The night calls once again with vampire in potentia Ko Yamori and the voluptuous vampires that surround him. As a refresher: After a nighttime stroll results in an encounter with the real-life vampire Nazuna Nanakusa, Ko develops a desire to abandon his ordinary life and live as a vampire at night. There’s just one problem: To live that #VampireNightLife, Nazuna must fall in love with him and drink his blood, although Nazuna is not on board with that idea…or is she? The first half of the episode features our dynamic duo being split up by other vampires in their “friend group,” who are eager to learn about their relationship and check on their status. Of course, there’s very little progress, as Nazuna doesn’t want to fall in love with Ko, and Ko thinks the process can be rushed along by simple determination and hard work, having zero experience in love. Oh, you sweet summer child…it doesn’t work that way. The second half of the episode features our two dorks embarking on a night stroll through Tokyo and the local zoo, while conducting research on romance and relationships by observing couples enjoying themselves in the Tokyo Night. After Nazuna takes a drink of his blood, Ko almost suggests that they visit during the day, but stops himself, realizing that nighttime is the right time for them.
It’s always awesome when a show can pick up right where it left off after taking a multi-year break between seasons. Sometimes it feels like the writers can’t get back in that groove after a long time of being away. Call of the Night, for better or worse, does not suffer from that as we are thrown right back into the world of Ko and Nazuna, and their relationship feels much as it did when we left them three years ago. It almost felt as though we left our two dorks in that one-room apartment playing Street Fighter…on a Generation 1 PlayStation. Go figure that one. Remember when I said “for better or worse” above? Well, here’s the worst part: I was bored with all the exposition, as this first episode primarily featured our characters sitting around talking and drinking. Typically, I forgive this as most returning anime have an exposition-heavy first episode, which is used to reintroduce the characters and the world we left behind. But in this case, Call of the Night just plops us back where we left off. We don’t get any reintroduction to who these characters are or their underlying relationships. I forgot the names of the other vampires that Ko hangs out with and had to look them up. It’s been three years, guys. Three years and countless other anime between then and now—please remind me who these characters are! I understand that this is the first episode of the new season, and some things need to be established to bring the audience up to date. I still felt that they could have done a bit more to hold my attention.
From a production standpoint, well, it’s exactly like the first season. Liden Films brings their A-Game once again, making this a seamless transition from one season to another. There’s no Dagashi Kashi situation here. Everyone looks exactly as they did in the first season, and the rich nighttime scenes are just as beautiful as I remember. The continuity is maintained with the opening and ending sequences. Creepy Nuts once again blesses our ears with “Mirage” and “Nemure” as the opening and ending theme songs, respectively, and the accompanying animation is just as impressive as in season one. They put their best foot forward with this one (pun TOTALLY intended).
So, where does that leave us with Call of the Night season 2? Simple. If you were digging the first season, then the second season will offer up more of the same: equal parts romcom and supernatural shenanigans set against a backdrop of the beautiful night. While this first episode did feel like an exposition dump, and you might need to reference a wiki to remember who these characters are or why they are essential, if you were a fan of the first season, you owe it to yourself to check this first episode out and see for yourself if you still wanna party until the sun comes up with Ko and Nazuna, or turn in early and call it a night.
Call of the Night is available for streaming on HiDive.
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