Review of Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut
It's very rare to see an anime about vampires that has sci-fi elements nowadays. Both genres are like oil and water, genres that aren't supposed to be mixed together. So after saying all that, is this anime that unique with a rare genres combination? Not really. It's pretty much has the same beats as other 69420 romance anime. What's the point of watching this then? Well, I can at least say that watching this anime won't waste your time. The story is decent but it's unique, like I said before, having sci-fi elements and vampires. But it's mostly a sci-fi anime about the first vampire who goes tospace (step aside Yuri Gagarin, we now know who the actual first person to go to space lol).
It's romance element is predictable but it's pretty well-done in my opinion. There was build-up and satisfaction for their relationship, so it's not bad.
There's also some well-done themes about discrimination, although it was handled well at the beginning, it was kinda thrown away to the sidelines during the latter half of the season. Which really hampers down the potential of this anime because it really cheapens the overall tone of this anime. A shame really.
Moving on, the characters are also decent. Some of the characters got the short end of the stick and got shoved to the sideline and had their development done either rushed or off-screen. The main cast though, while not the most well-written nor well-developed, are good characters. Especially Irina who developed so much in this season.
The animation is decent. It had some good animation sprinkled out there, but the majority of the scenes have some really iffy off-model characters here and there. The art is good though.
The music is good. Especially the ost. The opening and ending are decent.
Overall, it's a decent romance anime. My only real gripe (aside from the characters) is that it should've another episode and not just ending it in 12 episodes. It was pretty rush and it's a shame. Still an anime that I recommend though.
(6.2/10)