Call of the Night Season 2

Episode 7

While this episode dials down the chaos from last week's otaku fracas, it dials up the intrigue, giving us unprecedented insight into Nazuna's life before she met Ko. The big reveal is that she had a proverbial partner in crime before our insomniac boy, in the form of the acerbic bookworm Kyoko Mejiro. There are other revelations nestled within this story, though, and we've arrived at the point where this arc begins to coalesce into its true form. We're not quite all the way there yet, granted, but I'm sure you can see where it's going.

I'm glad I don't have to be cagey about how I discuss Nazuna and Kyoko's relationship. It is immediately obvious to the audience that Kyoko is Anko Uguisu as a teen. She has the same brown hair, dons a familiar black turtleneck and camel raincoat in one scene, and she is also voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, written plainly in the ending credits. The OP, too, primed us for this connection all the way in the beginning of this season by drawing direct visual parallels between Anko and the girl we now recognize as Kyoko. The story isn't trying to hide this, although neither Nazuna nor Ko appears to have made the connection yet.

I only bring this up because the manga had me fooled for a few chapters after Kyoko's introduction. In black-and-white and bereft of voice acting, it's easier to disguise a younger version of another character. That said, I recall I figured it out fairly quickly, and I think that point may have coincided with where this episode concludes, when Kyoko picks up that familiar Zippo lighter. So it's not like Kotoyama's intention was to play coy with this. However, I do find it interesting that the adaptation recognized the futility of attempting to obscure who Kyoko is, so it took the opposite tack and made it even more blatant. I think that was the right move. It gives the audience more to think about earlier on, and it gives the OP more oomph.

Onto the subject of Kyoko herself, I love her. I love Anko too, so that isn't surprising, but her younger self is familiar yet possesses fun surprises. We see the genesis of her fascination with detective work; she shows off the sharp tongue and iciness she honed as she got older, and she's sexually attracted to Nazuna. I told you that Call of the Night wasn't done exploring queer narratives. Kyoko, like Kabura, is a loner who feels estranged from her family and friends, yet finds companionship in a periwinkle-haired vampire who awakens her lesbian longing. We should keep those parallels in mind, despite their vast personality differences. Similarly, this means Nazuna's journey of self-discovery is entwined with Anko's motivations, and we can't resolve one without the other. Nazuna previously wondered what could have instigated Anko's vendetta against vampires, and now we have to consider the possibility that she had something to do with it. Like I said, there is intrigue galore!

That isn't to say the plotting is perfect. Here, Nazuna's selectively spotty memory strikes me as an element of narrative convenience more so than a quirk of vampire neurology. I could excuse it when she couldn't recall her childhood, but these events were ten years ago, plus they revolved around her very first friend. I don't care if she is 40 or 50 years old; middle age doesn't ravage your neuroplasticity that much on average. It also seems mighty convenient that Ko just happens to find Kyoko's diary out in the open, but I can't lay the blame for that on Kotoyama. In the manga, there's another character whose story dovetails with Nazuna's flashbacks, and she's the one who brings up the diary. However, the anime—wisely, in my opinion—has removed her from the proceedings so far. It's a bit of restructuring that narrows the focus onto Kyoko's story, which strengthens the importance and impact of it. The cut character, Rila, is shown in the classroom scene (she's the girl in the lolita dress), so I expect she will step into the plot at some point, but frankly, anime-only audiences aren't missing out on much in this part.

On that note, I like the night school setting of this arc. That's a detail that harkens back to the first season's excursions into the hidden aspects of city life after the sun goes down. Night school is a big yet easily overlooked facet of society if you don't personally participate in it. It is rarely mentioned, let alone glamorized, like the way a typical Japanese high school experience is throughout anime and manga. In that sense, it's a place for misfits, like many of the places Nazuna and Ko have explored together. It fits Call of the Night. I also find it very cute how shy Nazuna becomes when it comes to public speaking, while Ko easily dons the mantle of a model student in order not to rock the boat. These are equally good character beats. Seeing Niko caught off guard is similarly great. Her teaching job reminds us that vampires are a part of society, too. One of them may have killed Anko's parents, but that doesn't mean she has a right to exterminate all of them. Nazuna is going to have to talk to her again.

I'll conclude by saying that I appreciate how outwardly awkward Kyoko is. She almost kisses Nazuna before immediately confessing that she's never done anything like that before. She tears down that guy who asks her out, yet she manages to be playful with Nazuna without dramatically altering her tone. She hates her dad and suspects him of cheating, but she can't contain her emotions when she finds evidence on his computer that he still loves her a lot. Kyoko is in high school. No matter how intelligent she is, she's biologically compelled to be a disaster. Thus, it's easy to see why she might appreciate someone like Nazuna, who can disarm her, and why she would have fallen in love with her.

Rating:

Call of the Night Season 2 is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Steve is on Bluesky for all of your posting needs. They like Anko Uguisu a normal amount. You can also catch them chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.