While it could have sustained the apocalyptic momentum of last week s episode,
MARS RED instead languishes in the last cliffhanger, leaving Maeda behind to bleed on the concrete so we can turn the clock back one year to focus on Misaki. It s a bold move, and it works. Misaki s mysterious evocation of Salome in her undeath provided the theatric scaffolding on which
MARS RED built its premiere and its unique tone. However, she was less of a character and more of an accessory to Maeda s beginning with Code Zero. Now, we see her as her own person, and she further contextualizes and enriches the events of the premiere, as well as the developments that follow. We may already know how her tragedy ends, but that doesn t make her time beforehand any less important.
2代目・塚本定右衛門氏 乱世に乗じ商才発揮
nikkei.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nikkei.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
幻の東京五輪ポスター １９４０年「仁王像」力強く描く 洋画家・和田三造制作
kobe-np.co.jp - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kobe-np.co.jp Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kurusu and Yamagami spend their walk back home fumbling around in the dark, worrying about going around in circles. Here at the midpoint of the season,
MARS RED feels similarly cyclical, not merely recapitulating the events of past episodes, but weaving its various plot threads into in an ever widening gyre, portending its disastrous deus ex machina. The threat of apocalypse looms heavy from the very first scene, only to compound further upon itself as the characters and audience come to realize that these events were spiraling out of control long before the series introduction. It s a dense episode, a strange episode, and a good episode.
This week,
MARS RED compounds its vampire-tinged military intrigue, further explores the tensions of the Taisho period, and takes some cues from zombie flicks. It s also a messier episode than the previous three. Tonally, it s all over the place, and the same goes for its various plot threads, which only seem to grow more tangled as time goes on. Under the surface, however, we can still find the meditations and artistic references that drew me to the series in the first place, and they continue to hint at the greater thematic ambitions of the story and these characters.
Each episode so far has featured a tragic vampiric couple at the center of its activity: Misaki and Maeda, the lovers who met their end at the hands of Code Zero, Yamagami and his wife, and now Suwa and Akesato. Each of the prior couples also featured an allusion to a past work of art that served as a metaphoric foundation for their romance and tragedy. In that respect, Suwa and Akesato are unique, because their tr