Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu

On November 23, 1957, the whole world witnessed the Federal Republic of Zirnitra's monumental achievement of sending the first live animal—a dog—to outer space. Since then, the space race between the confederacy and its competitor, the United Kingdom of Arnack, has intensified; the two countries hope to one day send humans to the cosmos above.

As a dog's biology is inherently different from a human's anatomy, there is no way to perfectly identify the risks involving space travel and its effects on an individual's body without actually sending someone for observation. However, Zirnitra's government has a potential solution: to experiment on vampires, whose biological similarity to humans is too significant to ignore.

Despite being forcibly taken from her home in the mountains, vampire Irina Luminesk shows no resistance and is even willing to train as a test subject. Lev Leps, a former top candidate to become the first human cosmonaut, is designated to accompany Irina and act as her guide. Through their time together, Irina and Lev begin to develop a mutual love for outer space, bringing them closer together.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Luminesk, Irina Main

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Leps, Lev Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Simonyan, Anya Supporting

Kino, Hina Japanese

Harlova, Ludmila Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Natalia Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Plevitskaya, Rosa Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Korovin, Slava Supporting

Hashi, Takaya Japanese

Gergiev, Fyodor Supporting

Ogata, Kenichi Japanese

Rimsky, Zhores Supporting

Natsume, Kyouhei Japanese

Fellmann, Franz Supporting

Yamaya, Yoshitaka Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Maruyama, Hajime Producer

Kondou, Shuuhou Producer

Itou, Naoko Producer

Reviews

Dec 19, 2021

Rachiba

Recommended

“The path of a cosmonaut is not an easy, triumphant march to glory, as some people make it out to be. You have to put in a lot of work, a lot of sweat, and have to get to know the meaning not just of joy but also of grief, before being allowed in the spacecraft cabin”
- Yuri Gagarin

The Cold War lived between two opposing blocs, the beginning of a space and arms race, the dangers of a possible nuclear war and its end in the early nineties inspired many writers, artists, cartoonists and the media to create different works that sought to explain, ... real or fiction, what was happening at the front (and in secret) between the United States and the Soviet Union. And although this war "ended" more than 30 years ago, many current works are inspired by some elements taken from the two political models, or from the occasional conspiracy theory that is usually drawn in this regard...

Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu (Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut) tells the story from the point of view of Lev Leps, a young civil servant who would have been punished and relegated from his position as a candidate for cosmonaut after disobeying and beating a superior and, However, he is granted the opportunity to work as a tutor for N44 (whose real name is Irina Lumidesk): a vampire who was forced to leave her home to pursue her dream of going to the Moon.

Irina, who is going to be subjected to mistreatment, discrimination and strange looks from officials in charge of the space race (Except Lev and Anya), shows at first with indifference to humans and then progressively becomes a more sentimental and emotional person with around him (And especially with his own tutor).

This simplistic and perhaps silly premise is what perhaps some may not digest very well because it seems far-fetched. I mean, what's so special about adding vampires to a story about space travel? And what makes it interesting? Well, the point here is that the entire setting of the series is inspired by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (abbreviated USSR or Soviet Union) which leads many to want to see to what extent this program can satirize this state and the how can this be mere "anti-Soviet propaganda".

However, this is neither satire nor propaganda.

Irina is not trying to show us only negative aspects of this representation of the Soviet state, nor is it that you are looking for something more to it. However, what we will see are some real historical references within this fictional universe; includes the falsification of real information about the space mission, an explosion at a rocket factory, some names/aliases that would indirectly make references to different operations of the space mission, we could say that the discrimination towards Irina is barely 1% of what It was the Soviet repression of minorities because it also had concentration camps similar to the German one (This includes also Jews, homosexuals and people who was considered "mentally ill"; that it was actually an excuse for the Soviet government to incriminate and torture people who sought a reform or change in the communist model of the time), even if by the 1960s the gulags were abolished and replaced by psychiatric centers.

Since its American equivalent, Arnarck's United Kingdom isn't shown here (in name only), we'll avoid talking and comparing "objectively" what the United States was compared to its Russian rival...

Ahem… However, it isn’t only historical data and politics that is shown as the main topic. That’s in the background. Instead of an Orwellian story about totalitarianism, use that historical context to tell us a romantic story between two people whose origins and classes are quite different. It is like listening to the song "Nikita" and being delighted to know what happens with that forbidden love between two people who shouldn’t be related, and this is what happens in Irina.

The main thing here is that the series combines and intersperses between drama and comedy (With romance in the middle), seeing how these two characters spend it together in the tests, walking around the city, drinking lemon soda, etc. An entertaining aspect of this is the main character Irina himself, who is often the subject of jokes between Lev and Anya (the scientist in charge of Irina) whose tsundere side will make the viewer amuse the "cute" side of the character (Prepare for some funny faces that this vampire will do in every episode of the show). However, she doesn’t remain an object of jokes, we will also see a development of her personality and background as information about her past, myths about vampires and the different situations that Irina has to go through with characters like Rosa, Ludmilla or the Vice-Director. Despite the fact that at first she shows to be indifferent to these mistreatments, we will see later how this affects her psychologically.

And that is where Lev comes in, who in charge of Irina's life must also watch his back before any declaration or action he takes within the space mission. A kind and calm boy who seeks the integration of Irina with her comrades. However, it’s very remarkable and understandable how he, who committed a serious offense earlier, feels unable to help Irina when she is spun on one of the testing machines or when she is hit with a garlic necklace and insulted by the Vice-Director. There are people who can treat this character as soft and weak, however, would you be able to raise your voice to a high-ranking official in a country that is defined as authoritarian? Remember Franz when you watch this show.

Despite that, Lev makes an effort to get to know the vampire more and show his support for every challenge she faces on her way to space which sometimes puts him in danger of being taken to a prison (Not to say gulag…).

The romance between these two is beautiful, first of all because they both begin to talk naturally to each other progressively, which leads to both of them smiling and feeling the need to be closer together each time. Second, because they both begin to put aside their differences when it comes to where they came from (For Lev, that Irina was a bloodsucking vampire whose weakness was crosses and garlic; for Irina, that Lev was a disgusting human who would kill vampires). And thirdly, because the script of the show is made to sympathize with Irina. It’s clear that the show will develop a story based on the character, with which the viewer will say things like "I don't want Irina killed!" while the heart beats as the deadline for space flight approaches.

Animation adds that special touch to the show. Although it doesn't stand out as much as other current productions, the sets and some details (like the Northern Lights) are well done and are a good sight for the eyes. Let us highlight, for example, the scene in which Irina dances on ice. However, not everything is perfect and that is why there are times where the animation seems to decline in the less relevant moments of the series. It can be strange that the best scenes have a high quality of animation while in scenes with only dialogue we see some inconsistencies in the movement of the characters or proportions. Fortunately, this is not necessarily a problem for the entire program.

One thing that I would highlight is the soundtrack. Except for the Opening and Ending, the music used fits well into the sixties style, it feels relaxed. Outside of that, I would like to say that I was fascinated by the Opening Hii no Tsuki by ALI PROJECT whose composition and style closely resembles that used in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni remake. The ending Arifureta Itsuka by Chiima is more of a pretty chill and cute pop ballad.

Despite many notable things about Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut that it may have (and that it goes unnoticed in the anime community), there are also negative aspects with it:

I really appreciate the elaborate worlbuilding done in this series, as I said above, I really like the settings and environment where Lev and Irina live. However, something that I could hardly understand was the alphabet used in this program (which is obviously inspired by the Cyrillic alphabet). Of course this is to add aesthetics to the show, but I wish it had a translated subtitle as well. It’s a minor problem, however, there are times when this alphabet is highlighted in some scenes, such as in a diagram where they show the connections of all the anime characters for example. The viewer may not understand what the text is saying if they are interested in knowing what it says there.

Another aspect that the viewer may not be able to follow is the slow beginning of the program, uninteresting and somewhat boring, especially when at times it shows more politics than the main characters. Fortunately, over time, as we learn more about Irina and the space mission, we begin to understand and become interested in what may happen later. And another aspect, I repeat, is the animation that sometimes loses consistency in some scenes (Like the Vice-Director hitting Irina with a garlic necklace)...

As you can see, Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut is not exactly a totally perfect historical fantasy series and sadly goes unnoticed compared to other more popular anime. However, Irina isn’t satisfied with that and takes the most it can to make us enjoy each moment between the main characters in the story. I honestly had high expectations with this show because it was inspired by my favorite part of history and I’m satisfied with it. The voices of Megumi Hayashibara and Kouki Ichiyama performed very well and added essence to the personality of their characters. I didn’ notice anything else in their performances and their roles felt natural.

So if you like the story, you can probably be offended by using an extinct country as the basis for a romance story, its inaccurate data, or something that sounds like "propaganda" to you. However, for those who also like history will be entertained by a romantic sixties-style story, historical references and nastoyka.

So, comrade, prepare your uniform that Irina goes to the Moon!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 20, 2021

ren0080

Mixed Feelings

It's very rare to see an anime about vampires that has sci-fi elements nowadays. Both genres are like oil and water, genres that aren't supposed to be mixed together.
So after saying all that, is this anime that unique with a rare genres combination? Not really. It's pretty much has the same beats as other 69420 romance anime.

What's the point of watching this then? Well, I can at least say that watching this anime won't waste your time.
The story is decent but it's unique, like I said before, having sci-fi elements and vampires. But it's mostly a sci-fi anime about the first vampire who goes to ... space (step aside Yuri Gagarin, we now know who the actual first person to go to space lol).
It's romance element is predictable but it's pretty well-done in my opinion. There was build-up and satisfaction for their relationship, so it's not bad.
There's also some well-done themes about discrimination, although it was handled well at the beginning, it was kinda thrown away to the sidelines during the latter half of the season. Which really hampers down the potential of this anime because it really cheapens the overall tone of this anime. A shame really.

Moving on, the characters are also decent. Some of the characters got the short end of the stick and got shoved to the sideline and had their development done either rushed or off-screen. The main cast though, while not the most well-written nor well-developed, are good characters. Especially Irina who developed so much in this season.

The animation is decent. It had some good animation sprinkled out there, but the majority of the scenes have some really iffy off-model characters here and there. The art is good though.
The music is good. Especially the ost. The opening and ending are decent.

Overall, it's a decent romance anime. My only real gripe (aside from the characters) is that it should've another episode and not just ending it in 12 episodes. It was pretty rush and it's a shame. Still an anime that I recommend though.
(6.2/10)

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 23, 2021

literaturenerd

Not Recommended

Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut. Just the title lets you know this is going to be a weird one. I went in having absolutely no idea what to expect, but I was still somehow disappointed by this one. I’m going honest and upfront. This isn't very good.

Brought to you from the director of Cutey Honey Universe and a first-time writer, this is an alternate history version of the space race told through the perspective of the Soviet Union. Isn’t that literally just the plot of Royal Space Force? Gainax already did that shit in 1987 during the Cold War. Irina adds one new element to the ... formula by adding vampires. What do vampires have to do with space exploration? Absolutely nothing. However, Irina wants to preach a message about racism and does so in the most tone deaf, incompetent way possible.

When we first meet the vampire girl Irina, she is being used as a test subject by the Soviets. She has fangs and must sleep in a coffin, so you would think the portrayal of vampires will be somewhat traditional. Instead, we learn that vampires don’t have any magical powers. They don’t attack humans or drink blood. They’re just a hated and oppressed ethnic minority who happen to have fangs and sleep in coffins for no reason. During the Bubonic Plague, vampires were falsely blamed for poisoning wells and were hunted down in pogroms. After that, the vampires lived in isolated communities and over hundreds of years many racial myths and negative stereotypes were created about them. This is seriously the route the anime goes in! They basically just made the vampires a stand-in for Jews. It's not subtle about this at all.

We’re told that vampires are just a harmless minority early on, but the same researcher who tells us this still hates vampires for no reason and is completely ok with killing them in medical experiments. In the world of Irina, the leading Soviet officials and most of their scientists still believe medieval era myths about the vampires for some reason. Myths that any semi-educated person would have stopped believing centuries ago in a world where vampires are real. That would be like in our world if all the Soviet Union’s top scientists in 1960 believed that Jews have horns and that’s why they wear yarmulkes.

Despite showing the space race from the Soviet POV, this anime is Red Dawn levels of anti-Soviet. Every Soviet character besides “nice male MC harem lead” is an evil bastard. They want to use Irina as a guinea pig and make her the first person in space, then kill her and send an ethnic Russian into space. This is not only stupid, but incredibly tasteless and insulting to the first cosmonauts who risked their lives for human progress. Why would you shit on some of the greatest heroes in history?

The answer is simply to tell a monster girl story. Remember Monster Musume and how it tried to have this shoehorned anti-racism message? Only the MC is nice to the monster girls, while everyone else is ridiculously horrible to them. Elfen Lied is also kind of guilty of this admittedly. This would be fine in a purely fictional setting, but Irina goes out of its way to use real historical figures where only 1 letter in their name is changed and directly reference real historical tragedies like the Nedelin Disaster of 1960. It wants the audience to think this is basically a 1:1 retelling of the space race only Soviet minorities have been replaced with monster girls.

This is especially problematic since the CIA ran a propaganda campaign in the 1960s that the Soviets constantly went through cosmonauts like tissue paper and only achieved historic firsts because they cruelly threw away the lives of their explorers. To back this up, an Italian plant produced faked recordings of Soviet cosmonaut death screams that he somehow recorded off a ham radio. These were later found out to be forgeries. It is absolutely true that the Soviets rushed frantically to achieve their goals and covered up 2 high casualty events that were only discovered later, Nedelin being one of these. Unsurprisingly, the Soviets were not purely innocent. However, they didn't constantly go through cosmonauts, which would be highly impractical considering the time and resources required to train them. The Soviets also never put a self-destruct bomb into their landing capsule in order to prevent the Americans from discovering the easiest part of space exploration and kill their own guys in the process. They also didn't use fatal medical experiments on ethnic minorities. On the other hand, NASA was very confident about survival data such as the exact time humans can survive in zero pressure. That's because NASA had some pretty bad dudes working for them such as notorious war criminal Hubertus Strughold. A man whose best friend was executed at Nuremburg for doing the same experiments.

While the Soviet Union did a LOT of bad things during its history, the Soviet space program was one time they were actually the loveable underdogs. They used their own scientists unlike the US, who kissed some a-SS and made a deal with the devil in order to win. The Soviets started from behind and had a small fraction of the money and resources, but miraculously achieved some of the finest feats in the history of engineering. Yet, here we have an anime that wants to repeat propaganda from the Cold War, completely ignore all wrongdoing by NASA, and portray the Soviets as stupid, brutish monsters. All so it can tell a Monster Musume style love story. Fuck this anime.

When it isn't being clumsy and totally pointless propaganda, Irina does have some sweet moments. If you like Monster girl stories, the romance between Irina and Lev is serviceable. There are some sweet scenes here and there like Irina going ice skating where the anime is allowed to be kind of good. The show also makes a last-minute decision to reveal some of the Soviet scientists were good guys and have them rebel against the Kremlin. So, in the last episode, it decided to not character assassinate Sergei Korolev. The source novels aren't actually finished BTW, so this was an anime original ending. Whoever wrote the anime at least made a last-ditch effort and I'll give him credit for that. I even raised my rating by 1 based on the last episode alone.

Sadly, as a space exploration story, Irina really isn't very good. It's not even comparable to an anime like Royal Space Force or Space Brothers. Both of which are excellent. The monster girl romance detracts from the space focus and the series often veers either intentionally or through sheer ignorance into pretty hateful territory with its historical portrayal. As a monster girl story, it also doesn't work because it's weighed down by its need to tastelessly reference real life tragedies like the Nedelin launch failure that killed around 300 people. It's not quite as bad as when the writer of the Sonic comics tried to tell a 1:1 Holocaust parallel with overly sexualized echidnas, but it's pretty tasteless.

So, would I recommend Irina? I'm going to have to go with no. I thought the premise was unusual enough that it had some potential. I don't normally watch seasonals while they air, but Irina hooked me with its bonkers plot alone. As I've covered in this review, the execution leaves much to be desired. It's possible a lot of the problems present in this 12 episode anime aren't quite as bad in the LNs. I've not read them, so I can't say who is to blame for Irina's issues. Unfortunately, this rocket never quite achieves orbit.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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