よふかしのうた Call of the Night
Yofukashi no Uta Synopsis
Yofukashi no Uta of story is about 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.
Yofukashi no Uta Review
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 Yofukashi no Uta, 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.
Story
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!
Yofukashi no Uta of 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
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
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
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
I enjoyed this a ton, with the production and the characters, really impressive stuff.
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
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!
