Yofukashi no Uta

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.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nanakusa, Nazuna Main

Amamiya, Sora Japanese

Yamori, Kou Main

Satou, Gen Japanese

Uguisu, Anko ing

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Asai, Akira ing

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Kikyou, Seri ing

Tomatsu, Haruka Japanese

Kohakobe, Midori ing

Oozora, Naomi Japanese

Suzushiro, Hatsuka ing

Waki, Azumi Japanese

Honda, Kabura ing

Itou, Shizuka Japanese

Hirata, Niko ing

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Shirakawa, Kiyosumi ing

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Inagaki, Takafumi Producer

Sugawara, Hana Producer

Itamura, Tomoyuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Miyanishi, Tetsuya Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 29, 2022

Mcsuper

Recommended

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 Call of the Night, 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.

My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

STORY: 19.8/25

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!

The story itself isn’t strong at the start ittedly, 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 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: 9.8/10

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: 9.5/10

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: 19/20

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: 14.7/15

I enjoyed this a ton, with the production and the characters, really impressive stuff.

THEMATIC EXECUTION: 18.5/20

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: 91.3/100

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!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 7, 2024

Longnines

Mixed Feelings

Funny

A boy decides to sneak out at night and finds the experience of roaming the suburban and city streets to be exciting and fulfilling, discovering that he has a great appreciation for the evening and the atmosphere it brings. In his nighttime exploration he encounters a peculiar character that will change his outlook on life entirely.

The story is contrived; the main character is a conveniently empty husk that has no apparent awareness of friendship or intimacy and lacks a fundamental understanding of relationships, despite being depicted via his various internal monologues as being relatively self-aware, socially competent at communicating with many different personalities, and being ... an alleged model student - despite skipping school in favor of staying up all night long to roam the streets with or without his preferred company. This characterization, convoluted as it is, is essential for the stilted plot of this seasonal romance to work. The major ing character (and cover girl) is a force of personality that - when her qualities of longevity, lifestyle, and acquaintances are all ed for and brought into question - seems little more than an indecent and predatory harlot, preying upon naive adolescence. She can only be described as a sensual and sharp object that would be prone to having nightmares (or perhaps they would be daymares?) about handholding.

The ing characters encountered throughout the anime are at least congruous to the main characters; there are a variety of personalities and circumstances, some of which are merely episodic and non-recurrent, that serve to flesh out the main characters or as problems for them to solve and navigate.

There is adversity in the story, which seems shoehorned in explicitly to prolong the runtime of the series, as there is no sign of adversity for the first half of the show. It is simply another ingredient haphazardly tossed into the awkward concoction to give the final product a dramatical flare, which does little more than frame the wrap-up of the season as being stilted. Had these elements of conflict been present early-on or referenced then it may have been an elegant layer added to the storytelling, but instead these arrive to the setting late and present as being forced conditions to promote character development.

The animation is good, as are the character designs. The ED is highly complementary to the spunkiness and vulgarity of the lead girl. The atmosphere of the setting is great - it does deliver a sense of grandeur and excitement into the idea of being a prowling night owl who goes about experiencing nightlife.

Overall, I can only assume the target demographic for this anime is lonely, awkward teenagers that feel alienated and isolated from their peers or from society as a whole, wondering what their place is in the world, as I cannot believe nor be convinced that the main characterizations present in the story could achieve any level of resonance with anyone who has any measure of worldly experience. I cannot recommend this anime, but I also believe that there are many people who would find something they enjoy in this. If what I've written here sounds at all attractive then watch the first few episodes and see for yourself if this is something that interests you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 7, 2022

immosha

Not Recommended

Girl meets boy. Boy happens to be a vampire. Boy drags girl into his world of the night. Girl is unsure if she should fall in love with said boy. Other boys that are vampires appear and disapprove of said relationship. Boy must prove that he wants to pursue girl despite the taboos of his world. Now gender-flip it and you have Yofukashi no Uta.

While watching Yofukashi no Uta, I had initially thought up a review regarding the current state of wish-fulfillment anime, of shows that encourage the drop-outs of society to continue their lives in the solitude of ... night in the hopes that a cute girl will fall from the sky and be their manic pixie dream girl. But then I realized - this is just a genderswapped vampire otome anime! And I stopped trying to think about it too hard.

Kou Yamori is insufferable, indecisive for most of the show, and really lacks any charisma to pull this plot together. Even if you gender-bent him into an otome protagonist, he'd probably rue the scorn of every self-insert female watcher as having no backbone and no ambition. Nazuna is equally indecisive throughout this show, which begs the question - is there even a plot to this or am I just watching myself decide what to eat for dinner? Perhaps this is just a general theme of the author's works since Dagashi Kashi - make eccentrically cute girls and let the manga write itself - but sales evidently do not equal quality.

The best I can give for this show is that the framing, direction, and backgrounds look great. For a show that d itself on conveying the atmosphere of night, it certainly delivers. But perhaps adding some ambient background music would have prevented it from being a total snoozefest.

I think if you expect you'll like this, you will, and if you don't know if you'll like this, you probably won't. Go watch Diabolik Lovers or something.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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