Sometimes you meet unusual vampires…
What They Say:
After being bitten by the vampire Nazuna while wandering late at night, insomniac student Ko Yamori unhappily learns that he’s NOT becoming a vampire himself. Apparently, if you’re bitten by a vampire that you’re not in love with, you just get a bloodthirsty friend instead of a supernatural blood connection. But being vamped is one of the few things to ever intrigue Ko, so he makes it his goal to fall in love with Nazuna. Of course, Ko’s friends aren’t thrilled with his new vampiric ambitions, and it’s not even clear if Nazuna will bite on the offer should Ko try to answer the call of the night!
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language as well as the English language adaptation, both of which are encoded using the DTS-HD MA lossless codec. The show is essentially a quiet series with a couple of fantastical elements thrown in for good measure that lets it go big a few times. But for the most part, it’s all about the dialogue-based aspects of it, which is handled well across the forward soundstage. With a decent little ensemble cast to work with, the series moves effortlessly between parties to provide a solid narrative that has some good placement and depth in numerous scenes to give it a little extra impact. When it does the bigger scenes, it definitely hits things better there, but since it’s all supposed to really stand out as it’s not exactly real, it achieves its goal well. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we didn’t have problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2022, the transfer for this TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The thirteen episodes are spread across two discs in a nine/four breakdown. Animated by Liden Films, the series has a really great look to it with distinctive character designs and a really strong color design with all the dark colors and vibrant elements. It’s not a series that’s going big on action moments or really high-motion material and that allows it to step things up with color design quality and the details in costuming and backgrounds. The encoding for this works really well as it brings all of that detail and color design to life in a great way. It’s richly done with a clean and problem-free encode as there’s no noise to be had or breakup throughout. I really loved the look of it as it adapts the manga, giving it a great life here.
Packaging:
The packaging design for this release comes in a standard-sized Blu-ray case with both discs against the interior walls with no hinge involved. The front cover uses the familiar key artwork of the main cast on the walking bridge with all the purple hues highlighting it is very striking. It may be a bit too dark for some but it captures the moodiness just right and the angle of it has you drawn into checking out more of the characters down the line. The back cover breaks things up with purple and white sections while spreading some good-sized shots from the show along the right side of it. The summary of the premise is clean and easy to read as is the small breakdown of what extras are on the disc. The production credits are straightforward and the technical grid lists how the show was put together for the release in an accurate way. No show-related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menus for this release stick to a simple static approach with some nice character artwork similar to the cover designs being used. Using the familiar pieces from the promotional side of the show’s release works well as theft capture the same moodiness of the cover and the colors are even more vibrant where they need to be and the dark blues and blacks hit all the better with their depth. The navigation is kept to the right with a darker design but with a touch of elegance to it with the layout and the almost oval-like framing of it all. It’s a smooth and easy-to-use design since it’s essentially just episode selection but the second disc adds in the extras with a submenu. Everything looks good and is quick and easy to load both as the main menu and as the pop-up menu.
Extras:
The extras included with this release are the clean versions of the opening and closing sequences as well as the karaoke version of the theme song and some of the original promos.
Based on the manga known originally as Yofukashi no Uta, Call of the Night is a thirteen-episode series that aired as part of the summer 2023 lineup. The original manga from Kotoyama began in 2019 as serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday and it already has seventeen volumes out in Japan and is being released in English through Viz Media. The anime adaptation saw Tomoyuki Itamura as the hands-on director and the production made out well with Michiko Yokote on the scripts – which are definitely in their bailiwick – while Liden Films was able to put together a gorgeous-looking piece, especially when it comes to all the dark night time sequences and how they balance it. This is the kind of show that definitely delivers well in that even if the story isn’t your jam, the visuals will draw you. That said, as much as I enjoyed it, it doesn’t feel like a Noitamina project in my mind.
The basic idea behind this is simple in that we’re introduced to Ko Yamori, a third-year in junior high who has all sorts of small problems in his life that have built up to a certain level of anxiety and discomfort. Where he finds peace is when he slips out of his home in the middle of the night and walks the quiet streets of his area. These are beautiful opening shots to the series as we see the quiet of the city through his eyes and how it helps him. The quiet beauty of it all, which as someone who watches too many late-night walking videos of Tokyo, I can see the appeal. What changes for him is when he ends up meeting someone that looks close to the same age as him named Nazua who is actually a vampire. This isn’t your traditional vampire as we see her in daylight fairly often, but rather just someone who is long-lived and prefers the nights and all that it offers. She’s able to tempt Ko with what it can mean to be a night-walker but the rub in it is that he has to fall in love with her.
While that will obviously take time to become real, what she’s able to do is set herself up in a nearby abandoned building and use him to feed on, which helps further the bond in small ways across it. There’s obviously a lot of material to the original manga with it having so many volumes but this series is focused on the early parts of the dynamic and figuring out who these two leads are, among other characters that populate it. The most interesting to me is that of Akira, a childhood friend who does her best once she realizes the reality of what he’s doing to get him to stay in the daylight world but you can also see how she ends up understanding his decision and supporting it. She brings an interesting presence to the show that worked better for me than I expect since often the whole childhood friend thing plays out in such a familiar way, especially as a kind of romantic triangle. But with such an upfront element here with Nazuna making the offer that requires him to fall in love with her, that helps break free of this triangle fairly quickly.
What we get with this series is an overarching storyline about what Ko is going through as it plays out in small ways. While we get plenty of scenes during the day and with other characters, the most compelling material tends to be in the night where the two main characters are just existing, talking, and experiencing the existence at this point. There’s that magical quality that many will feel from this time of night and combining that with how Nazuna is slowly bringing Ko over to her side of things, even with its awkwardness, is enjoyable to watch unfold. And to see how Ko realizes that this is what he wants even at such a young age because sometimes you just know exactly. I particularly enjoyed the big with Nazuna talking about how drinking blood is like sex and there are certainly parallels to be drawn and the whole sex and vampire thing has been going on forever. The explorations of love in all of this are interesting as well, though I’ll admit part of me wishes this dealt with college or older characters just to add more complexity to it rather than an “innocent” fourteen-year-old kid with no real-life experience in the grand sense.
The show does a great job of basically existing within the spaces between stories in a sense. It’s almost all small moments and the quiet kind of growth that helps things move along. Dealing with Ko understanding what it means to become a vampire and the elements of the path he’s on are interesting but it doesn’t dominate. It’s the small interactions between him and Nazuna that sells it. Similarly, watching as Nazuna finds a place for herself within all of this is interesting as well, going from someone that hasn’t been settled in some time to beginning to make a place for herself and acquiring things by the end of the series to outfit her place not just for her but for Ko’s comfort as well. While we see Ko think he’s in love with her earlier than he actually is, beyond the actual metric they come up to determine when love is real, delivering well on watching him growing to understand what it really means. And the way that Nazuna responds to it while being who she is.
In Summary:
Some series just draw you in with their moodiness and you can often get that with a show involving vampires. This one operates a bit differently than the norm and traditional types when it comes to the vampires (and what comes later about Nazuna) and that’s a big plus. I love the visual design of the show as it’s the perfect piece to watch late at night – and not binge – just to let the characters and the design of it all sink in over time rather than all at once. It’s an interesting show with what it’s doing and while there are parts I would change just to give it a bit more depth, it works well as intended. The encoding for this is fantastic with what it has to work with and that’s a huge part of the appeal, especially since the color richness is so much better than streaming. This is an interesting show that definitely captures a particular concept and execution very well.
Features:
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Web Previews, “Loss Time” Karaoke Version, Japanese Promos, Clean Opening Animation, Clean Closing Animation
Content Grade: A-
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B-
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: September 5th, 2023
MSRP: $69.98
Running Time: 325 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
