Thread by @Richmond_Lee

Sirius the Jaeger is a new anime with chara designs by ex-Capcom luminary Kinu Nishimura (@nishi_katsu). It's about werewolves violently killing vampires in 1930s East Asia. Directed by Masahiro Ando (Sword of the Stranger). It's got everything I like!😃

Sirius the Jaeger has some compelling stuff going on! It's too early to tell, but I think the series might be drawing a parallel between Colonialism/Imperialism and Vampirism, which was also a strong theme throughout Blood: The Last Vampire.

Blood The Last Vampire was definitely a visual and tonal influence on Sirius the Jaeger. The Vampires in Sirius look very much like the Chiropterans from Blood (designed by GOAT illustrator Katsuya Terada!)

My memory is hazy, but I believe in the OVAs and books Saya has some connection to colonial Shanghai. A lot of folks say that the Blood OVA had no story. While it was light on plot, it had a very explicit anti-war theme which was carried out through very subversive imagery.

Most of the Blood OVA takes place on a US military base in Japan during the Vietnam War. While the rampaging vampires kill several people, the planes constantly taking off in the distance will kill many more people on a far larger scale.

The parallel is no accident. The OVA climaxes with Saya stopping the last remaining Chiropteran from flying off. Meanwhile planes constantly take off and land with ease throughout the rest of the film. I believe the last shot was actually a bomber flying towards Vietnam!

Back to Sirius The Jaeger, it seems like the international crew of vampire hunters likely come from former or current colonies. For instance, Fallon, the most upbeat member of the team explicitly states that he's from Ireland (gained independence in 1922) in the first episode.

Dorothea is definitely of African descent. As a black woman in the Eastern Hemisphere in the 1930s, it's very likely her homeland is currently colonized. The decolonization of Africa would not begin until the 1950s.
#SiriustheJaeger

Yuliy, the main character is especially compelling to me. He has a Russian name, but is visually coded as Asian. Also the Japanese characters refer to everyone else in his party as foreigners, but not him directly so far.
#SiriustheJaeger #sirius_anime #天狼

While there are many Asian ethnic groups in Russia, I believe Yuliy is a Russian Ainu. It's fairly common knowledge that Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan, but those of you who have been following Golden Kamuy know that they are also indigenous to Russia!
#SiriustheJaeger

If you look closely at the trailer for Sirius The Jaeger, you'll see people in Ainu cloth--ohwait, ok, that's him as a kid. Yeah he's definitely Ainu lol. Excuse me while i HIGH FIVE MYSELF.
#SiriustheJaeger #sirius_anime #天狼

Alright! This series DEFINTELY has some GOOD STUFF going on. Yuliy is a Russian Ainu and also a werewolf. Ainu, like most indigenous people the world over, have been systematically oppressed for hundreds of years.
#SiriustheJaeger #sirius_anime #天狼

Russian Ainu lived in the lands that were frequently contested between Russia and Japan. On top of that Yuliy is intimately connected with the ezo wolf. This is REALLY SIGNIFICANT.
#SiriustheJaeger #sirius_anime #天狼

Wolves were worshiped as gods in Ainu culture. But during the Meiji Restoration the government saw them as a threat to their growing ranching industry and started a program to exterminate them. They were driven to extinction by 1889.
#SiriustheJaeger #sirius_anime #天狼

I believe one of the central themes of Sirius the Jaeger is that Colonialism and Imperialism in general are like Vampirism. They spread through violence and force their victims into adopting a totally new and alien lifestyle.
#SiriustheJaeger #sirius_anime #天狼

Yuliy represents the rage of the colonized, fighting back against the vampires that stole everything from them. He's even part ezo wolf, a creature hunted to extinction because the ruling powers deemed it a pest and a threat to their economy.
#SiriustheJaeger #sirius_anime #天狼

THIS IS SOME POWERFUL STUFF. Basically if you were rooting for Killmonger during Black Panther, you should be watching Yuliy brutalize vampires with glee in Sirius the Jaeger! :D
#SiriustheJaeger #sirius_anime #天狼 #Killmonger #BlackPanther

I hope you enjoyed this thread (and don't think I'm just crazy for reading so much into one episode and a trailer). Anime has long been a very literary art-form. I'm confident the themes I've touched on here are very intentional.

You can still enjoy the series without digging deeper, but I strongly feel that looking for these deeper themes enriches every second of the viewing experience. Thanks for reading and have a good one!