Summary The vampire romance anime Call of the Night, streaming exclusively on HIDIVE, deviates from what most series in the genre focus on, and it's ingenious. Many drill down on the difficulties of a relationship between a human and a vampire, and some, like Fortune Arterial, devote so much time to hiding the vampire's true identity that it leaves little time for the actual romance.
To some, this rightly feels like a fun spin on Twilight, but in the context of romance anime, it gets to the question of what love is and how difficult it can be to force oneself to fall in love. On the surface, Ko's motivations are much simpler and less grand than wanting to be a vampire for love: he just wants to be free. This is almost a caricature of a youth's naïveté, especially in relation to what drives most foolish young protagonists in vampire fiction. A similar thing can be said about Ko needing to fall in love with Nazuna to change.
The originality of the series lies in the fact that Ko is initially unable to feel love. This allows the anime to naturally explore the fact that falling in love is complicated and goes beyond mere lust . With that in mind, the relationship between Nazuna and Ko gets deeper as the series progresses. And while this may be a major spoiler for some, the last episode of the anime should motivate people to read the manga.