Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen

Every season there is one entry the anime community overhypes beyond belief and this time it's Kaguya sama.

Story? There’s no story beyond two teen high schoolers failed love attempts at getting the other person to confess. Fans have dubbed Kaguya sama as the "Death Note of romance", which is laughable because the mind games here are pretentious, basic tactics.

The comedy is hit or miss most of the time, with the odd joke being able to crack a smile from me. The jokes and gags are repetitive and become stale e.g. the skit where the President and Kaguya gave love advice dragged on too long. ... The episode about the wiener joke (no, I’m not kidding) was so childish.

The characters are a bunch of troupes who receive no character development: Kaguya is a rich, childish, pampered tsundere with barely any endearing qualities. Chika is the cute ditsy airhead, Ishigami is the depressed emo okatu that fans relate to calling him "our guy". He's easily the worst character because of how one dimensional he is and all his jokes being so predictable e.g. "oh no, Kaguya is going to kill me! I'm going home President!". The president is the hardworking and studious guy. He’s the best of the main cast in my opinion. He's the most interesting, relatable and got varied comedy.

The main problem with this show is the narration. The narrator might as well be his own character with how overused it is, to the point it becomes overbearing and annoying. The writer clearly didn't grasp the concept of "show, don't tell" because i don't want to be told about the characters and their thought process like they’re puppets. I don’t know why the narrator is keeping score of their matches because it ultimately amounts to nothing and we get the same rinse-repeat scenario next episode. He’s often mentioning stuff that’s obvious on screen with info dumps, which is jarring because it comes across as if the viewer is too stupid to think for themselves.

I’ll give it to A1, the animation is great, the osts are good and the stylistic presentation is visually impressive enough for you to overlook most scenes taking place in one location. The opening visuals are creative, however the opening song is cheesy and the ending is forgettable.

Overall, Kaguya sama is a fun rom-com, but it's cliche and filled with troupes that would otherwise be criticised in other shows. The dynamic between the two leads doesn’t change as they are no closer to confessing to each other than they were at beginning. It's baffling to see so many positive reviews and the amount of praise it’s received when it lacks substance and does nothing special compared to other rom-coms.

Considering the circumstances that have lead us to these conditions, I conclude the state we're currently facing is refreshingly cuddly in a soothing manner.

I.e. How cute.

I don't really like A-1, but this time they are doing pretty darn impressive job. Even the character design which A-1 fucks up approximately 100% of the time is quality here. Unbelievable. Sure the stares and GAZES could deliver more, and the how cute moments can only be so cute, but otherwise this is a ridiculously high quality adaptation which success was unpredictable.

The first and last thing that stands out here is the directing. Those who have seen ... basically any anime at all will immediately recognize that this style is close to SHAFT's Shinbou Akiyuki, who is known as the nro. 1 anime director in the world pretty much. The director of Kaguya seems to be his old underling/coworker and, needless to say, he has learnt a great deal from the master himself. However -- unlike Tomohiro, who is the underling of the other big anime director (2nd biggest if you will), Ikuhara Kunihiko -- Kaguya's directing is much closer to its director's very own innovation, and to say that this is just a copy-paste would be a blind insult. This man has vision and style and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything. This is creativity and detail at its finest. It's rare to see modern anime even try and even more so: to success at anything new, but what our director, Shinichi Omata is doing here is nothing less than impressive. It's damn fresh to be accurate. Fully approved.

Now that this nerd stuff out of the way, the content:

'Love is War' is a rom-com series aimed for mature audience. It centers around 2 main leads and few other leads who are kinda as important as the other two but also practically in the side roles. Our main 'couple' are Shirogane and Kaguya who have made the concept of 'love' their battlefield. In this battle they are quite literally trying to outwit each others with the power of psychology, logic and pure rhetoric. Why do this, then? Because they both share this fundamental idea that love is weakness of the mind and confessing it an act so against ones pride that doing so makes them.. losers. So, what they are doing instead is try and make the other one confess first. Hence the battlefield.

The series heavily relies on both: interactions between characters and silent monologue that plays inside the heads of our different POV's. The catch being how different the characters are inside their own head and how they appear to others in real life. They have lots of personality and can show different sides of it. Perhaps my favorite part of all of it are the "war planning" and also how overly dramatic Kaguya often is. To say few words about the other cast members, Fujiwara is criminally cute and the rest are pretty much weirdos.

There is one entity in the series that is highly important to the overall execution and that's the narrator. He appears to add lots of missing links and initial reasoning for the characters' thoughts, actions, and real purpose among other things. It balances out the comedy and "plot side" of the series as well as simply makes the overall narrative work/more solid.

As of currently, I'm extremely happy with this show. There are no major issues, only few small things that are questionable but also necessary to make the series' core idea hold water. As far as rom-coms go, this is already among the better things anime has to offer. Also +1 for Fujwara's dance scene which animation budget is higher than the entire season of Date A Live III's cashmoney.

To describe Kaguya-sama: Love is War as a battlefield of love, between two prideful geniuses, who see confessing as a sign of “weakness” is well—sort of misleading.

Not because these type of scenarios don’t happen throughout the show, but more so because I’m not entirely sure that it is accurate to describe the characters as “prideful” or even “geniuses”; and that might be the biggest issue the show has.

Kaguya-sama begins in a very direct way; the whole idea of the show, everything about Miyuki and Kaguya, and their relationship is thrown at us through a narrator. There is no build up of their relationship, we are ... told they are in love and we are immediately expected to care. As a result, I found it difficult to ever form a sort of solid connection with the characters, to ‘root’ for their romance, to think their ridiculous antics were always funny. Miyuki and Kaguya have little chemistry. It feels like I am missing something. With more care given to the characters, this show really could have been something special.

I can imagine this could have been salvaged, if the characters proved themselves so charismatic and fun that they would eventually become completely endearing. But the characters never really had a consistent personality. Because let's be honest, Miyuki and Kaguya are not always ‘prideful’. The are constantly shown as vulnerable, embarrassed, and shy. Highlighting those parts about them were easily the worst bits of the show. When they were smart, cunning, devious, it lead to the best and most hilarious moments. The author probably did this to make them more relatable and cute, but I ultimately think it negatively impacted the show. Some of the situations Miyuki and Kaguya go through are so trivial and childish that only sheer ridiculousness of their characters could have made it genuinely hilarious. When we know that the basis of their resistance to being open to one another is rooted more in shyness than pride, it makes the situations come off as more silly than potentially hilarious. It should have gone all in on making them scheming egomaniacs, for the sake of the humour.

Sometimes the show did have moments where the characters acted the way I hoped they would—and it was funny. Various moments of the show proves itself as creative, enjoyable, and worthy. Chika and Ishigami served as good side characters, although it may have been a little too obvious that sometimes they were just there to steer the direction of the joke. The art style was bold and outwards. Over time the show starts to get a bit more ‘normal’ looking, but I do appreciate shows taking a step outwards to make it more memorable.

Many times I was left feeling like some potential was being wasted. The show does stick to a formulaic way of having a ‘winner/loser’ in every bit, which didn’t always work. Sometimes it seems like the direction of the joke was radically shifted for no other reason than to just create a winner or a loser. I never found the narrator useful, and at worst he was just annoying. The show should have been more free, less confined to one particular style. Often it came off as settling.

The most disappointing thing about the show is how good it could have been.

Almost every time someone talks to me about a romantic comedy, they'd would mention how well the romance is delivered. Then along came this show called Kaguya-sama: Love is War that goes beyond than just being a romantic comedy. In a landscape dominated by recent isekai shows, there’s a need for fresh air. Kaguya-sama managed be just that.

Aka Akasaka is somewhat of a new author in the manga world. Prior to this series, their only work I was familiar with is Sayonara Piano Sonata. When Kaguya-sama began serializing, I knew there was something special about this series with the way it introduced its story ... and characters. Do note that the anime adapts chapters not in a chronological order but takes them to make the overall tone of the show flow better. Every episode contains at least 3 segments from certain chapters. There’s also some that are structured with continued storytelling but nothing too complex. With that being said, I think it’s important to realize what this show really is.

First off, I would say that while this anime contains rom-com tropes, there’s also an insightful amount of dialogues that breaks from its traditional norms. Some will easily notice the mind games and dialogue wars between our two main protagonists – vice president Kaguya Shinomiya and President Miyuki Shirogane. Both are part of the prestigious school in Japan known as Shuchi’in Academy. While the two obviously develop feelings for each other, the show pits them into endless series of love battles. Their pride is on the line and neither are willing to confess their love. The English title also translates to “Kaguya Wants to be Confessed” so fresh anime viewers may wonder who will really be the one confessing in the end. That’s where the juicy part of the show comes in. You see, every episode contains segments about romance along with the constant mental battles between our two protagonists. From the very first episode, we see how much both characters value their pride. Their status at school are role models that everyone looks up to for their intelligence, looks, and position. In other words, Kaguya and Shirogane stands at the top of the mountain at Shuchi’in Academy and their only opponents are each other. Or is it? Because the more I watched this show, the more I realized the length both characters go to try to get the others to confess. This results in hilarious segments that drives the main plot. While both characters lack experience with love, they have many talent in other fields such as academics. In essence, the show manages to produce an immense amount of humor with the love war concept.

Taking a look at each character on an individual level, Kaguya and Shirogane are actually quite normal despite being larger than life characters. However, the show portrays Kaguya as a girl who is obsessed with Shirogane. The extent of her mind games sometimes goes to extreme lengths such as trying to prevent Shirogane from leaving school, planting movie tickets, or even as something silly as fighting over a piece of cake. The result of these scenarios often end up with consequences or misunderstanding. This is where the show’s absurdity and humor comes in. Because of how hard both characters try to defend their own pride, they create a fake persona of themselves to each other. Nonetheless, it seems at times, Kaguya does have genuine feelings for Shirogane such as when she gets jealous of him interacting with Chika.

Ah yes, Chika Fujiwara. If there’s anyone in this show that could set off more reactions, it’s her. She’s like the catalyst for Kaguya’s mood swings in particular when interacting with Shirogane. Jealousy is easily shown on Kaguya’s face in early episodes and that’s thanks to her personality. In general, Chika is known to be disruptive to the school council. Whether she’s conscious about it or not, she often sets off absurd moments in the show because of her unpredictability. However, I think Chika’s presence in the show should be appreciated for exactly what she is. In fact, I categorize Chika as somewhat of anti-thesis of the main characters. She isn’t afraid to speak her mind and is very open about being herself. This is very different compared to Ai Hayasaka, Kaguya’s valet. Hayasaka takes on several personalities that can be hard to distinguish the real her. While being a supporting character, I find her role in the show important for being supportive of Kaguya.

As with many rom-coms, it needs to have male characters that aren’t just alpha males like Shirogane. This is where Yu Ishigami comes in. Having an inferiority complex, he doesn’t have nearly as much as pride in himself as Shirogane. Unlike him, Ishigami isn’t a real genius but he tries hard in things that interests him. The more I watched his character interactions, the more I realized how real he is compared to the others. He can be rather relatable for his social status and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the anime needed someone like him too. That being said, outside of these characters, there’s only a small handful that gets spotlights such as Shirogane’s sister. There are occasional side characters that reinforces the themes of love in the show but these often don’t greatly influence the show’s plot. With everything being said, I think watching Kaguya-sama takes an open mind to accept what this show offers while also enjoying what you may not often find in rom-coms.

One of the interesting things I noticed is the production staff involved in the show. It consists of ex-Shaft members such as Shinchi Omata and Kei Haneoka. Director Shinichi Omata manages to capture a unique theatric feeling with his clever approach. For those who are familiar with Shaft, it can at times feel similar in style with his craft. Many scenes in the show has a dynamic transition that is impactful ranging from a character expression to the clever timing of the dialogues. Indeed, a show like this needs careful timing to deliver its dialogues. Even a narrator is here to speak for its plot. The animation quality is also polished with stellar effort and manages to capture the magic of the manga. We’re so lucky to have this adaptation with a golden treatment to be honest. Oh and who can forget the theme songs for the show? The opening contains a spy espionage-theme that matches this show in perfect union. It also contains choreography that shows the mind game themes without holding back. Simply put, it’s mesmerizing. Similarly, the ED theme songs are decorated with colorful aesthetics. There’s even one particular episode that had Chika perform her own ED theme because that’s just how damn good this show is.

I love the manga and the anime gave me a similar sensation. Sure, not all the chapters were adapted but that’s not the point at all. It managed to be rise above mediocrity of rom-coms by appealing to a variety of story gimmicks. The characters manages to deliver their lines like a theatric play filled with charisma and talent. While the story can feel repetitive at times, it’s thanks to the heartfilled humor that will always get you engaged. Kaguya-sama sets a gold standard for a romantic comedy that’s so much more than just confessing love.

A masterpiece that evokes every emotion I want to feel from a Romantic comedy.
President Miyuki and Vice President Kaguya are in love with each other, but both view themselves as the ultimate object of desire, and thus see no reason to confess, in fact when you are as perfect as they are shouldn’t it be the duty of other people to aspire towards you? However, this is quickly revealed to be a front used by two egotistical Teenagers who can’t quite work up the courage to ask out their crush. What follows from this is a sequence of over thought-out plans in order to force ... the other to confess. The comedy in the series comes from its hyper-dramatization of the utterly mundane. Asking someone to the movies is a complex web of intrigue, a game of 20 questions is a western shoot-out, and cat ears are banned by the Geneva convention. But no matter how well-laid the plans of Miyuki and Kaguya, destroying them is but child’s play to their secretary, Chika. This show would be amazing even if it was just comedy, but underneath the absurdity is a sincerely heart-warming story of teenagers learning to move past their flaws, insecurities, and other problems. We are given enough reminders that beneath all these mind games between the two leads there is genuine and sincere emotions for the other. So even though they never confess outright significant progress is still made in the characters’ lives.

A fast frenetic directing style gives the characters so much life even though all they are doing most of the time is thinking in a room. It’s not afraid to break away from reality constantly keep its visuals engaging, and the camera loves to spin, swing, and slide across the main set; Maneuvers made possible by some excellent use of CGI and compositing. Character expressions are exaggerated in creative ways, and the voice actors bring their A game to match the animation. Much like Jojo the color swims to match the mood of a scene, and combined with an eclectic collection of background music serves to set the tone perfectly for most scenes. Character movement is usually quite fluid. Aesthetically it knocks it out of the park. Not to say every frame is a masterpiece, as the cut corners are quickly discernible to a practiced eye, but the peaks far outnumber the troughs.

Aesthetically fantastic and narrative-ly ingenious: A show people must at least try.

Disclaimer: This is a more critical view of Kaguya sama than something commented just on pure enjoyment overrall.
Kaguya sama is one of the newest and most popular comedy animes in the current times, be it due to simple jokes being shared or the dance in the ending that literally everyone decided to talk about, however, the overall quality of the anime itself should'nt be ignored because like everything else, it has it's flaws.
First of all, the anime is extremely episodic almost to the point of being predictable, it sticks to it's formula and never decides to change or take absolute advantage of being formulaic which ... ends up in it being repetitive, still fun due to the visuals and somewhat great jokes every now and then but, critically speaking it's far from being as perfect as many reviews i've seen here make it out to be.
Also, the direction is overall pretty weak, it's an extremely visual style that reminds a bit of what studio shaft's directors tend to do but the way the director applied those tecniques makes it more something visually interesting that good unlike the huge majoritiy of the works by shaft.
And Lastly, the characters themselves are pretty "ok-ish", they sure are fun to watch but they lack some depth to them, even if you argumente that it's unnecessary for a comedy series to have a bit of complexity, Kaguya sama tries to actually be a romance at times to try going further into developing the relationship between the main cast so, if it's attempted by the author, even if weakly, automatically makes the argument invalid and compromises a bit more the anime.
Well, concluding it all, Kaguya sama is a weak anime and far from being the best of the current season, however, it's a fun ride, not a perfect one and even less one that deserves a nines and tens but one that should be taken a look if you want just a pretty nice comedy.

I must be to old to like this anime.

There is no story, it`s all about 2 young students who are afraid to show their real feelings.
And then it`s only short stories, 3 or 4 in 1 episode.

It`s really boring, Chika is somewhat amusing although not really.
Maybe if the characters would evolve, but they don`t.

The main characters are showing bold and all knowing, but they are really as insecure as a little schoolgirl
Maybe i have seen to many of this genre, but it just doesn`t interest me at all.
... Watch this if you like to see insecure students bumbling around, otherwise don`t waste your time on this

perhaps the manga is beter, but i don`t like reading from right to left so i`ll never know

This is not good.

The whole show got popular and keeps getting popular thanks to a meme of a dancing lady. A lot of people consider it the best comedy show they have seen, and a lot of people dislike the fact this is called a comedy anime.

I'm on par with the last example, this whole show is extremely repetitive and predictable, you can pretty much predict what's gonna happen in the next 10 minutes, without the help of any spoilers, most of the jokes and comedic parts are hardly funny or as you would like to call it "sarcastic". It was a premise with the ... name of something so intriguing as "Psychological Comedy" but ended up being your next Sword Art, it is almost childish to call this Psychological just because of camera angles, and because some characters "threat" each other with words when both of them don't even know the meaning of love.

The whole direction of the series keeps going down with every episode and skit looking the same as before and the same as every other A-1 Pictures anime. Keeping the formula of generic episodic series.

The characters are (as mentioned) like any other characters the studio has produced, even if they are not made by the same person, their personalities, traits and such are always the same, lacking depth and complexity in their development.

The show itself started slow, and with forced comedy that barely made me smile, it is indeed a weak anime when it comes to this season. Would i recommend this? No. Would you enjoy it? Probably. Did I enjoy it? No.

4/10

This is one of those special anime that perfectly represents why I’ve been sticking with anime for so long. Love is War exudes brilliance with every fiber of its being. It has so much going for it, and offers something that practically everyone can enjoy. In simpler terms, it’s just so damn good bruh! What, don’t believe me? pfft, how cute. Let me lecture you on why this anime is pure excellence.

Psychological battles of wits have always excited me. It’s quite exhilarating to witness two characters going head to head against each other not physically, but mentally. Anime RomComs with interesting and dynamic ... characters can always be a joy to watch as well, especially when they take an unconventional approach to the genre. Love is War is a crazy mix of both of these genres, almost like it’s the illegitimate love child of Death Note and Toradora. And let me tell you, this anime is super legit.

It doesn’t take a love detective to figure out that overachieving student council protagonists Kaguya and Shirogane have a thing for each other. Yet they’re both so hilariously egotistical and out of touch with reality that they constantly attempt to coerce the other into making the first move, since in their minds, doing so would be a major sign of weakness. For the person who confesses first…*dramatic pause*…loses. Funnily enough, I believe that the person who takes the first step in starting a relationship is actually the stronger one, but that’s not how these two see it. Their relationship is portrayed brilliantly in the anime, and the amount of entertaining scenarios that these two find themselves in during each episode is just mind boggling. Plus the three major side characters, Chika, Ishigami, and Hayasaka, are all hilarious, and they simply further add to the greatness of the show.

Love is War is one of those rare anime where it actually gets better and better in practically every regard after each passing episode. Seriously though, all concerns and doubts that I had about this show after watching the first episode were completely obliterated from existence as it went on. And then the anime decided to straight up surpass my expectations for it, it’s just that awesome. Of course, while many of the show’s successes are noticeably apparent, others require you to look a little deeper into the anime to discover.

Something that I didn’t realize until the later portion of the anime was just how much Kaguya develops as a character. I was so focused on the comedy that I almost missed it, though her growth is pretty subtle. I discovered that Kaguya becomes significantly more expressive then she was in the earlier episodes, and seems to have really come out of her shell. What I believe started as a mere fleeting interest in getting the highest ranked student at her academy to fall for her blossomed into a truly heartfelt love for the student council president. I won’t get into Kaguya’s backstory, but let’s just say that feelings and love are quite foreign to her. Yet through her many interactions with Shirogane, she starts to understand how to feel, and this causes her to both show and perceive real emotion. Yes, she was always a fun character from beginning to end. Yet while the initial battles Kaguya waged against Shirogane primarily focused on her amusing ability to plan her strategies incredibly far in advance, her only desire was to win and make Shirogane submit to her. However, with her later battles, they just felt more genuine, like she was legitimately trying to make Shirogane confess to her because she actually loves the guy and is just too awkward and nervous to make the first move herself. The fantastic visuals help to further emphasize this, as we constantly see her flailing about in embarrassment and being all blushy blushly when in the presence of Shirogane as she starts to spend a lot more time with him. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but damn it, the author is a certified genius for writing Kaguya’s character in such a compelling way.

It’s development like this that really gets me to appreciate both the character and their respective show. Yet although Kaguya is the protagonist, what probably ended up as the most popular thing about this anime was Chika. More specifically, her dance.

The Chika dance sequence alone is enough to give this anime high marks in both the visual and sound departments. Her dance literally has the power to save anime AND cure crippling depression at the same time, it’s just that good. Now I’m not well versed in the mechanics of animation, but I do know that the style used to animate Chika’s dance is quite expensive, so major respect to the animators for putting so much effort into constructing such a special dance. A-1 probably had to steal the budgets from some of the other winter seasonals to pull this off, but it was totally worth it. Now I don’t want to overshadow the rest of the animation in Love is War by just talking about Chika’s dance, because the entire show is aesthetically charming and distinctive.

Stylistically speaking, I noticed that this anime utilizes tons of unique visual techniques that really bring things to life and add even more layers to the anime. While the setting of the show predominately takes place in the same old student council room, every single scene is still unique and fresh thanks to the innovative visual effects used each episode. It’s kind of hard to explain it without actually showing the visuals, but if you watch the show, you’ll understand what I’m getting at. Though the greatest accomplishment in the animation department would have to be the character designs. Not only do they look great normally, but the characters are constantly animated in different styles that keep things fresh and further heighten the comedic value of the show. They’re drawn in such a variety of designs, from horror-esque to chibi-like. Each and every frame just seems to have been created with so much care. In an age where it feels like most animators just put the bare minimum into their shows, it’s refreshing to see an anime given so much attention to its visual quality and special effects. Props to A-1 Pictures.

Voice acting is superb. I initially wasn’t certain how well Kaguya’s seiyuu would work when I first saw Kaguya’s character design, but I soon realized just how perfect a fit she is. She just breathes so much life into Kaguya, who is already a superior character. The rest of the voice actors do a phenomenal job as well, and their expert line deliveries further heighten the effectiveness of jokes. Also, the weird little noises that the girls, particularly Chika, occasionally make are just great. Like, how cute can they get? The theme songs are nice and the soundtrack does its job well.

The cast of characters are truly the fuel that bring this anime to life. When the core cast is as small as it is in this anime, the likability of these individuals can really make or break the success of the show. For me, I ended up liking every single one of the characters. Like, a lot.

So Kaguya is best girl for me, and if you dare disagree…then that’s okay too! I’ve already talked about some of the more prominent aspects of her character, but I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to further praise her. First of all, she’s absolutely adorable. Especially during the bed scene in episode 9, where all I could think was how cute can this girl possibly be? I love her color palette because red and black are obviously the best colors. Her awkwardness combined with her intellectual brilliance is incredibly fitting. What truly makes her shine though is her relationship with Shirogane. The two of them just complement each other so well. Shirogane himself is a workaholic, and I wish that I had half of his work ethic. Just half, since any more would probably cause me to keel over from exhaustion. Seriously though, with the way he works, I don’t know how this man manages to stay on his feet! Like Kaguya, his social ineptitude is matched only by his intelligence, and the combination just works.

Chika is the most entertaining supporting character I’ve seen in a long time. I was trying to think of one of her finer moments to use as an example of why she’s so amusing, but then I realized that they’re all good. Love detective Chika. Volleyball coach Chika. Cheating at card games Chika. Ramen connoisseur Chika. The list goes on. Chika’s ditsy nature and complete obliviousness to her surroundings are incredibly charming. She just brings a sort of energy to the show that increases my power levels tenfold whenever she’s on screen. Ishigami is the fourth and final member of the student council we’re introduced to, and he’s like the most relatable dude ever. He really is our guy. I can connect with a lot of his monologues on a spiritual level, and his introduction into the show was when it really started to become something great in my opinion. The final character that I’d like to give a shoutout to is Hayasaka. She is Kaguya’s attendant, and her dedication to helping Kaguya get together with Shirogane is admirable. She literally gets them in the same bed together at one point, so good on you Hayasaka.

To sum everything up, Love is War works because it’s actually funny. Like with every comedy anime I watch, I was worried that the jokes would eventually go stale and the show would get boring as it progressed. I can tell you with absolute certainty that this isn’t the case with Love is War. Each episode actually seemed to get even funnier than the last, and this ended up being one of those rare anime that actually got me to laugh out loud. Yes, comedy is subjective. But there’s such a diverse agglomeration of jokes to be found here that it just feels like this anime has something for everyone. The entertainment derived from watching something is, for me, the most important aspect of a show, and Love is War completely nails it in this regard.

Overall, this is a quality anime that I would wholeheartedly recommend watching for the comedy alone, not to mention the plethora of other great things that this show brings to the table. Love is War is not the anime we deserved, but the one we needed. Like, desperately. Hopefully future comedies, and all genres for that matter, will follow Love is War’s excellent example. And hey, a season 2 wouldn’t hurt as well. Let’s get it done A-1, cause I simply need MOAR!

“Wieners sliced to look like an octopus! They really exist! I want to try one…” — Kaguya Shinomiya

“Ohh, gawd. Did I accidentally stumble upon Shokushu Goukan….(again)?!” — Krunchyman


Overt references to tentacle erotica aside, Kaguya-sama: Love is War is an anime about two people — Kaguya and Miyuki — who secretly love each other, but are unwilling to confess their affections in fear that the other person will gain the upper hand. This, invariably, commences a series of events in which Kaguya and Miyuki attempt to psychologically outmaneuver one another, generating a conglomerate of awkward/comedic circumstances. Whether or not these ventures ... result in genuine laughter is a matter of comedic taste, but it won’t stop me from telling you my thoughts on the matter.

Love is War presents a situation that is all too common in preteen-to-teen years, that being: “I love you, but I’ll pretend otherwise.” The school milieu, along with pent-up hormones, forces numerous young-adults to experience these contradictory feelings towards one another, resulting in numerous awkward/hilarious situations. For Kaguya and Miyuki, these situations involve Death-Note-level internal monologues where they battle one another in a metaphorical game of cognitive love-chess. It’s actually fairly entertaining (albeit in a foolish way — which is precisely the way I like it, uh huh huh).

The best moment of the series, thus far, was when Kaguya (a sixteen year-old girl, mind you) thought that her “first time” was a reference to kissing, instead of sexual intercourse. Her naive innocence propelled her to claim, “I did it to my newborn nephew,” which resulted in horrified looks from Chika and Miyuki; I was laughing my balls off!

Love is War is not the type of series that will blow your socks off, yet its coquettish dynamic between Kaguya and Miyuki has a certain charm that is not easily consummated in the genre. The jokes, themselves, are more miss than hit, but the ones that do hit are exceptionally hilarious. The direction of the plot seems quite obvious (an eventual confession by either Kaguya or Miyuki, or both at the same time), but the journey towards their declaration of love is quite humorous, plus the ending dance by Chika is dope as f—k!

I did not like the series, most people say that this series is innovative ... but I say, in what innovates? same composition of characters in any romantic novel (the 2 tsundere protagonists who like each other, but none dares to take a step to the point that it becomes annoying, secondary characters whose only function is to look silly on screens to make people laugh no deeper development).

In my opinion until the anime of ueno-san is better than this since at least does not have the typical composition among its characters.
In short, I do not see that people see this anime when there are ... much better romantic comedies.

Both psychological game to make the other do something that the 2 want to do and has me sick.

“See, this show's what having a good director can do for your fuckin' show. You can make A-1 Pictures look like a competent studio. That's fucked up!” -DEEsidia from REVEL HOUSE, 2019

Pride is cruel and ignorance is bliss, and when love is war, feelings are the casualties. Kaguya-sama is this concept taken to a hilarious extreme, with two teenage egotists trying to manipulate each other into confessing their feelings as every idea they ever had gets trampled on. This show thrives off its comedic timing, with tons of audiovisual flair, character chemistry, and wild ideas for our main leads to plan around and exploit. ... With A-1 being listed as the studio behind this, I’m sure some alarms were triggered, but thanks to Rakugo director Shinichi Omata, everything listed prior is utilized spectacularly.

Shinichi Omata brings a ton of life to this anime with his stylistic flourishes. A lot of the time, backgrounds and camera movements are incredibly stylized, adding to scenes of characters overthinking things. Whenever a character starts freaking out or shouting in an over the top fashion, several grainy motion lines consume either the characters or the backgrounds. The ED themes have some creative visuals as well. These and more all add so much character to the visuals, which is a blessing since despite the fun character designs and facial expressions, the artwork dips a surprising amount early on, and the sparse CGI models can be pretty terrible. Thankfully, the visual inconsistencies and blemishes are so infrequent that the expressive visual flourishes and amazing shots more than make up for them.

On top of the great visual comedy is the actual character comedy, relying on bombastic personalities and their chemistry with one another, including the narrator of the show, who provides a healthy dose of both on his own whilst poking fun of our main leads. Shirogane’s an over-the-top serious character, constantly shouting despite always maintaining a sense of authority, combining the general style of Gendo Ikari from Eva with the ridiculously dorky yet serious nature of someone like Yamamoto from Tylor or Sora from NGNL. It makes things all the funnier when he’s undermined by love interest Kaguya Shinomiya, who constantly wants to retain her air of refinement and superiority despite being a sheltered, jealous dork who gets flustered at the drop of a hat. However, the character that steals the show for me is Chika Fujiwara, the busty wildcard cloudcuckoolander --think Mayuri from Steins;Gate but probably evil-- who’s constantly making Kaguya jealous and single-handedly dismantling everyone around her and whatever they try to do. This doesn’t include the times when Chika has to teach Shirogane how to do things, which brings her immense pain. A close contender for best character is Ishigami, who appears halfway into the show, and is as paranoid and ridiculous as he is sensitive and adorable. It takes half the show to introduce him, but some of the show’s most gut-busting moments come from him, especially when he reaches critical sass levels. Lastly, there’s our helpful deadpan character in Kaguya’s maid, Ai Hayasaka, who has particularly great chemistry with Kaguya as she attempts to help her earn Shirogane’s heart. Somehow, she has the most surprises up her sleeves. The random tertiary characters are all entertaining as well, thanks to the comedic and sometimes emotionally resonant writing of a well-balanced and vibrant main and supporting cast. Each skit tells us something new about these characters. Combine that with their chemistry and the sheer number of skits, it leaves these characters feeling incredibly rich, on top of being varied and colorful. You can honestly make a case for any of the 5 major characters being the best, which is a great sign.

Kei Haneoka’s music does a good job complimenting the show’s calculated absurdity. The OST often cycles between being as bombastic as the scenarios they support and being whimsical, meme tracks that play over sequences such as a comedic explanation of the game 20 Questions. The OP "Love Dramatic feat. Rikka Ihara" by Masayuki Suzuki is one of the standouts of the season, boasting a jazzy, almost James Bond-like feel with the sneaky and sometimes psychedelic visuals to match once the song reaches its chorus. It matches the personalities of the main duo quite well and how they treat these scenarios like mind games. Sadly, the EDs don’t live up outside of the visuals and the meme factor of Chika’s ED. That, however, is a small loss.

Kaguya-sama is one of the funniest and most well-directed shows I have seen in a long time. This outrageous premise certainly won’t appeal to everyone, especially to those who hate the concept of two main characters pussyfooting around confessing to each other. However, the wonderful cast, humor, and visual direction more than make up for any possible annoyance that otherwise may have caused me. Nearly every skit and episode build upon the last. If you want your fix of romcoms or shows starring manipulative egotists, this is almost certainly the anime for you. It’ll probably stay in my holy trinity of comedy anime for quite some time.

Written and Edited by: CodeBlazeFate
Proofread by: Peregrine

2 geniuses trying to feel superiority by making the other confess first! This has got to be one of the best scenarios ever!

Art/Sound:
Let's get this straight, I don't love the studio that makes this anime and feel as though their animation is solid but not great, however, holy shit! The visuals in this anime are so impressive, it reminds me of something Shaft would produce which I love, most people are going to be pleasantly surprised at how great the animation and the art in general is! Sound wise, I have 0 complaints! Voice acting is spot on with a very underrated funky OP and ... perfect ED for the anime. The sound gets an 8 and the art gets a 9!

Plot/Characters:
The show is episodic and within each episode, it's broken down into even smaller parts which makes for a non-stop funny entertaining anime that's consistently great throughout! My main concern with the plot is that it seems to start to get repetitive after a while but honestly I don't give a fuck due to how great EVERY episode is! Fucking hell... the best cast of characters this season easily! The main characters have amazing chemistry and juxtapose perfectly with the airhead secretary! This dynamic between the characters is perfect and sets up for a perfect balance of tense and hilarious sequences! The plot gets an 8 and the characters get a 10

Overall:
I don't have any major faults to talk about this anime! It's been a non-stop exciting, hilarious show fuelled by a fantastic cast and I hope that it's repetitiveness doesn't make it stale after it's completion! I'm honestly blown away at how there isn't a single episode where I don't feel as though the 25 mins we're actually 5 mins! Each episode is so entertaining that I lose track of time; because of this it gets an enjoyment rating of 10 and an overall rating of 9!

A random day back in December 2015 had me giving a chance to at that point very recent manga called Kaguya-sama after the cover grabbed my attention, not too many chapters after I already fell in love with it and it eventually became my favorite work ever and the one that I was waiting like crazy for an adaptation to happen, and when that time came… oh god, they couldn't have delivered harder!

The main duo of this story are Kaguya and Miyuki, the two students at the top of a highly renowned academy and the two most lovable tsunderes out there, consistently trying to outplay ... the other into confessing their love to hilarious results. These two characters come from very different perspectives (she is from a very rich and influential family with questionable raising standards and has been sheltered from the outside in the process, while he has to work part-time together with all the stuff he does to help his family, this man needs to sleep) and this is so, so nicely used for both comedic elements and also for the more dramatic parts that this work has, that give fantastic character development and make us understand and love them even more than before.

Together with those two, the student council also has two more (and equally awesome) members that bring extra dynamics to the interactions and comedy. Chika is a completely chaotic element to the tactics of the main duo, with her personality completely clashing with all the strategies they might have prepared. Lastly, we have ourguy Ishigami, the man, the legend, this man is so lovable and the perfect mix of “dude, wtf” and “stop being relatable”, protect at all costs.

A-1 Pictures is a studio that gets a lot of hate that I can't agree with at all, the way they work with different staffs leads to very different results, but any studio is pretty hit or miss anyways, and when this one goes all in very few deliver as hard, so I was very optimistic towards them getting this anime, and yet they surpassed my expectations, hard. The directing of the series is just fantastic, with so many great shots, camera movements, perfectly executed timing on the character reactions to add to the comedy, lots of extra details… just wow.

Another thing I want to praise is the voice actors, who did such an outstanding work in the way that makes you think “man, they sure had fun recording this!” I have nothing but good things to say about them, and I especially want to mention Yutaka Aoyama, the narrator of the series (such a key element of Kaguya and he did it flawlessly, so many laughs!) and Aoi Koga, who I already had the fortune to hear about thanks to her secondary role in the also fantastic Aikatsu Stars, which made me see before this anime started that she was the perfect fit for Kaguya's character, who gives a hard work with her switches between absurdly adorable and quite terrifying due to her way to be and that she did so well.

I'm so happy that this anime got the popularity it deserved (thanks Chika dance for helping with that) and I hope that this is just the first from a lot of seasons that this work needs so badly, I 100% recommend you to give this anime a chance if you haven't yet, you won't regret it!

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

As much as this show can be as stereotypical an anime can be, it wasn't a surprise to see the show using the same tropes used in the past, in these days finding out a new way to make a love comedy anime interesting is quite hard. So rather than focusing on changing the tropes, other aspects of the anime can be changed to make it alluring towards the viewer, and that's what this anime did.

Rather than focusing on the plot of the story, since hardly there is really no plot, it's focused more on the antics, plotting of ... the characters, to make the other one confess their love. The synergy between these characters is what separates this show towards all other love romantic comedies out there, all the characters are in a way, in correlation to, connected to each other to make out the perfect chemistry. The side characters are there to break the ice between the two tunnel visioned main characters whilst adding a sense of unpredictability between what can happen.

Their problems isn't so special as much as they are quite pointless, stupid and illogical, mostly focusing a lot on the little things that doesn't necessarily move them forward to a better relationship, in this, they conduct such activities into a day to day basis, which leads them into questionable situations they put themselves through, with this style, it wasn't as so much serious but rather more of a casual, funny, watch. Whilst it is casual and funny, the anime still manages to be able to transfer into a comedic situation into a serious situation in a way that looked natural, therefore opened up a new path for more in-depth development towards the characters and the problem that they face.

The voice actors have played a big role in bringing out the character's sense of personality, as well as the narrator playing a part in bringing out the show's tone and mood. The character's are easily likable and cute, with their set of unique personalities that defines them respectively and sets them apart. The soundtrack is nice as well.

In conclusion Kaguya-sama: Love is War is a defining example of what love comedy shows should strive to be and what it can be. With it's allure of likable, funny, unique characters, and a little twist in the genre, it has proved itself to be a must-watch for everyone to at least try, and decide for yourself it's sense of worth. (How cute).

Not more than a year ago... One of the few friends I had messaged me the link of a YouTube video and said "watch it.. It's great". I wondered what it was so I clicked on it. As soon as the video started.... An anime girl with pink hair and a bow dressed in a school uniform was dancing in a room overlooking an open window. She was incredibly cute and the dance was great. And the beats in the song could give even the coolest of club bangers a run for their money. On further Googling I found out that the girl was Chika ... Fujiwara from the anime that I am going to talk about. It was a comedy anime from spring 2019 season. It was flooded with great reviews and rule 34 artists were going haywire because of the two female main characters. So I said to myself "go on. Try it. It's not like you have anything else to do"
So I did.

You may have already known from my Score that I am not impressed and that's true but for very valid reasons. I am not the one who tries to bash popular stuff to get some elitist ecstasy. So hear me out guys okay.

So, the first thing is story. I wanted to leave the section blank cause there isn't any story. But then the reader would assume I am just a hater. No I am not. The problem with episodic anime is that you don't feel a sense of progression if there isn't a frame story to go with episodic core story in each episode. Frame stories are the larger background plots that keep on moving forward as each episodic story ends. For example....Evangelion was episodic but with each passing episode Shinji came closer to defeat the angel armada. I know the genres of Kaguya sama and Evangelion are poles apart but i only mentioned it to explain what frame story means. In kaguya sama... There is no frame story. Each episode has no correlation with the previous one so you won't even know if you skipped an episode or two while watching. It feels very disjointed. Kinda reminded me of Tom and Jerry days when one got hurt... They were back to normal in the very next scene. So the characters interactions that happens between the council members are nothing more than anecdotes with some jokes in it. The characters never refer to older events in the show hence the narrative kinda just resets itself every 8 minutes. No matter what happens.... The council members come back to square one every time. In fact. If you separated the individual stories and asked a viewer to sort them in the order they happened..... He would fail.... Because there is no linearity in the plot with each episode ending with zero consequences and no permanent effects. And I won't take the excuse that "comedy anime don't need a story". Prison school had a story which was continuous and well paced with a great payoff at the end.

Coming to the structure and script of the show, it's as dull as a weeb's dating history. There are several problems so I would go one by one addressing them. First of all.... The narrator. Who in the seven hells thought that a third person narrator would do any good to the story. Nothing ruins a joke more than explaining it. That dude not only explains the joke but what the speaker meant, what the listener interpret it as and what was actually supposed to be the funny part of it. It feels really insulting to me as a viewer that the writer thinks that I am too dumb to get the joke myself. The "tell" in show or tell methods of narration is for the less intelligent people. And the narrators existence clearly shows the show uses a "tell" approach. Another thing that irked me was the narrator's routine of keeping scores of the "mind battles" between Kaguya and Shirogane. Not only is this irritating because of absence of well defined parameters to award or deduct points but also feels like a waste of time because the scores are neither cumulative nor they have any consequences whatsoever. So it feels nothing more than a pretentious mess.

Another problem that the show suffers from is in its setting. Shuichin Academy is the school for the most elite students in the country. But judging from the glimpses given in the show of the school students' life.... It hardly feels that they are anything more than retards or bimbos. All of them keep loitering in the school corridors and do nothing more than discuss "who is dating whom". Every once in a while.... Some guy or girl come to the student council room to ask for dating advice from the main characters as if that's all they care about. There are no instances of any classes going on in the school and there is not a single adult present. It is the same problem which one of my least favourite anime "kakegurui" suffers from. In such cases. The high school setting feels nothing more than an unnecessary add-on detail to appeal to the given demographic of viewers.

If Shuichin Academy is the best school in the country.... It should have one of the most active, engaging and busy Student Councils ever. No but it's not the case in this anime. The student council here is one of the laziest and most irresponsible I have ever had the misfortune to know about. All four of the main characters do nothing but waste their Time discussing silly scenarios and playing useless mind games which are the farthest thing from any productivity which should be the council's utmost priority. Let me tell something.... the author made them a part of the Student Council only so that he could separate them from the rest of the students in a single room so that they can play those crappy mind games in peace. I would not make fun of someone if he/she forgot who was the vice president or the Secretary or the financial manager cause those details are rendered irrelevant due to the Student Council doing basically nothing other than the stupid thing that is their episodic misadventures. Chika has all the time in the world to give lectures on society, dance in the council room and trying out dresses of the drama club.... but she doesn't spend even a fraction of it studying even her academic prowess is far less than that of the main leads. Kaguya could have easily topped her class if she gave as much time to studies as she gives in crafting situations to make Shirogane confess.

The comedy of the show is really the worst part of it. The jokes are really cringey and unfunny. Sometimes the quality drops so hard that even EDM beats can be put to shame. They based an entire episode on the same "Weiner" joke by making Chika repeat it throughout. Kaguya found it really funny for very strange reasons and the viewer was expected to laugh. The "mind games" of the show are just pretentious made up scenarios glorified as a battle of wits. Each of the two leads constantly keeps making overboard assumptions and responds with more outrageous strategies than the last one. It really makes me pity both of them. If only they had talked to each other instead of playing the games..... They could have understood each other much better.

The characters of the show are a bigger joke than any of those in the script. First we have Kaguya.... A rich spoiled Tsundere whose father has a net worth of 200 trillion yen. Yes you heard it right... That's like 2 trillion dollars or almost 40% of Japan's annual value of the goods and services or in simple terms GDP. This world make him more than 16 times richer than the current richest person in the world. I know the author wanted to portray her father as a rich man but he should have alteast came up with a realistic number. This is just me nitpicking as it is not that big a problem. The bigger ones are coming up.
Kaguya is shown to be successful in almost all fields possible. In academics, arts and sports. But these traits are never demonstrated. People come to her for dating advice but no one came to her for advice on these 3 fields which she apparently excels in. If the students themselves don't care about her supposed accomplishments then why should I. She or Miyuki both have the problem of putting their egos before their feelings. That's why the show even exists. They clearly love themselves and their reputation more than the other person. So they... As a couple can't even hold a candle in
front of some "actually good" anime couples. They live in a stupid dilemma that making the first move is a weakness and is totally not worth the companionship of the significant other. That's why I really despise them. Right from episode 1... Kaguya entered my hit list because of the way she body shamed Chika for having big breasts which I don't have the slightest idea why the author thought it was even remotely funny. In an episode, Kaguya hides Miyuki's phone battery so that he cannot go home without asking for help from her. And even if he did ask... She wouldn't help him cause it would make it seem like she confessed. That's some peak level stupidity. Not only did she intentionally put him in a state of misery but also chose not to put him out ot it. That's just straight up bullying. My mind exploded with frustration in episode 11 after the bedroom incident. Kaguya was angry at Shirogane because he was on his bed even though she was the one who asked him to do so. She thought that Miyuki was gonna make a move on her and hence she bashed him for something he didn't do. At the same time... She was angry at him because he DIDN'T make a move on her signifying that he doesn't find her that seductive. The hypocrisy shown by Kaguya in this incident was more than what Suzaku showed in both seasons of Code Geass combined. And that is hard to beat.

Kaguya's maid Hayasaka is just a typical kuudere whose only significance is being a secondary waifu. But i really love her. She is best girl of the show for me and therefore an object of my dominatrix fantasies

Chika is cute. I get it. She gave us lots of memes and all but that's it. As I already said... She abuses her position in the council by doing stupid stuff instead of something productive. Her affection for her firends is superficial at best. She asks them not to go to see fireworks together as she won't be present even though she herself is taking a trip to Spain and stranding her friends. This "concern" of hers is thrown out of the window in cases where she is the only one who gains anything out of it. I don't have anything else to point out cause there is nothing more to her than being the cute stupid bimbo of the show.
Ishigami was another attempt by the author to make a relatable character for the antisocial demographic of the show... Which itself isn't bad but it feels like unpolished work if the character has no personality and just one joke "I am going home". He is a complete failure in studies but somehow magically is very good at handling accounts which is kinda correlative with the commercial maths which is usually taught at school. Kakashi from Naruto gave more expressions with one eye than Ishigami gave with his entire face throughout the show.

I kept Miyuki for last cause he is the character I dislike the least . The problems which he faces are actually shown to us on screen such as his weak financial condition and the strained relationship with his father. He never initiated the stupid mind games and he might have even confessed to kaguya and put us out of the misery that is the show but he needlessly participates in them cause he too has an ego as big as Kaguya's. He is the only Council member who was actually shown studying which was kinda necessary considering that he is the best student of the best school in the country. But even his character is handled poorly by the author by needlessly attaching a pseudo incest plot line with his sister. Although there is no concrete proof but I am not the first person to suspect that. He is frequently a victim of Kaguya's mischief but he chose not to retaliate because our man has some sense of chivalry which is........ Great.

The music in the show is a work of art. The opening theme wakes up the dancer inside me like no other. I never knew I had a thing for classic jazz music until the show's music crawled into my ears. The ending theme is a great piece too and the visuals of it were really creative. Especially the plane scene. The chika dance song is the bearer of one of the most chad beats I ever heard. Coming to voice acting, I am in love with Aoi Koga as Kaguya. She really sounds like a lovestruck teenager with zero experience in romantic endeavours. Konomi Kohara as Chika is just a tsunami of cuteness whose reaction noises gave birth to more memes than Elon Musk. Makoto Furukawa is already the voice actor of my favourite character of all time (Saitama in One Punch Man) so I can listen to any character voiced by this gentleman.

The art of the show unlike it's story and characters is really great. The character designs are great and the girls look insanely cute. Although I do feel that setting the entire story in a single room made me suspect that the animators wanted to cut corners in the background designs. I think that's kind ot a nitpick so I can let it pass.

Overall... People love this show. I don't. I wouldn't have even bothered watching it if it wasn't that much of a hype generator. I just felt that there are several problems with it which the "fans" obviously missed or chose to ignore.. But I just can't. It came out as a really trashy show for me and that's the reason why I am not expecting any upvotes in my review.

That's it from me..... Adieu

In Spring season, i was looking forward to two anime in particular Promised neverland and kaguya sama love is war.
Kaguya sama love is was turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the year for me, i knew about the manga for quite a long time and had high expectations because of the rave reviews it received.
So i kept myself back from reading manga because of anime.

But the anime turns out to be mediocre at best. there is literally nothing apart from forced drama that makes it any different from the shows in its recommendation tab.

Story : 4 - At first the plot seemed ... appealing to me. But the way the story was executed is just a atrocious. Most episodes can be summed up as, One of the main character encounters a problem and makes a huge deal, involving that scenario our two childish main characters fight to get the other confess. rinse and repeat over the span of 12 episodes and we get this stagnated show.
Comedy in the show is also poorly done. What we get for the tag of psychological is forced drama which accounts to nothing. You can literally kick the word plot-development out of the window.


Characters : 4 - There isn't any endearing character in this series. We have our main cast shirogane whose only role is to overthink and complicate matters. Kaguya is our go to tsundere whose only salient feature is to say "O Kawaii Koto" after long nonsensical rhetoric. Chika is our ubiquitous big boob , cute voice galore character, whose role in the anime was to ruin the little shenanigans our main cast were playing with each other. Basically a redundant character.
Plot twist: When i thought we only had three characters this anime pulled the one and only plot twist of the show and introduced this gloomy otaku whose name i forgot as soon as i saw his character. This otaku guy was as tedious as our plot. you guys can just ignore this wanker he is only put in the show to fill some useless space.

Art : 7 : This is probably the only redeeming feature of the show, the art was pretty crisp some of the dance sequences of chika were animated amazingly well. Use of bright, contrasting colors gave this worth a try , Overall, art department turned out to be the saving grace of this show.

Sound : 6 - This department of the show was good, Opening song was mellifluous. Ending song was also Ok and didn't leave much of an impression on me. As for Voice acting, voice actors did pretty good job to give life to these lifeless, dull characters. So big prop to the voice actors.

Enjoyment : 3 - All in all the only thing this show thrived on was, Chika performing her kpop moves and showing her love and support for the girl bands. As for some comparing it to the likes of Death Note, they are doing nothing but committing sacrilegious act Neither the characters have the charisma or ingenuity of Light and L nor the story is good enough to warrant this show to be said in the same breath as death note.

Overall : 4 - If you're into romcom maybe you should give it a try. As far people looking for something seinen or psychological. I would encourage to steer as far away from this show as possible and watch some other good shows or spend your time in doing something productive.

Thanks for your kind time.

"If I cover my ears, then my hands aren't free to protect my belly button!"
- Shoki no Chika

Reminder: this review does not include any element of comparison with the manga and contains just a little bit spoiler (not too much). Of course, I have read the manga and it is very good, but I'm not the kind of person who would want to compare an anime to its original source (it's kinda pointless to compare 3 hours of Grisaia to the 50 hours of its visual novel, for the sake of example); (and English is not my native tongue).

Because tradition dictates it, here is a ... short introduction to the anime: read the synopsis! Okay… You have a cool and smart but poor blond president, a very candid oujo-sama (how cute!), a perverse… I mean cute secretary and an otaku gamer treasurer.
And if you want to distinguish yourself from the plebe: if you are asked to choose between the vice-president and the secretary, say that you prefer the girl with white hair and blue eyes! She is the real hidden heroine of this anime! (Or if you are not into imou… then just say that the best girl is the maid.)

So, let's get to the heart of the matter: what makes Kaguya-sama so good? Of course, it's a comic anime, so if the number of your laugh while watching Kaguya-sama is close to zero, then you'll certainly find it bad. As for me, even before the anime finishes airing, I have already rewatched it at least three or four times, and I’m still dying of laughing every minute, and sometimes every twenty seconds.
Yes, I am an extreme case of someone who loves this anime.

So, you have your answer. Kaguya-sama is so good because it makes you burst out laughing. Do I need to bother myself more than that? The humor of this anime is simple, made up of sitcomics, facial exaggerations and overreactions (Chika!), misunderstandings, puns, childish jokes (chin chin!)... All of it made me laugh.
Furthermore, there is also a romance that is developed, which can both make us laugh and simply make us appreciate what it has to offer. The interactions, dialogues, in addition of making one laugh, are very fluid, dynamic and well juxtaposed, which are not useless chatter as in other comedy animes.
All this makes up the remarkable staging of the characters, their interaction and their daily life (in a way). You can enjoy Kaguya-sama without necessarily laughing at each of its gags, because the anime also offers moments of slice of life, school life and it most often brings us closer to the characters.

Among those who did not like it, I bet some will justify the "why they did not like it" with arguments such as: "the jokes were repetitive", "oh no, it’s another cliché romcom", instead of saying that this is just not their type of humor. Of course, sometimes a repetition of a scheme or the same element can destroy the enjoyment. However, this is not systematic, and Kaguya-sama is proof of that: from the first to the last episode, there was not a single one in which I did not burst out laughing. Regarding the "cliché" matter, it would be selfish if you were to impose your point of view, because by "cliché" it actually depends on your anime experience and culture, and sometimes one could not be bothered by the cliché or even enjoy it! (Gotoubun, Monogatari Series…)

So, to put it simply, it's my anime of the season, and I'm glad I can say it. I loved this anime so much that I would say it's the best comedy anime I've ever seen in my life (yes, I’m an extreme case…), and I hope that it would encourage you to go to read the manga! (some chapters have not been adapted)

To conclude with a personal point, I loved the opening and endings of this anime (Chikatto Chika Chikattsu of course), the charadesign is magnificent (especially the girls' eyes) and the seiyuu are always at the top of their performance!

That's it, thank you for reading and feel free to give me a feedback.

"O kawaii koto~"

Imagine if Death Note was a romcom. Imagine that Light and L were not trying to outwit each other with the world itself at stake, but rather just that they actually liked each other romantically but were too shy and awkward to just it outright. Do you think that sounds ridiculous? Maybe, but that's more or less the idea behind Kaguya-sama. Well, except it's not yaoi of course.

If you ever need a benchmark for how to do a romcom really damn good, then look no further than this. There really aren't many series within the genre out there that can manage to not ... just be cute and hilarious, but actually quite intelligent as well, but Kaguya-sama does it all. The anime follows the daily lives of Shirogane Miyuki and Shinomiya Kaguya, the top two students at Shuchiin Academy, and also president and vice president respectively of its student council. They're both geniuses and they're also both hopelessly in love with each other, however they're also... two tsunderes incapable of ever taking the first step themselves. In fact, due to how proud they are, they think confessing to someone is a sign of weakness as it implies that the one being confessed to is more valuable and desirable than the person doing the confessing, and this fact combined with their shyness have them both 100% determined to never make the first move. Instead, they both try to do everything they can to mind game the other into confessing to them first, no matter how complex the scheme required to accomplish that may be. As a result, you have a perfect setup for complete and utter hilarity.

It's a brilliant concept in general and it's executed really well, mainly thanks to how loveable the characters are and how the chemistry between them works. The show is definitely not just about Shirogane and Kaguya: the other members of the student council are just as important to the anime's enjoyment. The cheerful and free-spirited secretary Chika is the consistent X-factor of the series who always ends up somehow interfering with the main duo's carefully thought-out plans and flip everything on its head, whereas the introverted and somewhat paranoid treasurer Ishigami is probably the most normal and relatable character in the show, although I wouldn't go as far as to call him the voice of reason either. In any case, the point is that they're all very different from each other and they work perfectly together as a group as they all operate in harmony to emphasize each other's gags. Kaguya-sama is a comedy first and foremost, operating in a “one sketch per chapter" basis in the manga, and in the anime they're essentially doing three of those scenes per episode. Now that is not to say that it does not have romance too, but it is a very slow burn on that front, and at the very least in the span of what the anime covers, it is not really the primary focus.

Kaguya-sama is a very well-directed comedy show that makes great use out of a brilliant original concept, and really anyone with a decent sense of humour should be obligated to check it out. Great narrative, surprisingly good production value by A-1 standards, and just a very charming series in general.

PS: Chika's dance as the ED of episode three is probably the greatest thing you'll ever see.

Kaguya: Love is War is the product of training a GPT-3† model on the corpus of anime and manga, then asking it to generate two of the most basic tsundere (Kaguya and Miyuki) characters available and a deredere (Chika) character. These characters can never act like real people or else the only thread holding the plot together, that both Miyuki and Kaguya are too prideful to admit they like the other, would immediately collapse. Chika, effectively an agent of chaos, is Schrödinger's idiot: she is simultaneously an expert and utterly incompetent at reading emotions and superficially dumb while being an expert in many things.

Both Kaguya ... and Miyuki construct scenarios where they can trap the other into confessing their love for them, so the two can date since they are too proud to admit it themselves. Both are clever, scheming, and intelligent, well, supposedly. They concoct situations where every they have conceived every possible outcome, ensuring the other has no room to maneuver. Well, sort of. It's an excellent premise if the characters weren't so generic and the execution hollow.

In an early episode, both Kaguya and Miyuki pretend not to have an umbrella so they can share the other's, a staple of anime romcoms. Since both planned ahead, both pretend not to have an umbrella and now have to trick the other into admitting they have one. Kaguya walks through how Miyuki knew it would rain so he took the train rather than rode his bike, which she knows because she did not see his bike at school. Which, if Miyuki had a modicum of intelligence, would let him know Kaguya looked through the bike rack to trap him, so she too had planned ahead. But rather than have any real battle of wits, so the characters act how we're told they should be, Chika suddenly appears to offer Kaguya her umbrella. We're given a cheap way out of a poorly contrived scenario.

These characters can't act like real people or there wouldn't be a plot. It's at best boring, and for a show revolving around the antics of the two leads, the characters are shallow and generic. It's astounding just how popular this show is for how dull it is.

† GPT-3 is a a machine-learning model that produces realistic output, and can be applied to many things, such as writing code snippets or news articles.