Late-Night Walks

2022-08-21 · anime

Late-night walks present a unique experience every time. Engrossed in your music, away from everyone and all people. In those lonely night walks, there is an eerie sense of freedom that the night sky has given one. 'I belong here' is the only thing one can say. You find comfort knowing that most of society is asleep. There is no pressure to be active or productive because no one is. You could just walk the empty streets and immerse yourself in the quietness.

Yofukashi no Uta (Call of the Night) is anime airing this season about a boy who has insomnia and just decides to stop going to school and start his daily late-night walks to rediscover himself. This show gives off a unique and mesmerizing vibe, from the neon purple way the city lights up at night to the music and interactions between characters. It is so visually beautiful that you can screenshot any scene and use it as wallpaper. It really makes you want to get up and walk around in the middle of the night.

Yofukashi is such a specific niche, a small niche that definitely doesn't appeal to everyone but definitely does to me, at least. It isn't something that's going to appeal to everybody or even most people. There's not so much anything that really grips you about this. It's got some interesting ideas about relationships, depression, eroticism, and youth, but it's fed to you in such a slow drip feed that it will definitely put a lot of people off. For me, though, that slow pacing is such a big part of how this story feels. It's laid back, it's aloof, it's mellow, most of the time exactly like the setting it takes place.