Call of the Night, Vol. 9 (2024)

God the vampire hunter backstory is super cool!! I love this series a lot and the art is always amazing!

Nazuna has offered to turn Kyoko, but a sudden turn of events means that everything will turn out for the best. Completely without repercussions that will echo through to the present day. Also, it’s Halloween and that could be going better.

Phew, well, I called that one. My hunch about Kyoko actually being the precursor to Anko, the cigarette-loving vampire-hating private eye, was bang on and here we find out why. The way she’s about to have a dream realized, but then gets a new dream, but then loses both, is certainly enough tragedy to have fuelled her transformation.

And it’s good stuff. Anko is the worst kind of adversary - she’s a fanatical racist (or speciesist if you want to be technical) with an axe to grind. Of course, axes won’t work so she has other plans instead. The shot we get of where she’s living says so much with one panel.

Rather than the typical goofing with the cast, although Ko’s reaction to a slu*tty teacher outfit is pretty funny, we turn to shonen action and dramatics and it’s not a bad swerve for the story. I don’t prefer it over the late night ennui, but I don’t dislike it either.

No, this is tense and it’s especially so because somebody brought a gun to a ‘nobody else wanted to fight’ fight. It’s jarring to see a firearm being used so casually in a traditional Japanese street, since, unlike our neighbours to the south, you can’t just get a gun out of a vending machine or in your Happy Meal.

Guns don’t kill vampires though, but they still hurt. Ko makes the point that the vampires are more human than most humans and he’s not wrong. They certainly have a more hedonistic bent, but Nazuna and her acquaintances have done nothing wrong except try to have a good time. They could kill, but they don’t.

And Anko has barely trained herself, but that makes her more than a match for a bunch of fun-loving women. Nazuna especially gets pushed farther than we’ve ever seen her and, ironically, this crisis looks like it’s doing the exact opposite of Anko’s goal of trying to get Ko and Nazuna further apart.

It’s good and the backstory being so throughly done means that this is much better than some random antagonist showing up and just causing trouble. There’s a lot of emotion running wild and it is being used and channeled in ways that are not especially healthy.

If you were more for the wanderings of Ko and Nazuna, this won’t necessarily make you happy, but it’s still written to the series’ usual standards and that means it’s quite strong. And they minimized Ko’s annoying girlfriend too.

4.5 stars - still going, still great. I started reading this and literally couldn’t stop until I was done, so that’s a strong yes from me. And I didn’t even get to mention Ko’s Halloween costume, which is something else.

3.5

La storia sta prendendo una piega interessantissima, non vedo l'ora di continuare!

« La maîtresse de mon père était un vampire. C’était la conclusion naturelle a tout ceci. Mon père l’ignorait, moi seule savais. »

Mejiro et Nazuna ont un passé commun. Et si Nazuna a bien donné son premier baiser à Kô. Il s’en est fallu de peu que ce soit Mejiro. Lesbiennes spotted !

Retour dans le présent. Face à face entre vampire (Nazuna) et détective.

« Mais je n’ai pour autant envie de perdre Nazuna. Je ne laisserai personne la tuer. C’est ma seule certitude dans cette histoire. »

« Je suis venue mettre fin à la nuit. »

Un florilège de citations qui témoignent de mon affection pour cette œuvre.

Ce qui est sympa, c’est que chaque chapitre a pour titre la réplique la plus marquante du chapitre.

Alcool et cigarettes !! Ça donne envie pour l’abstinent que je suis.

Le face à face ultime entre Mejiro (détective) et Nazuna (vampire).

Elles sont toutes les deux magnifiques !

Le personnage de Nazuna est super sexy sans pour autant avoir besoin d’une grosse poitrine, ni d’une mini-jupe ou d’un gros postérieur…

J’ai même pris plaisir à lire la postface.

Phoenix
++

The reveal of the detective being Nazuna's old friend was well-executed in my opinion. I wasn't expecting it at all, and how she learned how to kill vampires because of her own dad was just...shocking. Her dad really was cheating on her mom, but the fact that it was a vampire was even more depressing.

I'm also confused on what exactly Nazuna's old friend wants to do. (Sorry I forget her name), but I don't think she really wants to kill Ko or Nazuna. I wonder what'll happen in the next volume...

Not as comedic I expected, but every moment of this volume was eye-catching, especially as a clash between old friends begins while Ko (the series' male protagonist) is more than determined to prove his loyalty to Nazuna (the series' female protagonist), with moments of physically violent peril (including gun shooting) added to the mix. It's like Call of the Night just became Dragon Ball with vampires because you know, what starts off a light-hearted comedy turns into dramatic hard-action. On to the next tankoubon for me.

Having just finished the anime and being pleased with how it was adapted I was excited to read this. It did not disappoint. We get a great backstory for one of the characters and a great cliffhanger. The tone shifts drastically in this volume and the action is top notch. There are also some great facial expression panels that hit close to the heart. A great installment!

Things get deadly serious!

The vampire hunter wants to kill the vampire coven, AND Ko, too! She considers him a traitor to the human race. So, she's going on a rampage, on Halloween night of all times, and If Ko can't stop the vampire hunter, Nazuna will be the 1st fatality!

This is currently my favorite manga, which has led me to look for other Vampire mangas. It was cool learning the back story of Kyoko/Ahnka, I think she put her blame in the wrong place.
I can't wait to see what happens between Kyoko and Nazuna.

Starts off great, but gets kinda stupid once the sh*t starts going down. None of the characters’ reactions to this whole situation makes much sense. But it is kinda cool to see the vampire hunter going shin mode.

lol, helt plötsligt har denna förvandlats till en actionmanga. Gillar ändå utvecklingen och handlingen om att Mejiro vill "ta bort natten" från vampyrerna. Dock helt ologiskt plan, borde nog finnas bättre sätt att avslöja vampyrernas existens på.

Wow!

Love the series, the volumen is quite packed with action this time compared with the slow pace previously. Still I definitely can't wait for the next one.

I KNEW IT

Another amazing volume!
I'm loving each chapter, the build up has been great and the way that last panel sets up the next volume has me quite excited!

Oh man, things are getting so intense and really building up for the end of an arch, I really hope we aren’t getting close the end of this manga

Enjoyed getting into Kyoko’s backstory. Things are getting very interesting.

Some mysteries have been solved, but now there is a new mystery and I can't wait to try and figure out what's truly happening. Can't wait for more.

The vampire slayer strikes.

'I don't have any other choice, do I?'

We find out more about Kyouko instead of Nazuna in this volume. I finished reading this quickly because of how good the story is as well as the art.

This is the volume where everything comes together, and we find out more about the detective and what her plans are.

Yep, still excellent.

This series has gone from good to being one of the best manga's I am currently reading. Since volume six we have been delving into Nazuna past. This volume provides a major revelation and sets up the next volume nicely.