Call of the Night (2020)

[よふかしのうた]

Volume 5

Author/Artist: Kotoyama
Publisher: Shounen Sunday Comics

Synopsis:
After the attack at school, Mahiru seeks out Uguisu to ask her about vampires.

Story/Characters:
After the events of the last volume, a tone shift in the series was inevitable. We've seen the scary side of vampires and now Kou is second-guessing his decision to become a vampire. Nazuna, for her part, shows that she can be serious and caring when the situation calls for it. We add some pressure from Uguisu to force things along. She has this interesting mix of friendliness and menace, honestly not too different from the vampires she hunts. With Kou being driven into a corner, we have Hatsuka of the vampire coven show up. It seems to set up a pattern where we explore each of these vampires one at a time to give Kou and us the readers a fuller pictures of what being a vampire entails. Meanwhile, Nazuna clashes with Nico, the apparent leader of the coven, trying to get Kou out of their deal. Once that settles down, we get a chapter with Hatsuka and Nazuna as a bit of an intermission before we go into the next arc involving Mahiru and Kiku, one of the women he knows from his deliveries. I'm not entirely sure what to make of Kiku of this point, which has me eager to see where it goes from here. By the way, I really like the dynamic with Kou, Akira and Mahiru and how they're dealing with all this.

Art:
The art is great as always. I've noted it before but I appreciate the thematic value of the "adolescent vision" shots that highlight where Kou's looking and the interplay of his pubescent awakening and the seductive element of vampire fiction. There are some rather effective panels of menace from various characters.

Other:
We get some concept sketches of Hatsuka and Kabura and a 4-koma accompanying the afterword.

Conclusion:
I could see some readers possibly having some resistance to the story turning darker, but I think it's handled well. We still have a foot in the original vibe of the series, but we're growing into the wider world and it's doing some great things for the character dynamics. I'm all in and eagerly looking forward to the next volume. Definitely add this one to your collection.

Rating:
Own It