I chanced upon Itookashi some time ago, a one-shot about a genius mangaka who could do nothing but draw. After realizing that she did not have her life together, her editor told her to get her life in order and return to school instead of drawing manga because it was the only thing she was capable of doing. Years later, she returns looking much brighter than before, apparently having found something she wanted to do (from what I gather from her synopsis in Dagashi Kashi). I found the one-shot quite interesting and decided to look into it a bit more. While doing so I learnt that it was by the author of Dagashi Kashi which I enjoyed (but never finished) and apparently another manga called Yofukashi no Uta. The latter appeared to be spoken of quite positively so I decided to take a look.

From the first 10 or so chapters of the manga gave me the impression that in terms of plot, it was closer to Itookashi as opposed to Dagashi Kashi, in that it seemed to have something it wanted to say. I later also discovered that the anime aired recently, and also received quite a positive reception.

The first episode of the anime gave me the impression that it was more of an art piece as opposed to the usual fair, focusing on backgrounds and unique compositions to really sell the mysteriousness of familiar spaces at night. The eerie purple glow, while not consistent with my experiences of the late night, gave it a outer worldly feel. The shots focused on the night sky combined with the upside down shots showed me a different night sky from what I experience with the amount of light pollution in the city I live in. Finally the shots with characters in them mostly had them either occupying a small or large portion of the frame with few in-betweens, highlighting the emptiness of the night and how you are hypersensitive to another’s presence.

The ending song playing as in insert song with an “Into the Spiderverse” level jumping scene was the highlight of the episode. Not only was it beautifully animated and showed the effort put into the show, but the choice of song was quite unique, highlighting the weird energy you get from staying up late.

I’m also quite a fan of the crazed look Kotoyama-sensei’s characters have and Nanakusa Nazuna’s design and VA really got me. To top it off Yofukashi no Uta or Call of the Night is such a good title that fits the theme really well and also serves to draw my interest like one would imagine the call of the night would.