Yofukashi No Uta / Call of the Night

A manga about vampires and insomniacs by Kotoyama, the mangaka of Dagashi Kashi, now with upcoming July 2022 anime adaptation! It's a Slice of Life-ish romantic comedy that becomes more serious later on (or so I've heard). I've only read the first volume so far, but by the point I paused at there had already been more romantic development than most Japanese romcoms ever get, so I'm looking forward to the anime and to reading more!

Per ANN:

Anime PV:

Confirmed OP, and the song that inspired the series in the first place:

Likely ED, based on the fact that it was already used to promote the manga and the official manga MV went unlisted very recently:

I'm liking it. As OP said there's ACTUALLY progression in the romantic sense, which in a manga is a plus in itself considering how uncommon it is, and I think the characters and comedy are pretty enjoyable as well.

Got through all of the manga this weekend, and I like it. Can't wait for the anime, hope this will end up as one of Liden's better performances.

Just saw the trailer for the anime. It looks really gorgeous. It reminds me a little of Vlad Love, its like a gender-swapper version of it, but more played straight.

Episode 2: Still has some of the most gorgeous cuts I’ve seen this season.

Don’t worry Yamori it’s totally normal for you to get jealous at the thought of a cute vampire girl sucking someone else’s blood.

The transceivers took me back to my childhood summers. Good times. And huh is that his sister? Cousin maybe?

Wonder how much they'll adapt. The manga has quite A Genre Shift later

The artist of Dagashi Kashi... you know, I had wondered why Nazuna felt like the two female leads from DG combined.

Episode 3: A wild childhood friend appears.

Dang, already went for the kiss.

And that's what I meant by "more romantic development than most Japanese romcoms" in the thread OP, haha!

Episode 4: What romantic development? Nazuna and Yamori are both dumdums.

Akira is such an excellent addition to the cast. She’s suffering from the same insomnia that plagues Yamori, but she’s still acting normally, insofar as society is concerned anyway. Her Only Sane Man jabs against the two dumdums are crunchy. And when she manages to fall asleep? Mmmm, yesss.

Honestly, the addition of Akira feels like it neatly punctures any romantic development between Ko and Nazuna. Which I mean in a good way; it shakes up their dynamic, but it also shows the visible difference between characters who have known each other for a long time (or at least, from a young age) and the still-vibrant, but shallower emotions between people who have more or less just met.

One thing I absolutely adore is the character interactions between the 3 people. I could have an audio podcast with these 3 people just talking and it would be interesting to listen to. I just love their banter, jokes and reactions to one another.

Episode 5: Nazuna wakes up too early and struggles to entertain herself. Kinda cute how antsy she is, looking forward to meeting up with Yamori. Oh and she looks fantastic with her hair down. Yamori really likes it.

“The feeling of having fun is an emotional strain in and of itself” Why yes because you keep remembering you have to do something and doing the fun thing means you’re not doing the thing you’re supposed to be doing and ugh adult-ing sucks sometimes

The scene at the love hotel was so intimate. Like, emotionally. Yamori is swirling in a flux of feelings and that’s great, that’s what it means to be alive. The direction in that scene was so good, too. The close up on the hand touching Yamori’s shoulder, followed by the first person view of Nazuna shows everything Yamori is taking in at that moment, without the need for words.

I was just wondering what Nazuna did for a living. Professional cuddler/masseuse makes a lot of sense. And wow Yamori really is hornier this episode hahaha. Until he has to be professional. What a dependable professional. Oh wait he’s gonna get swayed by the promise of a kiss. Never mind then. Try to do a good job nevertheless.

Something about this episode didn't really click for me, somehow. Might just be a mindset thing, might be a result of the dynamic starting to wear a bit thin. We'll see how I feel next week.

Episode 6: Ko’s first time as a masseuse works out way better than expected. I don’t think he managed to knead out those knots, but he did end up providing much needed spiritual support to the businesswoman. Poor lady, that’s a call of the night I’d dread getting. Fantastic shots too; I especially liked the part where the worker lady seemed to get “smaller”, weaker in each cut. And Yamori being able to acknowledge that he can be popular with girls is another nice tidbit that separates him from the pack.

Also somehow Nazuna wrangles in a pool episode. Her outfit was nice.

Hmm, once again I feel like this week strayed away from what made the earlier episodes pop, but once again, it's in a way I can't quite put my finger on. Ko and Nazuna's dynamic is shifting, and maybe that's the cause of the problem.

Could it perhaps be that there’s a stronger romantic/sexual tension between them? Or perhaps the introduction of new characters which somewhat dilute the quiet-night vibes of the earlier episodes?

Fun fact. The guys hitting on Nazuna at the pool are Creepy Nuts, the artists for the OP and ED (which predates and was both the inspiration and name-sake for the manga).

@fillerdude: Weirdly, I think it's the inverse. There's more focus on their romantic/sexual tension, but I feel less chemistry between them, precisely because they're both focused on it now. And things like generally not-fond-of-people Ko suddenly deciding to hang out at a night pool for a pretty contrived "look at Ko being manly" scene... I dunno, it's sort of felt like there's less pop between them now.

Edited by RedSavant on Aug 12th 2022 at 1:51:30 AM

Hmmm I agree with the night pool scene, because that was mostly superfluous, though as Knight points out there was a cool reference there. Can’t say I feel the same about their chemistry, though; I think it’s nice that Nazuna is returning a little of the affection.

Episode 7: Time for new characters. New vampires.

It's amusing that the vampires act like a high school "popular girl" clique. They like talking about love lives and wrapping men around their fingers. Good thing Yamori is too dense/inexperienced to play along.

Those other ladies said would let Nazuna and Yamori be, but I doubt it. The gyaru is a likely candidate to be the annoying friend that keeps bothering Nazuna, one of them wants to go the NTR route, and the rest seem to be worried about what Yamori says at the end of the episode. I'm guessing there's a time limit for when a human can turn into a vampire.

Getting to the point where I think I'll give it one more episode. We'll see if these new characters can do something interesting with a bit more room to breathe; with all of them packed together, explaining things we already knew to each other, and shonen-battle-manga commentating on conversation techniques to ensure that nothing requires picking up on even a single context clue, this episode felt like eight minutes of content dragged out into twenty-four.

Edit to add: I have to admit, I'm surprised that this is the most blatantly fetish-bait show on my docket this season - though I shouldn't be, listening to the lyrics of the song the show's based on. At least it was a bit more subtle than "go ahead and pick the sexy onee-san you want to take your vampginity, here's an itemized catalogue" before now, even if Ko's not interested.

Edited by RedSavant on Aug 19th 2022 at 3:04:42 AM

Episode 8: Hmm... this was pretty weak. We got introduced to Mahiru-kun, and the narrative kinda jumps through loops to explain why Yamori and Akira haven't talked about him before. It doesn't help that Mahiru himself doesn't seem interesting, he doesn't even have any problems sleeping. However I'm like 90% sure that the girl he's crushing on is a vampire. Nazuna seems to know who she is and she drew parallels between their pairing and her own pairing with Yamori.

Hmm, wonder where they could possibly end this season. This series isn't really structered well for an anime adaption.

Loving all the voice work for the cast so far though.

Yeah, this is gonna be a drop from me, I think. The more time goes on, the less I like Ko, and none of the side characters are picking up the slack aside from Akira, who's going to be Unlucky Childhood Friend if she gets any more screentime.

Combine that with a sharp increase in the amount of adult women wanting to bang middle schoolers in this and last episode, and yeah, not feeling it anymore.