Night Walker: Mayonaka no Tantei

princefado

~~~__Warning: This review will contain some spoilers.__~~~ In my goal to watch every BL-related anime in existence, I wandered into Night Walker. Considering my love for vampires, it was a no-brainer, especially once I took a look at the cast. While all the character designs are fairly solid (I particularly like Riho), the main character, Shido, sticks out with his adorably rumpled long purple hair, and his old-fashioned suit. I fell for him immediately. The plot is fairly simple; slightly broody amnesiac vampire solves monster crimes, and is haunted by the man who turned him into a vampire, Cain. While he investigates, he is accompanied by his three friends, two of which are his adoring female love interests (though I will admit, both Yayoi and Riho are surprisingly well fleshed out). This shouldn't be surprising, considering it was based on a 1993 eroge, one which, unfortunately, I was not able to find any English-language resources for. Perhaps I'll come back to this review later if I can find a Japanese copy to look through. What I did find surprising, however, is just how different the two seem to be. While yes, there are boobs and gore in the 1998 anime, it seems altogether less concerned with eroticism and violence, and more with tragedy, as well as adding significant BL elements to the plot. Does it do this particularly well? Well... This series, for some reason, is effectively split into two halves; the first four episodes, which have something of an arc to them, and the rest of the series, which is entirely episodic. This divide is particularly noticeable due to the sudden change in the character designs; Shido has blue-green eyes when not in Vampire Mode, Riho has brown eyes, Yayoi's hair is suddenly black. Cain's hair changes both style and color, and he looks both younger, and a bit more feminine. Some of these seem to be done to reflect the original game's style, as these colors are present in the opening that is used from the very beginning, but Yayoi's hair is also brown in the original, and I'm actually not even sure if Cain is _in_ the original game... but that's besides the point. (There is also a major change in the amount of nudity and blood after episode 4; Shido's signature moves, his own blood, crystalized into weapons, all become rather glittery and pink to tone down the violence even more. It's also worth mentioning that nudity largely disappears from the series until the finale.) The first four episodes are mildly episodic, while leading up to a major battle between Cain and Shido, where Cain begins to reveal some of his plans for... something? It's altogether rather vague, related perhaps to vampire world domination, but you'd think the next 8 episodes would elaborate on it, right? Well, no. Cain is killed in a fight with Shido at the end of episode 4. For the rest of the series, we only see him in flashbacks as Shido reflects on his life before he came to start his detective agency. Except... no again. He appears at the _very_ end of the _very_ last episode to reveal that all the horrible happenings of the episode were just a dream... and to kiss Shido, which was a win for me, I suppose. I'm not sure why there was such a split in the series. It must have happened during production, as evidenced by my former statements about the opening, and the fact that the episode airdates seemed to have been consistent. ([I feel reassured that some fellow fujin are just as confused, but intrigued, by the weirdness behind this series.](https://twitter.com/akihito302/status/1307666671193128963)) It's quite evident to me that Cain and Shido's relationship was very inspired by Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire, and you can see clear inspiration taken from Claudia and Louis' relationship in Riho and Shido's. But I'm still confused as to why they chose to a 1993 eroge to be the basis for their Interview With the Vampire fanfiction. Despite overall being, in my opinion, not a very good series, there's something interesting about Night Walker, a puzzle I want to solve, although I'm not sure if there are any real answers. I hope to return to this review in the future if I make any more discoveries. __BL Rating:__ 4/10. There are some solid scenes in there, but if you were expecting a series focused entirely on the BL elements, it's not here. You're better off watching a compilation of Cain moments. __Art:__ 7/10. The character designs are quite cute, and the animation _can_ be good, but overall it's nothing very special. __Story:__ 5/10. It's episodic. It's not the worst thing I've watched, but it leaves you wanting quite a bit more. Some episodes hit very well (I rather liked Yayoi's backstory episode), and others leave you high and dry (like the finale, especially.) __Overall:__ 6/10. Worth taking a look at if you like niche anime and vampires, but will probably not be satisfying for the average modern fujin looking for something a bit more gripping in the homoeroticism department. That said, I did find a [wonderful little fansite](http://www.geocities.ws/mistress_nightwalker/) dedicated to the series, and I understand why older anime fans might have liked this series so much, when BL was so much harder to come by.