MARS RED “Dark Wings” Review
MARS RED “Dark Wings” is the eleventh episode of the MARS RED anime. Following on from the Maeda reveal in episode 10 he and Defrott fight for survival. As the chess pieces continue to move and Nakajima is toppled from his throne by Rufus. And finally the flying device is tested and Kurusu proves vampires can fly.
Losing who you are
Clearly having lost his mind, Maeda opens the episode by mistaking Aoi for Misaki again and attacking Defrott. They have a massive battle showing Defrott for the skilled vampire he is. But Aoi is watching and pre-empts one of Maeda’s attacks. Throwing herself in the way she gets stabbed in the back in order to protect Defrott and admonishes Maeda for attacking a child. Reminding him of Misaki, Maeda runs off in shame. Meanwhile at the Tenmaya camp, Shinnosuke Tenmaya’s backstory is given. He was saved by a vampire once and since the only people who didn’t bully him for being half foreign were vampires he grew to love them as family. Falling out of a tree one day he was chased up, he is saved by his vampire friend who throws himself into the sunlight to save Shinnosuke.
Whilst the crew at Tenmaya’s talk about life, longevity and Ascra. Aoi is bleeding heavily out into the water. She calls Defrott a child for wishing to die as he’s sick of living so long. But he replies that Vampires are fairy tale creatures and that’s where they should stay. Whilst at the same time in Tenmaya, Suwa is chatting to the female vampire Kurusu saved. Explaining that humans die, so the life they have they tend to create beautiful art, songs, plays, dances and movies. And he’s excited to see what else he’ll see beyond that. There is a small scene where she goes outside to talk to someone unseen, saying “I just need to tell you?” and “Alright.” Who she is speaking to is anyone’s guess.
Betrayal and Flight
Whilst Nakajima goes to a meeting with the three higher ups. It’s revealed that they have no faith in his project and are going to demote him just for it to turn out that they’re being controlled by Rufus. Rufus has his vampire unit arrest Nakajima so he can watch him become a king from the side-lines. Whilst in the vampire holding area, Aoi finally passes out from blood loss. Defrott calls for Kurusu and he hears. He begs Takeuchi to let him use the flying device and finally he gets his way. Kurusu takes off and it works! He gets to Aoi and Defrott’s location and takes Aoi in his arms. Defrott makes a cheeky joke calling him Romeo but he doesn’t clock on.
The episode ends with Defrott plotting part 2 against Rufus. And Kurusu burning up in the suit swearing he’ll get Aoi to safety.
Review
What an episode! Everyone has made their choices and they’re all in place for the finale. Whilst some more surprising and heart-breaking than others. Everyone seems to have shown their hands in the grander scheme now. All besides Maeda who has clearly lost his sanity. The duality of how the two vampires Suwa and Defrott see their long lives was beautiful to watch. And people’s reactions to it. The vampire girl didn’t understand what Suwa meant and kinda hated him for his optimistic outlook. But Aoi, who’s human, hated Defrott’s way of seeing his life and death and wanted desperately for him to live on.
Is the vampire girl a traitor? Or is she passing on information to Maeda? She seems to be a pretty low rank vampire so she’d be able to hear both of them. I know with Maeda being the way he’s being it’s unlikely to be him but I live in hope, I don’t wanna have to accept what I know is likely the truth.
I would say that the only thing that felt a bit out of place and shoehorned in this episode was Tenmaya’s backstory, I kinda liked that he didn’t seem to have one. It didn’t detract from the quality of the episode overall but it definitely felt forced. Like one of those “I’m gonna tell the story to the room but you’ll see it as a flashback” tropes that’s everywhere in anime, so far this show had managed to avoid all the obvious tropes so it felt especially out of place. Maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m an idiot but I did kinda like the mystery of Tenmaya.
Either way, as I said, still a brilliant episode which gives me a craving for more.
