Yofukashi no Uta (Call of the Night)

[Frontier]

Ko is back at it, prowling the night, but as averse as ever to anyone recognizing and trying to talk to him...but a fellow night owl like Kiyosumi is probably one of the few people he doesn't mind seeing again, especially when she thanks him for his help and emotional support! Double points for being the first time he's helped someone genuinely without it just being an act .

But how does this episode replace Yoko Hikasa as an office lady? With none other than Haruka Tomatsu as a sexy, playful, and flirty gyaru who isn't afraid to flaunt her assets. And despite Ko's attempt at decorum, even he can't keep his eyes from ogling her boobs. He's a simple boy, when you get right down to it .

At first Ko thinks he's found another girl like him, someone who is tired of acting in the day and having to interact with people when she'd rather just enjoy the night, even if it means spending time with older men on "dates," but that mutual recognition turns into supernatural horror when Seri turns out to be a vampire ready to pounce on him .

Now suddenly the series is an action anime as Nazuna arrives dramatically just in time to fight off Seri and save Ko after ripping Seri's arm off, showing just how a fight between vampires can go. Of course then Shizuka Ito whisks him away .

I did not expect to see Ko whisked away to a meeting spot between hot and cute vampire women voiced by top-tier female seiyuu, but there you go. You've got Eri Kitamura as Niko, the adult lady in a pantsuit who flirts with her targets by being chummy, Naomi Ozora as Midori who is particularly sociable and is a master at the cute girl flirting, Azumi Waki as Hatsuka who is the cute bokuko, and Shizuka Ito as Kabura, the sexy and seductive femme fatale type. Ko's luck with women really is something all right .

So it turns out that vampires are basically tasked with being popular and seducing people to make offspring, and Nazuna is an outlier because she's really embarrassed about romance and doesn't want to participate in any girl talk about it nor was she interested in pursuing it for the sake of an offspring. Which leaves them with a dilemma of what to do about her hanging out with Ko. Kill him or turn him ?

And then they basically start flirting with him and trying to win him over so he'll choose them, btu Ko is so blunt, honest, inexperienced with relationships/romance and focused on Nazuna that their attempts completely fly over his head. Nice attempt though, ladies .

Nazuna with the Superhero landing! And the reveal that she is planning to eventually turn Ko into her offspring, she's basically just building up to it...and Ko is determined to be a vampire and willing to use her need for his blood to keep their relationship progressing so that might someday happen. It's a fairly unconventional relationship, but it's ultimately in the service of making Ko a vampire, so that's enough for the other ladies to back off. Especially after Ko basically swears the rest of his life to being with Nazuna .

[ryllharu]

What a genre shift. Feels right.

Nazuna's an outcast because she plays around instead of plays around. The others kill their food if they get found out while Nazuna doesn't really care, and she's generally just making her victims feel good and relaxed.

I also kind of understand her aversion. The others seem obsessed with Girls Talk subjects in a very obnoxious gyaru manner. Nazuna seems to appreciate much deeper connections like with Ko and Akira.

One last shout-out to the absolutely brilliant sound design of this series. We only hear a faint wind & general city noise in the background of that whole discussion scene. It's really natural for the scene, the type of which don't usually get that level of detail in any medium. But that background din is also a heavy feature of the "nighttime vibe" of being alone in the middle of the night.
I really loved the record scratch sound effect used to emphasize the punchlines as Ko devastates the ego of each of the other female vampires, especially when it isn't actually interrupting any BGM. It's a neat stylistic touch to hit the vibe of the show, but also maintains the chill attitude about silence that this series excels at.

[Kanon]

Well, that escalated quickly. I wasn't expecting action and much less five new vampires to be introduced in this episode.

It was funny to watch these women try to seduce him only to end up getting casually shot down one by one. I love how they were commenting on each other's techniques.

Turns out Nazuna didn't lie about the need to be in love with the vampire sucking your blood to turn into one, but it looks like she's neglected to mention there's a time limit.

[GDB]

I don't quite get how he can not be considered to be "in love" with Nazuna, yet also reject all these other girls who are literally offering him what he wants.

Like, is the only thing missing him just being like "Oh yeah, guess I do love her" and boom, he'll be a vampire?

[grecefar]

I didn't expect a battle and it was pretty cool.

But indeed I'm confuse now, if it's true about falling in love to become a vampire then how does Ko knows?

And that line at the end, man I can't wait for the next chapter, this one was hilarious too.

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by Kanon

It was funny to watch these women try to seduce him only to end up getting casually shot down one by one. I love how they were commenting on each other's techniques.

Some years ago, you'd occasionally see characters described as "my pace". I've not seen it recently but Kou (and Nazuna) are kinda like that. Plus not having much of a filter.

But yeah, in a scene like this it's quite amusing - these experts trying out their "killer moves" only for their attacks to not even register.

Originally Posted by GDB

I don't quite get how he can not be considered to be "in love" with Nazuna, yet also reject all these other girls who are literally offering him what he wants.

Like, is the only thing missing him just being like "Oh yeah, guess I do love her" and boom, he'll be a vampire?

In a way, they answered this with the "lust is not love" thing after the kiss. At the time, Kou believed he was in love...

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by GDB

I don't quite get how he can not be considered to be "in love" with Nazuna, yet also reject all these other girls who are literally offering him what he wants.

Like, is the only thing missing him just being like "Oh yeah, guess I do love her" and boom, he'll be a vampire?

I think it's because Ko internally and emotionally doesn't really understand what love is or what it feels like.

Obviously he's attracted to Nazuna but part of that is just lust and while his affection for her is growing, it's not quite "love" yet.

Although if all these women are so used to making men fall for them, I wonder how many of them have offspring and how many have just sucked men dry? And what do you even do with your offspring?

[ryllharu]

I rewatched the episode and I've even more impressed what they're doing here with the soundtrack in this episode.

It does this really neat thing throughout the episode where the OST shifts to align with the vibe and thoughts of each of the vampires. Kohakobe's goes for in a poppy synth to match the "sweet" vibe she likes to fake before relentlessly drowning her targets in praise, but shifting back to the calculated faster beat track when they jump to the others analyzing the technique being used.

The whole episode does this with the soundtrack, from cutting out the refined strings track that the vampires start when Ko tells them he only wants Nazuna, and then bouncing through multiple tracks that cut out to emphasize a joke. It's incredible.

Shirakawa got a gentle piano track. Seri got a casual track that matches the rain, cutting to just the wind noise as she's about to bite him. The happy and refined strings tracks shifting to calculating ones as the vampires start to play their game with him, cutting abruptly each time he messes with their momentum, Nazuna mostly gets the wind/city noises to match the original vibe of the series, and then it closes with a positive sounding track with a sense of forward motion only to get cut with the cliffhanger.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

In a way, they answered this with the "lust is not love" thing after the kiss. At the time, Kou believed he was in love...

That may have been the case before, but his goal is just to become a vampire. Which he technically turned down this episode because he wanted Nazuna to be the one to turn him.

That's basically love until they absolutely define it as like... I dunno, basically a slave or something.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by GDB

That may have been the case before, but his goal is just to become a vampire. Which he technically turned down this episode because he wanted Nazuna to be the one to turn him.

That's basically love until they absolutely define it as like... I dunno, basically a slave or something.

I don't see why the falling in love thing has to be true in the first place, considering it came from an untrustworthy source who from what we have seen, has never fallen in love before.
She may not be lying, but who's to say she isn't just mistaken?

And what one person says does not necessarily line up with what they actually feel. Kou clearly admires Nazuna and the her night life. He could have wanted to become a vampire because he wanted to live a life like hers without realizing that the vampirism has nothing to do with it.

[Guardian Enzo]

I'm still not convinced the whole falling in love thing isn't a total invention by Naz, and nothing we saw this week precludes that. I also think that if Kou is capable of falling in love (some people simply aren't, and it doesn't make them defective), he'll fall for her - he's an idealistic 14 year-old boy and she's a hot older girl who demonstrates her interest in him in physical terms.

But that said, I wouldn't take Kou's refusal to let one of the vamp squadron turn him as proof he's already in love with her. I think it's simply loyalty, and that would totally fit with what we know of his character.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I'm still not convinced the whole falling in love thing isn't a total invention by Naz, and nothing we saw this week precludes that. I also think that if Kou is capable of falling in love (some people simply aren't, and it doesn't make them defective), he'll fall for her - he's an idealistic 14 year-old boy and she's a hot older girl who demonstrates her interest in him in physical terms.

But that said, I wouldn't take Kou's refusal to let one of the vamp squadron turn him as proof he's already in love with her. I think it's simply loyalty, and that would totally fit with what we know of his character.

It doesn't seem like a complete invention because the rest of the vampires were trying to seduce him with the idea that that's how siring offspring works (or to get at his blood), and it's why Nazuna seems so averse to it and the other vampire ladies because romance turns her off/embarrasses her.

I think he's definitely attracted/attached to her (especially when we saw how he reacted to other guys hitting on her), and it's mutual because she's come around to the idea of making him her offspring, but their feelings seem to be in a very budding state for the both of them.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I'm still not convinced the whole falling in love thing isn't a total invention by Naz, and nothing we saw this week precludes that. I also think that if Kou is capable of falling in love (some people simply aren't, and it doesn't make them defective), he'll fall for her - he's an idealistic 14 year-old boy and she's a hot older girl who demonstrates her interest in him in physical terms.

Why do you thinks the other were trying so hard to make him fall for them then? They also stated Nazuna's problem is that she's shy when it comes to romance. None of them thought what Ko was saying was odd either, except when he mentioned trying for years.

[Chiibi]

We certainly learned that Nazuna SURE DOESN'T like sharing her man; girl will literally take your arm off....nice

She's the jealous type all right. But it works out because Kou gets jealous too. They're perfect for each other...

[kari-no-sugata II]

Originally Posted by GDB

That may have been the case before, but his goal is just to become a vampire. Which he technically turned down this episode because he wanted Nazuna to be the one to turn him.

That's basically love until they absolutely define it as like... I dunno, basically a slave or something.

I'd phrase it differently - that becoming a vampire is the means by which he achieves his goal. Putting it another way, he wants to live the life he wants and he currently believes that the best way to achieve that is to become a vampire with Nazuna.

Would he have felt the same way if he had met one of these other vampires before Nazuna? Probably not. He shows no desire to want to fall in love with any of them. In short, the choice is between him falling in love with someone he would be happy to love even if they're not actively trying to seduce him and someone who is willing to actively seduce him but he's interested in.

Let's not forget why he stopped going to school in the first place - after a girl confessed to him he felt annoyed with the situation in general. So you could say that he doesn't like girls who come on strong.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Why do you thinks the other were trying so hard to make him fall for them then? They also stated Nazuna's problem is that she's shy when it comes to romance. None of them thought what Ko was saying was odd either, except when he mentioned trying for years.

I really didn't TBH. I got the sense they were merely trying to seduce him.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by kari-no-sugata II

Let's not forget why he stopped going to school in the first place - after a girl confessed to him he felt annoyed with the situation in general. So you could say that he doesn't like girls who come on strong.

It was the same with that Dating Sim they played. He didn't care for any of the girls except the mousy, quite, girl who wasn't paying him much attention.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I really didn't TBH. I got the sense they were merely trying to seduce him.

Why would they bother trying to seduce him in the first place if they didn't need to in order to turn him into a vampire?

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Why would they bother trying to seduce him in the first place if they didn't need to in order to turn him into a vampire?

My point is, there's nothing in what they were doing that necessarily suggested he had to fall in love with them in order for it to work. Their behavior was consistent with them just needing to voluntarily have sex with one of them.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I did not expect to see Ko whisked away to a meeting spot between hot and cute vampire women voiced by top-tier female seiyuu

I would look at the credits list at the end of each episode and wonder where all those talented seiyuu were. Well, here they are.