Two to go, and this season of Yofukashi no Uta is tracking in more or less a predictable direction. In effect Anko-san has become both the MacGuffin and the protagonist of the series, a development I don’t consider a positive. She’s fine, but the magic is really missing. If I had to sum it up I’d say that this season is good, but it’s not special. And S1 of Yofukashi was definitely special. It had a really unique and evocative thing going on. Everything has gotten a lot more conventional, which is rarely a good thing but certainly not with a show like this one. It’s no longer playing to its strengths – it’s strongly executing something a lot of series could do just as well.
The problems I have with this turn of plot – and I definitely have some – are less the issue than the turn itself. I can work with the inconsistencies of the story, and as to the ludicrousness of Anko’s “plan”, the negative impact is somewhat lessened by Anko herself acknowledging how ridiculous it was. But there’s a downside to that – if she’s right (and she is) was this really something to spend almost the entire season on? I guess YMMV but I know what my answer would be.
The best part of this episode was Kou psychoanalyzing vampires to Niko. Because that was really tying into what makes Call of the Night an interesting experience. How do these vampires fit into society, and how does that compare to other mythologies? Every vampire premise is different, and that in itself is interesting. And while I think Kou’s analysis was a steered a bit adrift by innocence and naiveté, on balance he got a lot of it right. My feeling all along is that in this universe vampires (they’re always symbolic) basically represent teenagers. Or adults stuck in adolescent mode, which is certainly not uncommon anywhere but perhaps even less uncommon in 21st Century Japan than many places.
Alas, that part was maybe two minutes. The rest of it was all Anko’s elaborate assisted suicide scheme. For me personally, I just don’t care enough about her to want to spend this much time – and climax the season – on it. One thing that’s become clear is that while Yofukashi vampires are strong and robust (like teenagers), they’re not actually any smarter than humans and in fact, have even more blind spots (like teenagers). Thus I don’t really sympathize with Anko’s obsession with eliminating them. It just comes off as a revenge fetish, which is exactly what it is. While I certainly empathize with her anger over what happened to her parents, if they’d been killed by a human should I sympathize with her trying to kill all humans?
Case in point, Kou – a fourteen year-old boy – is smarter (or at least more observant and analytical) than Nazuna. And not just Nazuna, but every vamp in her circle. Maybe in their defense it’s easier for him to get inside Anko’s head, being as they’re both humans. But have we seen much evidence that vampires here are clever or good at figuring shit out? There’s variation there, just as with humans. But for the most part they’re kind of blindered and unable to think outside the spectrum of their own direct experience (like- OK, you get the point).
As I said, Yofukashi is still a good show. It pulls off the thriller cliches quite effectively, and it remains one of most stylishly drawn and directed anime out there (I loved that halo caused by Anko’s lighter in the dark classroom). It’s just that now, that’s kind of the sum of it. As to the cliffhanger, I find it pretty hard to believe Kou would actually die and while it would certainly give Anko a much-deserved dose of angst, I hope he doesn’t. So not much suspense there, although I think we’re being nudged to wonder if he might need to be turned in order to save him (I kind of doubt it, too soon).
