Call of the Night Volume Six reveals a little more to the reader about the vampires and sees the return of Anko Uguisu, the private detective.

Call of the Night Volume Six
Written by: Kotoyama
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: February 8, 2022

The volume opens with Mahiru wrestling with whether or not he loves Kiku after learning that she’s a vampire, and this leads into a flashback where he remembers how he met her and the times that they hung out together. However, after his friends from school come to bug him again about the fact that he isn’t hanging out with them or answering their texts, this pushes Mahiru to decide that he wants to be with Kiku. During a later scene Ko learns that Kiku has turned a lot of people into vampires… in fact, it appears she holds a record, even though she doesn’t really want to turn people. This sets up a mystery for the characters, as well as for the reader, as to why this might be. Unfortunately, this isn’t answered in Volume Six, so this will likely be a running thread in the series.

Nazuna takes Ko to Tokyo for “research.” At first, it’s about going through the shops and having fun, but it turns into watching the couples around them to try to learn something about love. During this section, Ko comes to realize that he’s been surrounded by examples of love all along, and he thinks about Aki, the young man who had been turned into a vampire by Seri, and how their relationship started with a chance meeting. He also feels as if he’s been watching other people’s love stories from a distance, while waiting for something earth-shattering to happen to him. While this revelation starts making him think a little, he hasn’t entirely figured things out for how he feels about Nazuna and what love means to him.

Then, there’s a chapter where the group of vampires whisk Ko away to start asking him questions about his and Nazuna’s relationship. Of course, he really doesn’t have anything to say, seeing as he’s still confused about what exactly love is and whether or not he’s feeling it. But the group of vampires enjoy teasing Ko. The most amusing part of this section is when they get Ko to recall telling Nazuna she looked cute after getting the makeover, and he blushes as he says this out loud. This was a nice touch, because both the reader and this group of vampires had never seen Ko express this kind of emotion before. I really liked how Kotoyama drew Ko’s embarrassed reaction. After Nazuna comes by to take Ko home, the group realizes that Ko has changed Nazuna, even though he doesn’t realize that he has.

Mahiru goes to see Ko and starts asking him questions about how Nazuna feeds on him, which makes Ko realize that Kiku hasn’t fed on Mahiru yet. It’s revealed that Kiku has asked Mahiru to wait a little longer, because she’s just not ready to do that yet. This surprises Ko after what he was told about Kiku, but he decides not to say anything about what he learned to Mahiru because he doesn’t know how his friend will take it. I think that Ko made the right choice here.

Ko invites Aki to talk to him and Mahiru, so they can learn what it means to be a vampire. At this point, Anko arrives to terminate Aki. During this section, it’s revealed that each vampire has an item from their former human life that they cherish, and she can use that to get past a vampire’s defenses in order to kill them. Aki’s old glasses are his item, and Anko gets them on his face. Anko wounds Aki and demands to know which vampire turned him, but Seri shows up in time to save him. After Anko leaves, Seri is told to take off Aki’s glasses because that should help him recover.

At this point, some of the vampires gather together to start figuring out what their special object could be that Anko could use to try to kill them. When Nazuna is asked what she remembers from her human days, but she admits that she doesn’t remember anything from that time. Nazuna also later reveals to Ko that she’s really somewhere in her 30’s or 40’s, even though she looks younger. Ko decides they need to try to find out what her weakness and her past object are in the hopes that they can get the object and destroy it. While looking for clues, Ko comes across a hospital appointment card from about 30 years ago, and they decide to infiltrate the hospital to see if they can find any answers. They discover that Kabura is working there as a nurse, and she catches them. She lets them look around, though, but warns them not to enter a certain area. But, at the end of the volume, Nazuna stumbles into that area and finds something rather… interesting.

Call of the Night Volume Six has taken the series into a direction I hadn’t expected. I hadn’t guessed that Nazuna had no memory of her pre-vampire life, or what her real age was. The revelations that the reader gets near the end of the volume through photographs (but Nazuna only sees one of them) are quite interesting. When I think about a couple of things Nazuna did earlier in the series, seeing the revelation in this volume helps to make sense of those particular quirks of Nazuna’s. But this revelation makes the reader wonder if what is learned here is what turned Nazuna into a vampire. There are some very interesting questions that the end of this volume brings up that will hopefully be answered in the series sooner rather than later.

When it comes to the art, one of my favorite panels in Volume Six is the one on the top of page 148, where Nazuna and Ko run into Kabura at the hospital. The expressions on Ko’s and Nazuna’s faces are wonderful, and I like Kabura’s commanding presence in the scene. The panel on page 126, where Seri is standing on the roof of a building at night with other buildings serving as a backdrop, also stood out to me. For this one, it’s probably more the buildings themselves than Seri that catch my eye.

Call of the Night Volume Six was a very enjoyable read, and I found myself really getting into the story presented here. I especially appreciated the focus on Nazuna later in the volume, as the reader starts learning a little more about her and get some potential information about her past. To be honest, I think readers who have read and enjoyed the previous five volumes of Call of the Night will not be disappointed by how the story progresses in Volume Six.

I think there's a little bit of humor, a little bit of sorrow and drama. It's an intriguing mix to be sure. This just isn't my cup of tea though I guess.

This was my favorite book in the series so far. Mahiru realizes that he has fallen in love with a vampire and contemplates becoming one himself. Ko and Nazuna visit Tokyo. The vampire-slaying private investigator goes after Aki. This allows the other vampires to determine how she can kill them. Ko tries to help Nazuna remember her past.

I'm still enjoying this series. In this volume Mahiru contemplates being turned by Kiku, we learn how vampires are able to be killed, and Ko and Nazuna visit a hospital trying to figure out how she was turned. Looking forward to the next volume!