Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d check in on the nocturnal escapades of Kou and Nazuna, wherein Kou has just been presented with his most intimidating challenge yet: give a massage to fatigued office worker Kiyosumi Shirakawa, as Nazuna is feeling lazy and just wants to play videogames.

It’s a predictably low-stakes challenge for this charming production, which has so far offered a pretty even mix of romantic comedy shenanigans and more general reflections on modern ennui. Though Nazuna claims to be an avatar of the night’s allure, as we’ve already seen, the night is actually pretty boring when you don’t have someone to share it with. Kou, Nazuna, and Akira are all most fundamentally seeking a sense of purpose and community in a world that’s less validating and more atomized by the day. It is as of yet unclear whether playing Street Fighter at 3AM is the solution to our crisis of modern alienation, but goddamnit, these kids are gonna try. Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m feeling a certain yearning for the wild side, a clamoring for deviant adventure that can obviously only be sated with some Call of the Night. Granted, our featured nightwalkers aren’t exactly the most intimidating of creatures; in fact, they spent most of their last encounter debating the significance of a first kiss and also playing Street Fighter. Nonetheless, their dissatisfaction with daylit society and slow progress towards mutual trust have been an overall delight, a charming slow burn of romance and incidental escapades.

Through both its careful color design and the anxieties of its main cast, Call of the Night has been articulating a poignant sense of dislocation within modern society. This fundamental loneliness is balanced by the tentative intimacy shared by Kou, Nazuna, and newcomer Akira; none of them are quite sure where they belong, but all of them are desperate to not be alone. All that plus a heaping helping of sensually charged imagery makes Call of the Night a natural continuation of director Itamura’s Monogatari-forged expertise, and a show I’m always happy to revisit. Let’s not waste any more time then, and see what Nazuna and her human companions are up to!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m feeling a hankering to return to the low-stress drama of Call of the Night, and see how our young vampire-in-training is getting along with his, shall we say “socially indifferent” temptress. Though Nazuna aspires to the sort of effortless cool and seductive allure of your traditional Draculas and whatnot, she in truth possesses the kind of personality you’d expect for someone who’s been wandering the night alone for decades: awkward, prone to self-doubt, and desperate for companionship.

As such, the reveal that Kou actually has daylight friends waiting for him was a nasty shock for Nazuna, who understandably feels a little possessive of her first real friend. But in characteristic Call of the Night fashion, this friction was resolved not through violent conflict, but through intimate conversation, with Kou reaffirming his dedication to one day truly sharing the night. Watching these two grow closer through their adventures is a pure and simple pleasure, and I’m eager to see how they reconnect in the wake of their first quasi-fight. Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d take a walk on the wild side, and step out into the alluring darkness of Call of the Night. Though frankly, while calling this show’s drama the “wild side” would undoubtedly flatter Nazuna, the show has in truth been pretty chaste so far, more concerned with the universal transgressive thrill of claiming adolescent independence than anything specifically ominous or vampiric. Nazuna attempts to play it cool, but she’s truthfully as naive as her new companion Ko, just as nervous about romance, just as eager to play games with transceivers. The show has been closer to “Skip and Loafer for Insomniacs” than any sort of ominous dark fantasy, and that suits me just fine; I always enjoy spending time with well-realized and charmingly inept characters, and the bond between Nazuna and Ko already feels convincingly precious to both of them. Let’s see how Ko’s transceiver-bearing classmate complicates things, as we once more answer the Call of the Night!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to slink back into the shadows of Call of the Night, after a premiere that embodied the manifold strengths of author Kotoyama and director Tomoyoki Itamura. Anxious yet intensely felt sensuality, charmingly off-kilter protagonists, and a preoccupation with the “dead time” of our lives, the many moments between active concerns that accumulate into the collective tone of our private worlds – all things Kotoyama grappled deftly in Dagashi Kashi, and all represented with as much confidence here. Those concerns feel right at home married to Itamura’s aesthetic sensibilities; his Monogatari-forged methods of conveying character perspective neatly illustrate the difference between these characters’ self-assigned and outward presentation, while his emphasis on otherworldly landscapes suits a story about the allure of exploring the night perfectly. Let’s see what Ko and his strange new companion get up to this time!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be checking out the very first episode of a new project, as we explore the recent adaptation of Kotoyama’s supernatural romantic comedy Call of the Night. The show got some solid buzz two years ago, with audiences generally praising its strong atmosphere and charmingly silly cast. That sounded about right for me, given my experience with Kotoyama’s previous work Dagashi Kashi. Though Dagashi’s hook is “crazy-eyed girl lustily explains the merits of various snack foods,” the show’s greatest strengths were actually its evocation of small-town boredom and understanding of listless youth – two qualities that I imagine will carry on gracefully into Call of the Night.

As for the anime adaptation, I can’t imagine a better choice of director than Tomoyuki Itamura. After Tatsuya Oishi left the Monogatari TV series to go sculpt Kizumonogatari, it was Itamura who picked up the torch, serving as the series’ primary director from Nisemonogatari all the way through Owarimonogatari Part II. The aesthetic he sculpted in that time was one of lust and austerity and nightmares, featuring a world that felt cold and alien even in broad daylight, one which naturally reflected the preoccupations and emotional tensions of its anxious young occupants. He basically cut his teeth on this era’s premier supernatural romantic drama, making him perfectly suited for a production like Call of the Night. That basically covers my preconceptions, so let’s get on with the dang show!

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