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「盗撮画像を拡大して見る」 (Tousatsu gazou o kakudai shite miru)
“Enlarge the Peeping-Tom Photos”
We’re at the point in the production now where thoughts of “what’s next?” start to assert themselves. We still have three episodes to go, but Call of the Night is certainly leaving a lot of irons on the fire. New characters are being introduced pretty much every week, and there are substantial manga characters we haven’t even met yet. The central mythology has only just had the surface scratched. This could of course be one of those endless one-and-done adaptations with a “read the manga” ending, but… It doesn’t feel that way to me. I don’t know whether a sequel is in the cards (the series is doing quite well by most measures) but I do think that was at least the hope going in.
That said, while we continued on new the character train, this episode played more as a one-off. It was certainly the most comedy-driven yet, and didn’t do a whole lot of deep character exploration with Kou (which is the meat of Yofukashi no Uta, really). It finds Nazuna roped into working at a maid cafe – apparently exclusively vampire maids, though I’m unclear whether the customers know that – by Midori, when one of her co-workers calls in. Who knew Midori even worked at a meidokissa? I thought for a second Kou would get recruited too, but no – he just had to park himself and order a drink.
Midori sees this as a perfect opportunity to win over Kou, that “you’re probably a no” still stinging (and his “for me, pretty much everybody is a no” doesn’t salve the wound). She’s become rather obsessed with this but he remains quite unmoved by all the moe moe kyun charms that won her the first place ranking at the shop. In fact Kou obviously has more chemistry with Arisa (Oonishi Saori), the former #1 who’s been dislodged by Midori. As for Nazuna she’s predictably terrible as a maid, totally lacking the give a fuck gene as she is, but the money’s good enough to make her decide to become a regular part-timer.
Mostly this is a lot of Naz and Midori making jokes about how horny Kou is (for a boy of fourteen I think he’s actually pretty under control), along with a mystery subplot that allows Kou to show off his junior detective stripes. Someone has been snapping candid shots of Arisa and posting them on the net, and Midori asks Kou if he can solve the case (remember what I said about boredom being a major driving force in a vampire’s life). Turns out Kou has a bit of repressed meitantei> in him, and rather takes to the challenge.
Again, this is pretty light material by Yofukashi standards – there’s not a lot of sense that it (or Arisa) will be of much import in the long run. The most interesting part of this is that Kou demonstrates that he’s quite sharp in figuring out the culprit (Arisa), but has a huge blind spot where her motive should be even though it’d actually rather obvious. This fits – partly because he’s just a kid, and partly because he’s not wired to have any of the motivations that drove Arisa to snap the candid selfies and post them online. The motive of a theoretical stalker snapping illicit photos he can understand; the motive of someone faking their own stalker for attention is totally foreign. That last thing in the world Kou wants is more attention.
The only semi-serious thing I can see coming out of this episode is that there did seem to be a genuine spark between Arisa and Kou, but I find it very unlikely that’s an angle the series is going to pursue. Rather, I think this was the calm before the storm, and we’re likely headed for three weighty “canon” episodes to close out the season. After that is anyone’s guess, but it’s pretty obvious that Yofukashi no Uta will still have a lot of story to tell, if the will is there to give it the chance.
If there will be abrupt ending and no second season, there will be rioting in the streets…
I enjoyed the episode immensely, mostly due to fish-out-of-water hilarity for both Nazuna and Kou. They both are so lacking in the “being popular skills” that it creates laughter all by itself.
I can totally see Midori working at a Maid Cafe, it’s so like her personality. That said, whenever I see a Maid Cafe reference in Anime I automatically compare a Maid Cafe patreon to us…Anime conoscere. Waiting for our favorite Anime to wash away our s***ty day, or make our butter toast taste creamier.
Kou was really funny when he deduced who the perp was. When Nazuna and Midori were amazed, Kou gradually lowered the percentage of being sure as his confidence shrunk to a humble size. I guess he remembered he’s an introvert…
In a funny sort of way it’s testament to how smart Kou is that he figured it out the way he did. Most people (me too) would have figured this out based on the motive, which is easily the most obvious element here. But because Kou is who he is, he had to do it strictly based on the physical evidence. It would never occur to him that someone would do what Arisa did because they wanted more attention – why would anyone want more attention?
So how long will the manga run? I am thinking about picking it up but I do not like ridiculously long manga series so when do you think the creator will end it?
I have absolutely no idea. I don’t think there are any signs of it ending soon.
We’re nowhere near the end of the story. The manga is still ongoing with a current count of 141 chapters and there’s absolutely no sign that it’s near its climax.
So far, aside from its online counterpart under freelance translators, there are currently 8 volumes of the manga translated in English under Viz Media. With the release of the upcoming 9th volume scheduled for September 13th, 2022.
Based on my personal knowledge and judging by the adaptation’s pacing, if this season is ending where I think it will, we’re heading for a cliffhanger ending. This is a split cour series. I’m sure of it. Not to mention that the final character in the OP has yet to make their appearance. And she’s already been teased with a voice actress attached: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2022-09-08/call-of-the-night-anime-unveils-climax-video-new-cast-member/.189463
No. Despite the café’s name and aside from Nazuna recently joining the staff, Midori was previously the only vampire employed. The rest of staff doesn’t even know what she really is. When the mentioned co-worker announced her inability to work and before Nazuna happened by, Midori contemplated a replacement but any viable options she knew were vampires, which she subsequently began disregarding the idea. It wasn’t brought up in the episode but immediately after, her reasoning was that she doesn’t want to stir up competition against herself and have said competition going after the male patrons she believes have the best tasting blood.
Ko’s detective prowess is impressive. Which is one of many instances that have me believe his sense of reasoning is way beyond that expected of a 14 year old.
So I guess Kou needs a spin of series called Detective Kou-nan.
Haha—I’ll shut up now.
The exit is to the left.
Groan….
Worst pun since punic wars.
Though idea itself not half bad.