Welcome everyone, to what might be one of the most important weeks of Yofukashi yet. Why is it important? Because this week places us at a crossroads. Yofukashi can go down either one and be decent. Or it can attempt both, and achieve neither. So without further ado, let’s dive into it.
So, why do I say that Yofukashi as at a crossroads right now? Why is this episode so important? Well if you’ll remember back, waaaay at the beginning, I said probably something along the lines of: “Yofukashi will have to choose whether it wants to be about relationships or vampires”. And for the past few weeks, it’s chosen relationships pretty consistently. It’s brought vampires into them sure, we have a whole cadre of vampire waifus. But they all existed to examine relationships in one way or another, some more successfully than others. Well that changes this week. Because this week introduces the first thing that could be called an “Antagonist” to a series that’s otherwise not really had one. That antagonist would be the Vampire Hunter, Anko Uguisu. Or at least as close to a vampire hunter as Yofukashi is willing to take it so far.
I want to be clear from the get go, in a vacuum, I enjoyed this episode. Anko has some real ara ara energy, and I absolutely adore this competing perspective on vampires. Until now, Yofukashi has largely framed them more as a lifestyle choice than monsters. Even when they talked about killing people, they were shown to prefer turning them instead. Like it was a last resort. But this week we got to see the first inklings of the crueler side of the vampires. How not everyone they turn is a willing participant, how some vampires are more victims than lovers. This is really cool! I love how this directly challenges Ko’s limited experiences with what should be monsters. I’m really curious about how he will treat Nazuna the next time they meet, and I think Anko brings some much needed conflict to the show. There’s only one problem. Timing.
This sort of shift feels really weird coming this late into the series. Yofukashi has spent 10 episodes up until now with romance and relationships as our end goal, with no threats in sight. And all that time was spent humanizing the vampires and their interactions with humans. Had this been introduced earlier, or had the new waifus been made a tad more threatening to keep the tone more even, it wouldn’t be a problem. As is however, this feels like we are making a complete 180 from where we were going before. I think either direction is fine, great even. Whether it be romance and relationships or a legitimate vampiric tragedy/horror, I think Yofukashi can pull it off. I’m just worried that by trying to do both this late in the season, Yofukashi will confuse itself and stumble at the finale.
As for the actual content of the episode, I already said I liked it. In a vacuum, this is good shit. Anko seems to have an intense hatred of vampires, but that doesn’t bleed over into people as well. She hates them not because she is a hateful person but because she has an intense passion for human beings. Going so far as to stay with them until the end, holding their hand and keeping them human until the end. Combine that with the Vampire’s own tragedy of resisting the urge to drink for an entire decade, and it’s pretty good! My only question is, if he hated it so much, why didn’t he stand out in the sun himself? Is fasting required? What are the mechanics for vampire death? If this is the angle Yofukashi wants to go, we need to understand these things to appreciate Anko’s threat.
Meanwhile on Ko’s side, I enjoyed seeing him hanging out with his classmates again. I want this kid to have more human relationships, to see him slowly come out of his shell. And that’s sort of what Yofukashi did this week! Even if it was at night, Ko went back to school. This is the closest he’s come to returning to normal life in months. And he did it with honest to goodness friends! It goes to show just how much progress he’s made, and I love seeing him just enjoy himself without any romantic subtext. It felt a bit weird next to Anko’s more serious content, but only because I’ve come to associate these characters with a completely different tone. If Yofukashi hadn’t made the rest of the show feel as light as it did, I probably wouldn’t have had that issue.
Anyways, the point of what I’m saying is this: Yofukashi has to make a decision. What is it’s focus going to be? Will it be all about relationships and Ko’s growing maturity through this confusing time in his life? Or is this going to be more about the Vampires and their affects on humans? Either one will work. Hell, in theory you could combine the two by having Anko and her line be representative of tragic and failed relationships rather than successful and blooming ones. But if you go that route, you’re going to have to better adjust the tone of the rest of the series to allow them to slot in naturally. At the very least though I can tell you this, whatever Yofukashi chooses I will be there for it. Just so long as it doesn’t royally fuck up its finale.
From what I have heard from the manga, Anko can be very cruel as she is “compassionate”. After her introduction the series definitely takes a turn but I won’t say more to avoid spoilers.
Wait, I’m pretty sure it’s not just the sunlight, but the silver ring that Anko gave vampire teacher. There’s also confusion to me (as an anime only) why he was supposed to die that day anyways – is there a time limit on being a vampire?! We already saw there is one on becoming one, but having a shelf life is wayyyy more interesting than the eternal living in the night.
We already saw some darker undertones with blonde vampire losing an arm – I think that started it off, like woah, these are serious monsters.
I gotta say, this has been one of my favorite shows of late. This episode was fantastic too, switching gears (even if I agree it came pretty late in the series – somewhere around 5-6 would have been better).