English Dub Review: Mars Red “King of Fools”

Overview(Possible Spoilers):

Rufus uses his troops to destroy some vampires. Rufus feels like he is the king of vampires and thinks another world war will start soon. Rufus thought that Defrott was dead and begins to freak out when he sees him. Rufus finds refuge with his vampire unit and Kurusu confronts him. Only for Maeda to kill the units and Rufus runs away leaving Maeda and Kurusu to clash. Rufus leaves on a boat to America but somehow Defrott tricks him into falling into the ocean and dying.

Our Take:

I have really enjoyed this show and I still do but this one was really jarring. There was a girl with Rufus who I think is the girl that was with Tenmaya but it’s not really stated. When she was confronted by Suwa later she said she was a traitor and since their sanctuary was destroyed earlier in the episode I am guessing that was because of her. It’s never really said and I think there were a few pacing issues in this one.

We spent so many episodes building up Rufus as the main villain and for what it’s worth he is a pretty good one but then he just… dies? It was really anticlimactic to me. He was also terrified of Defrott for some reason. I know that he was supposed to be dead but he never seemed that scared of him before and to be honest it’s not like he left him in the most secure of death traps. I don’t think Defrott surviving was so out of the realm of possibilities to cause his fear so that fear must be from before.

While that was anticlimactic what wasn’t (or at least not yet) is the impending fight of Kurusu vs Maeda. I shouldn’t be surprised really because their practice duel earlier in the season had the feeling of leading to something more eventually. Aoi is on her way to see Kurusu so the tragic ending is still in play. Though Aoi realizes that as she is now her and Kurusu can’t really stay together so it could be tragic in that way I suppose. I also thought it was kind of jarring how we just glossed over how Aoi healed from a serious injury. There is one episode left and I really hope it wraps up well and solves the pacing issues from this one.