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]

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Background

Mars Red is based on a 2013 dramatic stage reading of the same name that was written by Bunoh Fujisawa, the sound director for the anime.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Mars Red
Side story:	Mars Red: Zero Kikan Nippou

Orikasa, Fumiko
Japanese

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Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Yoshio, Souta

Producer

Inoue, Kentarou

Producer

Terakawa, Hidekazu

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Seimei no Aria (生命のアリア)" by Wagakki Band

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Ending Theme

"ON MY OWN" by HYDE

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 ...

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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.

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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 ...

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Poll: Mars Red Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Jun 28, 2021	53 replies	by St0rmblade »» Nov 4, 2023 6:41 AM
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