WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Mars Red Episode 3, "His Dream," now streaming on Funimation.

Mars Red is an historical vampire anime set in an alternate version of 1923 Tokyo, during the Taisho era. The government knows about vampires and worries about their proliferation, despite efforts to displace them from their homes or assimilate them into the military. Vampires are treated less like predators and more as an annoying (if potentially deadly) infestation, although some countries around the world have tried to co-opt their unique powers to carry out intelligence work.

Episode 3 explores this concept through the life of Yamagami, a veteran soldier turned into a vampire well into his 40s. Focusing on Yamagami provides a unique perspective: most pop-culture vampires are hot young things who were transformed either before making a family (Edward in Twilight or Mars Red's Shutaro Kurusu) or after losing their loved ones (Coppola's version of Dracula.) In a way, their emotional ties to the human world were severed before they turned. Yamagami, however, had a loving wife and a serene -- if uneventful -- family life.

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At the start of Episode 3, both Kurusu and Yamagami receive confirmation that their families have been notified of their death on the battlefield. Both are very removed from the bloodthirsty monsters of lore, having kept all their wits and retaining their personality and taste for life. However, they can't register in the official vampire registry either, as that would give away their new positions within the secret task force Code Zero. They've been disconnected from their families not by the vampiric infection, but by a bureaucratic decision.

Both Yamagami and Kurusu are initially appalled, but decide to abide by their orders. Well, kind of. After spending too much time with Takeuchi, the resident mad-scientist vampire and finder of loopholes extraordinaire, Yamagami heads to the Japanese Lantern Plant Fair section of the Bon Festival to take a last look at his wife Tomiko. Kurusu goes with him, eager to help his friend by using his superhuman speed to appear ghostlike and avoid detection. "If we move really fast, people will think we are spirits, which now that I say it makes sense because we are technically dead," says Kurusu, making the best of their situation.

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And it works! Tomiko shows up at the Bon with a lantern, which she was about to release in the river to guide her loved ones' spirits back to the land of the dead. However, while she watches the sea of lanterns go by, she hesitates, clearly thinking about her recent loss. That's when Kurusu drops Yamagami so he can say his goodbyes.

Tomiko takes the apparition really well, and the couple exchange words of endearment. Yamagami would like to come back to his role as a husband but his duty prevents him, so he slips into the skin of a benevolent spirit. He asks Tomiko for forgiveness for being away, for dying, and advises her to sell his possessions if she needs to and to remarry if she meets someone she loves. She laughs it away, reassuring Yamagami she has no wish to do such a thing, but that she does expect him to visit every O-Bon "until the day I join you."

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And that's the bittersweet truth: unless Yamagami is killed or Tomiko is infected, they will not be reunited for a very long time. Yamagami, now immortal and apart from society, will never age, and Tomiko will die a mortal's death in what is the blink of an eye for a vampire. The scene, which had previously shown Tomiko hesitant to drop her lantern on the river to guide her husband to the afterlife, now shows Yamagami watching the infinity of lanterns, all those mortal souls that would pass to the afterlife and leave him behind.

Episode 3 of Mars Red is beautiful and perfectly bittersweet, a mature breather that takes the time to explore the humanity of vampires and the pain of separation.

Mars Red, based on the stage play by Fujisawa Bun-o, is written by Fujisaku Junischi (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex), directed by Fujisawa Bun-o and Hatano Kouhei, designed by Karakara Kemuri (Laughing Under the Clouds) and Takeuchi Yukari (Demon Slayer) and scored by Muranaka Toshiyuki.

KEEP READING: Mars Red: Every Rule Vampires Must Obey