Spring 2021 First Impressions – Mars Red

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Stage Production

Story Summary: Major Maeda returns to Tokyo after several months and is assigned to the task of interpreting whether a captured vampire might somehow be recruited as an ally in tackling the country’s quickly-emerging vampire crisis. Misaki was an actress, killed in a freak accident during a rehearsal, then mysteriously revived as proven by the stigmata on her tongue. Her mind appears to be frozen in place at her time of death, as she portrayed the titular character in “Salome;” her communication is mostly limited to recitations of lines from the play, though she seems to take an occasional direct interest in Maeda. Maeda encounters a mysterious, youthful actor named Deffrot before learning that Misaki has escaped her confinement. He encounters her just as she speaks her final soliloquy and allows herself to be burned to ash in the morning sunlight.

Impressions: I have very little experience with live theater, limited to a few plays I attended in school and fewer still that I’ve watched as an adult. But one thing that always strikes me about stage productions is just how intentional each aspect of them must be. Aside from major musicals and the like, most sets I’ve seen are very minimal, with locations and settings simply suggested through the use of a few props, movable doorways, lighting, and character staging. This philosophy appears to have been extended to Mars Red, which despite being animated feels very much attached to its stage roots. The Taisho-era Tokyo backdrop is suggested through distant industrial smokestacks, the occasional passing street car with its ubiquitous accompanying power lines, and a few iconic landmarks that speak directly to the place and time. It seems like this is no accident, as the creator of the stage play had a direct hand in developing the feel of the animated version. For what it’s worth, I find these kinds of media crossovers to be really interesting.

I think vampires are an interesting focal point for the narrative. Traditionally vampires tend to represent the anxieties of a community, and a character remarks early in this episode about the continually-encroaching Westernization that Japan has experienced in the years leading up to this story. Anxiety over change, about potential loss of culture… it’s interesting that the vampire in this episode is represented by Salome, a character from Western literature, but one in some incarnations said to value her virginity to the point that she delights in the destruction of men and their sexuality (to the point of having them beheaded). Is Salome meant to be the predatory West, spreading its culture across the globe through threat or act of colonization? or is she Japan, wishing to be untainted and willing to act out in violence to preserve that state of being? This may be a completely bad read on my part, but just the fact that so many elements are at play already has made this episode a compelling watch.

The visuals are a blend of hyper-detailed backgrounds complete with recognizable landmarks, distant, distorted backgrounds that, as I mentioned previously, seem to be there to give a feeling of general time and place, and character designs that seem to follow a kagenashi (shadowless) aesthetic, more focused on detailed linework than depth through color. Those elements, along with the wide letterboxing, make the series feel historical, and like we’re peering through a window into a different space. It’s a very cool aesthetic and I can’t wait to see how it further supplements the creeping supernatural elements of the story going forward.

Pros: Cool aesthetic details, and an interesting interpretation of the effects of Westernization in the late Taisho Era of Japan. The framing and presentation make it clear that the story originally comes from the stage, but it’s not so overbearing as to feel directly like a stage production.

Cons: There’s an odd feeling of slipping from one scene to the next without being able to sit and ponder things that have just happened. This isn’t something I minded but I think it’s disorienting at first and could be off-putting.

Content Warnings: Violence (including gun violence resulting in injury, and physical violence). Depiction of bleeding and blood pooled on the ground. Depiction of suicide.

Would I Watch More? – I’ve already added this to my Funimation queue 🙂 I can’t speak for the entire series, but the first episode reminds me a bit of parts of Mouryou no Hako, which I also liked quite a bit for its creepiness and philosophical bent.