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

At the renowned Shuchiin Academy, Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya are the student body's top representatives. Ranked the top student in the nation and respected by peers and mentors alike, Miyuki serves as the student council president. Alongside him, the vice president Kaguya—eldest daughter of the wealthy Shinomiya family—excels in every field imaginable. They are the envy of the entire student body, regarded as the perfect couple.

However, despite both having already developed feelings for the other, neither are willing to admit them. The first to confess loses, will be looked down upon, and will be considered the lesser. With their honor and pride at stake, Miyuki and Kaguya are both equally determined to be the one to emerge victorious on the battlefield of love!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shinomiya, Kaguya Main

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Ishigami, Yuu Main

Suzuki, Ryouta Japanese

Fujiwara, Chika Main

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Shirogane, Miyuki Main

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Hayasaka, Ai Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Shirogane, Kei Supporting

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Shirogane, Father Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Aoyama, Yutaka Japanese

Shijou, Maki Supporting

Ichinose, Kana Japanese

Kashiwagi, Nagisa Supporting

Asakura, Momo Japanese

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Ishikawa, Tatsuya Producer

Nakashima, Naoto Producer

Hatakeyama, Mamoru Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Aug 29, 2024

toomuchsourcream

Recommended

"This show is beautiful in its story alone. I watched the first two episodes and was immediately hooked. Its cute, fun, and actually hits themes that young adults/adolescents will resonate with." ... I will not waste your time I promise

I will be writing this review after seeing the entirety of the show. This will also be my first review of an anime (which is ironic since its my second foray outside of a classic shonen or drama anime: vinland saga, jujutsu kaisen etc.).

I have always watched anime for the love of the animation, the action, the sometimes well built stories. But this production is ... different, it grasps what I would call 'happiness'. I started this show out of a sarcastic choice, thinking there was no way that an anime that wasn't action could ever be worth watching. '... Love Is War' has been recommended on my front page of Crunchyroll for several years, which now I understand why. I would always sarcastically say to my roommate when we would pull up Crunchyroll to watch Vinland Saga, Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer; "Why don't we just watch 'Kaguya-Sama Love Is War' instead" cause I thought it was a joke of a show. But I'm shocked by how wrong that view was.

This show is beautiful in its story alone. I watched the first two episodes and was immediately hooked. Its cute, fun, and actually hits themes that young adults/adolescents will resonate with. The story of two high schoolers that like each other, but don't want to admit it is something that many can resonate with. A lot of anime end up falling into tropes like making a character one note (think like 'oh I'm the super hyper character so I'm always annoyingly hyper'), or hyper sexualizing the girls, or extensively long intros and wasting your time with gasping. But this show avoids that and kinda makes fun of it. I hate when anime forces "fanservice" on you when its kids in high school (as I am an adult). But in this show they use it as what a real person would be thinking; like how a girl may look at another girl and feel inferior based on their figure. All of the characters feel fleshed out and like you are just a fly on the wall (with omnipotence) and you can just enjoy some antics between friends. I found myself rooting for all the characters and never wanted any of them to "just move on to the main characters already"

The show is a masterpiece I watched all of the seasons in a few days. I couldn't recommend it enough genuinely. Watch this anime! It's light hearted and makes you feel something all the way to the end of the last season. A masterpiece truly. (I rated this season a 9 just because it takes all the seasons to make it a 10)

(Also, I'm a filthy dub watcher. I think localization and hearing the shows in your own language helps you connect to the characters more)

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Nov 20, 2023

MizuhoKamui

Mixed Feelings

This show revolves around a pair of high school students who are in love with each other and enter into a competition to confess their feelings first. The one who confesses their love first will be in a weaker position in the relationship, so they are both trying to avoid being the first to confess.

The show is composed of several short stories that depict the everyday life of the two main characters. They often resort to absurd measures to get the other person to confess first. The quality of the episodes varies, with some being humorous while others are not. Some are predictable, while ... others are surprising. The show often mocks anime love clichés, so it is helpful to be familiar with them.

The animation is decent, although it is not exceptional. The voice acting is good, and the "calm on the outside, screaming on the inside" aspect adds a lot to the show. The opening song is okay, but it does not really fit with the colorful and bubbly animation. The endings are decent, but the soundtrack is not particularly remarkable.

Both characters are awkward and do not know how to behave properly. The male character is more normal than the female character he likes, who is portrayed as a tragic character. However, it soon becomes clear that most of her problems are her own fault. The supporting cast is decent, with the third wheel being the most comical character.

Overall, it is a lighthearted and straightforward show. It is best to watch one episode at a time as it is episodic in nature.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 8, 2023

Phasar2022

Not Recommended

Funny

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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