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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