Warning: contains spoilers for Call of the Night Vol. 1!
A new manga series from Shōnen Sunday is changing up the way vampires are portrayed. Call of the Night Vol. 1 begins the adventures of a boy named Ko Yamori, who is an insomniac. His life is turned upside down by a girl who reveals that what most people believe about vampires isn't quite accurate.
Vampire myths and characteristics have varied throughout history and have even changed within the past several decades. From Dracula to Twilight and Vampire Diaries to Hotel Transylvania, entertainment is full of different vampires. These fanged folk aren't limited to novels and television either, with Marvel having their own version of Dracula and the existence of manga like Rosario + Vampire and Vampire Knight. The latest vampire manga published by VIZ and Weekly Shōnen Sunday is taking a different angle.
Call of the Night is created by Kotoyama. It brings together Ko and a vampire named Nazuna Nanakusa. Ko suffers from insomnia and has not been very checked into his life at school during the day. One night Ko decides to sneak out and meets Nazuna and the two begin a peculiar friendship. It doesn't take long for Ko to discover Nazuna's secret, but vampires aren't quite what he thought. Some of the things people think they know about these blood suckers just aren't true - and quite frankly, they really don't even make sense.
After Nazuna sucks his blood for the first time, Ko wonders if he's going to become a vampire. She quickly informs him that it isn't going to happen - not yet at least. Vampires in this manga have a bit more agency when it comes to transforming others. In order to become a vampire and make the transition, the person who is bitten has to love the vampire that bites them. Otherwise, a bite is really just a bite. Human blood is food and is consumed like any other meal would be.
The idea that every time a vampire eats causes a new vampire to be "born" is actually rather absurd upon further reflection. Like Nazuna says, it really would be like roundaboutly having a kid at every feeding. Normal people eating food doesn't cause changes to others. Granted, normal eating and vampire eating are two very different things, since vampire meals can be viewed more intimately. Nonetheless, if every meal caused a transformation, there would be vampires made all the time and food could become a commodity that elevates competition amongst these walkers of the night. Logistically it just wouldn't be very practical.
Call of the Night provides a much more reasonable approach to vampire transformations without changing the core of what vampires are - as other stories have done in the past. Vampires drink blood. They go out at night. They can cause other people to become vampires if certain conditions are met. The feeding process is the main change thus far, as the first volume doesn't reveal if Nazuna is affected by sunlight or other stereotypical vampire weaknesses. It also doesn't reveal what happens if a vampire fails to consume blood within any particular time frames. Going forward, this manga series from Shōnen Sunday will likely address other elements of vampire mythology, but one of the strangest - yet most accepted - aspects of vampire lore has become more sensible already. Ko does want to be a vampire since he's unsatisfied with his current life, but he is very emotionally detached from life so he will likely have trouble falling in love. After all, love can't be controlled as easily as simply eating can.