MANGA REVIEW | "Call of the Night" - Volume Eighteen
After the whole mess in Hokkaido, one would hope the kids in Call of the Night would be given a breather. Alas, life doesn’t always work out that way. A plethora of responsibilities emerge in the eighteenth volume, ranging from a return to school life to finding a decent career. But the most daunting of all responsibilities awaits Nazuna in this Call of the Night volume’s opening chapters: apartment hunting!
Ko finds out that Nazuna is now living in a storage unit, a far cry from her nice apartment from before. Fortunately, fellow vampire Hatsuka’s Dad (also a vampire) is a real estate agent, one that specializes in undead clients. They search high and low for the perfect place, until the dad discovers the one. The problem: it’s in Ko’s apartment complex.
You may be asking yourself, “What’s the problem?! That’s exactly what these two need!” And normally, you’d be right. But now that Nazuna has legit feelings of love for Ko, she fears that she’ll fall for the same fate as Kiku, as vampires who feed on those they’re smitten by die. As such, Nazuna feels like there needs to be a bit of distance between her and Ko until she figures things out.
But that’s the funny thing: the more two things stay apart, the more fate tries to draw them quicker. Nazuna quickly realizes this in two different situations. The first involves a maid cafe, where she is making her debut unknowingly right in front of Ko. It’s a situation that adds to a bit of awkwardness, but she nevertheless gives her all in the performance. As for the second scenario, before we go there, we have one other thing to revisit: Ko’s school life.
After reconnecting with some of his classmates on the Hokkaido trip, Ko finds the urge to return to a normal school life. It’s a little easy at first, until a gym class incident involving a soccer ball to the face awakens Ko’s vampiric side. But after he’s calmed down, it’s back to rekindling friendships and the like on the school grounds. That includes a night out on the town with his friends, where Nazuna — fresh off of trying another job as a fellow nurse with Kabura — just so happens to run into him.
While Nazuna is trying her best to think things through regarding her feelings, she can’t help but find herself wanting to be with Ko. Since she was born a vampire, there’s a good chance that she won’t die if she feeds on him. However, since her case is super rare, there’s no telling what exactly is going to happen. For now, she’s happy to hang with Ko and play video games with him.
However, that doesn’t mean that Ko’s lacking any affection for Nazuna. It’s been very evident that he’s loved her since Call of the Night began. There are many opportune moments for him to finally make some sort of move on Nazuna, and with her new living arrangements, that might make things a lot simpler. The question is, when will it happen, and what will happen after the deed’s been done?
There’s only two more volumes left to Call of the Night, and everything is leading towards the fates of Ko and Nazuna. Will there be a way for the two to have a Happily Ever After, or was the situation with Kiku and Mahiru a hint of what may be in the cards? It’s both worrying and exciting to see what the final destination of Call of the Night will be, as its unpredictable tendencies make it hard to figure out just what will happen. With that being said, it’s sure to be an exciting page-turner, that’s for certain!
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.
