(L) Tsuki to Layka to Nosferatu (Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut)

[Friday]

a vampire scared of heights!!!!

at least next week she'll know what real heights is

[Nachtwandler]

It was funny to see classical soviet authomats with mineral water here. We still had them in my city in 90s, but nowadays you could probably only find them in some Russian cities.

Overall it was a decent ep. despite some annoying characters.

P.S.: I still hate Funi and Wakanim for oversimplifying the title yet again. They did not even used official one for Russian subs.

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Irina is voiced by Hayashibara Megumi, who played Ayanami Rei in Evangelion. She was 28 then, and is now 54. She was also Lina Inverse in Slayers. And played Kitty in a number of Hello Kittyshows.

Not to mention Miyokichi in Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuku, where she also sang both the OP songs.

The business about ejecting from the capsule and parachuting down is real, by the way. Gagarin landed in a farmer's field and had to hitch a ride on a cart to get to the nearest town, so he could telephone HQ and let them know he was on the ground.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by BBOvenGuy

Not to mention Miyokichi in Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuku, where she also sang both the OP songs.

Frankly, Hayashibara Megumi is such a legend that saying one or two (or three or five or ten) of her roles just doesn't work.

[Alchemist007]

Spoiler for Outfit:

Good outfit.

[Frontier]

As cute as Irina's terrified expression is, it won't do for her survival rate if she doesn't learn how to parachute .

Well, Gergiev doesn't seem like he immediately wants to write Irina off as someone to be executed after the test flight is over for one reason or another, even when the rest of his cabinet are all for it, which I guess is one thing she has going for her. Also, Gergiev has a super hot press secretary voiced by MAO and who eats with luscious lips like Irina, so that's definitely something Gergiev has going for him .

Lev meets with his fellow (more like former fellow) cadets, and while Mikhail seems a like a decent, honest, guy who is actually Lev's friend, Roza's a Mikako Komatsu ice queen and along with the rest are pretty frustrated and dismissive of Irina for her being a vampire and being able to go into space before they do. Not to mention happy Lev's not in the running anymore .

Anya is bonding with Irinyan pretty effectively, she even got Irina to say her name .

How to cure Irina of her fear of heights? Why, take her on a romantic flight into the sky, above the clouds, where she can even see the moon and space! You can tell it did wonders for Irina's mood and her opinion on Lev, she even thanks him in the end .

Why is Lev so idealistic and opinionated? Because his teacher spoke the truth even against the Motherland's corporate propaganda machine, to the point where she was arrested and taken away for it right in front of him. But it gave Lev the conviction and morals that made him the man he is today .

Looks like there's sabotage and politics at play that might endanger Irina's flight .

Anyone with eyes could probably tell that Lev's feelings for Irina are becoming less and less platonic as time goes by, and he's invested in her care, but that's just going to make things more complicated .

Why is Irina working so hard for this? What does she get out of it? And in that flashback, it looked like her own people sold her out to the soldiers ?

[serenade_beta]

I know they are by the same VA, but I just realized how similar Irina's voice is to Hakumen no Mono when she uses a soft voice.

[FlareKnight]

It's an awkward spot for Lev. I suppose his (likely justified) outburst had long since cost himself a spot in the running. But at least so long as he was training with everyone there was always a (long shot) chance at him getting back in the running. I'm sure some are truly happy he's off training Irina. Though I'm sure the more pathetic guy has no shot even if Lev isn't there.

It just kind of sucks though. No matter what he does it doesn't seem like Lev will have his shot at getting into space. Not unless sabotage kills off all the main candidates and only leave him around. In that sense I respect him still giving all he has to this training. It doesn't directly benefit him. But at least he can do everything in his power to get Irina into space and have at least one of them fulfill a dream.

I do wonder about everything that led to Irina getting there. Seems like she was sold out. Although I suspect she was ok with that. No down the Russians showed up demanding a vampire for their experiments and probably threatening to kill everyone (except one) if refused. Purging is a pretty standard thing in that setting...No question she's gone through a lot of extremely ugly stuff to get to this point and is going to endure whatever it takes to make it. The real issue is both getting into space and then surviving. Even if she makes it back alive, the difficulty of keeping her alive is real.

Good feelings with Irina and Lev growing closer. We'll see how things continue to unfold as they get closer and closer to that flight to space.

[Endscape]

I rememeber how nervous I was the first time I went on a plane and then when I happened to get a window seat and looked outside, how that all seemed to fade away. I could really empathize with Irina on that point.

[BBOvenGuy]

Once again, this show gets its space history right. Originally, I thought the missile explosion that occurs in the episode was a reference to the 1969 failure of the N1 moon rocket, but it was actually referring to the Nedelin Catastrophe of October 24 1960. Just as we're told in the episode, a prototype R-16 ICBM blew up on the pad. No one knows how many people were killed, but estimates range from 50 to 300.

[Nachtwandler]

Apparently, the last volume of LN came out on October 19th (so it has 7 volumes+1 spin-off novel total). Judging by the tempo (and logic) they will adapt vol. 1-2 because the next arc switches to the Western side of the setting.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Nachtwandler

Apparently, the last volume of LN came out on October 19th (so it has 7 volumes+1 spin-off novel total). Judging by the tempo (and logic) they will adapt vol. 1-2 because the next arc switches to the Western side of the setting.

I hope the anime resolves in a satisfactory way...

[Frontier]

Irina finally gets to try on her space suit! And while it's heavy and cumbersome, it's something she managed to beat the other cadets too wearing .

Sweaty Irina! With her sweat dipping into her cleavage! Think clean thoughts, Lev .

Roza is such an ice queen, although Irina's pretty icy in their own right, so they match with each other quite well .

Well, I guess it's good that Irina wasn't forced into doing this and her people didn't sell her out. They needed a vampire into the moon, and Irina had a desire to go to the moon, so she willingly put herself up for the job. She wants to go into space and see the moon, untouched by human hands .

So not only are preconceptions about vampires wrong, but Irina doesn't look young for her age, she's actually younger than her official record. She's still a teenager. I guess that means this isn't an age-gap romance .

Did Irina want to go to places Lev wanted to go to for her day off? Is this like she's asking him out on a date? She got so flustered when he pried on her on it. Such a classic tsundere response .

Lev has Irina try alcohol for the first time...and she's a lightweight. She can barely stand, and she was tired half the time, but she did finally say Lev's name for the first time so that was pretty nice. Now Irina is a cute drunk vampire girl .

Natalia looks pretty great outside her uniform, and how nice of her on a day off to make sure Lev doesn't say anything that could get him arrested .

Why was Lev made a reserve? Because he hit someone higher up who was picking on a graduate and being cruel to them. Dude probably had it coming, but it sucks that cost Lev his chance into space .

Irina skating looked absolutely mesmerizing and beautiful. If she wasn't trying to get into space, she'd probably be a shoe-in for a pro figure skater. Also nice to see her in casual clothes, although I couldn't help but notice how well those shorts clung to her butt .

Jeez, Irina's name means "peace" but she's known anything but, as her own parents were burned alive during the war when she was only three. Jeez, that's rough .

Irina doesn't care if she's disposed of after the space flight, all she wants is to get into space, and Lev will do everything he can to make sure that happens. And Irina finally admits that she doesn't mind having him around. So sweet .

Oh boo. Irina was so drunk she remembers nothing that happened, not even the lake or her talk with Lev. Although I guess Lev remembers everything at least .

Time for Irina to enter into isolation and for the pair to spend an episode apart from each other...but I expect they'll miss each other a lot .

[FlareKnight]

The Irina and Lev ship remains hilarious. All the more so with her starting to acknowledge things herself. Able to get plenty flustered and embarrassed around him now.

Roza is a pain. But I suppose jealousy can make you pretty ugly. Tries to get Lev to treat Irina as an object and yet is upset that said object is going to beat her into space. Should probably get her own thoughts in order there . That or start getting jealous about the dog that beat them all into space.

I love that even Irina had to immediately say that she totally wasn't asking what he thought of her "in a weird way" .

That date was pretty darn fun. All the more so when they threw in that absolutely wild skating sequence. Russia is just throwing away the free gold medals in figure skating by considering disposing of her after the flight.

I do wonder how this will all play out. Not impossible it ends on a tragic note. But that would be a shame. Lev restricted from heading to space himself while Irina could be killed after her flight. But I like to think they'll find some way to handle this. Be it a change at the top that reconsiders that or just having her escape after the flight.

[SeijiSensei]

Roku puts a black screen over the end of an episode, so when I saw the title for episode two, I misread "The Path to Becoming a Cosmonaut" as "The Path to Becoming a Communist."

Seemed appropriate.

[EroKing]

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by EroKing

Cute girls and a Vampire in a School Swimsuit .

[Frontier]

Lev and Irina are separated and Lev goes back to his training while Irina is stuck in lonely isolation .

Lyudmila arrives to gauge how the project is going and how the cadets are fairing, because they're planning to send six into space, and we get to hear more of MAO's sultry adult lady voice which is never a bad thing .

Yustin botched a parachute landing and is now out of the running, couldn't have happened to a better guy, but that also means Lev is finally no longer a reserve and back in the game, although he's still currently concerned with making sure Irina makes it into space and back alive .

Well, Lyudmila spouts the same old story that Irina is just a vampire, inhuman and not something to get attached too, and someone the Motherland is fully prepared to do away with once they're finished with her. Not that Lev is satisfied with that one bit .

The isolation makes Irina flashback to what happened to her parents, as their village was invaded by soldiers and the people were slaughtered. Poor Irina was hidden away by her parents and had to watch them get burned alive right in front of her. No wonder she hates humans so much .

Also, Irina totally got her looks from her mom .

And when the isolation is getting to her and resolved not to lose to the humans...she calls out Lev's name. And then when she sees him again, she grips his jacket to make sure he's real and says his name again. And then they're back to teasing each other. She finally has no reserve towards using his name .

It's back to parachute training and they even do it solo, which turned pretty romantic when you saw them staring at each other with their hands interlinked while falling in the sky and Irina blushing hard and trying to avoid Lev's gaze even though she couldn't .

Franz can tell that Lev has feelings for Irina now, it's obvious to anyone with eyes, and he doesn't seem too judgemental about it. Although I do find it kind of suspicious that Franz is being trasnferred out. Is that scientist trying to move Franz out because he's sympathetic to Irina and the director wants to make the training harder on her ?

Irina may hate humans and thinks they're full of hot air...but Lev is the one human she's willing to admit isn't all bad, and that she knows he's trying to keep her alive, and she appreciates that .

Of course then they see a meteor crash land in front of them...except it's not a meteor, it's one of the pods they're making for Irina to use, scorched and with a poor dog used in place of Irina. And then Irina imagines that being her and almost breaks down .

So they're currently at a 30% success rate and are trying to get it to 50% by the time of launch...not great odds for Irina, and that's before they get the idea to throw in bombs to blow her up with the slightest provocation, either to finish her off or to make sure her pod doesn't fall into enemy hands. They're really making this difficult for Irina .

[iko_uwais]

Just found out that volume 7 of the ln, released on october 19th was the final volume. Decided to read ahead, and let's just say i hope it gets animated, the ending is beautiful

[Ragashingo]

The parachute scene was good. Like the ice skating last time, it managed to beat my expectations by just a bit. It's no falling scene from Weathering With You, but I thought it was effective. Still wishing "vampires" meant more than "people with good night visions who lived in the mountains", but beyond that the story and characters are holding my interest enough to continue watching.