This is when these three-year gaps between seasons can be irritating. Especially for a series with as many dangling plot threads as Call of the Night unspooled in S1. Mahiru I remembered, though it took a second to kick in. Same with Anko, though the surprise at seeing her pop up that way caused an even longer firing delay. Akkun and Kiku I confess, I had to look up. That’s OK though, it’s still better than the alternative which is no sequel at all.
Speaking of which… One of the big questions about this sequel was pacing. Season 1 used roughly 46 of the manga’s eventual 200 chapters in 13 episodes – so what of Season 2? Well, so far (though there’s been some re-ordering) it seems to have used 7 chapters for 2. The math isn’t hard – we’re talking effectively the same pace exactly, 3.5 chapters per episode. Does that mean things won’t accelerate at some point – or that massive chunks of the manga won’t be skipped – to try and finish the adaptation in two seasons? No, but it does tell us that so far at least, there’s no evidence that will happen.
Mahiru is indeed the story of this episode, and apparently this mini-arc. We know him as Kou’s extroverted friend, the yang to his yin. We also knew that he was in a sexual relationship with an adult woman. What we didn’t know (though the premise made it likely) was that the woman – Kiku – was a vampire. We learn a lot about Kiku in this episode, much of it highly unsettling. She hasn’t told Mahiru about herself, and Mahiru was violently opposed to Kou’s schoolboy plan to get himself turned. When they meet (after Kiku follows Mahiru to his meeting with Kou to apologize, which she encouraged), she smells vampire on Kou and he senses immediately when they touch who she really is.
It’s fair to say Kiku had no idea of Kou’s situation, else she would have avoided the entanglements it carried with it. As is she flashes a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality shift with Kou, but it’s pretty obvious she’s toying with Mahiru and has no regard for him beyond as an amusement. She may not have fed off him yet but she surely will. And when Hatsuka informs Kou later that Kiku has turned “50, at the very least” that confirms it. Even if she did make a remark to Nazuna once about having “turned another, I didn’t mean for it to happen” (kowaa indeed, Kou).
Kiku is someone even vampires can’t figure out – and that makes her a very dangerous prospect indeed. But once Mahiru overhears her conversation with Kou, the jig is pretty much up on her identity. And there’s not any question that Mahiru will toss aside his earlier stated reservations and embrace the idea of being turned. He’s a middle-school boy lured into a sexual relationship with a hot onee-san – what chance does he have? How the tables of turned – it’s now Kou urging Mahiru to apply the brakes and think about what he’s getting himself into. As Akira observes, Mahiru goes through the motions of thinking things out properly but it’s all for show – he’s just as impulsive a child as Kou when push comes to shove.
Kou, to his credit, realizes he’s in over his head on this one. So he calls in backup from what – to him at least – is the logical source, the two vampire bros he’s interacted with. Hatsuka of course, and also Akiyama-san – known to Kou as “Draggo” though he’d prefer “Akkun”. Kou arranges a meetup for some brainstorming, and Hatsuka suggests they head to the sento (where Mahiru gets an eyeful of surprising information). Kou and Hatsuka chill out and discuss Kiku in the sauna while Mahiru and Akkun talk about his situation in the whirlpool bath. Draggo turns up the cool to eleven and wins himself a new acolyte, though his “just wait for Kiku to decide” advice probably has the lasting worth of one of those bubbles in the water around them.
Mahiru is in deep now, no question. In the same “knows too much” probation as Kou, but with a big difference. There’s no reason not to think Nazuna has genuine feelings for her little man, and a general sense of values telling her that he should be protected if possible. There’s no indication whatsoever that Kiku has any such reservations, and she’s a complete wildcard. This whole affair has an ominous air to it, which is why it sort of feels like Anko-san showing up is probably not a bad thing, and just in the nick of time.
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