Yofukashi no Uta – 12 [My Mom’s Out Tonight]

Welcome all, to the penultimate week of Yofukashi no Uta! Remember how I said last week was an important week because Yofukashi had split itself in two directions? Well this week is Yofukashi’s answer, and it’s a damn good one if you ask me. So let’s jump right into it!

Like I said, my immediate reaction is that this was a really good episode for Yofukashi. Up until now, I was concerned about what kind of finale Yofukashi would have. Would it lean more into the relationship and be a romance, or pivot to a more serious vampire narrative? Both are solid choices, but sticking in the middle would accomplish neither. It had to pick a side, and this week Yofukashi did just that: It picked vampires. Not only that though, it worked hard to fully transition us from a goofy romance into that choice. Now sure, it did so in a roundabout fashion. The way it initiated this transition with the sudden introduction of Anko was rather awkward. But this week took everything she introduced and then focused on it as much as it could. No goofy romance, no jokes to break up the tension. Just dedicated thematic exploration.

What does this mean? Well basically, Yofukashi used this episode to transition from individual relationships between vampires and humans to a wider view of vampires relationship to human society. They are after all, in effect, outcasts. they lack all relationships and connections, romantic or otherwise. You could maybe use this as a metaphor for outcasts or neets or non-standard lifestyles and their relationship to society, but personally I think that’s a bit of a stretch. The author would have to be really really conservative to portray them all as bloodsucking parasites on society. You never know though, maybe in the future that’s where Yofukashi will go! It’s irrelevant to where the show is right now however. And where it is, is forcing Ko to ask the very important question of why. Why does he want to become a vampire. And you know what’s really cool? Ko didn’t have an answer.

Or at least, he didn’t have an answer at first. When Mahiru, the only other reoccurring male character of the show, asked him, he couldn’t respond. Of course Mahiro presented it in a hostile manner, he’s clearly against becoming a vampire. But he couldn’t even make up a reason, he was so torn on the issue now. It was only when pressed by Nazuna, in the safety of his own room, that he was able to give a response. And Nazuna tore that response apart, presenting him the real reason: Because it was novel. Ko enjoyed the night not because of the freedom, he already has that since he refuses to go to school, but because it was out of the ordinary. Everything about it, from Nazuna to the people they met, was a new experience. But what happens when it stops being new?

This is where I really came to like the episode. I thought that Nazuna would end up reinforcing him somehow. That maybe she would have her own feelings for him by this point and would push him towards it. However instead she pushes him away, and hard. She goes off about how dull her life is. About how, after you’ve lived for decades, boring and utterly ordinary this kind of life becomes. Vampires live forever so long as they drink blood! The night, society, hell maybe even life itself, will one day lose it’s meaning because there’s no end goal. In a way, and this is something explored in a lot of vampire fiction, being a vampire is to stagnate. To never change from how you were. Because if Ko becomes one? Well one day maybe that daily highschool life will become the novelty, and he’ll miss never experiencing it.

Meanwhile on the flip side we have Anko, who is also trying to convince Ko not to be a vampire. But where Nazuna is doing it from a place of seeming compassion, Anko is just going all in as the antagonist. And you know what? I absolutely love this woman. From teasing a middle schooler and leading him on to lying about spying on him and going as far as to call the police to keep him indoors. I love not only how far she is willing to go for her goals but that she’s willing to go after them proactively. Going out of her way to cause him trouble when he doesn’t immediately acquiesce to her demands. I love a villain with agency, it makes her seem so much more… threatening. Not in a physical sense, not to Ko at least, but to his relationship and goals.

So yeah, all in all I think this was a really solid episode for Yofukashi. We have a pretty clear finale setup here with Ko deciding one way or another and truly committing to his relationship with Nazuna. Of him really figuring out why he wants to be a vampire, if he wants to be one at all. On top of that, we will also most likely get some kind of confrontation between Anko and Nazuna. Not a final one of course, but they will no doubt finally meet just in time for the series to end and leave us wanting more. That’s a bit of a shame, sure. But there’s really no way around a cliffhanger ending for a show whose manga is still ongoing. I just hope that its satisfying enough make me feel like my time with the show was well spent.