Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut

Episode 6

Just when I was getting concerned that Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut might be moving a bit too leisurely, its countdown feels downright accelerated for this episode. A rapid procession of titled chapter-breaks set the tone for this one as a few key events shake up the comfortable procedures we'd previously settled into with the show. It clearly sets up for a major sort of climax as we reach the halfway point of this season, and while it overall makes me wonder what the further future of Vampire Cosmonaut's narrative might hold, it's also got me concerned about the immediate consequences for the story. The drama of this story has truly arrived, in waves that mean its storytelling can't feel as even as it had before.

Part of this process is a direct fallout of the ending of last week's episode: Irina's still thinking about the poor pooch from that exploded test rocket, those worries decidedly gnawing at her previous determination to succeed at her own launch. The thing I appreciate the most about this setup is how quickly Lev is able to get her to open up about the exact genesis of her fears. It'd be easier for a simpler, lesser narrative to have Irina clamp up, keep her issues internal, to force issues and misunderstandings between the two leads. But Lev and Irina have been nothing if not consummate professionals throughout this exercise, so she comes clean about her bad dreams early, and the characters even make an effort to seek routine medical care for her maladies. Not that it works properly, because you know, vampire, but there's just a nicely adult sensibility to seeing characters in a show like this make halfway decent decisions.

As if to prove the point that such level-headed impulses on the parts of the characters need not preclude compelling drama, the writing immediately spins the situation into Lev's own internal issues. Knowing the source of Irina's anxieties means he has cause to blame himself for inciting them by taking her to the scene of the crashed space-pod. Having this as a developed issue also informs some of Lev's troubles later in this episode, as he grapples with how helpful it would be to inform Irina of the team's decision to equip her craft with self-destruct explosives (in the national interest, of course). It's a conflict for Lev that carries on through the consequences of the end of this episode, and it's borne out of what I see as an earnestly human thought process.

Apart from that sort of grounded interiority, the biggest occurrence of this episode has to be Lev letting Irina drink his blood. It's a funny turn that this series is able to get up to, given how it's hardly interfaced with the horror-genre elements of Irina's vampire nature, so Lev and Anya are able to brainstorm the suggestion of bloodsucking in a hilariously upbeat manner. And the procedural nature of the show feels upgraded to downright clinical with all the sensible steps taken as demonstration of the resource-sharing benefits of com-nom-nommunism. That's all in the face of the obvious subtext surrounding the scene, of course, from Anya leaving the room, to blushing inquiries between the pair about how best to complete the act, to some reflective post-bite pillow talk where they reaffirm their dreams. At that point, the symbolic fireworks that go off are near-superfluous, as the weird-but-cute unifying nature of the experience speaks for itself as obviously as the mark Irina leaves on Lev's arm afterwards.

It's a reflective depiction of a scene we could have expected at some point in this story, presented with the same calculated effectiveness this series has always honed in on. It's a demonstration of the simple, but powerful gestures Lev has resolved to make in service of Irina, and the opposite of that depiction is the reason the other upending event of this episode doesn't work as well. Story-wise, it is interesting to see indications that Franz might be involved with the sabotages that have occurred so far in the story, but his orchestrating of mechanical failure on the centrifuge has less to do with whatever his story is and instead more about punishing Lev at this critical stage. The idea of Lev's misguided confrontation with the hateful lead scientist is sound, reflecting well on his increased closeness to Irina and recalling the fiery nature we know he can be prone to. I don't doubt this was an effective scene in the original novel, pointedly because the anime version's choices in adaptation seem to have missed some marks. The whole scene is scored with a single, overbearingly-escalating track of music that doesn't ratchet up the tension according to how things progress so much as it just makes it all feel oddly anxious. Matched against the unfortunately cheaper-looking animation for the scene, it doesn't really sell the pivotal consequences of Lev's detainment at this key moment. It's a pity, given how important everything this sequence sets up will be going into the next episode, with Irina forced to set up for the impending launch without her beloved handler, while Lev struggles in solitary confinement against some apparent side-effects from letting Irina munch on him. The pieces on the board have been moved around effectively, and I'm still invested enough in this series that I want to see where it all goes, but the process of getting there just unfortunately missed the mark tonally for me.

One misfired scene, even a major one like that, isn't going to be enough to sink a series that's proven successful in my opinion the other nine times out of ten. And this episode still has great bits like Irina and Lev's communication and that blood-drinking scene. As I stated at the outset, I think some of that unevenness is simply a result of Vampire Cosmonaut's plot itself having bigger, more dramatic swings than it did in its earlier episodes. Denser ambition means more opportunity for uneven execution. But as with the story's mission of shooting for the moon, I think that ambition as this series accelerates is itself admirable.

Rating:

Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut is currently streaming on Funimation.

Chris is a freelance writer who appreciates anime, action figures, and additional ancillary artistry. He can be found staying up way too late posting screencaps on his Twitter.