Call of the Night

Episode 12

It feels like it's been a while since Nazuna and Ko have been able to just hang out and chill by the midnight glow of some vending machines. That's an intentional development on Call of the Night's part—a retooling of its scope and priorities—but that also means this episode provides some welcome breathing room after last week's brush with vampiric exorcism. While the series and its characters can't truly go back to their lackadaisical ways now that Anko has shaken things up, it's just nice to see our two leads put in the time to hash things out. They take refuge in each other, and they push each other away. There's a lot for them to work through, but I love seeing them be serious and vulnerable with each other.

Any given relationship can only deepen through the inevitability of conflict, and more specifically, through how it handles that conflict. Ko turns to Nazuna to deal with two issues: his fear, and his uncertainty. He's scared of Nazuna for the first time, but instead of running away from her, he relies on the trust they've built up to this point. However frightened he is, it's not enough to discredit what their relationship has meant to both of them. That's really mature of him! And I like the casual maturity of the resolution too. Nazuna can't erase his fear; in fact, she acquiesces that it was dumb of him to not be afraid of vampires. But by confronting his emotion together, they're able to name it, accept it, and handle it together. That's the thoughtfulness that keeps Call of the Night's extreme vampire antics grounded in relatable relationship growing pains.

Ko's uncertainty is a trickier problem. Mahiru, emboldened by his genuine concern for a good friend, shakes Ko up a lot with his disarmingly simple question. And it's a very teenage uncertainty too, because so much of adolescence gets tied up by our developing brains struggling to reconcile our maturing ability to rationalize with the realization that our desires are seldom rational. A few extra quarters get dropped into our neurological tin can, and we spend the next decade or more rattling them around out of frustration. There's no logical reason why Ko ever wanted to become a vampire. But he still wants to be one. His half-hearted attempts to convince himself and Nazuna aren't convincing in the slightest, because you can't think your way out of something that wells up from the heart.

Nazuna, however, tries to assuage Ko's anxieties by being uncharacteristically vulnerable in turn. And I can't tell you how much I love this moment. After nearly a full season celebrating silly bouts of nocturnal hedonism, Call of the Night digs under its own skin and bares the beating heart of depression at its core. Being a vampire sucks. Even the most fun thing eventually wears out its welcome. We're all bags of meat ticking the minutes away until we fester and rot. But it helps not to do so alone. And maybe loving someone means being willing to bear the burden of existence together. Maybe love can transmute the grey lead of life into something with just the barest hint of gold. Maybe love can make even immortality tolerable. Maybe only love can make immortality tolerable. Do you think Call of the Night's unique vampire rules arose out of something cosmic, or out of something compassionate?

To reiterate, I think it owns incredibly hard for an anime like this to so utterly subvert its slice-of-life tone while still staying rooted in how much Nazuna and Ko care about each other. Nazuna's not lying about her depression, but she's also communicating it to protect him from herself. It hurts so good. And it's all thanks to Anko, who struts into another show-stopping scene this week. Equal parts playful and terrifying, she sucks all the color out of the world and fills it with her smoke-scented aura. If it weren't already obvious last week, her beef with vampires is incredibly personal, and it doesn't take much provocation for her to unsheathe her claws and point them at Ko's neck. Miyuki Sawashiro also knocks it out of the park yet again; she has so much fun with Anko's menacing singsong lilt, hamming it up as her character moves in to metaphorically suffocate Ko. She possesses a presence on par with the adults in the Monogatari Series, who often show up to remind Araragi and his cohorts that there's a whole big scary grownup world outside of their petty, if supernaturally souped-up teenage squabbles. It's a world full of responsibilities, debts, and stress, and it's enough to put bags under your eyes, a trenchcoat on your shoulders, and a disdain for the youth in your heart. But enough about Kaiki Deshu, I think Anko is pretty cool too.

The episode ends on a great adaptational note. After Anko calls the police on Ko, their lights drown the scene in deep reds, which is the first time the anime has used that palette. Seriously, I combed back through my copious screenshots, and every other passionate or action-heavy scene painted itself primarily with pinks. There's some great irony, then, in Call of the Night reserving the color of blood for the cops and the impending endpoint of Ko's nighttime frolicking. It's fitting, too. While Ko's never been as scared of vampires as he should have been, what frightens him instantly is the prospect of losing his connection to the night and all the people he cares about. And with only one episode to go, I wouldn't expect anything conclusive out of the season finale next week. But given how great an adaptation this has been, I think it'll leave us in a place that feels right.

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Call of the Night is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Steve's Twitter DMs are open to vampires and vampires only. Otherwise, catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.