MARS RED “The Letter” Review
MARS RED “The Letter” is the seventh episode of the MARS RED anime. And whilst the episode does follow episode 6 to begin with, it quickly becomes a flashback episode. A flashback episode that clears up many misunderstandings and shows Defrott and Misaki in a whole new light. There is the side story of Aoi and Kurusu in there too but that doesn’t necessarily do anything but give us some background on the two.
Misaki’s friend
The episode opens with Maeda still impaled and stuck in the hole he fell into. It’s night-time now, so he’s been there for hours. Defrott approaches him and quotes Salome at him “Speak again, Jokanaan.” And we’re whisked to one year prior. Following the same path Maeda did, Misaki enters the city and gets a room above the Imperial Theatre in the attic. Unfortunately that’s Defrott’s room (and probably has been for a while now) so he’s not exactly pleased to see her there.
The two however long it takes, do actually start to get along though, Defrott being visibly moved by Misaki as Salome on the day of her accident. Whilst everyone is panicking to get an ambulance. Defrott approaches Misaki who is apologising to Maeda for not being able to show him her performance. Defrott, understanding this doomed love between them, cuts his hand with his nails and has her drink his blood. Making her the vampire Misaki we know from episode 1.
Aoi’s obsession and Misaki’s accident
The side story of Aoi is exactly as you’d expect. She’s the childhood friend Kurusu was talking about. In fact, they were so close people often assumed they we’re engaged to be married. One day after Kurusu had left for the front lines, Aoi goes to the theatre to see Salome, not having the highest expectations. She is blown away by Misaki’s performance. So much so that it’s heavily hinted this is what causes her obsession into what happened to her. And then onto the strange vampire cases in Tokyo.
The night before Misaki has her accident, she stumbles across her father, Ltg. Nakajima, having a secret chat about “S Blood.” The person is fully covered but it looks like Rufus. He smells her but nothing is done. She’s depressed the next day and asks Defrott if he believes in vampires but quickly shakes off the question, probably thinking she sounds crazy.
Someone is seen tightening the bolt way too tight, making the prop unstable. Clearly she was murdered but did Nakajima do it? Did he ask Rufus to do it? The episode ends with Defrott asking Maeda if he was going to keep the promise he made to Misaki and going to cut his hand over Maeda’s mouth, just as he did Misaki.
Review
God I loved this episode. It was a great flashback to see not only how characters have changed so swiftly but showing the recurring themes and how they’ve always been there, we’ve just not seen them before now. I’m almost positive Defrott is a good guy now, or at least morally not a monster like Nakajima.
The question is who killed Misaki? Was it Nakajima? Will Maeda find out and what will his reaction be when he does? Will Maeda drink the blood and turn into a vampire? Or will he reject it? At the moment it seems he hasn’t got a choice, he’s dying and no one can get to him any time soon. This episode raised so many more questions. Made the characters so much more interesting and I still want more! Honestly MARS RED will go on for me as a show that never missed! And it’s deep, character driven narrative alongside the slight hints via classical English literature that this episode in particular highlighted that’ll make me feel that way. If the writing stays on par with the quality we’re seeing now and have seen previously.
Beautiful. Moving. Witty, Defrott’s Cyrano de Bergerac joke in particular got me. Totally didn’t see that coming. And the pressed flower that Maeda sent to Misaki being a white clover. Four leaf representing luck, of which she had none, was a particularly nice detail.
