Call of the Night

This review is mostly spoiler free. Meeting a vampire in the dead of night sounds straight out of a horror story, but for Kou Yamori that couldn't be further from the truth. Meeting the vampire would give him an oppportunity to obtain a key to escape his boring daytime activities and into the exciting clutches of nighttime.

For his plan to work, he would need to become a vampire. Luckily for him, Nazuna Nanakusa is one vampire that doesn't mind him to become her underling. The condition to become one is simple enough, Kou Yamori would have to fall in love with Nazuna Nanakusa.

There's just one problem, Kou Yamori doesn't know how. Love and romance never made sense to him, dating a girl is just something Kou Yamori isn't interested in.

But the problem seems simple enough to solve. Kou Yamori just had to learn to love Nazuna Nanakusa. If he can do that succesfully, then he would become a vampire and achieve his desire to live happily in the night.

Here you have an inexperienced young boy trying to fall in love with a flirtatious vampire to fulfill his escapism wet dream. It doesn't sound very interesting, in fact it just sounds like a generic rom-com but with vampires! ... Which isn't entirely false, but hear me out when I say that this has been one of the most fun reads I've had in a very, very long while.

If I can root out one aspect of the series that made it so fun to read, I would say it's how they potray the characters, with the dynamic duo of Kou and Nazuna taking the main stage.

Describing the relationship these two lovebirds convey is similar to an exciting game of tennis that never ends. The story unfolds with Kou as a beginner player and Nazuna as a veteran, as Kou learns more about what it means to love, he inevitably gets better at hitting his shots, sometimes flustering the poor vampire with the rate of his improvement. The vampire doesn't give in though, as she also learns to fix her flawed techniques and add more tricks up her sleeve.

This back-and-forth banter where they slowly but surely discover their wants, faults and desires throughout the story is just the cutest shit ever, seriously.

What I also love about this series is the lack of any two-dimensional characters, sure tropes do exist but most if not all of the people we meet possess a side to them that gives a sense of character that makes them feel real, well, as real as a series about vampires and romance could be.

Special mention, but if you like a brash, smug heroine with a witty sense of humor and a sprinkle of dirty jokes, you're in for a treat.

So far I've talked high praise, but what about the cons?

Honestly? I'm having a hard time thinking of anything that ticked me the wrong way. If I'm being very nitpicky, it sometimes have an identity crisis of switching between themes here and there, but other than that, I genuinely enjoy this.

Before you read this, I highly recommend you do some digging and find a good translation of it. I've compared two translations and the one I've read had a good flow that made it very enjoyable to sit through, meanwhile the other one felt very stiff and awkward to read through. Thankfully, I lucked out on my first read.

I came in expecting a simple romance with a vampiric twist but I came out with a banger of a read that's filled with banter, romance, drama, self-reflection and hot vampires. Possibly developed a new kink as well in the process, good shit.