Call of the night is a coming of age vampire drama exploring the freedom of night and love. Kou Yamori, the 14 year old male lead, is introduced as a smart, unmotivated, insomniac who skips school and finds his life futile and mundane. One night, when he decides to venture outside, a chance encounter with a vampire girl named Nazuna Nanakusa allows him to explore the Japanese nightlife and put him on the path of self- exploration. That's just the structurally important mandatory summary I was unmotivated to write.

Now let's get to why I want you all to read this beautiful work and the reason I was compelled to write my first review.

Nights can be anxiety inducing for some but the majority of us experience inexplicable feelings whenever we stroll outside late at night or are awake studying or even read manga until morning. The sense of freedom and the joy in doing something different from the norm like walking on the empty streets at night is quite an experience. The deafening silence can be frightening but there's an element in the human blood that provides the relief at night and the world seems to be unbounded . We tend to forget all our worries. But this escapism can be dangerous and the person starts to run away from their social responsibilities.

"For the first time in my life, I know what I want. I don't want to lose this feeling."

But the people are also in their truest form as seen through the eyes of our male lead. The untroubled drunkards, an officer worker learning not to give up when Kou offers her a massage and a vengeful detective devoting her life to killing all the vampires. These people and experiences are special and belong only to the night. The escapism seems to be romanticized in the manga but often the mangaka reminds us the insecurities of Kou and him using his new life as means of escapism. It comes out of nowhere in a much nuanced manner and hits us hard with the dull reality of our protagonist and that he has still got to go through a lot of spiritual learning in this bildungsroman.

After learning that one can transform into a vampire if they fall in love and let them suck their blood, Yamori finds a new meaning in his life and asks Nazuna to make him fall in love with her. Thus begins the journey of our male into this unexplored, unreal vampire world where he overcomes a lot of his emotions while helping others around him. I will not elaborate much on the plot( yes there's a lot more to the story) and the side characters but the mangaka has done a good job making every character eccentric enough to let the readers be invested in them. They all have got their backstories, conflicts and ironically each vampire feels more human than the human characters in most of the other works.

I highly encourage everyone to give this manga a chance. It gives different perspectives on misanthropy, speciesism and will definitely entertain you with all the sexual innuendos of Nazuna. It's very special to me and despite reading it for the first time quite a while ago, I still remember the night and all the feelings I had while reading it.

Lastly I recommend this song made for the promotion of this manga. It beautifully captures the night in Japan. To me it's as special as the manga.

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