The premieres seem early this season, and that’s thanks to Funimation dropping a few titles a week before they air in Japan. Still, with Boku no Hero Academia being a partial recap and Yuukoku no Moriarty basically just Episode 12, Mars Red feels like my first real premiere of the spring. It comes from deep in the third tier of my preview, a project I didn’t know much about if I’m honest. So while first premieres always feel a little weightier in the auguring sense, there’s less of that with a show I’m not depending on to be good in order to make a season.
Well, consider my expectations surpassed – and by a comfortable margin. I’m pretty sure I loved this premiere, even if it wasn’t necessarily flashy in terms of production values. To be honest the first thing that really jumped out at me was the music. There was no OP (that comes next week from Wagakki Band, which is an enticing prospect in itself) – the credits play over a composition by noted 38 year-old cellist Muranaka Toshiyuki. He composes most of the BGM for this episode, and it’s all superb – gorgeous and atmospheric classical pieces that fit the material like a Saville Row bespoke suit. The ED, by the way, is by the legendary Hyde – who amusingly in addition to fronting L’Arc-en-Ciel is part of the hard-rock duo Vamps.
When I scanned the staff list for Mars Red, nothing especially jumped out at me apart from a lot of experienced hands. And Signal.MD is the same, a studio with a resume that appears modest at first glance. But the deeper I dig the more interesting that staff gets. Signal.MD’s catalog is quirkier that it appears, and that applies to a lot of the staff too. Writer Fujisaku Jun’ichi probably has the most stature, but there are interesting names on the animation and art side (including some old Gainax hands), and the studio even snuck in the venerable Sadamitsu Shinya As Chief Episode Director (a position I don’t recall seeing on any other anime). A lot of these names – including Signal.MD itself – have Production I.G. connections, and that DNA seems to express itself.
As for the material itself, it’s taken an interesting route to anime, having started out as a stage play in 2013 by Fujisawa Bun’Ō. He’s done a smidge of anime work (on the underrated Signal.MD co-production Atom:The Beginning, as has some of the other staff) but is more known as a screenwriter. I know nothing about him and nothing about the plays, but I know this premiere was smartly written and atmospheric as hell. Vampire stories are a dime-a-dozen in anime (as elsewhere) but Mars Red seems pretty old-school – no Twilight preening here.
The setting is Tokyo, 1923. That was a seminal year in Japan, as the nation emerged from the first world war and coped with rapid Westernization, only to be struck by the Great Kanto Earthquake (which changed things forever and started the nation on the path to WW II). And the central figure is Major (though he’s a colonel by the ED) Maeda Yoshinobu (Suwabe Junichi, quite on-the-nose but unassailable). He’s a (very) special forces officer who’s recalled to Tokyo by Gen. Nakajima (Yanaka Hiroshi) to deal with what appears to be a significant vampire problem. Assisting him is the cheerful Moriyama (Suzuki Ryouta), who’s already hoisted more death flags than the vampire U.N..
We don’t get a tremendous amount of detail on the vampire situation – not even whether the general population is aware of their existence. What’s clear is that Nakajima is keen on “turning” vampires to become part of the anti-vampire unit (“Zero”), vampirism is considered an infection and spread by “true” vampires, and the afflicted have a stigmata on their tongue. The first one we meet is a stage actress named Misaki (an excellent Takagaki Ayahi), being held in a facility on Tsukishima (or under it, to be precise). The interaction between she and Maeda is fascinating, and we learn bits and pieces by watching and listening to her rather than having them explained to us (how refreshing).
Misaki seems to be stuck in a loop of the last thing she was doing when she died – rehearsing “Salomé” by Oscar Wilde – though she clearly has moments of cogency (including her haunting final one). During Maeda’s investigation we meet one of her co-stars, a boy named Deffrot (an excellent – yes, this is a trend – Sawashiro Miyuki). He’s obviously more than he seems, almost certainly a vamp and an important one, too. We also get some really stylish direction and some lovely period depictions of Tokyo (especially the Tokyo Station area), though it’s obvious that the budget here isn’t enormous. A good staff can overcome that – to a point – and so far so good.
I don’t have much else to add, except “wow”. That was just excellent on all fronts, clearly the work of an experienced staff working with a script possessed of considerable wit. The music was stunning, as noted. And it seems quite apparent that Mars Red is based on a play, because it’s clear that the cast is being allowed to act rather than perform. For someone like Sawashiro that’s a license to soar on wings of dramatic eagles, and soar she and the rest of the actors do. What was already looking like a busy season for yours truly may have gotten a little busier.
ED: “ON MY OWN” by HYDE
Litho
March 31, 2021 at 12:14 amHmm, that’s unexpected. You being enthused by this, I mean. Guess I’ll give it a go.
Hope there’s no one speaking Engrish in this. Only other anime I’ve seen from this upcoming season had one of the lead characters speaking it in wince-inducing fashion as soon as the episode started. My ears still haven’t stopped vomiting.
Toni
March 31, 2021 at 2:55 amVery interesting and the watercolour-like finish of the backgrounds was very nice. Kudos for not having modern/incongruous character designs in a period piece, for once.
A bit of trivia: the play was actually staged in this theatre in 1923 (and I’d love to know how the japanese audiences reacted to such a decadent play back then)
It was staged again by Yukio Mishima twice, the second time disrupted by his suicide.
Toni
March 31, 2021 at 2:58 am*1913, not 1923, that’s the year of the anime, sorry
leongsh
March 31, 2021 at 2:42 pmThey showed the completed Imperial Hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the episode (Link: https://i.imgur.com/KXryjZR.jpg). That building was built from 1919-1923 with the official opening on the day of the 1923 Kanto Earthquake (1 September 1923). If it is in 1913, that building is a major timeline disconnect.
Guardian Enzo
March 31, 2021 at 4:36 pmI believe Toni meant the play was staged in 1913, because I’m certain the anime is set in 1923.
animealex
March 31, 2021 at 6:00 amHuh, a vampire story, stylishly told through a classical theatre atmosphere and the focus seems to be more on the tragic aspects of such an existence and not on the “cool, sexy vampire powers”? Guess I’ll add this to my watch list.
Regarding the plot:
The military already seems way over their head confining even one vampire and they want to recruit them for their Special Forces??? Playing with fire is putting it mildly.
After the watching the episode, my mind wandered to Armand from the early Vampire Chronicles by Ann Rice. A vampire who works/manages a theater, a handsome, creepy youth, a tragic and very poor background living… If the comparison holds true, I wonder if Madae hasn’t already more trouble coming for him, than he realizes. Still, would the ED be about the BIg Bad? Or will the military obsession with vampires become the real problem?
Guardian Enzo
March 31, 2021 at 7:03 amSimilar questions crossing my mind, and interesting ones too.
This definitely falls under the vampire gothic heading, from the looks of the premiere.
BBOvenGuy
March 31, 2021 at 10:24 amI went browsing through the cast list after I recognized “Kitaro” as the voice of Deffrot. Great googly-moogly, it seems like they’ve all got fantastic resumes.
Misa
March 31, 2021 at 10:45 amNice to see somebody else positive about this series. ^^ Most of the discourse I’ve seen around the episode was super negative; which honestly surprised me because I thought more people would like it.
Guardian Enzo
March 31, 2021 at 2:32 pmI’m generally a salmon, not a tuna.
E
April 1, 2021 at 8:42 pmThat was a good first ep. I’m glad you posted a preview. I nearly missed a possible gem for this season!
Rita
April 3, 2021 at 2:35 amWell color me interested as well I guess. I hadn’t even heard of Mars Red before this but I’ll see if I can’t dig out my old Funimation account to check it out (that in part is probably why I haven’t heard of it, after Funi and Crunchyroll broke up I just hadn’t been keeping track of the series that Funi simulcasts cause I don’t want to pay two subscriptions and unless it’s a really good series I don’t want to sit through ads rip)
Melanie
April 3, 2021 at 12:11 pmReally nice review , i will watch it the next days
Scampi
April 4, 2021 at 1:26 pmThis is an impressive premiere. I really miss the languid pacing that is missing in most anime starved for time nowadays, where main character could do nothing but go on about their regular business as another afflicted by supernatural slide inexorably to their end. But seeing as the premise is about a special vampire corps, it’s hard to believe they’ll go down supernatural cases solving route. A bait and switch anime about vampires, why am I getting Owari no Seraph deja vu?
FacelessMook
April 13, 2021 at 4:49 amThis has not hooked me yet, though this can definitely change further on.
I’m rather interested in what you consider the difference between acting and performing. Is there some kind of nuance or is the difference more pronounced ?
Guardian Enzo
April 13, 2021 at 10:38 amHave you ever seen British pantomime? That’s performing, taken to the extreme. You’re delivering exactly what’s expected, and that’s the point. The audience knows what’s coming, and they’re upset if they don’t get it. To an extent anime voice acting is often a variation on that. Acting is interpreting the role, putting your own spin on it, combining the written character and the soul of the performer.