Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Call of the Night
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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It's super cute that Nazuna grabbed Kou's hand.
I also thought Seri might be Mahiru's crush but turns out she wasn't. xD
Yes, I too am pretty sure that is what they're doing there. 
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MFrontier
Posts: 11999 |
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So Ko has a time-limit. To be honest, a year doesn't seem like an impossible amount of time to fall in love, but given how non-romantic he and Nazuna are, I guess it won't be quite smooth sailing.
Akira making Ko realize he'll probably get killed if he doesn't become a vampire...but she should probably be careful that none of them realize she knows almost as much as he does. At least Seri approves because she's turned on by Ko's innocence. Ko should've realized Nazuna wouldn't enjoy anything typically romantic. All the same, they've basically been going on dates and having fun together already, so they should just do things their way. I was expecting some kind of twist with Mahiru, but he seems like a genuinely chill, cool, guy who gets along well with Ko. Is his thing that he's dating an older woman? I thought for sure his girlfriend would be Seri. |
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Philville
 Posts: 158 |
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This.
That's fine by me. What I love about this show is its late-night-chill atmosphere, its striking use of color, music, and rhythmical editing (as others here have pointed out), and what the Episode 8 review calls "the show's exploration of illicit nighttime thrills" alternating with "its ability to loaf around and goof off". It also helps that I'm a night owl myself, so I can relate to the series' exploration of the beauty and poetry of the night. Personally, I don't care much for the details of the vampire plot, or -- shock horror! -- for vampires stories in general (with the exception of Stoker's Dracula and Let the Right One In).
All of the above, plus... dat voice. Seriously, I'd listen to her reading the phone book (though an audiobook collection of dirty jokes would be preferred). 
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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YESSSSSSSSS I wanted to talk about this before since I started reading the manga; just a little; but the tones and stuff Kotoyama uses for the night sky are very plain. So the anime's visuals for the background are BY AND FAR much prettier to look at. Lidenfilms studio made some EXCELLENT decisions. I don't think they could have done better. Also the show is even more faithful to the manga than Made in Abyss is, which is saying something. At least so far. So when I hear the complaint 'This is a bad adaptation' from the manga fans....my jaw kinda drops and I sorta want to take them by the shoulders, shake them and scream, "Just what could you POSSIBLY be unsatisfied with?" 
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Philville
Posts: 158 |
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Interesting. I don't read the manga and I haven't actually seen examples of the art style, but from a visual perspective the anime is so drenched in atmosphere that I can definitely see how much of the charm is lost without the use of color (especially the vivid purple and orange, which really brings out the majesty of the night sky). I can't picture how the manga would begin to convey the dazzling city lights during Nazuna and Kou's night-flights (then again, I guess that leaves more to the imagination, which is pretty fitting for a night-themed tale). I think the last series to succeed at creating a visually spectacular nocturnal cityscape (before Call of the Night) was The Great Pretender, and that series was vastly different in tone. |
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Leviathonlx1
Posts: 201 |
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I mean the lack of the festival was a pretty awkward thing in the most recent episode. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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It's definitely possible, if you use the right screentones. There are some truly beautiful ones out there! (Shoujo manga use them much more than shounen ones do though) But you're right about color being absent; a scene would certainly feel less stronger no matter how good the screentone is. I'm an amateur comic artist on webtoons so I work with a lot of tones to get nice effects for my comic. I also spend a lot of time studying what the pros use and even trying to create my own tones. So, for the night sky in Call of the Night, I was expecting to see something akin to this But....Kotoyama just a plain black sky with a few meager dots for stars.  I was very surprised.
@Leviathonlx1 hmm I will check that scene out; as I didn't read ahead of where the anime is. I think it's likely they'll just put it in another episode...since anime scripts do rearrange the order of scenes sometimes (lord knows why) |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11999 |
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The irony that Ko helps people so much with their personal problems and relationship issues yet he keeps trying to avoid his own personal problems and doesn't understand relationships. Like, he's annoyed by people who think romance is the essence of everything even though his main goal is to fall in love.
It was nice to get a Seri-focused episode. I could relate to her desire to have one opposite sex friend after getting tired of seducing men all the time, but if she cares so much about her friendship with Akiyama, I wonder if that means she doesn't have feelings for him like he did for her? Either way, it seems like Akiyama and Seri are meant to parallel Ko and Nazuna to a certain extent. |
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Thesarum
Posts: 428 |
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Yes, exactly. I think perhaps he just overthinks things when they're in respect of himself. Like, he doesn't understand where the line between "acquaintance" and "friend" is when he tries to think about it (and, to be honest, it is somewhat difficult to draw a hard line with an objective standard). But he makes friends easily, because he's genuinely interested in the people he meets and that makes him a good listener. He doesn't actually have to do much to help them out - most of them just need someone to talk to who doesn't judge them. |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2166 |
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Are you by any chance reading Oshi no Ko? |
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Rhythmysticaltycious
Posts: 8 |
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Maids! MAIDS! Damn M-A-I-D-S! In the nightclub!
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee! Who doesnt like that?! However MC vampire girl's legs could be a bit thicker. WORK OUT dammit! |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11999 |
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Wasn't expecting a maid and Midori episode, but the girls looked great in those outfits!
Also genuinely surprised all the girls weren't vampires judging by the cafe name. Arisa seems like a nice and fun girl. Nothing wrong with showing yourself off at a level you're comfortable with just because you want to get some attention, especially if you're not malicious about it. I love how the day was saved thanks to Ko thinking like someone with a libido. |
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Philville
Posts: 158 |
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Interesting -- thanks for sharing an illustrator's insight. Coming back to the anime's strengths (not necessarily for the sake of criticizing the manga, which as a form of art has its own strengths and weaknesses) I've gotta say that the use of color continues to be spectacular. The color schemes for the karaoke scenes in Ep. 9 again reminded me of the more experimental choices in The Great Pretender and really emphasized the thrill of the nightlife which the lyrics of the ending theme by Creepy Nuts capture so well. Also, both the visual and audio horror suspense cues with the "stalker" Akiyama were absolutely hilarious. That's the kind of thing that anime adaptations can bring to the table when at their best.
I see what you did there.  That’s some razor-sharp writing and critically incisive analysis! Jokes aside, the Ep. 9 review was exceptionally eloquent and insightful. At first I thought that the episode was just going to give us another example of the tired anime trope of the spoiled popular high-school girl suffering from ennui (which really seems like a clichéd first world problem), but the episode actually manages to flesh out Seri’s character and to cover a lot of emotional ground, as you point out:
These are excellent observations, but I do wonder, though, whether the “murdering Akiyama” thing is there to make a larger point or mostly for comic relief and suspense. There’s also something a little too convenient about Akiyama’s ending because, even though it is heartfelt and ambiguous as you point out, it also seems like an easy way out for his own problems and issues. One of the themes the series appears to be exploring is that one's humanity and feelings of friendship and love aren’t so easily discarded. As far as I can tell, becoming a vampire isn’t really much of a cure for anything, because vampires are just as much of an emotional mess as humans. As others here have pointed out, the irony is that someone like Kou who seems to want to become a vampire out of a mix of aloofness, frustration and ennui (which makes him more like Seri than we might at first suspect) is actually the one who ends up helping them with their own insecurities and problems. I don't read the manga but I wouldn't be surprised if he chooses not to become a vampire after all because he matures enough to realize that being friends and/or in love with Nazuna-chan is rewarding in and of itself (rather than a means to an end).
Exactly, except that I’m starting to think that he “understands” them on an instinctive level (given that he's a very empathetic person despite considering himself to be antisocial or introverted). It’s the social constructs and labels that he struggles to grasp. I can't remember what episode it was, but at some point he wonders when one "begins" to be friends with an acquaintance, which I thought was interesting because it's approaching an emotional problem from an overly intellectual angle.
I’m certainly not complaining. Also, not that I expect anyone to know what I'm talking about, but the shot of Arisa’s swaying ponytail turned me into the horse-head creep obsessed with ponytails from Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu for a second. (“PONY!?”) |
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Thesarum
Posts: 428 |
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Wow, well ep11 is a bit of a body blow for Ko.
Call of the Night continues it's strong form on the use of light and colour. Not exactly a new idea, but Anko's introduction scene was everything Call of the Night does well. The scenes she's in are all washed out in nicotine browns unlike the usual vibrant colours, and the studio enjoyed animating the smoke. The ending asks a lot of questions and highlights how little Ko, and we, really understands how this all works. The 10 year time limit... is that if you don't eat? Or just general limitation on male vampires? The thing with the ring... Is it specifically rings (wedding rings perhaps?) or the metal it's made from? And why does Anko taste bad? Just because she smokes so much (and it is A LOT, she's gonna do well to make 50) or does she have other countermeasures in place? Nazuna might be roughly what Ko thinks she is, but he's a mouse hanging out with cats. |
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DRosencraft
Posts: 667 |
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Can't be 100% sure, but I believe there is lore that says that one of a vampire's weaknesses is an item of high significance from when they were human. It could well be that this ring was his or his wife's wedding band. The ring looked silver (I could be misremembering that scene now), which, though not usually a weakness of vampires, is generally considered a weakness of supernatural entities. It also seemed that his turning to ash had to do with the sun coming up, not necessarily the ring itself. It could be the ring was only meant to evoke some memories long enough to keep him from fleeing the sunlight. As for her tasting bad, there are a few possible angles here. The first is that she's actually herself a vampire, as it's typically understood in various lore that vampires don't like the taste, may even be poisoned, by drinking blood of another vampire (actually, it's anything dead or dying). She could be part-vampire, or suppressing her vampiric traits, as part of her job hunting them, so another vampire might not readily realize she is one. There is also lore of vampire hunters who would essentially poison their blood - eat lots of salt, garlic, even inject themselves with a dying person's blood or vampire blood (since that alone won't change them). It could even well be that her smoking is a means of introducing toxins to her blood as a means affecting the eventual poisoning. Or it could be something much simpler. We know that Ko's blood, for whatever reason (possibly innocence) is much tastier than "normal" for Nazuna, which in turn intrigues the other vampires. Perhaps Anko's lack of innocence (adult whose had adult relationships, investigates all the crappy parts of people's lives so has likely seen some pretty terrible situations, kills vampires) or whatever else the criteria is, makes her blood taste bad. We've heard that male vampires exist, but other than the one dude who just got changed a couple episodes ago, we haven't actually met any. Perhaps males simply can't drink blood. It could be their fated to only be turned for a brief time and ultimately "fall" or be killed. There is precedent to the idea that drinking blood is not necessarily a requirement for all vampires and is instead a sign that a vampire is essentially defective. Or, a mix of all the above. |
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