I rather whimsically marked Mars Red as one of the anime that I was going to watch this Spring Season sometime last Winter and I'm rather glad that I did. It was a unique watch, had its slow moments, but also moments where it absolutely floored me visually and intellectually. I think the fusion of theater and old cinema with anime is something really interesting that makes watching Mars Red feel strange, but also incredibly exciting. I think its no secret that I'm a huge fan of visually interesting shows with philosophical themes and wacky or bizarre methods of presentation, all it takes to know this is simply taking a glance at my favorites list. Mars Red is another anime of that type, putting a unique spin on anime and creating something that won't have mainstream appeal because its not an absolute masterpiece akin to others that are equally as strange and unique, but are, in my humble opinion, some of the greatest anime of all time, Monogatari or Tatami Galaxy.

As I've mentioned already, Mars Red is beautifully presented. It's aesthetic style is simplistic, yet extraordinarily effective at conveying tone creating the mood of the scene. I could go on and on about every facet of the visuals is used to perfection, but I won't waste time on going into that much detail. One aspect I really do want to bring up though, is their use of aspect ratio to really highlight the stage play and old cinema themes. It's entirely objective, but I thought it was a really cool touch.

As far as the music and soundtrack is concerned, I don't have too much to say. I didn't really find the soundtrack memorable in many ways and the opening was fairly meh as far as openings go. However, the ending, "On My Own" by Hyde, is an absolute banger in storytelling, presentation, and musically. I literally never skipped it and that should be enough to certify it as a banger. ▶

Favorite Character: Deffrot

Deffrot was easily the highlight of the show as far as characterization went. His story was tragic, his connection to Misaki and Maeda, equally so, and his love for playing characters on stage to stimulate the feeling of life gave me a feeling nothing short of melancholy. He doesn't have the most relevance or screentime, but his story was among the most moving, up there with Maeda and Misaki's. In fact, Mars Red has no shortage of characters with tragic backstories, even some of the one-off characters have stories that could spin off into their own arcs, but leaving their fates, in some cases, up the imagination is powerful storytelling.

And now, what did I like about Mars Red? Aside from repeating myself about the visuals and presentation, I love the parallelism of Misaki's stage play "Salomé", with Maeda and Kurusu specifically. In fact, symbolism like that is one of Mars Red's strongest aspects, along with the little micro stories that play out. Suwa and Ayame's cute little plot and Takeuichi and the vampire kids most to choose my two favorites. Deffrot revealed as the storyteller of the entire anime at the end is a great detail too, explaining the theater-like presentation (which is even cooler because the show is based off a stage play). It's "the show, don't tell" aspect of Mars Red's storytelling that makes it such a engaging watch.

However, there's a reason that I haven't given it full marks and now is where I'll briefly bring up those issues that keep Mars Red from stepping up into the "great show" tier. Firstly, the inherent slowness of the plot really takes away from the overall product. Specifically, there's a set of episodes in the middle that crawl at a snail's pace. If anyone thought Mars Red was too slow in the beginning, those few episodes in the middle would seem like absolutely nothing happens. It wouldn't be far from the truth either. The pace of the plot as a whole could've been sped up a bit to keep people interested instead of bouncing from small pointless plot point to another, even if this did sacrifice a couple of the small mirco stories that I mentioned earlier. The animation is really sub average as well, which makes Mars Red a weird case of the directing being better than the animation, which feels fairly rare in anime these days. I also think that, sometimes, Mars Red took the ideology of "show, don't tell" to an extreme, meaning that certain moments feel really confusing, but this could also be a product of watching it weekly, with seven days and watching other shows in between eroding my focus on Mars Red's plot.

To put it simply, Mars Red is going to be more miss than hit for most viewers most likely. It's not a very widely appealing show, due to many things working in tow: its slow nature, fairly obscure theater references, abnormal presentation style, and storytelling that requires attention. For a guy who likes new takes on things, weird presentation, symbolism, and philosophical themes; Mars Red stands out, despite it's flaws. It's a tough show to recommend, really. I'd say that if what I've described appeals to you at all, give it 3 episodes or so and see if it interests you or bores you to death.