Welcome everyone, to the big finale of Yofukashi no Uta! Well… I say big finale, it’s barely even a finale. For all that Yofukashi has built up to it, it feels like barely anything has happened and I’m just sitting here wonder… is that it. Why? Well lets dive in and talk about it!
In case it wasn’t obvious, my reaction to this finale was very lukewarm. In a word, it was anticlimactic. And the best reason I can give for that is it feels like, with this finale, that Yofukashi has only just started. It took 13 episodes of meandering about to figure out where the show wanted to go. And right when it figures that out… it ends. Right when Ko has finally resolved that yes, he wants this relationship, its done. That’s fine, it needed to happen with how long the show took to get here. But personally? I was really hoping for some kind of confrontation to go with it. Something that would set up the future of the story, to make me excited to either go read it or for another season. Maybe Anko and Nazuna could’ve met, since both are already aware of each other. Something like that.
What about what Yofukashi does right? Well while I find it a bit lacking overall, Ko figuring out and reestablishing his relationship with Nazuna was good. After this episode you could, in a way, say that the two are officially a couple. And that’s good! It was a bit of a foregone conclusion, their romance being the core of the entire show after all, but it’s still good to see it happen after all this time. The only issue I have with it, aside from being a long time coming, is Nazuna’s end. Up until now she’s been very reticent about it, it’s effectively been a one-way relationship as Ko tries to fall in love with her. And that was fine! I was looking forward to seeing her slowly come around and see how Ko would win her over, it was inevitable. But now? Now she’s being forced into it.
What do I mean? Well based on her conversation with Niko, the completely unexplored vampire boss lady, Nazuna was given the ultimatum to actively try and win Ko over. Basically: If you try to seduce him, and it still fails, we will let him live. But she has to try. And to me, that screams that Nazuna is being forced into this. Maybe not entirely against her will, their romance is, again, a big part of the story. But I was looking forward to watching her come around to it naturally rather than being forced to start pursuing it via an outside source. There might still be some good content there if she is still against it, actively sabotaging it while “appearing” to try and seduce him. But if Yofukashi plays this straight? Then I think it lost one of the best parts of its story in Nazuna’s personal feelings.
As for the other half of the episode, all of the Hatsuka stuff feels like a massive missed opportunity to me. He, she (?), really should have had their own episode. Their clear desire for a familial relationship, to the point of brainwashing and keeping an entire “fake” family, could have been and incredible self-contained episode. And it still might end up as one, if Yofukashi gets a second season! But the moment it was introduced, it was something I wanted to see. So for Yofukashi to just brush past it to focus on the Ko stuff was really disappointing for me. It was easily the most interesting bit of content in the episode, and one I’m really hoping we see more of in the event of a second season. At least the whole “I’m a guy who likes to look like a girl” thing was handled well. Kudos there.
Anyways yeah, it’s a short one this week. I have a lot of thoughts about Yofukashi that I’m going to be saving for the final review coming up soon. Overall the finale was strictly fine. It didn’t terribly excite me, nor did it make me want to go and read the source material. It’s like Yofukashi has landed in that awkward space of wanting more but not caring enough to seek it out. The show was a decent time while it was airing, but didn’t leave any kind of lasting impression. A shame considering how it started. At least I get to look forward to listening to the entire OST for the final review though.
I don’t agree on Nazuna being forced as a bad thing – the whole second half has been about her slowly discovering her true feelings (vampire falls in love with a human). Niko said plainly you can’t beat sense into this idiot – if Nazuna doesn’t want to do something, she’s not doing it.
Niko’s actually being kind and is giving her a push to work through her feelings that she would otherwise just run away from. They could just kill Ko and be done with it – no one would bat an eye. From Niko’s perspective, they don’t want Nazuna to just have Ko in this weird friendzone, which makes sense as the ultimate aberration to vampires. This is a great opportunity for Nazuna to, as Nazuna herself puts it, “become a vampire worth falling for.” That’s good for her, good for Niko and crew – everyone wins. Well except the vampire hunter, but that’s whatever.
I thought the ending was definitely on character with the rest of the show – wandering around at night is about bursts of excitement, different perspectives, and lulls of boredom. If there isn’t a second season, it was a fine self contained story, but I’m personally hoping for another.
Also, no comments on how Ko is probably already a vampire? I saw two little hints (I also did watch this episode twice): one with the mirror at the guy (girl’s?) place and he jumps off the bridge, then goes running away really fast. We already saw Ko kind of struggling to get over the school gate, so that jump is a bit of a departure from his normal abilities (maybe all that wandering around has made him better at climbing/jumping, who knows).
I can’t say Ko being a vampire already ever crossed my mind. I just took it as anime being anme.
Dude you are clearly too impatient. Call of the night is a very slow burn series so it won’t throw all the answers at you. The manga does address some of your complaints and further Explore Nazuna and her past. Honestly the manga is pretty good and you are missing out if you don’t read it.
I do agree that Nazuna being forced to form a romance with Ko is a little too much but again the manga does show that this has a (somewhat) positive outcome. And I think the listless nature of the story ties into The character arc of Nazuna and Ko. Being a vampire can be rather boring for someone like Nazuna and Ko felt pretty empty at the start of the story. Ko meeting Baz outside the vending machine was a nice callback to Episode 1 and show that he has grown a little bit.
Slow burn or not, if you make a single season of a show, with no notice or expectation of their being future seasons, I think that season needs to have some kind of conclusion. There are plenty of slow burns out there that feel impactful and conclusive, Mushishi is phenomenal at that, as is Welcome to the NHK and Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju.
A show being a slow burn doesn’t excuse it from not knowing what it wants to be nor knowing how to conclude something.
Well you have high standards don’t you? Not my fault you cannot fucking appreciate the layers off the show. Just admit you want mindless shonen shot and stop watching dude. God moshing ever good enough 4 people like you.
Admit I want mindless shounen… while at the same time saying nothing is good enough for me because of high standards… When I just moved Welcome to the NHK into my top 10 series ever made and think Inu-Oh is easily the best thing to come out this year… Alright then.
How about we just agree to disagree on this one yeah? I get that you like the show. Just because I don’t think its that great means you can’t, nor does it mean your opinion is any lesser than mine. I just happen to post my thoughts online cause I enjoy writing and talkin about stuff. If you want to talk about the show without slinging shit, I’d be happy to. But if not then this is me tappin out of the conversation.
Peace ☮
The series seemed to just not do anything important, like Dagashi Kashi, but with annoying effects and even more cringe content. I did finish Dagashi Kashi and I liked it, even if I found it boring lot of times. Dagashi Kashi was still heartwarming, but this here seemed like a progressive pit of nothingness trying to find its purpose. The ED should tell anyone everything necessary to know. Stopped caring at ep2 and did not get further than ep6. Sry.
I can’t agree – I liked Dagashi Kashi, but it was waayyyyy more cringe than Call of the Night (I didn’t make it through S2). Somewhat similar characters though.
Call of the night us a much better series than that waste if space candy porn show!!! Again you guys clearly didn’t pay enough attention to appreciate it.
See I don’t think you really paid attention 2 the deeper themes of the series. Maybe if the cast turn up their fucking power levels to 10000 or if the girls had books the size of Texas you may have paid more attention!@ I swear if it isn’t a shonen or light novel crap you guys just don’t care. With fans like you no wonder the anine industry is going under.
I’m sorry? Have you simultaneously accused me of hating Shounen and only being able to appreciate/enjoy Shounen in the past week? You do know I actively detest LN’s right? And that I’ve spoken, at length, multiple times, about the themes of relationships and feeling like an outcast in society in Yofukashi? I mean for gods sake, Ping Pong, Tatami Galaxy, Rakugo and Welcome to the NHK are in my top 10 ever made. Meanwhile there’s only a single Shounen on that list, and that’s FMAB.
Just because I wasn’t a huge fan of something doesn’t mean I didn’t get it, nor does it mean the show would have been better had it forgone it. I just wanted Yofukashi to commit one way or another rather than get lost between the two.
Instead of blaming the decline of the anime industry on some random blogger who thought Yofukashi was strictly “alright”, nothing more nothing less, I would instead turn your attention to the low wages and massive increase in the number of projects from each studio, resulting in there being to many shows and not enough people to actually work on them. That or like… basic grammar and spelling, I dunno. Both would probably be more useful and impactful than making patently false statements.
Or maybe you dont pay attention to the deeper themes of much better series and think this series has something to offer when it doesnt.
Anime industry is going downhill because people eat trash like this show, which grabs your attention with pink gay bars (much more cringe than pink candies, my friends), stupid rap music, anarchy, nihilism and literally porn half the time. The show is morally corrupt and only appeals to young people who are lost to secular values. Watching this has overall negative effect on the (largely unsuspecting) viewer (majority), which is a major problem. It also continues deterioration of anime as a medium, but why should I bother explaining all that…
I’m literally the last person who would consider shounen good content. I constantly bashed everything shounen on this site, including Mob Psycho S2 (Lenlo surely remembers that), Boku no Hero, Ennen no, Kimetsu no Yaiba and so on. But sure…
Did you even reply to the right person?
I’m gonna piggy back off this to say that I do think that Yofukashi has a fantastic OST and I don’t think its morally corrupt at all nor do I think it really negatively impacts people. I just… didn’t love it lol. Didn’t connect that strongly.
Never watched Dagashi Kashi, so no idea how it compares. Character designs in both are cute though.