English Dub Review: Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut: “Training Separately”

Overview: As Irina (Tia Ballard) comes out of isolation training, Lev (Stephen Fu) works her even harder in the hopes of saving her life. 

Our Take: The very real danger that Irina faces, even if she manages to survive the expedition to the moon, is becoming more clear as more measures are put into place after that will make her demise all but guaranteed. 

With Lev and the rest of the space candidates being tested for a team of six to become full-fledged cosmonauts, the already set in motion plans serve to show how the big wigs in Zirnitra are every bit the monsters we know them to be. With how easily discardable they view Irina to be in her being nothing more than a testing dummy for the safety of their human soldiers, this particular type of coldness is nothing new but their continued reiteration of that point acts as a stark reminder. What truly starts to make you understand the depths of their evil and, by and large, the Soviet Union they take after in how they treated people who didn’t fit their heinous ideology, is the heartless cruelness of their regime in burning Irina’s family, covering it up and using her as guinea pig. That ruthlessness continues to extend even now in shipping Irina and Lev in a ship that doesn’t have the most secure safety measures in place when entering the atmosphere and planting explosives should they land in an enemy territory to avoid leaking secrets. 

When Irina’s isolation training concludes, it is her continued cheekiness regarding Lev that shows what makes them a cute couple to watch on screen, but most importantly it’s her continued recognition of the respectable person he is, the first one she has ever met. His tough attitude on her during training is one out of genuine concern for life rather than contempt that makes for a sweet and heartfelt moment during their training jumping parachuting at high altitudes. One that is elevated by how Lev understands that anyone with hopes and dreams, ones that also happen to be the same as his, can not be the monsters they are made out to be. However, as Irina soon realizes when witnessing the death of a test dog in ship, there are dangerous consequences involved in her endeavor. With the fear of death as well as PTSD involved with the inhumane acts done to her, it acts as a nail-biting mental roadblock and challenge detrimental to her life moving forward, if she’s not considered relevant, and not just for her either.