MARS RED “Suspicion” Review
MARS RED “Suspicion” is the ninth episode of the MARS RED anime. Continuing his lonely search for any of his old friends in episode 8 Kurusu is immediately suspicious of Suwa as he hears rumours from another vampire at Tenmaya. And Maeda is still nowhere to be found.
Finding Old Friends
Whilst asking the young vampire woman he saved last episode about rumours. She tells him of a rumour that a young vampire who is quick and uses knives is killing child vampires. He immediately knows who that sounds like and goes off to find Suwa at Tsukishima Island. Making his way there he immediately overhears a recording of Maeda giving Takeuchi and Suwa orders to kill any vampires that could be enemies, even the children. Then the recording goes on to order them to kill Kurusu as he is a threat.
Kurusu goes on still angry and in shock and finds Suwa hunched over a dead vampire child’s body. He reacts angrily and they both duke it out so fast they’re invisible. Takeuchi stops them with skunk balls specifically designed to bring down vampires though, and clarifies to Kurusu that Maeda “never prays for good fortune” and the recording was obviously a trap. Kurusu isn’t fully convinced but he goes along with it, though none of them know how the recording was made seeing as the voice was an exact replica of Maeda’s.
Moving On
Making their way to the surface from underground. Suwa explains that he killed child vampires because they cannot survive. They’re children and don’t understand how important staying in the shadows and away from water is. It’s also clarified in these scenes that Kurusu does know that Yamagami is dead and is also confident that Maeda isn’t.
With all of the pieces moving the only pieces on the chess board not moving the way Rufus wants are the Code Zero boys. It’s pretty clear he set the trap for Kurusu and wanted him to fall for it. What’s not clear is why. Whilst Takeuchi theorises it’s because they’ve become a thorn in the side of the government now that the Vampire Unit is complete.
Meanwhile Ltg. Nakajima has a meeting with the army higher ups. They still don’t like his Vampire Unit idea and would rather use the vampires to work manual labour as they never tire. Clearly annoyed by this he insists they’re necessary for the future of Japan. But the higher ups are worried about all the bad press Tokyo is getting. More than likely this’ll cause him to go even further to achieve his goal.
Back at Tenmaya Shinnosuke is explaining to Code Zero that he has heard of a group of vampires surviving in a quarry. The plan is to send Kurusu and Suwa to check it out as it’s just a rumour. The final shot is of a vampire Maeda in the area where Misaki was kept and escaped in episode 1.
Review
I loved this episode! By the end of it things are almost back to how they used to be with the Code Zero boys. The song Danny Boy shows up again with Rufus singing it. Making me think that perhaps it was never about Kurusu to begin with and perhaps hinting at the fate of Maeda or even Nakajima. Nakajima, a man who’s so lost he’s lost all it was that made him human and the man people believed he was. Is it about him? Maybe not, it’s a huge stretch but Maeda isn’t. Maeda is now lost. A vampire with nothing to live or die for and is not responding to the calls of his old friends.
The demolition being witnessed by the newspaper chief in the beginning was a genius way of showing just how up against the wall Code Zero are here. There’s no shade left so they can’t walk the shadows. And they’ll be easily picked off if they stick to night time. They have nowhere to hide. Either they stop what’s going on now. Or they’ll die there’s no hiding anymore. Even Tenmaya is almost full to the brim with new vampires being brought in daily. It’s a race against time to find the truth. And stop the person who’s behind all of it.
