Call of the Night Season 2

Episode 5

Kabura leaves many details shrouded and unsaid in her backstory, which feels appropriately melancholy. Time ravages memory. It doesn't matter whether or not past experiences can be magically crystallized and observed at any time. Even with the objective reassurances of her own human blood, Kabura can't help but perceive the emotional distance between her current self and the woman who fell in love with Haru. If anything, that objectivity adds a veneer of artificiality. Kabura says they aren't “true” memories anymore. Like the rest of us, the inside of her brain is plastic and in constant flux, revising and editorializing a bit more with each passing day. Even perfect recall is subject to a person's necessarily limited first-person perspective. “True” memories are always fabrications.

Regardless, the authenticity of Kabura's feelings is never in question to the audience. After last week's emotional climax, in which she consummated her romance with Haru, Kabura narrates the denouement in piecemeal format. When you break it down, this week she shows us only three snapshots of her life with Haru: a happy night out drinking, the time she told her about her pregnancy, and some scattered moments at the hospital. Does she hold back on more memories for Nazuna's sake? Does she decide to keep certain memories for herself, or is this the extent of her memories with Haru? Signs point to the third possibility, as Kabura reflects that Haru saw her more as offspring than as a partner. She took care of Kabura, and she had plenty of fun with Kabura, but she couldn't love Kabura back the same way that Kabura loved her.

I sympathize with Kabura in this situation, especially as Haru cheerfully relays news of her marriage and pregnancy in quick, blunt succession. Call of the Night smartly plays into the absurdity of this moment with the running gag about Kabura's spit-take and the intrepid yet beer-soaked waiter. Because I don't think Haru is being cruel here. She's being forward in a way that aligns with how she behaved while Kabura was her patient. Haru may not yearn for Kabura the way Kabura yearns for her, but she trusts her. That's not to say the situation is “fair,” but life rarely is. Kabura is allowed her resentment, especially when Haru dies soon after birth and leaves her with a fledgling vampire to raise alone. At the same time, however, Kabura accepts her fate with a twinge of happiness. Earlier in her recollection, she lamented how she could never have a child with Haru, but Nazuna basically is their daughter. Haru gave birth to her, and Kabura raised her. She has two moms, like Special Week.

Call of the Night thus continues to prod at the nature of romance by way of its vampiric metaphors. Kabura reminds us of the one-sided crush, which is a kind of parasitism. While we shouldn't reduce the entirety of her relationship with Haru down to that trope, Kabura's brain certainly does so. The weakness Anko stumbled upon suggests that vampires are unilaterally weighed down by their pasts. Kabura has spent the prior four decades wallowing, and that would weaken any person. Cleaning out that hospital room has the practical benefit of denying Anko an angle of attack, but it may also have a psychologically freeing effect on Kabura. While she still can't quite reconcile Nazuna's presence as both a daughter and a dead ringer for her first love, she's made important progress by the episode's conclusion.

We must also remember that Call of the Night's vampires aren't monolithic. They barely understand themselves, as evidenced by Haru's surprise at her ability to become pregnant, so there's not a single universal vampiric “truth” they have to aspire to. Kabura, like any good parent, therefore hopes that Nazuna can have a better life than her own. Nazuna is young and doesn't have a past to be weighed down by, so perhaps she can forge a more reciprocal relationship with Ko. Still, I appreciate how Ko recognizes that Kabura is hardly an old and embittered soul whose only remaining solace is steering the next generation. The Kabura he knows now is different from the human Kabura and different from the Kabura who couldn't even say goodbye to Haru. We lose old memories to make room for new ones, and those new ones can always be happier and wiser if we let them.

On the other side of the equation is Anko. Nazuna, revealing her surprisingly perceptive side, muses that something in the detective's past must be the reason behind her current vendetta. That psychology applies to humans and vampires alike. If we follow the logic of the series' metaphors, Anko has become an analogous type of predator to cope with her buried trauma. Vampires feed on people, so she feeds on vampires, i.e., the thrill of exterminating them. That may partially explain her fascination with Ko and Nazuna, who buck Anko's preconceived notions of how vampires and humans relate to each other.

Finally, I think it owns how quickly and bluntly Nazuna shuts down the idea of her as a pure virgin soul. In the context of the story, this is a humorous moment of her teasing Ko about his juvenile impulses—we understand why he's happy that Nazuna has no prior lovers. However, in the context of our present society, it's nice to see a female character effortlessly swat away this antiquated psychosexual hangup. I'm glad Call of the Night is woke.

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Call of the Night Season 2 is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Steve is on Bluesky for all of your posting needs. They like Anko Uguisu a normal amount. You can also catch them chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.