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「陽のあたる場所」 (Hi no Ataru Basho)
“Dawn”
Geeze spring sure is getting started early. Not one but two shows have decided to appear ahead of schedule courtesy of Funimation (much to my blogging chagrin), however I dare say they’re a suitable introduction for the festivities to come. After all, Mars Red may not be the most promising of spring anime – but it certainly has some imagination resting under the hood.
Per the always useful RC Preview, Mars Red is the latest in vampiric shenanigans. In short, vampires exist, they do bad things, and governments are determined to gain control over this unsavory element. Sure, this one takes place in interwar Japan in comparison to, say, modern-day Japan in Blood+, contemporary Europe in Helsing, or the post-apocalypse worlds of Trinity Blood and Owari no Seraph, but the idea is the same: it’s all about saving the world while somehow retaining one’s humanity. Main man Yoshinobu Maeda (Suwabe Junichi) is case in point here, serving as the leader of a clandestine group called Code Zero who are meant to protect Japan against any and all vampires. We haven’t seen anything major regarding a threat yet (actresses gone off the wall don’t count) or even the rest of Code Zero’s members, but rest assured we’ll get there sooner rather than later.
Where things get interesting regarding Mars Red though is in terms of execution. The simplistic yet oddly appealing Shaft-esque art and animation style for example is quite pleasantly surprising compared to what these types of shows usually receive (read: not much), while the very abstract storytelling at work hints towards interesting fun later on. Make no mistake, there’s no guarantees of above average story spectacle appearing before our eyes, but any anime willing to utilize Oscar Wilde’s tragedy Salome in a similar manner to Zetsuen no Tempest’s usage of tragicomedy Shakespeare – and with a reasonable appeal to the actions of Salome and Jokanaan to boot – deserves a little benefit of the doubt. I may not expect perfection from Mars Zero (the likes of Fairy Gone have burned me one too many a time), but I’m certainly curious enough to stick around for a few more episodes.
Overall while Mars Zero needs another week or so to properly lay out its cards, if you have a thing for vampires or eccentric anime I’d consider giving this one a shot. It may not wind up accounting for much – but it could also wind up being one hell of a surprise.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「On My Own」by Hyde
Preview
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Having seen Wilde’s Salome on stage at an impressionable age, the Salome quotes rather overwhelmed everything else in this episode for me. If I try to strip those out and see what it would be like then, I’m not all that hopeful. Three episode rule, I suppose.
Small point, was the ending hinting that the MC is (un)dead himself? As I understand it, a two rank posthumous promotion was pretty standard in the Imperial Japanese armed forces for someone killed in action.
The rank promotion was because
she was his fiancée.that also seems to be the reason why he was given the power to decide over her fate.Huh? Does the military even do such things? I thought they only gave two-rank promotions posthumously, so my first thought was ‘wait…is the guy an undead vampire now?’.
As far as I know, no. I assumed it was because of that because well, she was his fiancée and he was put in charge on deciding what to do with her.
Now, Maeda was called before his intended date of return because of the situation, so the promotion could have been on the table from the start. It could also be that he proved himself to the commander and Maeda needed this promotion for his new job in charge of the Zero unit or whatever is called.
Personally I thought the Salome quotes worked due to the actress essentially being stuck in the role from her vampiric infection. It was a one-off and served to lay out the narrative aesthetic the show is aiming for. If it continues into other episodes to a similar degree though with other plays then it’ll be a problem, but I don’t expect it to.
Also to add to Kamui’s point it’s not impossible either that Code Zero is a dead agency on the books; wouldn’t be weird in such circumstances for Maeda to be officially registered as dead and thus get promotion while still being perfectly alive. We should know more next week though as that’s when the rest of the cast will hopefully be introduced.