This Week in Anime

The Casual Sexiness of Call of the Night

Nick
Man you lucked out. My sleep paralysis demon just stands in a corner whispering in backwards Gaelic. He doesn't even have a chibi form. Can we trade?

I mean, isn't that ALL vampires when you get right down to it?

Alternatively you eventually find a style that just works for you and that's your lot for the next several decades. Nazuna there seems to have peaked during the 90's rave scene, which matches her taste in phones.

I'm pretty sure this weird ass calculator Ko uses can't either, but he's still an emotional wreck, so maybe it wouldn't be that big of a change.

That's right baby, it's time for the second Tomoyuki Itamura directed series about horny vampire adventures in as many years. One of the few unasterisked highlights of the season that dares to ask the question: what if the Dagashi Kashi girls had fangs?

Granted I don't know how many people in 2022 even remember the weirdly compelling slice-of-life series about Japanese novelty candy, but I'm sure they've seen some kind of porn of Hotaru, and thus are primed for the author's blood-sucking return.

Emphasis on the succ.

It's a pretty seamless transition, really. A change of scenery and dash of supernatural adds some spice, but otherwise this is much in the same vein (ba dum tish) of casually conversational character work from Kotoyama's previous series. But now instead of the distinct angst of living in a rural town with little to talk about besides candy, these girls and their intensely rendered collarbones are dealing with the ennui of way too much social interaction.

Maybe stick to the former for the first few times, fellow night owls. I know finding a goth GF in leatherwear who wants to suck you dry sounds like a dream come true, but bloodborne infections are the REAL nightmare!

Yeah kids it is very normal to venture out into the city at night and go to a strange adult's apartment. Everyone does it at some point. Anyone who says they didn't is either lying or was a nerd in middle school.

Really though, as somebody who deals with semi-frequent bouts of not being able to sleep to save my life, there is absolutely a sense of quiet beauty to familiar surroundings in the dead of night. Buildings and streets you take for granted suddenly transform in the dark and quiet of 3am, when it can feel like you're the only person in the whole world. And Call of the Night captures that in a way few other pieces of fiction ever have for me.

The adaptation itself even indulges in it. There's multiple episodes that feature entirely unnecessary but pitch perfect montages of characters just wandering through the night, basking in the glow of urban light pollution and the dulcet tones of checks notes..."Creepy Nuts"?

That actually explains a lot, because the show itself operates a lot like a song in the way it lets its characters' emotions paint any given scene. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it in text, but there's an aspect of the writing that operates as much on channeling a specific feeling as it does as more practical dialogue, that I can only describe as "vibes."

Hey, in Kotoyama's art style the collarbone is technically the most lewd part of the body, so he really should cover up and stop being a shameless hussy.

And yeah, the conversational tone for the early episodes does work wonders, and it's thematically fitting since the whole reason Ko winds up nocturnal is that he kind of can't deal with being around people.

It's not like, aggressive about it, but there's a consistent underpinning of counterculture to it all. The structures and norms and security of "normal" society can be perfectly fine for most, but there are people who chafe against those norms - who want to escape or abandon them entirely because those strictures make them unhappy. It's a broad emotional metaphor you can apply a lot of different ways, but it really does click with me.

That little arc is probably my favorite part of the whole thing. Much as Nazuna and Ko's 4am trips to Denny's are charming, Shirakawa is the first element to really push Ko to be active in his own emotional development. He recognizes part of himself in somebody else, and involves himself in a way he probably never would have at the start of the show.

This show doesn't exactly have an involved plot or overarching narrative, but this is a really solid way to show that Ko has changed from knowing Nazuna, even with how chill their scenes together are.

Nothing mends an atrophied childhood friendship like a little MFF.

Yet somehow the horniest part of that whole scene is this single frame of Akira's socks. That's how you know we're dealing with Grade A anime perverts.

You really gotta...hand it to 'em, eh?

Itamura's SHAFT alumni status certainly shows stronger here than it did in The Case Study of Vanitas, and I imagine the sometimes invasive levels of horny will be off-putting to some. But considering I've seen all of Monogats, I'm just thankful this show has yet to dedicate an entire episode to implied incest via oral hygiene. Comparatively the cheesecake here is downright chaste.

We do have a lot to appreciate with these new additions to the cast, it's true.

I was actually kind of worried when this first happened. The show was on track to be my top pick of the season just based on being Dagashi Kashi After Dark, so thrusting actual stakes seemed like it could derail it. But thankfully this group of darkstalkers are mostly here to be perplexed by Ko's borderline demisexuality.

It really is interesting, and it highlights that what makes Nazuna such a good match for Ko isn't her vampirism, but her approach to life in general. Vampires may have a different set of social niceties, but they still cause friction for anyone not interested in their particular form of romantically-charged interactions.

And sorry ladies, I can overlook murder and manipulation, but aro-erasure is a bridge too far.

She's a gal looking for a pal, if you wi-

For real though, Seri's whole deal is fascinating. She's spent some untold years following the vampire handbook of seduction and predation, and that's slowly lost its appeal. So now she finds herself trying to break out of that rut with no guidelines for how to handle it.

I'm a sucker for romance. I have consumed a truly unseemly amount of romcom anime and will continue to until I'm in the grave, and quite possibly for a while after that. I love nothing more than watching awkward anime characters fall in love. But I also think there's a vast spectrum of meaningful relationships and connections outside of pure romance that's worth exploring, and it's wild to me that the horny vampire clavicle show is one of the only pieces of media I've seen broach the topic.

It's a remarkably weighty subject that the show somehow manages to swing with the same lax, chill vibes it handled Ko getting blushy over a first kiss. And that's what really makes this thing feel special. It has something to say, is proud to say it loudly, but does it all in a way that feels effortless and relaxed. It's lo-fi hip-hop beats to contemplate the nature of human interaction to, and I love it.

Rest up until then. I can tell you'll need the energy.