An insomniac wandering the night sounded like a pretty good premise that could lead to some interesting plot points. Plus, I’ve heard some rumblings about how good the first episode of Yofukashi no Uta (Call of the Night) was so I decided to check it out. Now that I’ve seen the first episode, was it as good as everyone made it out to be?
Let’s Go!
First Episode Synopsis
Kou has insomnia. He sneaks out of his house to wander around town. For the first time in his life, he feels free but he’s still a bit paranoid that he could get caught. After looking up advice on how to sleep, he sees a bunch of suggestions involving alcohol. So, he goes to a vending machine to buy some when he’s caught by a mysterious girl.
The girl correctly guesses that he can’t sleep and lures him back to his apartment where she shares her futon with him; however, Kou has no intentions of going to sleep. He fakes it and that’s when the girl sees her opportunity. She leans in and bites his neck, revealing herself to be a vampire. Kou snaps awake and questions her… and then questions why he’s not a vampire now.
She explains that she’s not interested in creating offspring but it could happen if he were to fall in love with her. Kou doesn’t fully buy it but after some walking around, talking, and getting kicked off the roof of a building, he’s convinced that this is the life for him! He swears that he’ll fall in love with her so that she can transform him into a vampire!
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – While I don’t doubt the first episode was good… it was just average good to me. It wasn’t anything that blew my socks off and made me want to watch more. That, and plus, I’m not really into vampire stories. Another than that turned me off a bit was the art style. I’m not a fan of how Nazuna (our vampire girl) looks. Just something about her face isn’t pleasant to look at.
Plus, the scenery can’t make up its mind on whether it wants to be dark or painted with all of the colors of the rainbow. I get that the show is trying to set a vibe but that first episode was rather slow and uninteresting.
So, why am I not giving this a NO and moving on? Because it doesn’t seem like a typical vampire story. There’s a certain unique element to it and it has the chance to become something special. I want to give it a couple of more episodes before I truly pass judgment but I will say if the show continues on at the same pacing without anything of interest happening, I may end up dropping this one. I am hoping that the show can prove me wrong, though.
The reason why I say that is when you look at what was set up… you just have a kid who wants to be a vampire and a girl who’s not interested in producing offspring. So, it’s painfully obvious this is going to be the two of them going on random adventures as they try and force these two to become a couple to satisfy the end goal. Either it will happen and Kou will get his wish, or it will all be for naught as he has an epiphany and ends up back on a regular sleeping schedule.
There really isn’t much room for a more grandiose end game with this show and there’s only so much you can do in between in this situation to hold a viewer’s attention. So, I’ll wait and see how this turns out.
