Review of Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut

*Spoilers ahead* This is a show which is rather different than usual. On one hand, at its core, its really not that special. The story is based on real event, except it takes place in an alternate universe/world/reality where the alphabet and names of everything are different, but factually everything is exactly the same as the cold war era. Well, aside vampires (that are also different to normal vampires in most regards). The documentation of soviet cosmonaut training and launch isn't something too exciting, unless you're a space and/or history nut, and isn't handled too well here either, despite the addition of a semi cuudere andtsundere immature vampire waifu.

Some more things that where added are the discrimination against said vampire and the vampire race, a PROPER non positive portrayal of the soviet union for what it was (an oppressively, dictatorial regime where people could disappear if they said something against the government, etc), and a double launch, which is also not within the realm of possibility because due to the document purges, there may have been many more cosmonauts that where lost and we'll never know, just like many more things from the period. Speaking of document purges and vampires, through them it also mentions the various PEOPLES purges the soviet union did... Though i'd feel it'd be better done without vampires in the mix.

So, if the story isn't exactly special, too memorable or impressive, what makes it any good then? Well first of all, as i mentioned before, the negative portrayal of the soviet union, which is something very welcome in a time where communism/socialism is on the rise, is being whitewashed and has been growing in popularity for decades despite being a murderous regime one could argue rivaled the Nazis. And i say that as a Russian, who heard and collected plenty of facts and stories both from historical documents as well as their friends and family. +1

Secondly, it deserves credit for its historical and cultural authenticity, which is something i see in anime very rarely outside of the things related to Japanese culture. I don't know if they fished for it all bit by bit when they made this show or the source material, or called some actual Russian people to be consultants, or the writer themselves is part Russian, but pretty much everything on screen falls in line with my youth in Russia, my family's stories, and old soviet films to a very impressive degree (maybe aside how well they where fed, but that's negligible, it also didn't quite show the relative poverty and deficit of EVERYTHING people faced, but that wasn't really the subject anyway nor where normal people's lives touched upon), to the point it'd make a Russian feel somewhat nostalgic, even if they do hate the Soviet union and/or the current state of Russia (if they don't live there). +1

So that totals out to 5.3+1+1, final score - 7.3. But objectively it might deserve a little less because i realize i can be somewhat bias on the historical and cultural factors being from my country of origin and its past, still, not by much (7-7.1) since i do believe cultural and historical accuracy is quite a great thing because you get to see differing habits, rituals, realities and cultures, making things quite different and adding extra flavor, as well as breaking the staleness of Anime (and other media) being culture locked to its own country's habits, tropes and ways. Not that you see THAT much of that here (certainly not behavioral differences), but enough of everything else to be impressive

Still, overall it wasn't too special nor memorable, and just SOMEWHAT entertaining, so only SEMI recommended.