Review of Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut

Communist Dracula. Flying through space and touching the stars is something everyone dreams of at one point in their lives, but did you dream about having your vampire girlfriend who sometimes wears a muzzle coming along for the ride? Irina: the Vampire Cosmonaut is another anime adaptation of a light novel which I will not sigh at because it is well written, interesting and unique in the light novel space. The space race is one of humanities most interesting events as well as controversial. Through a lightly distorted leans of historical fantasy where the USSR is the Federal Republic of Zirnitra and the USA is theUnited Kingdom (no relation to my country) of Arnack the show explores the dark and dirty side of the space race. Where the UKA might be using some alternative timeline version of Nazi scientists to build their rockets, the FRZ are planning on experimenting on and sending vampires.
Irina is one of those vampires. A vampire who volunteered despite being taken from the mountains because she wants to go to the moon before humans defile it and it’s up to her handler Lev Leps to train her well enough to test pilot a rocket before Russi- I mean Zirnitra sends a human.

I really love Lev and Irina. They both have fantastic chemistry and the romance that blossoms between the two of them is paced very naturally and satisfyingly. Lev is very kind, but not a wimpy light novel protagonist push over like you usually see. He’s solider and takes himself and his mission seriously. He has the desire to go into space as much as Irina who in contrast is stubborn, stand-offish and somewhat childish.
We don’t spend much time with the rest of the cast expect for Anya who is a bit too much of a ganki cinnamon blob to fit into the communist, military regime and everyone else is either prejudiced and hostile towards Irina or aggressively competitive towards Lev. Though this does make it very satisfying to watch both Irina and Lev overcome their peers and show them up.

The animation is also pretty polished. Characters look good and move well. There are some absolutely gorgeous back drops and scene settings for those characters to move in and the CGI animation was pretty well done when used.

Vampire Cosmonaut was a surprise hit of the fall season which I really enjoyed watching week after week. A well paced and interesting story coupled with a convincing romance in a country of hammers and sickles isn’t something I ever thought I would say, but here we are…
Also the animators LOVE mouths and lips. You know what I’m talking about.

9/10 Amazing.