Yofukashi no Uta

Kou Yamori is an average middle school student who struggles with grasping the complex concept of love. Because he sees little sense in surrendering to the norm, he soon stops going to school. Plagued with insomnia due to his idleness, Kou begins roaming the lonesome streets at night.

One night, Kou encounters a bizarre girl named Nazuna Nanakusa who believes that people stay awake during the night because they are dissatisfied with how they spent their day and cannot rest until they release their inhibitions. Nazuna offers to help Kou with his sleep issues and invites him over to her place, where she convinces him to share a futon with her. Feeling uncomfortable, Kou only pretends to doze off—which is when Nazuna suddenly bites his neck, revealing herself to be a vampire!

While Kou thinks the bite will turn him into a vampire, the specifics of transforming are not that simple. In order to change, he must be bitten by someone he truly loves. Ready to let go of his dreary mortal life, Kou decides on a new goal: he will fall in love with Nazuna and become a vampire himself.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nanakusa, Nazuna Main

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Yamori, Kou Main

Satou, Gen Japanese

Uguisu, Anko Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Asai, Akira Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Kikyou, Seri Supporting

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Suzushiro, Hatsuka Supporting

Waki, Azumi Japanese

Kohakobe, Midori Supporting

Oozora, Naomi Japanese

Honda, Kabura Supporting

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Hirata, Niko Supporting

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Shirakawa, Kiyosumi Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Sugawara, Hana Producer

Inagaki, Takafumi Producer

Itamura, Tomoyuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Miyanishi, Tetsuya Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 29, 2022

Mcsuper

Recommended

The night is a very unexplored landscape for many of us. Some of us perceive it as dangerous and scary, and some others perceive it as a time to party, to let themselves go, and for most of us, we’re probably fast asleep. I’m sure a lot of you have experienced a time in life when you just didn’t want to fall asleep, perhaps because you weren’t satisfied with what you achieved in the day, or you feared what tomorrow will bring, but rest assured, in Call of the Night, the night is viewed as a beautiful time, and a time to release all inhibitions, ... a time to have the time of your life, so dream on, and imagine yourself in the wonderful dreamscape!

Tomoyuki Itamura, the director of the highly acclaimed Monogatari Series, and the Case Study of Vanitas, is back again for yet another vampire themed anime, and what a job he did! The background composition looked absolutely immaculate, to the point where I have those purple skies as my phone wallpaper. The art direction really evokes a sense of imagination, as it allows us to imagine how alluring the night can look, and combined with great chill music from Creepy Nuts, the atmosphere is quite perfect for this anime.

My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

STORY: 19.8/25

The story starts off relatively slowly, focusing on Kou Yamori, a boy who was quite despondent about his everyday life. He struggles to grasp the concept of love, and stops going to school altogether one day. Plagued with insomnia, he ventures out into the dark of night, and one night, he encounters a very peculiar girl called Nazuna Nanakusa, who has quite the belief about how people can’t rest until they release their inhibitions. Nazuna helps Kou out with his insomnia, and invites her over to her place, where she reveals herself to be a vampire! Having experienced this incredible night, Kou finds himself wanting to be in the night all the time, so he wants to become a vampire, but turns out, you gotta fall in love with a vampire to become one!

The story itself isn’t strong at the start admittedly, as many episodes were focused on the bonding between Nazuna and Kou, along with other characters as well, some of whom that eventually find out about their relationship.

Where it turned for me, in terms of enjoyment, was the fact that vampires, however attractive they look, and whatever fun it seems like they’re having, there’s a darker side to everything, and becoming a vampire isn’t the best thing ever to happen to a person. Aside from that, there are also a number of excellent themes this show tackles, such as how romance and friendships work, the sickness of the human condition, and every human’s inner narcissism, in that humans and vampires alike want to be liked, and paid attention to.

A quick comment about the fan service now, because I know that’s what a lot of you will criticize. The non-vampire fan service is a bit much, but the fan service of vampires I think was quite necessary for the plot, to emphasize the beauty of them, and when we learn about the other sides of vampires, it really makes you think how such beautiful creatures can have such difficult lives too.

ART: 9.8/10

The art is really quite spectacular, and definitely the thing that stands out the most. You can really see the experience of the director, and some sequences look as brilliant as some scenes in Monogatari, which is really saying something. The nighttime ambience is just done so well.

MUSIC: 9.5/10

Also amazing, as the OP and ED are excellent both visually and musically, as well as the excellent soundtrack by Creepy Nuts. Great vibes, and it fits so perfectly with the nighttime ambience, heck, it even adds to the ambience.

CHARACTERS: 19/20

Not only are the characters so fun to watch, their voice actors really do a great job. Nazuna’s such a fun character, really nailing the comedic aspects and also her badassery. Considering her voice actor, Sora Amamiya, voiced Chizuru from Rent-a-Girlfriend, and Nazuna, really goes to show how good her range is, and what different roles she can play. Now our other main character, Kou, is honestly a severely underrated character. From being quite the clueless and despondent guy at the beginning, to being able to stand up for others, and voice his opinions without holding back is great development, plus he was even able to gain some empathy for others. Even for his age, he feels oddly mature in a way, even though he is naive and misguided for sure, especially for skipping school as much as he does. One more character worthy of so much praise is Anko Uguisu, as her voice actor Miyuki Sawashiro really nails her character so well. The comedic aspects and the intimidating aspects of her character were done to perfection, and Sawashiro’s performance was incredible.

ENJOYMENT: 14.7/15

I enjoyed this a ton, with the production and the characters, really impressive stuff.

THEMATIC EXECUTION: 18.5/20

With the ambience of the nighttime, the imaginative theme of the night is really done to near perfection, while Nazuna and the other vampires create a sense of playfulness and have such a jovial tone to them. When the story picks up, the themes of danger and intimidation are also done with great care. Just such thematic brilliance, and while there are slight jarring tonal shifts at times, I never found that a glaring problem.

OVERALL: 91.3/100

Probably one of the best non-sequel series of the year, as it creates such an immaculate atmosphere, and also featured some great characters and themes as well. Brilliant visual direction, and an engaging story near the end. This is a series I would wholeheartedly recommend, as it’s quite the easy watch. The night is short, walk on boys and girls!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 7, 2024

Longnines

Mixed Feelings

Funny

A boy decides to sneak out at night and finds the experience of roaming the suburban and city streets to be exciting and fulfilling, discovering that he has a great appreciation for the evening and the atmosphere it brings. In his nighttime exploration he encounters a peculiar character that will change his outlook on life entirely.

The story is contrived; the main character is a conveniently empty husk that has no apparent awareness of friendship or intimacy and lacks a fundamental understanding of relationships, despite being depicted via his various internal monologues as being relatively self-aware, socially competent at communicating with many different personalities, and being ... an alleged model student - despite skipping school in favor of staying up all night long to roam the streets with or without his preferred company. This characterization, convoluted as it is, is essential for the stilted plot of this seasonal romance to work. The major supporting character (and cover girl) is a force of personality that - when her qualities of longevity, lifestyle, and acquaintances are all accounted for and brought into question - seems little more than an indecent and predatory harlot, preying upon naive adolescence. She can only be described as a sensual and sharp object that would be prone to having nightmares (or perhaps they would be daymares?) about handholding.

The supporting characters encountered throughout the anime are at least congruous to the main characters; there are a variety of personalities and circumstances, some of which are merely episodic and non-recurrent, that serve to flesh out the main characters or as problems for them to solve and navigate.

There is adversity in the story, which seems shoehorned in explicitly to prolong the runtime of the series, as there is no sign of adversity for the first half of the show. It is simply another ingredient haphazardly tossed into the awkward concoction to give the final product a dramatical flare, which does little more than frame the wrap-up of the season as being stilted. Had these elements of conflict been present early-on or referenced then it may have been an elegant layer added to the storytelling, but instead these arrive to the setting late and present as being forced conditions to promote character development.

The animation is good, as are the character designs. The ED is highly complementary to the spunkiness and vulgarity of the lead girl. The atmosphere of the setting is great - it does deliver a sense of grandeur and excitement into the idea of being a prowling night owl who goes about experiencing nightlife.

Overall, I can only assume the target demographic for this anime is lonely, awkward teenagers that feel alienated and isolated from their peers or from society as a whole, wondering what their place is in the world, as I cannot believe nor be convinced that the main characterizations present in the story could achieve any level of resonance with anyone who has any measure of worldly experience. I cannot recommend this anime, but I also believe that there are many people who would find something they enjoy in this. If what I've written here sounds at all attractive then watch the first few episodes and see for yourself if this is something that interests you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 18, 2023

ShadowCat993

Not Recommended

It's boring to the point of irritating. Wasted potential.
As everyone else has already mentioned there isn't much plot, so it's character driven. But the characters are so f-ing unbelievable and stupid, just stereotypical dummies. I'm not going to touch on pedophilia issue, cause who cares, it's fiction. Sexualization of the vampire girl would be fine, if it reflected what she looks like for MC (sadly, it doesn't. upd: until the last episode lmao).
The vampire girl is more or less fine, imho. She is not a good person, not smo to relate to, but her immaturity is explainable: imagine, a not so clever teenage girl ... turned into a vampire, she's overcome by hunger and does nothing but eat (drink blood), drink beer and play around, just leading an easy life, therefore no need for personality growth - no one would expect her to be mature, really. Though if she was bored by such a life, it would much more believable and more interesting, too.
Upd: she was bored, but then she's stupid for not finding smt fun, sorry
The classmate/friend girl is also alright. Just a sad good girl with no real goal in life, I bet there are thousands of them in Japan. But she doesn't act any different in the unexpected circumstances she faces, that's the unbelievable part.
And the biggest problem is MC. He says that he doesn't understand human relations and emotions like love, that is by the age of 14, it's logical to assume that he is somewhat autistic or traumatized and neurotic, but he doesn't act like either. In fact, he is _very_ normal, just somehow not interest in anything at all (upd: he collects sneakers, so he has a little hobby and all the previous crap just makes even less sense) And he kinda has some friends in school, at least he acts like they are worth talking to and laughing with (upd: and what about the blond guy? Even MC himself said they are friends), but then he just decides to stop going to school, not even cause he's tired, but cause he can't be bothered... Also, sometimes he acts shy about echi stuff, and other times he doesn't care at all. Be consistent, would you?
Moreover, none of them really show any personality growth through their interaction (aside from kinda suddenly falling in love in ep.13). You can't relate at all, no emotional attachment. Neither are there any funny jokes, though they try sooooo hard. They spell out so many obvious things. It's full of plot holes and makes no damn sense in general, especially, how calm everyone is about vampires and seeing one with their own eyes. Really? Imagine (actually imagine, mb your tomorrow) you went for a massage and a girl just passed through the wall. No reaction??? Another thing is... why the heck do they talk aloud all the time, it looks very artificial, even though it would be just fine, (no, like, 100 times better, actually) if they made them think all these things instead. Upd: THEY SUDDENLY STARTED THINKING INSTEAD OF TALKING ALOUD IN EP.7, I'm actually losing it
The last disappointment, for the insomniac like myself, is the way they simply neglect the problem of insomnia. "Just be satisfied with your day" - like hell this would work. Just imagine how fun it could be, if the show actually tried to tackle the problem, explain the possible reasons, find more and more ways to overcome it, present them to people who can't find help irl, I would actually look over all the other problems then. But the only advice given is "step out at night, it's so fun, forget your reality and become a vampire". Nicely done, helps a lot. They try to talk about other problems, but it looks very clumsy and immature, and gives people wrong ideas about, for example, obsessive behavior (ep.9).
All in all, if the series fails to get you involved by the 5th episode, isn't it obviously bad?
Upd: something interesting happens in ep.11, be sure to stick around)))
But I'll give them a thumbs up for making MC emptier than in an isekai or hentai. Amazing!
There are only 3 good things about this show: 1. Art
2. Music (creepy nuts just hit different, they slap)
3. Voice acting
= 3/10 (a waste of time, not even bad enough to be good)

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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