The night is a very unexplored landscape for many of us. Some of us perceive it as dangerous and scary and some others perceive it as a time to party to let themselves go and for most of us were probably fast asleep. Im sure a lot of you have experienced a time in life when you just didnt want to fall asleep perhaps because you werent satisfied with what you achieved in the day or you feared what tomorrow will bring but rest assured in Call of the Night the night is viewed as a beautiful time and a time to release all inhibitions a time to have the time of your life so dream on and imagine yourself in the wonderful dreamscape Tomoyuki Itamura the director of the highly acclaimed Monogatari Series and the Case Study of Vanitas is back again for yet another vampire themed anime and what a job he did The background composition looked absolutely immaculate to the point where I have those purple skies as my phone wallpaper. The art direction really evokes a sense of imagination as it allows us to imagine how alluring the night can look and combined with great chill music from Creepy Nuts the atmosphere is quite perfect for this anime. My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20 STORY: 19.8/25 The story starts off relatively slowly focusing on Kou Yamori a boy who was quite despondent about his everyday life. He struggles to grasp the concept of love and stops going to school altogether one day. Plagued with insomnia he ventures out into the dark of night and one night he encounters a very peculiar girl called Nazuna Nanakusa who has quite the belief about how people cant rest until they release their inhibitions. Nazuna helps Kou out with his insomnia and invites her over to her place where she reveals herself to be a vampire Having experienced this incredible night Kou finds himself wanting to be in the night all the time so he wants to become a vampire but turns out you gotta fall in love with a vampire to become one The story itself isnt strong at the start admittedly as many episodes were focused on the bonding between Nazuna and Kou along with other characters as well some of whom that eventually find out about their relationship. Where it turned for me in terms of enjoyment was the fact that vampires however attractive they look and whatever fun it seems like theyre having theres a darker side to everything and becoming a vampire isnt the best thing ever to happen to a person. Aside from that there are also a number of excellent themes this show tackles such as how romance and friendships work the sickness of the human condition and every humans inner narcissism in that humans and vampires alike want to be liked and paid attention to. A quick comment about the fan service now because I know thats what a lot of you will criticize. The nonvampire fan service is a bit much but the fan service of vampires I think was quite necessary for the plot to emphasize the beauty of them and when we learn about the other sides of vampires it really makes you think how such beautiful creatures can have such difficult lives too. ART: 9.8/10 The art is really quite spectacular and definitely the thing that stands out the most. You can really see the experience of the director and some sequences look as brilliant as some scenes in Monogatari which is really saying something. The nighttime ambience is just done so well. MUSIC: 9.5/10 Also amazing as the OP and ED are excellent both visually and musically as well as the excellent soundtrack by Creepy Nuts. Great vibes and it fits so perfectly with the nighttime ambience heck it even adds to the ambience. CHARACTERS: 19/20 Not only are the characters so fun to watch their voice actors really do a great job. Nazunas such a fun character really nailing the comedic aspects and also her badassery. Considering her voice actor Sora Amamiya voiced Chizuru from RentaGirlfriend and Nazuna really goes to show how good her range is and what different roles she can play. Now our other main character Kou is honestly a severely underrated character. From being quite the clueless and despondent guy at the beginning to being able to stand up for others and voice his opinions without holding back is great development plus he was even able to gain some empathy for others. Even for his age he feels oddly mature in a way even though he is naive and misguided for sure especially for skipping school as much as he does. One more character worthy of so much praise is Anko Uguisu as her voice actor Miyuki Sawashiro really nails her character so well. The comedic aspects and the intimidating aspects of her character were done to perfection and Sawashiros performance was incredible. ENJOYMENT: 14.7/15 I enjoyed this a ton with the production and the characters really impressive stuff. THEMATIC EXECUTION: 18.5/20 With the ambience of the nighttime the imaginative theme of the night is really done to near perfection while Nazuna and the other vampires create a sense of playfulness and have such a jovial tone to them. When the story picks up the themes of danger and intimidation are also done with great care. Just such thematic brilliance and while there are slight jarring tonal shifts at times I never found that a glaring problem. OVERALL: 91.3/100 Probably one of the best nonsequel series of the year as it creates such an immaculate atmosphere and also featured some great characters and themes as well. Brilliant visual direction and an engaging story near the end. This is a series I would wholeheartedly recommend as its quite the easy watch. The night is short walk on boys and girls