Ko Yamori has two sides to himself — the one he shows in public, and the one he has privately. He finally gave up that public side after quitting school. He soon develops insomnia, but he slowly starts to get better by roaming around the city at night. One day though, he randomly meets a girl who catches him getting beer from a machine. If he thought worrying about her turning her into the cops was the issue, he runs into another — she’s actually a vampire…and after sucking his blood, finds it delectable. So it’s clear he won’t escape her, so how can he get himself out of this situation?
Well, how about romancing said vampire to become a vampire himself…
Call of the Night‘s general premise is intriguing on the whole. Unable to really be himself in the day, Ko feels like a different person under the gaze of night. His life changes however when he runs into the vampire Nazuna Nanakusa, who convinces him to be reckless enough to go to her apartment. Whereas he had nothing to spark his daily life, he now wants to forego his humanity and become a vampire. Good luck in trying to get Nazuna to like you though, since right now she’s out for only his blood.
The only problem is I can’t say I could get into the relationship dynamic between Ko and Nazuna. That’s a very big deal since most of volume 1 involves these two taking part in specific blood-sucking scenarios. And if you find the chemistry between these two lacking, then chances are the actual scenarios will be boring. Like it sure is nice to see Nazuna really being tsundere about Ko’s determination to get her to fall in love with him, but I can’t say I find myself caring.
The manga goes into the general backstory of Ko, but probably not enough (like, is everything with his parents ok? Did we have to wait until closer to the end of the volume to meet a friend?). Meanwhile we get virtually no backstory on the more interesting character, the vampire. Exactly what’s Nazuna’s story? Why is Ko the one she happens to be drawn to? If any of the events they involve themselves with were fun it might not have mattered, but aside from a few choice dialogue exchanges, one of the highlights was the two encountering some drunk adults and Ko’s only friend Akira appearing to question the situation.
Aside from that, a lot of these chapters are kind of unmemorable. The art for Call of the Night is quite good but the humor is lacking and largely the story doesn’t feel all that sharp either. I can see if maybe more of Nazuna’s backstory is revealed or more vampires show up then this series can become more enjoyable. I just won’t be rushing to find out in the immediate future though.