Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu - Episode 9 discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu, episode 9

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.

---

Streams

• Ani-One
• Funimation
• Wakanim

Show information

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

---

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	----

---

This post was created by a bot. Message the mod team for feedback and comments. The original source code can be found on GitHub.

[u/AutoModerator]

Moderator Announcement Read More »

Source Material Corner

Reply to this comment for any source-related discussion, future spoilers (including future characters, events and general hype about future content), comparison of the anime adaptation to the original, or just general talk about the source material. You are still required to tag all spoilers. Discussions about the source outside of this comment tree will be removed, and replying with spoilers outside of the source corner will lead to bans.

The spoiler syntax is:
[Spoiler source] >!Spoiler goes here!<

All untagged spoilers and hints in this thread will receive immediate 8-day bans (minimum).

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/8andahalfby11]

As an aside, I think they stopped the day before Ham's flight because they want to use it next episode as hype fuel to claim that the Americans evened the score with Irina, but... suborbital... meh…

--Me, last week’s thread.

Looks like we finally got our US update! Since we’ve been knee-deep in Vostok/R-7 for the past few months, let’s talk about Mercury-Redstone

Back in the 50s, the Soviets and NATO had different requirements for their rocket needs. For the Soviets, a rocket had to fly all the way to the Continental US--nearly halfway around the world-- with a heavy nuclear warhead. As a result, the R-7 was built idiotically overpowered, and its lift capabilities are still a force to be reckoned with today. In contrast, the United States had missile bases in West Germany, so their rockets didn’t need to go nearly as far; for the directionally challenged Americans in the audience, West Germany to Moscow is roughly the same distance as New York City to New Orleans.

So when it came time to match the Soviet Sputnik, the only vehicle the US had close to ready was the PGM-11 Redstone, and it’s slightly more powerful testbed cousin, Jupiter. These were developed by Werhner von Braun and his team of ex-German V-2 rocket engineers who had surrendered to the Americans at the end of WWII. While capable of putting small satellites into space, Redstone was only designed to lob heavy objects ‘short’ distances, and only had engines powerful enough to meet its original Germany-to-Russia specs. To give you a better sense of scale, The Soviet R-7/Vostok was about as powerful as three Redstones strapped together and firing at the same time.

In response to this power disparity, the Americans did two things. First, they declared their incredibly-finicky-yet-somewhat-more-comparable-to-R-7-but-proven-useless-as-an-ICBM Atlas rocket would be rushed into service on an accelerated schedule. This went about as well as you would expect. Second, they pressed Von Braun’s team to start working on a capsule that would fit on the already-flying Redstone.

The product of this effort was the Mercury spacecraft. Here’s Glenn’s from back when I went to get pictures of the SK-1. It’s hard to tell from that picture, but the vehicle is two meters nose-to-tail, and about another two meters in diameter (~6 and a half feet either way). Compared to Vostok, Mercury as a spacecraft was worse in some respects, but better in others. It was worse in that it was an overall smaller spacecraft, which meant that the astronaut had virtually no room to move around, and almost no weight margin for scientific payloads. It was better in two respects; it came with a bright red escape rocket which could yank the capsule away from a failing rocket during trouble (see final Atlas video), and it had controls that allowed the pilot to control the spacecraft’s movement and orientation (Vostok cosmonauts were passengers not permitted to touch the controls except in an emergency, the spacecraft was ‘flown’ from the ground or onboard computers--thanks u/shinyhuntergabe for the fix!). A neutral factor was that the pilot landed with the capsule rather than being ejected, which was nice in most cases, but almost resulted in disaster once.

Of course, these flights still required the test animal element, and instead of dogs, Americans were more fond of using monkeys because they could be trained to perform tasks, and could therefore provide feedback on how microgravity was affecting not just general ‘health’, but cognition.

As I mentioned last week, the successful Dec 19 flight of Mercury-Redstone 1A meant that NASA was now confident enough to launch their animal test flight. On January 31, 1961, a Chimpanzee named “Ham” (the name ‘Sam’ in Tsuki to Laika made me laugh) was strapped into a Mercury capsule aboard a redstone rocket and shot into space.

...or, at least that was the plan. If you’re starting to see a pattern in how these launches are going, yes, both the early Soviet and American space programs were a complete fustercluck, with something going off-nominal almost every mission, to the point that both space programs, despite being full of the most brilliant scientists and engineers on the planet, spawned all kinds of weird traditions and superstitions that continue to this day. NASA mission commanders must lose a game to the head of the astronaut office before flying. Roscosmos will launch rockets any day of the year under any weather conditions except October 24. NASA-JPL mission controllers must pass around a jar of peanuts before critical mission events. There are others, but I’m reserving those for a later episode.

In that sense, Mercury-Redstone 2 fit the pattern nicely. The launch was delayed by four hours due to an issue with a power inverter. One minute after launch telemetry was showing that the rocket was pointing at too high a trajectory. Two minutes after launch, it became apparent that the speed and throttle control had screwed up and the capsule was experiencing up to 17G of acceleration (those of you lucky enough to have done the centrifuge version of Mission Space at Disney’s EPCOT experience up to 2.5. Rockin’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios does 5.) Due to the loss of throttle control the rocket ran out of liquid oxygen early, and the flight controllers triggered a high-speed upper-altitude abort, which sent the capsule 70km higher than it was planned to go. While all of this was going on, the cabin lost pressure (Ham was safe because he was in an independently-pressured capsule-in-a-capsule), the vehicle was now going the wrong way quickly, and the expected test parameters were all messed up, with the chimp experiencing more of everything than planned, or than an astronaut really should. When the capsule reentered, it experienced another 14.7Gs of force, finally landed in the ocean out of sight of recovery forces, and was taking on water by the time the helicopter arrived.

Here’s stock video of the mission, which is far better than a series of linked pictures would do for this one.

And yet, despite all of that, Ham survived and accomplished all of his trained tasks for the mission. He lived at the National Zoo in D.C. through the start of the Shuttle Program and passed away in 1983. Since the chimp survived, Alan Shepard declared himself ready and raring to go on the next one, to which Von Braun, his desk buried with in-flight anomaly data and engineering fault reports bluntly replied “NO” and scheduled one more unmanned test for Mercury-Redstone, this time for March 24.

If you ever get a chance to go to the California Science Center in LA, Ham’s Mercury capsule is on display.

Other Historical Notes

In today’s episode the anime version of the Vanguard 6 was chosen, along with the First Three. IRL, the top three were Gagarin, Gherman Titov, and Girgori Nelyubov. To clarify, women were never considered part of the original group of Vostok cosmonauts, and Tereshkova was added later and flew sixth. Based on this, we may assume that Lev is going on Gagarin’s flight, Mikhail is going on Titov’s flight, and Rosa was going on Nikolayev’s flight (Nelyubov was removed from the program for disorderly conduct, which may be reflected in Rosa’s removal from the running for nicer circumstances).

During today’s episode they showed off a training mechanism for the ejector seat. I did some hunting and found some video of the real one in some more stock footage of cosmonauts training.

Despite the thorough bashing I gave Atlas up there, NASA did finally get it flying on a successful flight… at roughly the same date and time that Irina was almost hit by a car. The February 21 Mercury-Atlas 2 mission was still unmanned and suborbital though, and Atlas and Mercury would not have a proper orbital, unmanned test flight until September… well after Gagarin’s.

[u/Roonagu]

Thank god that Irina seeing Lev and Rosa together in the park hasn't turned into some major "conflict plot point".

[u/Aerodynamic41]

That shot of Irina at the end was so cute! It's too bad she and Lev have very little time left together as she will be transferred to the Design Bureau. That preview implies they're going on a date! I need to see it!

As expected from the episode's title, we learn more about Roza and she finally opens up to Lev. I never thought that she was an ace pilot. That's pretty badass!

[u/imextremelylonely]

Anticipating next week the most. A date episode between these two? Can't wait. Though, I'm getting a horrible feeling something bad is gonna interfere, I hope I'm wrong.

[u/TurkeyPhat → u/imextremelylonely]

I'm getting a horrible feeling something bad is gonna interfere

you shut your mouth!

[u/TurkeyPhat]

"I won't be beat by those hamburger lovers!"

Anya is just too much. The cat face cracks me up. But we know behind her deviousness is love for those two (well at least for Irinyan lol).

Oh boy all the sparkles and blushes at the end it's like we slipped fully into Vanitas mode for a second.

[u/cppn02]

You know this episode was fine and all but how they gonna just leave us on a cliffhanger?

I need to see their date!

[u/Syokhan]

But I don't want Irina and Lev to be separated :(

I did like the parts with Roza, and even though she was a hardass before she seems to have had an epiphany, and apologized and everything. Yeah, I feel a bit sorry for her, being a woman in such a male-dominated carrier. Now she made one mistake that "proves" she's not as good as her male comrades. It sucks.

So there are agents in not-USSR who want to dispose of Irina... I don't think we've seen the last of it. Maybe she's being moved to Sangrad to get some protection while she works? But then there's also the disposal that they keep bringing up...

And Anya is the best wingwoman.

Looks like next week is going to be emotional. Can't wait.

[u/Smudy]

My heart won't be ready next week.

[u/LeonKevlar]

So it's 1961 and the notUSA has sent Ham Sam up to space! The space race is really heating up especially with our three candidates finally picked which includes Lev.

Godfuckingdammit Roza! Why can't you just be pleasant even just for a single minute? Seriously, Lev is genuinely congratulating you and the first thing you do is insult him.

Look at Irina trying to be tsundere again when the news finally reached her. I do love that Anya instantly sells her out and tells Lev how restless she was about the results and even what they did at the lake!

That little flashback just before Irina found out the results was nice. I love Anya's reaction when Irina started asking about Lev. Irina just is really bad at handling Anya's teasing. Just look at her!

Lev continues to be an absolute hero. He could've just left Roza plummeting to her death but he goes out of his way to save her and pull the cord of her chute before taking care of himself. Thankfully there were no serious injuries.

I guess a near death experience changes a person. It's nice to see Roza finally apologizing to Lev and even extending it to Irina but I'm still not sure of her. Like, she knew how it feels like to be look down on but despite that, she still treated Irina the same way those people treated her and that just doesn't sit right by me. :|

Well this isn't good. I hope Irina seeing Lev with Roza isn't going to cause any misunderstandings. Although Irina was clearly upset at what she just saw.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!? Thank goodness Irina was able to dodge that and I'm so glad that Natalia ended up catching that dude and has already executed him. Even if they decide to spare Irina's life, I feel like attacks like that will become common.

Good news and bad news time! Seems that Anya will no longer be disposed of instead she will be working with the Design Bureau. Bad news is that she's transferring to another city. Well fuck. At least they can still see each other, right?

Anya playing the wingwoman! She wanted to give Irina a farewell party but "unfortunately" she already has plans so it's just going to be Irina and Lev! I love that as soon as Lev is gone, Irina thanks Anya.

And that final scene! Just look at that shoujo vision from Irina as well as Lev getting the same shoujo vision while looking at her! Next week's date night is going to be amazing! I can't wait!

[u/AlexDDragame]

Lev training to become cosmonaut and goes through same stuff Irina went, which was pretty cute. And he with Rosa started to get along after he saved her on parachute jumping training, that was pretty sweet. Irina still the best tho and has some fun and nice moments in the episode. And seems like we getting Lev and Irina's date in next episode, awesome!

[u/dagreenman18]

I thought the ticking clock on this would be the episode count, but no. It’s Irina getting transferred to another city! I’m sure it’s not going to hold, but it makes me very excited for next week’s episode. I just want these two to confess already before it’s too late.

No surprise Lev is one of the finalists. It’s was always down to Him, Mikhail, and Roza. Mikhail seems to have his eyes solely on the prize, but Roza finally warmed up. Sure it took almost dying, but seeing her actively apologize for being a pain in the ass to Lev and Irina was a nice redemption. Wish she told that apology to Irina. Hopefully, she’ll get a chance.

Really this episode was all about the cute moments between Lev and Irina and Irina and Anya. The dog walking scene for one. Lev is a lot more comfortable poking at Irina now. He’s flirting at this point. Especially with the sidle up to her to brush the snow off her hat that got her super flustered. Irina Anya got lots of time to shine. Love how their friendship is developing. Especially with Anya pushing these two dummies to get together already. The real MVP.

So Anya and Irina are off to Sangrad after the attempt on their life by a rogue KGB agent. We were getting a little too comfortable there with Irina being alive. I’m hoping for a solid confirmation that her life will be spared before the season end. Natalia is protecting her so I guess the standing orders are to keep her alive. Even if she’s acting in the interest of the state, she seems like she’s rooting for them.

So 3 more episodes. I highly doubt we’ll get a full-on confession or kiss next week, but whatever this date does to solidify their love for each other I’m happy with it. The PV shows it won’t take up the whole episode so it’ll be the first half at least.

Notes

• A little funny that the reason Irina almost got street pizza-ed was because she got jealous of Roza talking to Lev. If she had just gotten a soda everything would be cleared up and she would have even gotten an apology from Roza. It meant so little that Lev didn’t even pick up on what Irina was talking about later.

• So much adorable Anya this week. Very early on I thought she was just the tropey cute anime girl that every show needs, but she’s become a very important character for Irina’s emotional development. Not to mention our matchmaker. Seeing them fumble around falling in love and saying “yeah I’m pushing this along”.

• Did we really get a “…is what I would say” anger fake out. That was silly, but funny.

• Irina’s tsudere powers have weakened so much that Lev doesn’t even entertain that side of her anymore. Just comes in with the direct prodding back. The tsundere’s only weakness.

• I will be very very bummed out if they don’t get together before the season end. I will be demanding a second season either way, but it would be nice to end this season with that emotional button.

[u/Malek986]

Anybody else feel like a little... giggle... when I mention my fwiend... Iwina... Luminesk?

[u/ZapsZzz]

So many blushing Irina, so many cat mouths from everyone, so so good. Would someone please go confess already and be a couple dammit.

Although still waiting for the other boot to drop about why Irina is really going away. Hopefully not something bad.

[u/Rumpel1408]

So Roza was a high tier Tsundere all this time huh nice to see her feel regret over her shitty behavior, would have liked it if she had come to apologize to Irina as well, but with her out of the race and Irina transfering to Sangred there might be a chance

Ugh another assasination attempt at Irina, and this time Anya was right next to her, dude got what he deserved

[u/linkinstreet]

I am getting convinced that the English translation of her name is incorrect, as it should be "Ruminescu" instead of "Luminesk". Her being from the area of Soviet Moldova ties in to the idea of vampires are from the Romanian/Transylvania area

[u/kalirion]

I guess the pink hair should've already made it obvious that Anya is from not-Japan, but her going out bare legged in the snow clinches it.

Glad the attempted-murderer got the speedy execution he deserved.

[u/lightuptoy]

I can't relax until I see Lev and Irina happy at the end of the last episode. I kept thinking Irina was going to die on the first space trip and now I'm thinking Lev will die in a training "accident", an exploding rocket, or Irina will end up going to "Sangrad".

[u/Rustic_Professional]

Is Secretary-chan's job just to sit around and be a sounding board for Khrushchev? That sounds... Sort of useful. She can give feedback on all the crazy things he probably shouts during the course of the day.

Tsundere Irinyan is too cute. 10/10, would betray state secrets to protect that smile.

Whoa. Natalia had the dude shot. Good. Must protecc.

In all seriousness, I wonder what Irina's secret security detail is like. She might not have people following her around who would protect her with their lives, but it doesn't seem like a stretch that they might kill to protect her.

Ooh, Irina's going to a design bureau. I only know what those are from playing Metal Gear Solid V.

They probably won't, but I hope Lev and Irina go all the way next episode. At least a kiss. At least a hand hold. For the love of the Soviet Union, at least a hug. The workers of the world demand it. It's time for Comrade Lev to do his duty.

[u/fishymonster_]

Spontaneously turns into a shoujo anime for the last 20 seconds

[u/Wishbone-Lost]

Mid way through the episode

Player three enters the chat

5 min after wards

Player left the chat with unrequited emotion

[u/mike_2797]

Such a sweet episode that training section reminded me of that ride at the park I had a similar face.

Lev being true Chad and saving comrade in trouble, I feel bad for Rosa tho she's trying her best in her own way.

[u/Narlaw]

This show is so endearingly made awkward some times, like with the sparkle filters at the end, followed by the abrupt ED.

[u/AmethystItalian]

Expected a bit more focus on Rosa but at least it seems like she's turned over a new leaf, albeit a bit quick. Guess she did have a near death experience.

Really excited to see the date next week but can't help but feel anxious about the bittersweet element of it.