Call of the Night - Yofukashi no Uta - よふかしのうた

Call of the Night anime is an anime adaption from the Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kotoyama. It's a supernatural romantic comedy between Ko Yamori (夜守コウ, Yamori Kō) a 14-year-old, second-year junior high school boy and a vampire named Nazuna Nanakusa (七草ナズナ, Nanakusa Nazuna). Yamori got tired of his dull and tedious school life, he also doesn't enjoy spending time with a lot of people and hates noise. One night he decided to slip out since he have not done it ever. He walks around the neighborhood and he chance upon a girl named Nanakusa. Nanakusa walked around with Yamori and invited him to her apartment. While Yamori is pretending to be asleep, Nanakusa sucked his blood. Yamori sit up and ask Nanakusa what was that for, which she replied it was a mosquito.

Nanakusa is a kind of a loud mouth and she loves telling dirty jokes but gets easily embarrassed when talking about love and romance. While Yamori is an average junior high school boy who likes to be alone and doesn't know the concept of love. He wants to fall in love with Nanakusa so she can turn him into a vampire.

Characters:

Ko Yamori (夜守コウ, Yamori Kō)

Nazuna Nanakusa (七草ナズナ, Nanakusa Nazuna)

 

Humans:

Akira Asai (朝井アキラ, Asai Akira) - Yamori's childhood friend who also lives in the same apartment as him. She is an obedient student and she always ask Yamori to go back to school with her.  

Mahiru Seki (夕真昼, Seki Mahiru) - he is a childhood friend of Kou Yamori and Akira Asai. He likes Kiku Hoshimi who is a vampire.

Akihito Akiyama (秋山昭人, Akiyama Akihito) - he wore large glasses with high thick lenses due to weak eyesight but improved when Seri Kikyō turned him into a vampire.

Kiyosumi Shirakawa (白河清澄, Shirakawa Kiyosumi) - in episode 5, she's Nazuna Nanakusa's client in her massage gig. 

 

Vampires:

Seri Kikyō (桔梗セリ, Kikyō Seri) - Nazuna and Seri doesn't like each other and Nazuna calls her a "b*ch", but she still reached out to Yamori when she learned that Nazuna is spending the night with him. Akihito Akiyama is one of her underling. 

Nico Hirata (平田ニコ, Hirata Niko) - she's a teacher who teaches night classes and a vampire. 

Kabura Honda (本田カブラ, Honda Kabura) - she works as a Nurse and she likes teasing others. She used to be a sickly girl who wanted to experience all the things that a normal girl experience but couldn't because of her health. She acted as a mother to Nazuna Nanakusa. She was in love with Nazuna's mother Haru Nanakusa but left her for a human.

Midori Kohakobe (小繁縷ミドリ, Kohakobe Midori) - she's a vampire who works in a maid cafe. She can be a little narcissistic since she is well aware of her good looks but getting past that she has a friendly personality.

Hatsuka Suzushiro (蘿蔔ハツカ, Suzushiro Hatsuka) - he's a friendly vampire who likes spending time with Yamori. He wore girls dress since he said that he looks feminine and girl’s clothes suits him.

Kiku Hoshimi (星ホシ見ミキク Hoshimi Kiku) - she's unpredictable and a friend of Mahiru Seki. She's a vampire who has the most underlings.

Haru Nanakusa (七ナナ草クサハル Nanakusa Haru) - mother of Nazuna Nanakusa. They said she died giving birth to her.

Comment:

Call of the Night is a dark romantic comedy anime that comes with an attitude its not your typical vampire romance. Nazuna Nanakusa is very entertaining she likes to tease everyone with her lewd jokes but gets embarrassed with romance. She's very funny there's not dull moment when she's around. If you ask me currently "Call of the Night" is the top 1 when it comes to art and animation. The movement of the characters are smooth and continuous while the art work is superb you can literally make every scene a wallpaper.

 

Episode 1 - "Night Flight"

 

- Story started with Ko Yamori slipping out of their apartment at night without telling anyone. He recalls he started having problems sleeping at night and he rejected his classmate’s love confession since he doesn’t understand dating and being in a relationship. He wanted to fix his insomnia but upon researching online it says that he should talk to someone he trust but he has no friends. It also says drink alcohol but he's still under age and hasn’t even tried drinking yet. He found a vending machine and bought a beer. Out of nowhere Nazuna Nanakusa told him he doesn't look over twenty and called him a delinquent. He tried to leave but Nazuna stopped him and told him that she'll help him with his insomnia. Nazuna told him that he is having insomnia because he doesn’t get satisfied with his life.

- Nazuna after walking around took him to her apartment to sleep. Yamori pretends to be sleeping. Nazuna sucks his blood and Yamori stood up ask her what she did with Nazuna making an excuse that there was a mosquito. But Yamori told her that it's not very convincing since she has blood on her mouth. She finally admitted that she was a vampire and Yamori ask her if he's a vampire now. She said not to worry since he needs to fall in love with a vampire to turn into a vampire. When talking about love Nazuna gets embarrassed easily so she drank a beer. Yamori asked her if he could spend time with her so he can fall in love with her and become a vampire as well. Nazuna agrees in exchange for his blood.

 

Episode 2 - "Do You Do LINE?"

 

- Nazuna explains to Yamori that by sucking someone’s blood is not only a vampire's way for feeding themselves but also making offspring which means it's like copulating which led to Yamori to asked her why she always talks about copulating. Nazuna went on explaining what copulating meant with hand gestures which embarrasses Yamori.

- When thinking about Yamori sucking the blood of random people, he got jealous. He asks Nazuna to exchange their contact information, but she doesn't have one. She only got an old cellphone which is too big.

- He gave Nazuna a walkie talkie watch so that they can talk to each other. Yamori then told her that they are like dating which embarrassed her.

- While walking Yamori wondered what happened to the other pair of his old walkie talkie watch which suddenly receive a signal and a girl beside him called his name.

 

walkie talkie watches 

 

 

Episode 3 - "A Lot Came Out"

 

Akira Asai

- The girl beside Yamori was Akira Asai his childhood friend. She was the one who picked up the other walkie talkie watch and she told him she waited for him to contact her, but he never did. Yamori ask him if they can meet again tomorrow.

- One night Nazuna told Yamori that he seems to be leaving early lately, which she then followed asking him playfully if he's seeing another woman. Yamori met with Akira which what he's been doing lately after staying at Nazuna's apartment. While they were talking on a bench, Nazuna who secretely followed Yamori suddenly appeared and teases him that he's playing hanky-panky with Akira.

- Nazuna told Akira that their relationship is merely physical, she even prove it by drinking his blood in front of her and revealing that she's a vampire. They went to a cafe and they introduce each other.

- Nazuna left the cafe while Yamori paid for the bill and ran after her leaving Akira. Yamori asks Nazuna if she was angry which she said she wasn't, Nazuna got more pissed and jumped to the top of an electric post and flipping him.

- Yamori ran after her but lost her, he keeps on looking for her until he trips on a stair. He calls her through the walkie talkie watch to apologize for for seeing Akira in secret. Nazuna appeared and said that she was not angry just ticked off since Yamori cannot respond to Akira when she asked him to come with her to school. Yamori tells her that he's just having trouble to tell his human friend that he won't be going to school because he wants to be a vampire. Nazuna asked him what happened to him why are there's blood in him. He said he tripped and Nazuna kissed him.

 

Episode 4 - "Isn't This a Tight Squeeze?"

 

- Yamori thinking what happened between him and Nazuna and saw a couple kissing he then assume that he already fallen in love with Nazuna. He looked for Nazuna and when she found her he ask her to drink his blood and thought he would become a vampire, Nazuna told her he is confusing love with lust. 

- Yamori then ask Akira to hang out with them at Nazuna's apartment where they play a dating videogame.

- Akira learned that Nazuna and Yamori's kiss and tried to discourage him from further falling in love with the monster.

- After playing the trio lie down to sleep which made Akira very uncomfortable. Nazuna told Akira that she has a give and take relationship with Yamori and Yamori finally tells her that he will turn to a vampire if he falls in love with Nazuna.

- Akira said that she won’t give up on him to take him back to school.

 

Episode 5 - "Well, That's a Problem"

 

- Nazuna went to a public bathhouse and told the attendant to call her if her walkie talkie watch starts beeping. When it started beeping before the attendant can call her, she grab her things and ran outside in a superhuman speed. Yamori noticed she looks different and she said she's having a batch, then invited him to the bath house. Yamori seems to be feeling something else because of Nazuna's new look. He ask her to suck his blood since it calms him down and help clears his head. After sucking his blood, he felt a little tired and wanted to rest so he pointed to a resting place with video games which turns out to be a love motel. Nazuna didn't say a word.

- Nazuna then teases him about his feelings explaining to him that she can grasp an idea of what a person is thinking by the taste of their blood.

- Nazuna pointed to Yamori a person from which she has drank blood before which got him jealous. They then went to her apartment after then she reveals to Nazuna that she runs a home massage parlor. She massages Yamori free of charge.

Episode 6 - "Might as Well Have Fun"

 - The episode started with Kiyosumi Shirakawa (Nazuna’s regular customer in her massage business), in car with probably her officemates and she’s annoyed by them so she ask the guy to just drop her off. She got off from the car and walked and thought if Nazuna’s is still available that late. She then had a flashback when she was seated on a bench late at night when Nazuna appeared out of nowhere asking if she was having problem sleeping and she end up being her customer.  

- In the continuation of the previous episode, Yamori ends up giving Kiyosumi Shirakawa massage since Nazuna is busy playing video games so she just promised Yamori a kiss and money. Yamori keeps on thinking about the kiss and he’s doesn’t want to admit that he’s doing it because of it.

- While Kiyosumi is telling a story about herself, Yamori realized that she is like him who wants to be alone and wants to be out on the street at night with few people around.  Kiyosumi’s phone suddenly got messages from her boss at 2:00 AM asking to go back at the office. Yamori stopped her saying that she needs a time for herself.

- The next night Nazuna and Yamori went for a night swimming. Yamori is confused why he seems to be getting excited to see Nazuna in a swimsuit when she always wears revealing clothes.  Nazuna went to get a drink and two men approached her and said she was cute and ask her if she’s with someone. She said yes and teased Yamori by telling them that her companion might have left. Yamori got jealous and grab her hand and pulled her out. While walking home and Yamori sulking, Nazuna picked him up and flew to his schools swimming pool, enjoying the water for themselves with no noisy crowd.   

Comment: Another animation masterpiece  from Call of the Night - Yofukashi no Uta よふかしのうた, looks like our junior high schooler boy is slowly falling in love with Nazuna and on his way of reaching his goal to be a vampire.

      

Episode 7 - "Reproduce"

- It started with Yamori walking in the street late at night and he ran into Kiyosumi Shirakawa who told him that she now find time for herself and no longer strain herself at work. She also gave Yamori a cola as thanks for telling her that he would turn her into a vampire if he ever becomes one. 

- While taking shelter from rain, Yamori saw a middle age guy hitting on a pretty blonde school girl. The blonde approach him and teases him and told him that she sometimes go out with strangers because she is him she is bored with her life. Yamori comfort her and said that they were the same. The blonde girl jump and hug him and tried to suck his blood.  Fortunately, Nazuna with a superhuman speed cut that blonde woman’s arm in the nick of time saving Yamori. 

- Nazuna then confront the blonde girl who turn out to be a vampire named Seri Kikyō who told her that the vampires are on to Nazuna because they learned that she was spending time with a human, yet she’s not killing or turning him into an underling. While Nazuna is fighting Kikyō another vampire who is a woman with a black hair appeared behind Yamori and grab him and flew. 

- She took Yamori to the other vampires. The brunette vampire wearing a suit told him that they need to turn him into a vampire or kill him since he already knew that vampires exist. She also gave him a choice on who he wants to turn him. She also introduces herself as Nico Hirata. She also introduced the others:  

Midori Kohakobe, a short hair girl wearing a white sweater jacket. 

Hatsuka Suzushiro, thin who has bangs. 

Kabura Honda, the woman who took him. 

And 

Seri Kikyō, the blonde girl who she met first. 

- Nazuna told Nico Hirata that he only wants Nazuna-chan which surprised the other vampires since they said that they are the popular vampires more popular than Nazuna who is a dunce and a failure when it comes to romance. The vampires tried to persuade him to be one of their underlings but he rejects all their advances and still chose Nazuna.  He told them that he wants to fall in love with Nazuna. Nazuna overheard and turned red and stiff because of embarrassment.  The vampires accept Yamori who said that he will fall in love with Nazuna, no matter how long it takes.

- This is a very good episode and the story becomes lively since they introduce a lot of interesting characters that will make Nazuna and Yamori’s day to day life more interesting. 

Episode 8 - " All of Us"

 

- Continuing from the last episode,  Yamori explains to the group of vampire his relationship with Nazuna, their arrangement, and he promised he intends to be a vampire no matter how many years it takes. Nico Hirata told him that that’s not possible since he only has a one year limit. If he doesn’t become a vampire within one year starting from the first time his blood was sucked by a vampire, he will no longer be a vampire. Yamori looked at Nazuna and she said she forgot about that one. Before they left Nazuna gave Yamori a long kiss as payment for the massage he performed on Kiyosumi the other day which shocked the other vampires.

- The next day Yamori is in the park with Akira, he told her about the one year thing which Akira said was very bad since they have to kill him if he didn’t turn into a vampire.

- At the school, Akira saw Mahiru one of her childhood friend sleeping on the floor. Mahiru said that he was up all night and that he’s in love with an older girl. Akira mumbled “I hope it’s not a vampire” which confused Mahiru. Mahiru asked about Ko Yamori.

- Later that night, Yamori ran into Seri Kikyō the blonde vampire, he tried to run to no avail. She said don’t worry and that she won’t kill him today. She’s interested in Yamori’s tasty blood. Yamori admitted to Seri that he don’t know what to do to fall in love with Nazuna. Seri told him to date Nazuna and give him a to do list. Nazuna refused to go on a date with Yamori at first but finally accepted his invitation.

- First they went for a movie, a romcom movie which for obvious reason Nazuna hated. Then Yamori checked the list which includes, Movie(romcom), Café, Talk about the movie they just saw, etc. At the café, Yamori asked Nazuna about the movie. Yamori knew that he shouldn’t ask but it seems he was hypnotized by Seri Kikyō to follow the list. Nazuna snatched the list which she immediately knew was from Seri. Nazuna said those on the list were lame so they went home.

- While playing video games Nazuna gets hungry. She went to Yamori’s house and ask him to continue with their date. They flew in the night sky and tells Yamori that they’ve been doing that regularly then sucked his blood. While walking home he saw Mahiru with some friends. He tried to hide from him but Mahiru caught up with him. They went into a playground to talk about their childhood past. Akari saw them and they talk about Yamori’s activities with a girl which encourage Mahiru to face the girl he likes.

- While walking on the sidewalk, Nazuna saw a middle schooler boy (Mahiru) walking with an older girl holding hands. Yamori found Nazuna and she asked for Yamori’s hand and they walked holding each other’s hand like a couple.

 

Episode 9 - " No Fair"

 

Story started with Kikyō checking out a text and getting irritated, then she spotted Yamori. She tried to hug him but got beaten up by Nazuna. Yamori asked Kikyō if she needs to talk to someone since she looked bored and things aren’t fun anymore so they went to a karaoke bar to talk. While there one of Kikyō’s admirers knocked on the door which freaks Yamori out. Kikyō wants to kill him but Yamori stops her and he scape with him. The guy’s name is Akihito Akiyama he’s crazy about Kikyō. Akihito said that he met Kikyō on the street when he was drunk. Kikyō found them and proceeded to kill Akihito but she was caught by Nazuna. Akihito finally revealed that he and Kikyō are friends but unfortunately he fell in love with her that made their relationship complicated. Kikyō no longer want to see Akihito again because of this. But in the end she cried because she said she had fun being friends with him and want to keep it that way. Akiyama told her that he wants to be her offspring, Kikyō said yes and converted him into a vampire.

 

Episode 10 - " Enlarge the Peeping-Tom Photos"

 

- A maid offers a leaflet to “Maid Café Vamp”. It was Midori and while thinking for someone to invite to their café, she ran into Yamori and Nazuna which she ends up inviting. She gave Nazuna a maid outfit to cover a shift. It seems that Midori is still can’t get over Yamori saying that she’s a “no”. Yamori acts as a customer.

- After a while, Yamori was served by Vamp maid, Arisa. He told her he was there because of Midori. Midori tried to impress Yamori but to no avail. Someone emailed Midori unsavory pictures of maids from the cafe. Yamori  looked at it and zoom on it, Midori ask him why would he zoom on it. It doesn’t look good for a middle school boy to zoom peeping tom photos. Yamori tells her that it is no his objective, he tell her that the photos are only targeting Arisa. Midori ask Yamori to help her catch the peeping tom.

- While looking at the peeping tom photos, Yamori didn’t notice Arisa behind him. Arisa told him that it’s a little embarrassing when he look at it like that. Yamori noticed that one of the photos looks like was taken from the balcony which was too high and the door was locked. Nazuna said that culprit must be Midori. But Yamori thinks he can catch the culprit with his plan. Yamori and Midori hides in one of the locker and caught Arisa taking a peeping tom photo of herself.

 

Episode 11 - "Do You Know What a Vampire Is?"

- It seems Nazuna has a lot of money since she was able to buy a lot of things because of her maid gig. She said money is so awesome and instructed Yamori to get more customer for her “cuddle buddy” business to make it more profitable.

- Yamori found a lady who is smoking a cigarette who looks tired, they end up in a café. The lady thought Yamori was hitting on her and Yamori clarified that he was only soliciting customers for a cuddle buddy business. The lady revealed through her business card her name “Anko Uguisu “ and her work which is a private detective.

- Yamori met with his childhood friends, Akira and Mahiru. They all went to school while it was still closed since Mahiru wants to have fun, hang out and make memories together.

-  They found a missing teacher in school who attacked Akira. It turns out he’s a vampire and have not been drinking blood. Uguisu appeared and she killed the male vampire.

- Uguisu told Yamori that she knows all about him and his wish to become a vampire and she also knows about Nazuna.                

Episode 12 - "My Mom's Out Tonight"

- Yamori is troubled because of the events last night, he’s now having doubts of becoming a vampire. He went to see Nazuna. When Nazuna is about to drink his blood Yamori pushed her away. Then he explained what happened, about the starved vampire who lost control. Nazuna explain to him that it’s a rare case and that vampires die if they don’t drink blood for ten years. There are vampires that don’t accept who they become and refuse to feed on blood and dies due to hunger. Yamori also tells her about detective Uguisu.

- Yamori spends time with Mahiru while he’s delivering flowers to customers. Mahiru tells Yamori that he should think it over if it’s a good idea to become a vampire.

- Nazuna and Yamori went to his apartment and they talk about the not so fun part of being a vampire and it can be very boring to live very long and that’s why she’s really good in video games.

- Yamori called up Uguisu to talk about vampires. Uguisu told him that vampires are evil from the human perspective. He also tells Yamori that he’s confident that he’ll not turn into a vampire since he lacks romantic urges. Which would be a problem since he knows about the existence of vampires which is a liability to them and that Nazuna will be in danger. Uguisu ask Yamori to abandon his wish to become a vampire and not to worry about them going after him since she will kill all the vampires. Yamori argues that vampires are not evil and they are like humans and have the ability to understand other people’s vulnerabilities. Yamori refused to accept her reasoning. Uguisu called up the cops to report him and tells him police are really dedicated to their job so he should hurry home before he gets caught. Yamori ran and hides in a playground. While hiding in one of a slide in the playground, Hatsuka noticed and approached him. 

Episode 13 - "Call of the Night"

This is the last episode of season one and it started with Nazuna just staring at the monitor and holding the game pad. Meanwhile, Yamori and Hatsuka were at Hatsuka’s place. Hatsuka got rid of his offspring and he took a shower. He forgot his towel and ask Yamori for one, Yamori was shocked to find out that he is a man. 

Nazuna told the other vampires (Nico, Midori, and Seri) that Ko-kun is not going to be a vampire and she asked them to leave him alone and give him a pass. Nico got mad destroyed the table and tells Nazuna that they will kill Yamori. Nico ask her again why is Yamori different with other human. 

Yamori tells Hatsuka that he’s not sure he wants to be a vampire. Hatsuka was intrigued since he heard from Nazuna that Yamori’s blood is tasty so he offered him that he can turn him into a vampire and be his offspring since Nazuna is in danger and he doesn’t need to fall in love. All he needs to do is trick his brain into thinking that he loves him. Yamori declines and said that even if he’s a girl he’d still want to fall in love with Nazuna. Yamori left to see Nazuna but she was gone. Nico told him that Nazuna won’t be capable of proper conversation for a while. Yamori found Nazuna while she was in a vending machine trying to buy booze. 

Nico tells  Hatsuka that no amount of beating will get through Nazuna so she told Nazuna the consequence will be for her to do whatever it takes to make Yamori fall for her. That’s the condition for Yamori’s safety. 

I’m excited to see what will happen with these two lovebirds next season I hope they will get to the next level of their relationship.