Mars Red – 09

「疑念」 (Ginen)
“Suspicion”

The issue of supply and demand is already becoming a problem with the vaccine creating more vampires than the population can sustain. Takeuchi realizes his unwitting part in this with the information (most likely gathered from his investigation at Tsukishima) that the culprit vaccine was created from a combination of one of his research products and Ascra. This does not appear to bother him or detract from his obsession for research (even boasting about his new sunscreen product). Neither does he sit by complacently-offering information on a food source to help the vampires survive.

The dark duality of the vampires’ curse is the tragedy of these children being forced to grow up too quickly, yet remain children in body forever. They are forced to learn surviving starvation and hiding from murderers, while being barred from normal childhood activities like playing in the sun. Yet, they retain some of the innocence of childhood-playing pretend and understanding grown up things like vampire hunts in the terms of games. A devastating duality that the children don’t fully understand now, but will come to understand and live with for millennia.

These children’s fate resonates with Suwa with his personal experience as a (formerly) frail child learning to survive in the brutal vampire world with a body that possesses powers beyond what a small, untrained body can handle. He knows not many kids can withstand this harsh reality. With the shards of compassion beneath his cold exterior, I think he became the feared child-killer out of pity- to “rescue” children that might be unable to survive long as vampires. His heart may have been in the right place, but the method was wrong.

The care Tenmaya gives to the children (and other vampire refugees) shows there are adults in the underworld who can look out for the children so they aren’t left to fend (and die) for themselves. If Suwa had to fight to survive on his own before being picked up by Code Zero, it would make sense that he wouldn’t account for any hope of survival outside of one’s own strength. Previously, the prostitute set Suwa to thinking about how to relate to others. Now, witnessing the kindness the children receive at the hands of Tenmaya might set him to thinking about compassion through life rather than death.

The ever-compassionate Kurusu continues his mission, following a lead to Tsukishima Island (in the Tokyo Bay area). Tsukishima-which translates to “Moon Island” (fitting for the nocturnal unit’s HQ)- is in real-life an artificially constructed island. In the 1920’s, this island had no bridges connecting it to the mainland- making it an ideally isolated spot for Code Zero’s operations.

Amidst Tsukishima’s wreckage, Kurusu stumbles upon a recording of Maeda ordering Kurusu’s and the vampire children’s deaths. I had my suspicions that it was a fake recording. It seemed too much of a coincidence for him to happen upon such secret information that first of all, contradicts the camaraderie among the Code Zero members. Second of all- carelessly leaving information out contradicts Maeda’s careful, responsible nature. The true culprit turns out to be Glenn, who can mimic voices (but cannot remain in role-play, as his un-Maeda-like “praying for success” gave the ruse away). It would seem the heightened senses of high-ranking vampires can be trained to accurately replicate voices.

This was carefully planned- triggering the emotionally vulnerable Kurusu and luring Suwa with a vampire child to Tsukishima for a battle to the death- thereby eliminating threats and destabilizing trust between remaining members. What Glenn must not have planned for was Takeuchi to show up on the scene, de-escalate the fight, and talk reason into Kurusu.

Glenn is a cunning foe-analyzing and using his target’s weaknesses (Kurusu’s emotions and Suwa’s pity). He has some agenda of his own going on-with his “Danny Boy” ace soldier and command over Nakajima’s vampire forces. With his record of manipulating higher ups during government negotiations and “serving” the S rank vampires, he is probably using his subordinate position to give Nakajima a sense of power all the while controlling the strings to force him into carrying out Glenn’s own vampire coup. We are only ever shown Glenn doing behind-the-scenes work but from what we do see, he acts the grand puppet master.

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