners with bad CGI, not super amazing fight scenes, lots of scenes where people are standing still and talking with nothing going on. Of course, the animation is not actually that bad. Creative shots, good backgrounds, and still, some nice animated scenes overall still make me rate the animation quite well. But this show kind ... of still sucks. Even if the art was 10/10, it still wouldn't save Mars Red.
Does quoting shakespeare in a show really elevate it? How about cryptic dialogue and mysterious characters as a result of lack of information on the plot? Does small bits and pieces of foreshadowing here and there, confusing jump cuts to different time periods and character perspectives, as well as flashbacks and soliloquys really make a show good? I think not. I've never been the person that believed that "creativity" makes a show good or bad. It merely makes a bad show more confusing, and a good show have more depth. It enhances the story, but honestly, just as how being simple for the sake of being simple does not make a show good, complex for the sake of being complex does not make a show good.
Mars Red's plot is straight out of a "threepenny play." In the grand scheme of things, it's pretty straightforward actually, but the confusing presentation and withholding of information makes it seem like smoke and mirrors. It's quite clear that the characters drive this story forward, as characters' actions, relationships, and mental states are far more pronounced and focused upon compared to story. Yet, I did not find any character to be that fascination. Maeda, Suwa, Kurusu, Defrot, Yamagami, and a few other characters had some potential. In their few missions together in the beginning, their actions and dialogue were varied. Character interaction wasn't actually too bad, and there was a solid foundation for something great.
Too bad that most of these characters die off, disappear, or just do not get enough screen time other than Kurusu, who honestly, is pretty disappointing. In the latter half of the show, what really happens? Most of the characters, save for Kurusu do not get much screen time despite influencing the plot a decent bit. Most of the direct plot points and plot threads just get rushed through or skipped in favor of... Kurusu's character development? Because that is basically what the majority of the latter half is. But there's not much confrontation with Kurusu, and you're kinda just wondering why this show wastes so much time on Kurusu's perspective when there's not much to it. Maeda, one of the characters who basically gets no screen time in the latter half is a huge bummer since he was one of the few characters that had a certain depth.
Yes, I get it. He's really compassionate and is confused about his humanity. There definitely had to be a lot of time allotted to the "oh, vampires are weak, they hide, can't be in sunlight, they're so fragile." It's an extremely contradictory narrative when you know, you're kind of immortal and also have super human strength. The animators had the brilliant idea of having vampires move at supersonic speeds so that they did not need to actually animate fight scenes and just have random sword clash sounds here and there, but the story dictates that they're "weak," and cling to their humanity.
It's a pretty old theme, and I really don't find the execution to be of much note. Despite vampires killing humans and vampires dying off in sunlight, there's not much of a proper grasp of the gravity of these situations. It's definitely just "tells" and does not "show."
But yes...there is still a decent amount of time allotted to story. Aoi, a prominent character, is a mere plot device that triggers Maeda's "grasp on sanity" while being conveniently also a love interest for Kurusu. Everything is quite predictable because there are so little characters in this story that you can sort of tell what's going to happen...kind of like with Aoi. Don't bother trying to extract some realism in this plot. There is none. The plot is just strung along to fit with what the creators and screenwriters decided in the beginning. Why does Aoi get so many chance encounters with so many characters? Why does Yamagami get killed off so stupidly? Why is Defrot, an S class vampire, do absolutely nothing until the very end, where he suddenly influences the plot significantly? Yet, even when the plot is strung along, it's not really compelling, and the conclusion quite lackluster. There was not quite a climax, and the story and villain, both quite straightforward and lack any depth or creativity.
Mars Red has many gimmicks. Put a time skip here. Make it Theatre aspect ratio. Quote Shakespeare and other plays. Put a time cut here. Put a pretty scene here with nice backgrounds. Withhold information for "mystery," and sprinkle some cryptic dialogue. But it's pretty empty, let's be honest here.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jun 30, 2021

Resident_Green

Not Recommended

Pretentious, chaotic, and lazily open-ended. And pure relief when I managed to finish the last episode.

∞ Who is Mars Red aimed at? Definitely not an average anime follower.
I doubt that even folks drown to niche shows are going to find Mars Red charming. It's very theatre-heavy and into the most confusing way of storytelling. Don't get me wrong. I love me some mental challenge, but that lack of explanations would frustrate even the most chill person.
Those with a degree in English literature could be the ones to enjoy this, but even there I'm not so sure. I still believe that anime isn't ... all that deep.

∞ Why so low score? Confusing world. Dull characters. Nonexistent purpose to the story.

World. The more you get into it, the harder it is to figure stuff out. Especially after the major event that throws the world setting on its head. After that, conflicting pieces of information and no answers are the norms. Also, unnecessary time jumps further challenge your ability to piece unexplained narrative turns.

Characters. They all have undeveloped goals and predictable roles in the story. I would be hard-pressed to call any of them relatable or compelling. Initially, Maeda Yoshinobu had the most interesting character concept - a man whose sheer force of will made him stronger than any supernatural being. Sounds amazing, right? Yet he is criminally underused and his impact at the ending is...confusing and infuriating.

Vision. There is no genuine sense of purpose behind anime. Some vamps need to work hard to save their humanity, and some lost it. Vamps are truly fragile creatures. Well-intentional extremism never leads to great solutions in practice. That’s it. The end.

∞ Is there anything salvageable? Of course, but it's not worth to watch the whole season for it.
Designs of background and characters are far from generic and anime is highly atmospheric at moments. Some shots from the first couple of episodes had movie quality to them.
The ending song is great and is a clever way to tell the background story of one of the characters.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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