English Dub Review: Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut: “Night Flight”

Overview: In order to prove Irina’s (Tia Ballard) usefulness to the mission at hand, Lev (Stephen Fu) strives to do his best to help her with her fear of heights. 

Our Take: No matter how noble of intentions that Irina and Lev have, the Zirnitra government and military heartless agenda starts to become ever more clear as it creeps from the shadows. 

It’s been known that there is a general contempt based around vampires within the Zirnitra powers, but at the core of it was a human selfishness in self-preservation. It’s interesting how while that idea remains constant, it is presented slightly differently in the case of the cosmonauts with their jealousy for a non-human being the first to venture into space. Although the cruelty extends to the higher-ups and much more so in how much, unsurprisingly, they disregard Irina’s wellbeing and treat her as disposable, beginning to set up the stakes for Irina should she prove unreliable. 

Which is, of course, something Lev understands all too well which is another reason for why he helps her with her fear of heights. One that is a sweet moment with their mutual love for the beauty and freedom that comes with taking flight. Just as interestingly, it eventually segues into Irina’s own personal reasons for why she endures such abuse from humans. Or, at least teases it, in having to do with her homeland and it’s people, whether it be it and their safety, a duty to them, or both. With the ship’s rockets being likely used for more than just space exploration, it paints a compelling picture of a moral dilemma for both Lev and Irina about their complacency in the research but Zirnitra cruel brand of justice with his childhood traumas pertaining to how his teacher was silenced for her opposing viewpoints, going into more of their cosmonaut training.