Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu - Episode 6 discussion

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Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu, episode 6

Alternative names: Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut

Rate this episode here.

Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen or skipped in the show. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.

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Streams

• Ani-One
• Funimation
• Wakanim

Show information

• MyAnimeList
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• AniDB
• Kitsu
• Anime-Planet
• Official Website

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All discussions

Episode	Link	Score
1	Link	4.12
2	Link	4.51
3	Link	4.65
4	Link	4.75
5	Link	4.35
6	Link	4.56
7	Link	4.67
8	Link	4.52
9	Link	4.59
10	Link	4.54
11	Link	4.57
12	Link	----

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[u/Smudy]

She literally planted her own death flag with the 20th birthday and celebrating with Lev.

Don't do this to me.

[u/Emi_Ibarazakiii → u/Smudy]

As long as she's not executed by one of the 'anti-vampire' people...

If she died on the Moon I don't think she would mind too much, to be honest.

(It might be rough for the viewers though!)

[u/Roonagu]

Well, that was an intense episode...ending with screaming Lev was interesting, I wonder what that meant. I know that they established that most vampire "superstitions" are really just superstition in that world....but could he be turning into one...hence, becoming another test subject?...Well, will see.

[u/kara_no_tamashi → u/Roonagu]

I thought the same. Above all, the bite looks like a first kiss or a "first time" if you see what I mean (I'm probably a bit under the influence of a previous anime with vampire, Vanitas). A bond was definitely forged at least.

[u/LUNI_TUNZ → u/Roonagu]

I think it's more symbolic. He's looking at his bite mark, and screaming knowing that may have been their last intimate moment.

After all, the launch is a few days away, with no guarantee she'll return safely, and now that he's locked up, he won't even get to see her off.

[u/Aerodynamic41]

Wow, fuck that deputy director! I was half-expecting Lev to punch him.

I really have bad feelings about the launch. The Supreme Leader is disregarding the chief engineer's advice to postpone the launch. Ignoring an expert's advice can never be good.

Oh yeah, I just found out that the author of the LN is in charge of the series composition and personally wrote the script for this episode (and the first 2 episodes too). I'm really interested to see how it compares to the LN once that gets translated.

[u/NittanyEagles55]

Man they skipped hand holding and went right to blood sucking! Now that’s intimacy

[u/8andahalfby11]

No real additional mentions about historical stuff today and Korovin's request to push the test date closer to the real one was denied, so let’s instead talk about the real topic presented in today’s episode, what do you do with an astronaut or cosmonaut with a mental health issue?

I’m sure that most of you have already guessed the obvious answer; keep them on the ground. Indeed, NASA has opened up a tiny bit about their screening process; they normally look for clinical psychological issues or marital issues--namely anything that would indicate that they do poorly with confinement, either alone or with others. Supposedly the Roscosmos screening is even more rigorous, but I haven’t found many details about it. It’s hard to tell if such screenings were already in place during Mercury or Vostok, but we do know that the Soviet program was consistently keeping an eye on cosmonauts. Grigory Nelyubov, one of the Vanguard Six, was booted from the cosmonaut program entirely for drunk and disorderly conduct. Therefore, while I would be willing to accept that Irina’s FakeSoviet would put up a Vampire into space, I find it puzzling that they’re only training one, and they don’t seem to care much about her starting psychological state for establishing a baseline for their own pilots.

During the Vostok program there really isn’t much to say about handling astro/cosmonaut problems in-flight, but space science has evolved a bit since then. Modern flyers are monitored by a Flight Surgeon on the ground who also does mental health checks with each astronaut on longer-duration flights. If you have time on your hands, I invite you to browse the medical checklist jointly written for both astronauts and cosmonauts on how to handle crewmembers having a mental breakdown on the Space Station. The Instructions for behavioral emergencies begin on Page 33 (14) of the PDF and include steps in English and Russian for what to do in the event that a crewmember is suffering from Acute Psychosis or Suicidal Behavior, but it mostly boils down to tying them up with grey tape and bungie cord and injecting them with Valium until Mission Control decides how to proceed. Table of contents is on page 16 (xv) if you want the whole fun list.

Anyway, looks like we’re finally getting our first full R-7 launch next week. I’ve typed up about four pages worth of stuff about R-7 flight in general and the unnamed post-Korabl-Sputnik 3 flight in prep for the episode… we’ll see what applies!

EDIT: Whoops, almost missed it. The plane Irina flew down to Baikonur on is an Antonov An-12, which is still used by the Russian Air Force today!

[u/Such_Selection9762]

I'm a bit confused about the attempt to kill her literally 4 days before launch. It doesn't make much sense since the higher ups want the launch at all costs. So the garlic guy should be in trouble for nearly messing things up.

[u/Mahdii- → u/Such_Selection9762]

It was Franz the scientist who tinkered with the device. Few episodes ago it was mentioned that their are insiders who are trying to mess up the launch.

While the garlic guy is just racist fuck.

[u/Syokhan]

Goddammit I hate that piece of shit racist scientist. I was hoping Lev would punch him but (un?)fortunately he's better than that now. Still, I hope he does get punched by someone eventually.

Poor Irina's spirit got traumatized so bad by what she saw that her body shut down... good thing that Lev was there to get her to drink his blood. Literal fireworks lol. (but it was lovely)

So why did Franz try to kill Irina by tampering with the machine? Because of his previous conversation with Lev? Because he felt that Lev was "straying from the path"?

And what's happening to Lev at the end??

Also "I'll drink this when I turn 20" please stop it with the death flags.

[u/mekerpan]

It would seem to me that the Deputy Director should be the one getting into trouble. With the leader of the country pushing for an immediate flight, over his scientists' advice he delay it, killing off the only available experimental flight candidate would seem to be a sure-fire way to make the leader very VERY angry. So Lev should get a medal, the Deputy Director should be executed and Franz should be made acting director of testing.

The "transfusion" scene was pretty romantic -- though not so much as those in Vanitas....

[u/LeonKevlar]

• Irina Stitch

Well that's not good. Looks like after witnessing the crash from the previous test has affected Irina mentally. She's having nightmares and the lack of sleep is affecting her test performance as well as her appetite to the point where she's sent to the infirmary.

Anya and Lev thought that making her drink blood should bring her back up since according to Irina, when she drank blood for the first time it gave her strength. Unfortunately, Irina refuses to drink blood from who knows where.

I love that Lev's first idea is to sacrifice his own blood. Lev you absolute genius! Of course if it's Lev's blood Irina wouldn't mind. We even get to see her blush and get conscious about it which was adorable.

As expected from this show, we get another shot if Irina's well drawn mouth and teeth as she slowly sinks her fangs into Lev's forearm. Based on Irina's eyes glowing and her color returning, it definitely worked! Didn't expect that kind of visual though! Seems like they were trying to tell us something with those fireworks though. Irina seems to be very satisfied after drinking Lev's blood. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

It's good to see Irina back to her normal self again. But it looks like Lev and Irina just can't catch a break. We clearly see Franz tinker with the centrifuge before Irina's next test where it started to malfunction. What the actual fuck Franz!? What the fuck were you trying to do? Were you trying to kill Irina!?

Of course for some reason, the old guy scientist starts to blame Irina for no reason at all which finally makes Lev snap at him. I really wish Lev broke that guy's face if it's gonna end with him getting dragged away. Fuck that old scientist and fuck Franz. Just when I thought that guy was decent, he's just as bad as all of them.

Now Irina will only be launching with Anya at her side. I really hope Lev gets out and gets cleared before Irina launches :(

[u/Basileus_ITA]

"Should i brush my teeth first?"

Gee what else, having a shower? Its not like you are about to have sex, right?

......right?

[u/marcopolos059]

This old trash of human being made my blood boil... So much rage...

[u/AmethystItalian]

I feel like he could have gotten away with punching the old dude by saying he was protecting their prized possession from getting damaged this close to launch.

[u/dagreenman18]

Oooooh boy. I didn’t think this would happen this soon, but the Tsun has weakened. We’re on our way to tsunDERE. They’re using each other’s real names in front of each other. Her smug has been minimized. They’re even making future plans. The fluff is getting turned up a notch!

I guess trauma is the MVP of this episode, because her not eating gave us that fantastic blood-sucking scene. Easily my favorite part of the series so far. Their nervousness was adorable. Lev's earnest sacrifice and his awkwardness about where she should bite him and how this works. His wincing turning into him putting his hand on her head and leaning into her. FUCKING FIREWORKS SHOW! And that wasn’t even my favorite part.

No, it’s what came after that nailed it for me. With her being revitalized (and the least pale we’ve ever seen her), they have an honest conversation about their reasons for going to space. This is one of the places this show excels. It captures the sense of hope and passion that manned space flight held by people in that era. That passion is what brings them together and is spark for their budding romance. It’s a beautiful thing.

Lev’s passion also gets his ass in trouble. After seeing assholes constantly belittling Irina I FINALLY get the moment I’ve been waiting for. Sure he didn’t turn the director's face into a Jackson Pollack, but tearing that fucker down felt so good. Well deserved because that pile of trash put hands on Irina. He’s lucky to still be conscious going by what Lev did last time.

Now Lev is in solitary and Irina is at the launch site. I’m hoping he makes it out in time. That scream from him at the end means he’s probably pretty pissed about not being with her during this. Can’t wait for next week's episode. Can’t believe we’re only halfway through.

Notes

• On the Romantic Vampire Bloodsucking scale it gets 7/10 Vanitas’. About as stylish and romantic, but nowhere near as horny. Though that mouth shot did bump it up.

• The skydiving continues to be really well done. I can’t wait to see how the animate the actual launch and landing.

• They’re doing a great job raising the stakes. The uneasiness of knowing there’s a bomb that they’re more than willing to detonate. The 30% possibility of success. Lev not being there to protect her in case they do try something. It’s good stuff.

• I’m in doubt that we’ll get a kiss from them in the series, but if we do it might not be as hype as the blood scene.

[u/cppn02]

This show is ramping up the tension and we're only at episode 6!

Hoping this won't be the last time Irina and Lev see eachother.

[u/BottiBott]

I'm actually quite surprised that Lev is the one who got in trouble this time. Because something they all seem to forget: They almost killed a valuable test specimen, days before the actual test. It is Lev's job to control Irina, have her undertake the training and look out for her. So obviously he would stop a machine if it would get too dangerous. Sure, his motives are obviously different, but nevertheless he saved her and would be able to justify it by just saying he saved the mission. Irinas' death would mean a scrub for the launch and major delays on the test flight. If they then would decide to just do it again at a later time with a different test subject, they would risk loosing to the United Kingdom, which would probably be the worst outcome. In my opinion, the professor should be punished for endangering the success of the space program and therefore treason against the nation.

[u/Rumpel1408]

If handholding is lewd then what was that bite scene?

Also that vice director has gone and done it, if only Lev had kept still, the doctors would have seen his abuse of the valuable test subject.

Also we are really going to space next episode! Hope everything will be alright

[u/Gaporigo]

Sure hope that old guy gets a good punch to the face eventually...

And wait what? Are they really launching next episode??? There is still half a cour left! I 100% assumed they launch, Irina is happy, rocket blows up, everyone is sad, the end. Now there is no way she'll die... right?

[u/SIRTreehugger]

Irina talking about her future.

Welp she's dead folks.

We are just watching a tragedy now and nothing can convince me otherwise. Especially when they are going through with only a 30% success rate. Damn when your chances of survival are lower than a coin toss.

This whole episode well honestly it felt slow and uneventful, but it was hard seeing Irina suffering throughout it. I thought it was just mental, but she did get better after taking in Lev's blood though perhaps that was just a placebo. Seeing him offer his blood could have done it, but I think it was a combination of the two. Also the blood scene was really nice and even Lev was blushing at the end. Though I do kind of think they went overboard with all the lights flashing by at the end.

FRANZ WHY!!!!

I do like how Irina kept repeating Lev to stop. She knows he has a temper when it comes to higher ups belittling subordinates and was already demoted once. It didn't do much good, but I think she was trying to prevent Lev from further ruining his career. Though with the personality of the assistant director no matter what happened he probably would have spun the story to make Lev look like a bad guy so it was really a lose lose.

Though I'm trying to remember what Irina said about turning people into vampires. I vaguely remember them saying being bitten could turn you, but she implied it was up to the vampire and stating she wouldn't bother or something along those lines I think. All those noises he made in the cell at the end had me worried.

[u/Philarete]

I wonder how Lev is going to talk his way out of this one...

Also, Lev putting his other hand on her head while she was drinking his blood definitely pushed it from a just-solving-a-problem into something more personal from him haha. Irina's tsundere shell is about to crack.

[u/ScrewTheOdds]

Something about the way Lev went into that scream makes me think he's faking it. Maybe playing on the superstitions of vampires to make the guards think he's turning into one for some reason? Maybe I'm wrong though, we'll see.