WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Episode 9 of Mars Red, "Suspicion," now streaming on Funimation.
The main bad guy of Mars Red, General Nakajima, had a cunning plan to convince Japan's military brass to open the coffers to finance special vampire attack units. Step one: hide his expenses behind Code Zero, a sad, under-funded sad excuse for a task unit. Step two: redirect the funds to research a synthetic version of the vampire virus that could be ingested by normal humans en masse. Step three: transform an entire squadron of loyal men into vampires and secretly distribute the virus among the general population, to create an increase in vampires that could only be controlled by his vampire units. Step Four: Profit.
Alas, poor Nakajima -- the many deaths and mayhem that his cunning plan caused did not convince his superiors about the benefits of keeping a permanent battalion of vampire supersoldiers. To Nakajima's chagrin, they liked the idea even less than before, suggesting that instead of using his squadron to smash the heads of the newly infected, these vampires should be working as military engineers, helping to rebuild Tokyo. The fact that these units are terrorizing the human population doesn't help Nakajima's case either.
But things are even worse than he thinks. First off, Nakajima's only real ally at this point is Rufus Glenn, an unhinged vampire even by Takeuchi's standards, who has a knack for killing authority figures, "loose ends" and anyone who could provide him with a sliver of entertainment. It's unclear what his motives are, other than pure chaos.
Secondly, Nakajima's plan to neutralize Code Zero has failed. The only one to meet the sun was Yamagami, who not only was the kindest but also the least powerful. Takeuchi, the brains, Suwa, a silent assassin with 300 years of experience and Kurusu, the most powerful vampire of Japan, all survived the Earthquake. Even worse, Maeda, who Nakajima wanted to turn into one of his vampires, was turned by Deffrott instead -- who also revealed how Nakajima was ultimately guilty for the death of Maeda's fiancée and Nakajima's daughter.
Admittedly, Maeda has not done a great many things so far, other than brooding, chain-smoking and giving katana tutorials -- but he doesn't seem like the kind of man who would take those specific crimes lightly. If anything, Maeda's relationship with Nakajima is starting to take a Palpatine-Darth Vader lilt, complete with an artificial hand, a cape and a son figure in Sutaru.
But that's not all -- it's unclear whether Nakajima knows about the events of Episode 8 yet, where one of his supposedly ultra-loyal vampire super-soldiers went rogue and started slaughtering his comrades in the middle of battle -- but that's another variable that doesn't bode well for his plans at all. In fact, if more of the men he turned into immortal bloodsucking servants -- the same men he locked up in iron suits during the night and iron coffins during day -- bypass their conditioning, Nakajima's retirement plans might come to an end at the points of his men's morningstars, even without the help of Code Zero, the eventual betrayal of Rufus Glenn or a martial court.
