Call of the Night Vol. 1

Author: Kotoyama
Illustrator: Kotoyama
Publishers: Viz Media
Age Group: Older Teen
Genre: shonen, romance, comedy, fantasy
Type: Manga

Content Warnings: Alcohol

Spoilers ahead

Plot

Ko Yamori is an insomniac with a penchant for nightly walks where he meets Nazuna Nanakusa, a vampire, which is fine by him as he decides he wants to be one too. Only it won’t be that easy. 

This plot is pretty relaxing to read. One thing I did notice is when Ko is trying to decide if he wants to spend more time enjoying the freedom of the night, we get different settings. Behind Nazuna is the night, quiet and freeing, shown by the empty street and parks. Ko, on the other hand, is shown in his classroom. It really shows the duality of being normal, following rules and expectations, versus wanting to be free from the monotony of life. 

This drudgery of day life versus the freedom the night provides is not lost on Ko. It gives him time to figure out what he wants out of life.There’s a lot of introspection that Ko goes through in this first volume. He decides the goal he wants is to fulfill the conditions to become a vampire, which means falling in love with Nazuna…only he doesn’t know what love really means. 

Character Development

Ko Yamori, to me, is a very relatable character. He struggles with his emotions to the point he doesn’t know what having friendships and being in love really means. He doesn’t get romance and how other people feel. He is good at picking up context clues so he can at least figure out the right direction someone is feeling. He’s very much a loner and pensive. 

Nazuna may be a vampire but she’s the opposite of Ko. She’s loud and talks a lot. She doesn’t let things get her down and takes everything in stride. At the same time, based on her reactions, she’s never been in love either as she gets flustered when love is mentioned. She is kind of pervy which she uses to tease Ko all the time by misstating things. 

Akira is Ko’s old playmate from when they were little. Not much is known about her except she may have a crush on Ko. She’s always thought of Ko and her as friends. 

World-building

The world is contemporary focusing more on the stillness of the night. It calls to souls that don’t feel like they fit in and that’s exactly the vibe you get. It pleasantly drowns you as the story progresses. You want to be in the night just as much as Ko. 

The bit of world-building we get is mostly about vampires. We find out that vampires can only turn someone if that person has fallen in love with them, and not just any kind of love, it has to be true love. Though all our protagonists don’t know what that actually means. 

Themes

If I had to choose a theme outside the obvious what is love? I’d say it comes from something Nazuna says:

“Live in the night until the day gets better”. 

I take this to mean that it’s okay to withdraw from people. It’s okay to recharge and find something that calms your soul. It can be anything as long as you feel the freedom to relax and be yourself. Accepting the bad and good within a space that you feel safe where everything can just melt away. 

Observations & Predictions

Ko is in a perfect spot to have a lot of emotional growth as he develops friendships with Akira and Nazuna. His introspective personality makes him perfect for the audience to follow his journey with him. Sometimes relating to people is tough especially if you don’t have strong feelings one way or the other. I think that Ko could really fall for Nazuna. 

Yet, we also have Akira in the mix. It doesn’t seem like they’re the kind of girls that will create a love triangle where they backstab each other and fight for Ko, but it could happen. We know that Nazuna got a little jealous when Ko started hanging out with her less to hang out with Akira. So, it’s a possibility that a love triangle will come about. Though I’m hoping that doesn’t happen for a while in the series as Ko’s emotional arc needs to catch up so he could handle something like that. Otherwise, he could just withdraw from both of them. 

Something I really liked during some of Ko’s introspections is that he starts feeling better about the world, not because Nazuna drinks his blood, but because they feel the same way. There’s no deeper meaning to them being together than they want to spend time together. I think this is an excellent epiphany for him because it’s creating a safe space for him to continue to grow as a person. It also helps Nazuna to begin changing and starting her own character arc. 

I’m interested in seeing how Akira handles the fact that Ko just lets Nazuna feed from him. She wants him to go back to school, but Ko doesn’t really want that. How he handles Akira and telling her what he wants will be key in their relationship. I think Akira won’t really understand at first and try to stop him. This could become a problem as it’ll just create a divide. She could also accept it (as she seems more on the mature side) though she’ll be disappointed. 

Would I recommend to give this a read? I think so, it’s not in your face about anything but it’s a nice read where you can relax and just let the story unfold. You can introspect and recharge just as much as Ko does in this. I’m intrigued to see where this series goes. 

Recommendations

Similar Romance:

Insomniacs after School
By: Makoto Ojiro

Horimiya 
By: Hiroki Adachi

More Vampires: 

My Dear, Curse-Casting Vampire
By: Chisaki Kanai

The Case Study of Vanitas
By: Jun Mochizuki

Supernatural: 

Bakemonogatari
By: Nisio Isin