I am here to inform you:
Werewolves are still the best!
And if you like werewolves, you should check out a game named Far Away From Home! It is awesome! There are werewolves, and they are not mindless NPCs - they actually play a huge part in the plot of the game, and you can recruit them to be a part of your party. They are also actually not werewolves.
I posted some snippets of information about this game here and here, and you can also check out my Steam thread here. I really want to give this game at least several new players. Darn, maybe the dev will come back from hiatus, as I would love to hear from him.
For this thread, I will upload the portraits of the wolves which I extracted from the game myself.
Now then, on the vampire side of things I almost watched an anime named Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut aka The Moon, Laika, And The Nosferatu.
Vampire-wise, it's a very mild take on vampires. They are pretty much... some kind of mongolian elves with or something. They do not even need to drink blood, albeit drinking blood does benefit them greatly. All in all though, they are pretty much just humans with fangs and sharp ears, plus some minor differences in their physiology, like doing better in the cold and, accordingly, worse in heat.
Aside from vampires, what attracted me personally is the fact that the whole plot is set in non-USSR. Mind you, it is clearly not USSR, as it is unimaginable to have a "Merry Christmas" sign in USSR, as soviets specifically replaced Christmas with New Year, and there are some other differences as well, whether they are intentional or not.
I'm also not sure if the country is presented as overly-totalitarian or not totalitarian enough. I mean, you see, it is kind of presented as dictatorship, but given that the whole thing goes on a top secret object, at the height of the cold war and space race, the level of security is at the very least appropriate.
Overall though, it is still a better depiction of Soviet Union than 99% of russian movies that came out since the start of Perestroika. Almost 40 years have gone by, and all our modern directors can do is to use the trope of "evil KGB everywhere" to death. Meanwhile, in The Vampire Cosmonaut people are actually people. The moment where general secretary complains about the pressure military puts on him is all too human. And the moment where heroes get soda from the famous soviet soda vending machines, while the animation showcases everything, including the way you were supposed to wash glasses in them - well, it's just pure gold in my eyes. Once again, with that one scene japanese did more for the legacy of the Soviet Union than 99% of russian movies.
As you can see, I liked that anime, but, mayhaps, not quite for the representation of vampires. It strikes my heart for other reasons, as I literally was born in that specific country. So I cannot say if I recommend this anime to you. Go figure.
