Mars Red has an interesting way with its story-telling. In the beginning, a lot of the character's dialogue comes from screenplays of different literature--which is interesting, but is completely lost on someone on the average viewer (aka me). Mars Red's greatest weakness is their story; the pacing felt off at times; there were enough holes to sink a ship; and, I was lost on the character's motivations a majority of the time. To begin with, Mars Red has a rather generic and predictable plotline. The Imperial Japanese govt. has decided to create a vampire hunting team made out of vampires, and it goes as well as you might expect. The "twists-and-turns" you'd expect from a good story simply miss the mark here.
What Mars Red lacks in storytelling, it gains in likeable characters and great voice-actors (subbed). While the story might've been completely lost on me, I found myself becoming genuinely curious about what the characters might do next. They each had their own distinct purpose and felt fleshed-out.
I managed to finish all 13 episodes because of the character's alone. Although, you can definitely tell that not every character was created equally. While I enjoyed the main four characters, the majority of the supporting characters felt like they had the bare minimum written for them. They seemed very bland, flat, and one dimensional. This is /fine/ for supporting characters, but it makes the main character's interactions with them bland too. Truly, this shows greatest weakness is its poor writing.
Mars Red has/had the potential to become a top-tier anime in a relativity niche genre, however its bad writing definitely holds it back. If you're someone who doesn't mind a couple plot holes and doesn't want to think too hard about their anime, this show might be good for you.
06 ❁: Although it has some minor issues, this is still very good. If you are someone interested in the genre, you'll definitely like this.
