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

If someone shits on Kaguya-sama in front of me, I have only one reply for them. “Urusai, baaka!”

Kaguya-sama: Love is War was a great show and one of my favorites of the year 2019. It had an entertaining cast of main characters, a group of just as amusing side characters that made an appearance every now and then, and to freshen things up, a simple yet compelling tale about two geniuses trying to outwit each other in a totally contrasting way to Light and L from Death Note, with top tier comedy to top it all off. It had certain elements that we’d previously seen ... but the overall product of everything it offered was something very unique.

Now, take everything I said above and add a progressive plot, some more characters who’re just as delightful as the ones introduced last season and the previous cast getting development as well as becoming even more charming. All this executed so spectacularly that even the first season that I liked so much pales in comparison. Oh, and also, add sick animation, a captivating OP and OST, and you’ve got what Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 offers.

In short, this season has all of what made the first season great and does it better. To me, Kaguya-sama S2 is almost a perfect Slice of Life/romcom. This season has taken Kaguya-sama to the top echelon of romcom or heck, even SOL anime in general, in my list.

The first season was an introduction to the characters, focusing more on telling the tale in an episodic fashion without a lot of story progression. This season instead, focuses on the plot moving forward. Instead of hilarious episodic stories, we get hysterical episodes with the plot progression every inch of the way. The academic year is about to end so tensions rise during the student council president election as a new foe appears, Shirogane’s family is explored more and Ishigami’s character is fleshed out in the latter half of the season. The anime is not about just making you laugh now. It’s about trying to make you cry before having you burst out laughing, rolling on your couch.

One of the (many) reasons why Kaguya-sama shines over other romcoms is because it’s not afraid of doing where most of them would falter. You want the main protagonist being called a manwhore for multiple episodes? It’s got you covered. You want a Monogatari scene reprised? Gotcha. You want a guy’s father saying how his high school son is still a kid and his hair down there hasn’t even sprouted yet to a girl’s father? Sure, it’s there. You want the female lead to think about all the intricacies of the male’s underpants? Oh, you’ll get that. Point to remember, Kaguya-sama is still rated as PG-13.

Misunderstandings are the source of a lot of comedy and that’s one thing that you’ll find in a lot of romcoms. Kaguya-sama though managed to create amusing moments not in spite of them, but because of them. I could watch entire episodes on the same jokes and still wouldn’t get bored. But no, we don’t get the same joke used over and over. You’ll have tens of new ones every episode.

In this season too, Kaguya continues in her quest to make Miyuki Shirogane confess his love to her. Same goal but the approach has changed. Or rather, evolved. She’s a lot bolder in this season using tricks as well as other people, to be put Shirogane into difficult situations. And sometimes, this puts her in situations that she loves yet fears. This is when, the best girl of the season for me, at least for the first few episodes, Hayasaka Ai comes to her aid. Oh, how I’ve loved every moment of watching her. She shows us a side of her personality that I didn’t think she had. And then turns into another character who’s almost unrecognizable. Frightening!

Now, let’s talk about Miyuki Shirogane. Out of all of the main characters in the series, he’s the least talked about and the most underrated. Ishigami-kun is everyone’s best boy while all the girls are contenders for best girl. But our protagonist just doesn’t get enough love from the fans. To me, he was the hero in this season. And he was the hero to the characters as well. He goes out of his way to help people; people whom he doesn’t know that well, and helping them in a way that wouldn’t really benefit him. When, in the biggest moment of her high school life, Iino Miko faces a problem that’s haunted her all her life, Miyuki comes to the rescue, disregarding the fact that it puts his own reputation and image on the line. When Ishigami can’t deal with his problems, current and past, Miyuki gives him a shoulder to lean on. And of course, he’s always there for Kaguya. His acts of selfless heroism made him the character I most enjoyed watching this season. Of course, the others had their arcs and moments but in all of those, Miyuki was the focal point at the most prominent moments. He’s the hero this world needs but doesn’t deserve. Truly a chad!

The character who got the most development was undoubtedly Ishigami Yu. As I said above, he’s best boy for a ton of fans and for good reason. The Ishigami arc in S2 had been hyped up by the manga readers and although I personally wouldn’t put it on a pedestal over the other arcs in S2 (to me, the entire season was top notch and I can’t put one arc over the other), delving into his past and exploring his character was fantastically handled. We not only get to see why he’s become so afraid of associating with people, but also him overcoming that and recognizing that the people around him are not as awful as he’d thought they’d be. There’s so much room for growth with him and I’m really looking forward to seeing more of the same in the future.

The best aspect of the show? I was in quite a conundrum when I asked myself this question. The season is so well rounded that neither could I think of a real weakness, nor could I find something that I could put over the other aspects that easily. The clean and smooth animation, a deep dive into the characters’ past and personalities, the use of a pretty good OST, Daddy Daddy Doo and everything I’ve mentioned earlier were all so brilliantly executed. Even so, I can’t help but applaud one thing over all of these: the voice acting. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the other facets lacked in comparison. No, no. It’s just that I don’t think I’ve ever come across an anime or a show in general, in which I could so easily make out that the level of voice acting I was experiencing was exemplary.

The Japanese voice acting industry is brimming with talent and we see extraordinary performances from these guys all the time. But the level of voice acting from all of the people involved in Kaguya-sama S2 and the range that they exhibited just made me appreciate that what I was experiencing was the makings of something truly special. I feel that most voice actors are able to show their true talent in a show in which they’re able to convey a multitude of emotions and SOL/romcom have the most freedom in that regard. Some of my other favorite comedy shows have had superb voice acting like Saiki Kusuo, Grand Blue, Great Teacher Onizuka but I felt that the voice acting in Kaguya-sama S2 surpassed all of those. Could it be recency bias? Possible but I still can’t find any that I’ve watched that I can say has an undeniably better voice acting performance than this. The cast for Kaguya-sama is very young. For most of them, Kaguya-sama is like a breakthrough anime through which could take that leap which makes them one of the top names in the industry. And I honestly believe they’ve done that. The ones who impressed me most were Yumiri Hanamori and of course, Aoi Koga, the VAs for Hayasaka and Kaguya respectively. The range of tonal shifts that they displayed is fascinating and a treat to listen to. Just watch a video of them voicing Kaguya and Hayasaka and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.

Kaguya-sama is easily my Anime of the year thus far. And right now, I can only see two anime, both sequels that could potentially take that title this year, for me at least. Oregaieru S3 and Attack on Titan S4, if it does indeed air this year, are the two. And if they manage to surpass or even equal what Kaguya-sama S2 did, then we’re in for something epic. I’ll miss watching Kaguya-sama every week until Season 3 comes out. It was an anime that truly enhanced the source material and turned it into something very, very special.

Kaguya sama wa kokurasetai season 2 is the disappointment of the season. It has its ups and downs, the ups being the final three episodes, and the downs being the rest of the season. Only the final three episodes provide any sense of progression, be it for the characters or for the plot. Ishigami’s long awaited character arc was freaking fantastic, but the same can’t be said about the other characters'.

Even after 24 episodes have aired, many of the characters are as bland as they were in the first episode of the first season. I was able to overlook this in season 1, because I ... don’t expect the author to be able to completely characterize and develop the personalities of four main characters in the span of 12 episodes, but I do expect that, or at least half of that, to happen within 24 episodes. If I don’t even know or understand the characters, and if I’m not even the least bit acquainted with them, how can you even expect me to give two shits about their romantic feelings for each other?

All the female characters (and I do mean all) are basically reskinned versions of various “-deres”. Kaguya is a tsun-dere, Hayasaka is a kuu-dere, Iino Miko is a baka-dere and Chika is an annoying-dere. The female characters have no personalities of their own, but have inherited their dispositions, if you can even call them that, from stereotypes. Chika’s character is just to be “cute”; I prefer the phrase obnoxiously irritating but whatever. The entirety of Kaguya’s character revolves around Shirogane; if we were to remove Shirogane from her life all that would be left is an empty husk of a high school girl. Indeed, if this is what the anime intended for her character to be, then I would’ve had no qualms with that, but that is definitely not the case. She’s supposed to be one of the leads, and all we know about her is that she loves Miyuki and has daddy issues. Do we know what caused her daddy issues after two cours? Nope.

Hayasaka has been Kaguya’s maid since her childhood, and that’s her character done for the series. I did feel myself liking Miko initially when she was introduced, because she was actually given a purpose, a purpose that wasn’t relied upon any other character, until that very purpose was daddy-daddy-dooed into oblivion. She was an interesting character and her struggles – public speaking and isolation – were well established. These are complications that I’m sure most of us could related to at some point in our lives. I was invested. I wanted a resolution for her character, not some sort of catharsis but something that would be satisfying and relatable, but all we got was a 5-minute scene where she overcomes it all through nakama power. I wish I was making this up.

A small pep talk from Shirogane is all it takes for her to overbear her fear of public speaking, fear that has cultivated in her mind since her elementary school days, and all it takes for her to overcome it is a debate about why boys in their school should shave their heads in order to conform uniformity. Yeah, BS.

That episode made me question something. Does this show want to be a comedy with serious moments, or does it want to be a serious show with comedic skits; because neither of the two seem to fit the show’s agenda, yet the show still tries its hardest to juggle the two topics. The comedy is more or less hit or miss. The jokes are predictable, 90% of them rely on some sort of misunderstanding between the characters, and frankly, though not a chore to watch, were a bit out of place at times. The joke about Shirogane being not very good at volleyball, and Chika having to teach him tirelessly worked in Season 1, but here that very same joke is repeated two different times; once with singing, and once with dancing.

There would be a moment or two where it feels like the show is actually trying to progress the characters’ relations, but then out of nowhere S Y K E, nothing happens because someone walks in on them.

I can’t go on berating the show as it does have some actual good humour. For example, my favorite in this season is when Kaguya, Ishigami and Shirogane are in a Shoujo manga parody. Now that was hilarious. Taking an already oversaturated genre and saturating it even more created some hysterical moments.

The actual witty comedic timings of the first season were lost somewhere and almost all the comedic moments in this cour are either forced, or mountains made out of molehills. For example, Shirogane approaches Kaguya in front of her classmates and explicitly asks her to PREPARE A SPEECH FOR THE STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S ELECTION, but somehow the absolute donuts in the supposedly prestigious school for elites, mistake that for a confession.

The male main characters, are what carry the show because they actually have emotions and act like friends. The show WANTS us to believe that the main quad are friends but shows nothing to instate said relationship between the characters. Let me give you a rundown of how the characters treat each other –
1. Kauguya, with
a) Shirogane – lovey dovey
b) Ishigami – same joke about her being a cold af devil is repeated a million times
c) Chika – considers her a cancer to society and then immediately does a 180 and suddenly she’s her bff

Chika is the same with everyone because she’s got no personality. Shirogane and Ishigami are the only ones who show some sort of realism in their emotions. I know that it’s an anime and all and it doesn’t need to be that realistic, but what gets on my nerves is that the show tries to conceal the lack of depth in the characters and tries to swindle the viewer, using poorly constructed recurring jokes, into thinking that maybe the characters aren’t just ink droplets on a piece of paper.

There’s a scene in this season where the Student Council is disbanded and the characters may never get to spend much time together, but the only thing I could think about is how much I don’t give a shit. The author tries to employ various techniques in order for the viewer to feel sad, which include but are not limited to – crying characters, other characters joining in on the crying, walking into the sunset and more crying. The characters also keep reiterating about how “nostalgic” the past year was as if to convince the viewer to feel the same. If you need to explicitly ask the viewer to have a poignant feeling during a scene, then you need to redo that entire part from scratch.

Show, don’t tell. That’s one of the main philosophies in writing, but unfortunately the show believes in “Tell, don’t show”.

We are TOLD that Kaguya worked the hardest to defend Ishigami, even though we are SHOWN that Shirogane was the one to pull Ishigami out of his “darkness”.

We are TOLD how Kaguya planned something, but we’re never SHOWN how or when she did it. For example, we are told, through Hayasaka, that Kaguya planned for two of the students to go to different schools after they graduated from middle school, only for Kaguya to later state “masaka, I am not that cold”. Is this the author’s way of building up Kaguya? Or is this the author just trying to give Kaguya’s character some edginess? Because, neither of them particularly worked.

The highlight of this season definitely was the handling of Ishigami’s character. The way his character arc was structured is praiseworthy. All the foreshadowing for his character, in Season 1 and the first half of this season, are finally compiled into two episodes and they were magnificent. The resolution was fantastic, the build up was fantastic, everything was fantastic. If only the author cared as much about the female cast as he does about the male counterpart.

The animation is as fantastic as it was in the season prior to this one. There is a sense of fluidity in the characters’ movements which go hand in hand fantastically with the amazing lighting and directing of the skits. There is always something in motion, be it in the foreground or the background, and if we get a still shot it’s usually accompanied with ambient music and gorgeous lighting. In terms of animation, there are no corners cut and there is almost never a dull moment.

The music is great. I like the new Opening and Ending songs this season, though I wasn’t particularly a fan of the previous season’s OP and ED. The rest of the OST is good.

I said it at the start of the review, I’ll say it again, “Kaguya Sama wa Kokurasetai Season 2 is a disappointment”. It has its highs sure, but the time used up in the detours it takes and the meandering it does in order to reach said highs, could’ve and should’ve been used more deftly.

No spoilers: I will only discuss what has been covered already. I will keep this short.

Kaguya-Sama is back to bless us with great writing, hilarious moments and hijinx this spring season. As a manga reader, I can assure you that the content will improve from here on out, not like the first season is bad.

Story: 9

-The story is very simple, whoever confesses first loses and Shirogane and Shinomiya have immense pride in having the other confess first. But this season, we noticed how closer they've gotten with various events going on, like the birthday arc, the election arc etc. There has been an on ... going narrative alongside great comedy moments in the middle.

Art: 10

-A relatively yet iconic art style and direction unlike no other. The art is standard A-1, still great but the directing and art direction this season is phenomenal and glorious for the eyes.

Sound: 9

-Lots of new tracks for this season and they are still memorable. The OP is funky and catchy, while the ED is still good, I prefer the first ED. Also, great sound direction and used at the perfect moment to capture the scene and atmosphere.

Character: 10

-One of the strongest points of the series is the character, every single one has a unique characteristic that helps identify who is who. Everyone having a unique quirk and not going out of character and VAs that give the character life is impeccable. Remove one character from the series and you will notice a downgrade in the dynamic and chemistry, while adding a new character just improves the interactions. It is easily noticeable this season on how far everyone has grown since season 1.

Enjoyment and overall: 10

-Great dose of romance and comedy makes a perfect series to just sit back, relax and enjoy. Everyone needs a series like Kaguya-sama especially during the pandemic going on. With season 2, there is a change in atmosphere for the better, it feels like things are starting to go forward, we got to know the characters so we are rooting for them plus whichever decision they decide to pursue. This season proves how this series is a comedy series that will always be remembered as one of the greatest in the anime medium. Even if the jokes do not land, but seeing how there are no shoujo cliches which might harness the chances of the main characters to confess, the series focuses on the journey to confession, rather than who will confess to whom.

Love is war is not just a very good comedy it is something more.

Nowadays when we get a comedy almost every season there are very few anime that make themselves memorable even after they ended. The genre is oversaturated and the quality just does not seem to be there. Gladly this is not the case with Kaguya-sama: Love is War.

We have already been blessed with what was a formidable first season, and the second one raises the bar even higher. The small skits and jokes are on par with the likes of Gintama, Daily Lives of High School Boys and ... Konosuba. The reaction faces are priceless, praise A-1 pictures for this. The soundtrack is perfect for the moment it accompanies and the animation is right on spot. But honestly this is not really why I like this anime so much.

Watching the first season and now the second one, it has become clear for me how much Kaguya-sama has reminded me of the school days. Spending the after school time with a small group of friends and not getting bored of each other even if you spent so much time together. The feeling of the world falling apart when your parents suddenly have other plans for you when you actually planned “to see fireworks” with your friends. Things that as an adult you would not really budge an eye for but meant everything for you when you were a teenager. And Kaguya-sama manages to capture these moments exactly as I remember them when I was still in highschool.

I really like the fact that even though the genre is mainly comedy, the moments that are supposed to make you feel sad or nostalgic do not seem forced.

The most iconic moment of the second season so far I consider to be the third episode with the moon gazing. It really depicts the way you see someone you like when they talk about the things they love, and this was shown by how Kaguya went BaKaguya mode when hearing Shirogane simply talk about stars.

The second part of the same episode really got to my heart. I actually felt quite sad when everyone stood outside the student council room, even though I expected it to end with Shirogane going for a second term. It just goes to show how the smallest things in your life as a student matter, and how a duty you took happened to make you bond with other fellow students on a whole different level.

To conclude, I know for sure that I look forward to seeing the weekly episode getting released, and the next months are not going to be as boring as they were, mainly to Kaguya-sama. This show already has a special place in my heart and I hope it is going to get even better. It has once again reminded me what it means to be in highschool and I am really thankful for it.

Are you ready to be graced by the charming Kaguya that we all got to know? Want about how much Miyuki has grown since the first season? Want to know how much love this season 2 gives to the fans? I got good news for you because Kaguya-sama Season 2 leaves no shortage for high expectations. You came to this sequel so be prepare for enlightenment by a show that reaches even greater heightss.

The alluring appeal of Kaguya-sama comes from an exquisite colorful cast of characters. From the start, we should know this isn’t just a typical rom-com with lovey-dovey episodes. Rather than just producing ... romance, Kaguya-sama is known for its psychological warfare, or as in some people calls it, ‘love is war’. After all, we have a story about how Kaguya and Miyuki are both in a mental battle with each to see who will confess to the other first. That’s the core of the premise anyways. Season 2 draws in more storytelling involving the election for the Student Council, Miyuki’s birthday celebration, and a hallmark of new drama.

Similar to the previous season, each episode is divided into multiple segments. Some of these segments are connecting storylines together formulated into a sitcom-style plot while others are standalones with various themes. From the very first episode, we are reintroduced to the show’s familiar storytelling style through the character personalities. Most of the main cast lacks experience with relationships so it’s not surprising to see their fallout in the field. Chika once again serves as major comic relief and in the season’s opening episode debuts her Happy Life Game. Such a board game unites the characters together through their natural chemistry between each other. While the segment itself can be considered to be a sitcom comedy, it’s important to see the dynamic connection between all the main cast. This franchise may not have a large character cast but it has an ensemble to keep everyone relevant. It’s the quality that matters over the quantity.

Furthermore, let’s not forget some of the supporting members such as Kei, Hayasaka, or Kobachi. They may not get as much as the core cast but when they do, it’s always appealing. Let’s take Ai Hayasaka for instance. She makes a sensational debut in a cat-burglar style outfit while staying in character. Kei, Miyuki’s sister, retains pride personality although it’s obvious she cares about her brother. Meanwhile, there’s Kobachi Osaragi, a member of the Public Morals Committee, which I don’t see people talk often about. Taking on the role of a stereotypical committee member, she is of the more observant type who often observes others than taking direct action. In one particular episode, we see how the narrative perspective of this public morals committee member.

But perhaps most noticeably, we meet Miko Iino this season. Setting the gold standard as a committee member, she has an absolute ambition to seek justice at her school. It doesn’t take long for her to butt heads with characters and due to her personality causes some uneasy drama. But fans should also know that Kaguya-sama is more known for its charismatic drama. It balances its emotional appeal and ties it together with its unorthodox humor. Sometimes, it even adds a bit of psychology through character behaviors and its dialogue usage. Most noticeably, this includes character personality changes such as with Kaguya and Hayasaka. Miko Iino in this case is perhaps one of the most human and realistic characters in the show. She follows her school standards and honestly reminds me of the type of student council that I used to see at my own school. During the mid-season episodes, Miko is involved with the student council election and goes up against her rival, Miyuki. It sells the plot’s drama perfectly as we witness both sides clash.

And let’s not forget Yu Ishigami. Perhaps being the breakout character this season, he is the introverted boy with a depressing outlook on life. If you ask me, he is like the antithesis of Chika. Instead of being bubbly and energetic, Ishigami suffers from an inferiority complex and often makes sarcastic comments without much thought. He serves as a perfect example as a character foil to also Kaguya and Miyuki. People tend to misjudge Ishigami but deep down, he is a decent person as his action speaks louder than words this season. In one of the episodes late in this season, you’ll see exactly why. Never count out Ishigami when he takes the stage.

Like with the previous season, A-1 Pictures endorses this sequel with its colorful artwork and choreography. Some people may not trust the studio to handle adaptations but for this time around, there’s no need to worry. We are once again enlightened by the flamboyant nature of character drama. With the eccentric character expressions, it sells at every characters’ personalities to the fullest. Titular character Kaguya is the best example with every interaction she has with others, especially Miyuki. It doesn’t stop there either as Chika, Ishigami, and others inject energy into this season. And let’s also not forget the opening theme song. Performed by Masayuki Suzuki, it has a similar tune as the first season but contains a very creative tune with some colorful storytelling within. You’ll be surprised at how much that song fits for this particular show.

It only took about half a year for the announcement of the sequel since the first season finished airing. And a few months later, we are at the end again. Like most fans of the franchise, I came into Kaguya-sama with high expectations because there was so much more left to see from the manga. In this season, we are once again entertained by the brainchild of the franchise, Aka Asasaka. Now bring on season 3 so we can see more of this love war.

“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.” ~ T.S. Eliot.

After the train-wreck of a mess the first season was, comes the Plane-wreck - KAGUYA SAMA: LOVE IS WAR Season 2
Make no mistake this season will advertise you into watching it with evolved comedy. but mixed with same inherent problems which existed from the season 1

Even before the show starts, comes the cretin narrator. I don't know why we even need one. This anime tries to mug it's own audience with blatant dis-ingenuity which is so goddamn hilarious (The only humorous thing about this anime).

The whole concept is ... a gargantic mess, two people making other confess to satisfy their own childish egoes
Kaguya sama is a war between two petulant kids who know next to nothing about anything let alone love.
Since episode one of the first season haven't seen a single character develop Same old jaded cycle ,rinse and repeat.
Also, It is comical how prez and kaguya just sit all day in their office. No need to bother going to class or doing regular school stuff expanding plot choices further but this anime is so tunnel visioned the didn't bother. Same things overused to the extent making me barf. There is a reason why they sit all day in office which i will delve deeper in animation section.

Story : 1\10
Pretty much every episode follows short scenarios with same cycle. Here is how cycle works, Most episodes start with a character contemplating stuff in their own head, talking bonkers to themselves creating misguided, misconstrued scenarios With narrator intervening to declare one victorious. Hell ya how rewarding pleasing is that .This shows makes its utmost duty to waste time on useless stuff, as if all the characters weren't doing that already, but stop we need the narrator.
Here is an example First episode(18:27) halfway through narrator jumps in to waste few seconds Narrator : "Birthday A special day that only comes around once a year". See i bet you didn't know that This anime told you so Rejoice
First characters explain, then narrator reiterates so ducking great
Episode:2 (13:27) "You are all overthinking". This show is basically Catch 22 of itself .To sum the whole plot. This show is a humongous EXPLANATION of nonsense dialogues that i have no qualms even the author didn't know what he was on about, leading most people to fell into the sacrilegious trap of "DeathNote-esque".

Animation : 2\10
Animtaion isn't that great either at most generic . What this anime has found the elixir-of-life in, is the art of TALKING NO JUTSU. keep throwing nonsensical rhetoric so less background change hence less animation while keep making money Big Win Win But let's not stop here , this show takes it to the whole new level why change setting when you can do the whole ducking show in a single room Best cost cutting measure since Iphone XR LCD Panel To top it all off, just use no background when characters are talking to god knows whom , to give off the so-called Death Note impression but no you aren't anywhere near deathnote so stop pretending
God Forbid my brain . watching all those lousy outfits and colors. You can even use first seasons hallway frames to cut the expenses down further

Characters : 3\10
The only character that is redeemable, is the prez himself at least he has vibe to him. He is witty , sometimes level headed and shows character unlike rest of the cast. Next is the party-pooper Kaguya, the worst written tsundere i have ever seen. Kaguya can be summed up easily with word "CONFUSED PERSONALITY". Her only salient trait is misinterpret stuff and make duck-tons of false scenarios to drag this lousy show and make up for the writer's atrocious story telling and lack of creativity to come up with something refreshing.
Then we have big-butt chika who is typical of her trope, Everyone adores her so let's put her everywhere, "Under the table" we got Ya "on the ceiling" we got Ya . You want her under the flower vase, well we don't do that here lol. Then we have brigade of forgetful characters that you can simply ignore. Even the writer ignores them so why bother
I didn't talk about the otaku guy because he isn't even worth wasting few seconds on. Even writer gives him as little air time as possible. BEST WRITTEN CHARACTER EVER

Music: 4\10
Most of the background music is there to increase tension or to rile viewers like me. Other than that it's not even worth listening. OP And Ed are somewhat redeeming features of this show

Enjoyment: 2\10
Honestly, I confess, I'm not really fond of resorting to giving any entertainment medium a score of 1 or 2 but this thing is a whole new beast. It could have been done a lot of different ways. “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.”This anime show is perfect example of this .I highly urge you to stay as far away from this show as possible, there are tons of better entertainment medium out there. Better watch those than to waste time on it. Or.... If you're like me who has this weird obsession of finishing everything with rating 8+. I recommend watching it one episode/week to stop urself from pulling hair. Trust me,binge watching will cause you either Schizophrenia just like kaguya or Amnesia.
Also the only thing Kaguya sama LIW is thriving on is the idea that this shit is somewhat reminiscent of death note . To that my only answer(question) is from where? This show is very good at is leeching off the popularity of 'Rom-com Death note' title.

Lastly, Please do like this show because we gave you low angle chika butt shot YAYYY

Competition between Kaguya and Shirogane has continued. There aren't many anime that have love stories like Kaguya-sama: Love is War. It takes the theme of the love story of anyone who falls in love first so the person who falls in love is the one who loses. This love story is quite unique because each character uses their brains to develop strategies so they can make their opponents feel in love with the winner. The winners themselves are determined in each chapter in the episode and sometimes the results cannot be predicted. Each of the two main gets their turn to tell the plan but ... their delivery style is similar to the game where in each person who tells the story does not always win sometimes draws and also loses.

Focused on two geniuses named Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya. They are members of the student council of the shuchiin school (this is not an ordinary school of shuchiin taken from the word Shu which means species while chuen in other languages ​​is genius, as it means that the school is inhabited only by selected people, conglomerates, wealthy and elected people) undergo activities as usual. But behind that all peace there is a war and it is a war of love. Expressing love directly is not an easy matter especially when we enter adolescence. However, love is a difficult thing, and teenagers are at the most confusing stage of their lives.

Meanwhile women like Chika Fujiwara have no doubt that she has a friendly nature. She occupied the secular position of the student council administrator, besides occupying a secretary position he was sometimes too excited to forget that he was a secretary. As the third main she acts as a tritagonist whose role is only to help or support the atmosphere.

In the Student Council there are four known members and one of them is Yuu Ishigami. He held the position of treasurer. His expertise in analyzing data about finance is undoubtedly the son of a well-known accounting in Japan. In contrast to the previous main, this main one has a mere contradiction in nature, which is quiet and anti-social. He is one year younger than all the major. Even though one year's adrift did not make Ishigami behave politely sometimes he made words that made everyone annoyed.

Art is something that is very valuable. Character design looks no different from other characters it makes a contradiction in character recognition, besides that as a background it should support the nuances of dialogue and clarify the scene here instead. Apart from that, there are some points that deserve to be appreciated, such as the drawing stops like shounen anime and the angle of shooting or camera position.

With the position of the camera that supports making the dialogue and monologue delivered can be easily accepted, therefore it is not surprising why we are always dragged in the flow of conversation. The idea to make the opening theme is also very interesting and unique because in it does not contain any spoilers at all, not only that just changing the closing theme is also a good idea especially in the third episode. Chika dance is increasingly rising along with the title of this anime. The staff is very attentive to this and make modern dances like dance become very interesting and funny.

The opening theme they were carrying out was also quite good. Love Dramatic carried by Masayuki Suzuki and collaborating with Rikka Ihara seized many viewers out there and received many positive responses. On the other hand, Seiyuu is very compatible with their respective characters, even though to determine your personality, accuracy is needed because their age is different from the characters they play. To fill the voice of the narrator is also good enough to convey the narrator is very easy to digest because it is indeed the job of the narrator, but keep in mind that being a narrator is not an easy word. This takes the theme of teenage love so they inevitably have to bring in young voices and are in harmony with the characters they play.

I will admit that I am very interested in Kaguya-sama: Love is War. This is not because I follow other people, but because it aims to convey how I once fell in love in adolescence and to express it is not that easy.

Maybe they want to drop the scoreboard with their illogical judgments. But I will make sure you feel something, about dropping something.

I cannot believe that this anime has become so popular, I mean, Why the heck do you like it? The characters are flat, and they hardly have any charisma; besides, they are actually very inconsistent with their characterization, the main couple is portrayed as model students who are too mature for their ages, and at the same time, they act like childish fools throughout all the anime. No! It's not like, Kare Kano; where the main couple PRETENDS and TRIED to be perfect, here, the author tries to make me feel that they are model students and immature teenagers AT THE SAME TIME, the backstory ... of the female protagonist and her problems with her father have none repercussion on the relationship.

The comedy is repetitive, only doing jokes about how idiots they are to say something like "I love you" and the romance doesn't progress, it always finished in the same spot, showing that this is only an episodic show with hardly any creativity on it.

[Minor "spoilers" might be included here: they're not too important and merely references, just a warning for people who don't want to know absolutely anything]

Kaguya-sama: Love is War is an anime that came out during Winter 2019 and since then, it has become quite a very popular and well-received series. I'm not going to lie, I liked the first season a lot when it first came out, but my tastes towards anime and things as a whole has changed a lot since that period, in fact I don't like the first season that much anymore, so my negative perspective towards this new one would probably ... apply to the first season too if I re-watched it. Or perhaps, Kaguya-sama just outstayed its welcome.

As I said before, I'm not sure I'd like the first season if I re-watched it, but I'm dead sure that it would be more enjoyable than watching this one. Kaguya seemed a lot fresher back in 2019 because it brought a kind of unique way to portray a comical romcom anime, using a "psychological" approach through the two protagonists trying to be confessed to each other without doing it directly. Well, the main problem is that this season brings little to no difference whatsoever, using the same over the top and exaggerated formula, which results in this season being a chore to watch. In fact, I NEVER laughed during this whole season. Not at all. Zero. I chuckled so few times that I can count them on the fingers of one hand. In fact, this repetition might have exposed what was unnoticed to my eyes because of the novelty that I thought was there. The "Huh we're in love but we cannot say it so we're going to do everything stupid" gimmick still remains and it's basically unchanged with the apparent progress in the relationship being just a comical factor. I'm sick of it, because it gets annoying after a while.

My problem with Kaguya-sama is the fact that it tries SO HARD to be funny in every way possible through supposedly "strange and original" gimmicks. This is the problem: it's overthought to the point of not being funny anymore. An example is its use of a narrator that says "a character is walking" while the anime shows that a characters is, indeed, walking. What's the point when the anime doesn't need any? That's overdoing it and makes it more unfunny than it already is. Additional unfunny and stretched things are the overuse of the so-called "psychological" stuff: over the top mental trips that have no meaning, its use repetition that in some anime is funny but in this case it simply isn't. How many times did Iino Miko walk inside the room and find Kaguya & Shirogane doing misunderstandable things? This reaches to the point where I can predict what's going to happen in a lot of moments and that's a terrible thing for a comic anime that relies on taking the viewer by surprise.

Another thing I hated in this season is the fact that some moments looked like they were never supposed to be funny. An example is the election moment. What am I supposed to get out of it when it's an anime that's supposed to be comical? The atmosphere was tense for absolutely no reason and made me question: "What the hell is this supposed to be?" - The same goes for some other moments that I'm not going to write about. Anyways: I'm not going to feel like I have to take seriously this one, when it had one moment where Kaguya fainted, they brought her to the hospital, to be visited by a DOCTOR and... HUH it's a "sickness" that makes your heart beat when Shirogane is around. Yeah. When they were talking about it, while I thought "well, this will probably turn out to be some stupid joke too", on the other hand it might've been some serious stuff. Turns out it wasn't, so every time this will happen in the next events, I'm not going to take it seriously, regardless of it being a joke or not and this damages any good intentions that the series might've had to tackle greater themes. Speaking of which, in episode 11 they decided to talk about ISHIGAMI'S DIFFICULT PAST out of the blue, but I'll focus on it in the next section...

Story and characters? Well... there's not much to talk about. The story is still the same: Kaguya and Shirogane are in love but because the writer said so they're never going to confess until this series stops being profitable and its fans get sick of it (never). As I said before, there's basically no progress in their relationship and everything that happens between them is taken as a joke so... nothing there. I wouldn't mind a dumb nonexistent story if the anime was actually funny, but since it's NOT, well, I'm looking for anything to grab hold of. Characters? Oh well - they haven't changed at all since the last season, they remain the exact same cliches and they're just bounded to their own gags, perhaps they're even more ridiculed: Kaguya doesn't want to confess, Shirogane doesn't want to confess, Chika is Chika, Ishigami is still an incel nerd and isn't the character the makes me laugh out loud anymore, Hayasaka Ai says "haha me secretly crazy am I cool yet am I cool yet", the new "character" Iino Miko is as deep as a glass of water and all we know about her is that she walks inside the room and find Kaguya & Shirogane doing misunderstandable things. As I mentioned before, they decided to talk about ISHIGAMI'S DIFFICULT PAST in episode 11, but what's the point of it being there? The two leads are parodies of themselves, the apparent progress is not taken seriously, so why would an episode about his past make someone a real character? The series is joke-oriented and comical, so it's not like, say, this character is very sad all the time in this drama series and now that we know more about him we can empathize and feel his sadness. No, since the rest of the series is just jokes, the characters are just going to be ridiculous for the rest of the series, so it's completely pointless. The real purpose is just trying to make the series SEEM actually deep behind its comical mask with layers of depressing background. Yeah, seem, because it's just empty, after all.

The art is cool, nothing that blows my mind but it's definitely not bad too look at. Other than that, of course Kaguya-sama stretches and tries to put random writings, colours and styles of drawing, just to be exaggerated and try to be ridiculous in every aspect possible (Teen Titans GO-core).
About sound, there is not much to say about it: it's background music to add up to the "atmosphere" and nothing to listen outside of it. OP is sung by the same dude who sung the first one, so it's something I'd never listen to seriously, the ED is nothing out of the ordinary too.
Well, I don't mind these two aspects that much.

All in all, this season was repetitive, it outstayed its welcome and it was an unfunny journey all along. Don't think of me as a pretentious guy who wants DEEP PHILOSOPHY in every bit of anime, in fact I really enjoyed other comical anime; what I mean is: when I watch simple non-comical anime with a bit of slice of life, there are plenty of times in which I smile or chuckle, because I don't pretend THAT much, I prefer simple things than "overdone and overthought to the point of unfunny" gags that try too hard.
Well, it looks like I'm the minority here, since this season has a busted 8.93 mean score.

This show is like my migraines.

This is one of those anime which is so shallow as to be describable by a single word, and in this case, that word is “noise.” Never before has there been an anime which does so much visually which is this artistically lifeless and falls into this many archetypical trappings. Despite all the cutesy little nods and prods found in its (largely unanimated) on-screen jokes and jabs, every visual detail it overwhelms you with can hardly be called thoughtful and invariably boils down to a bunch of visual noise meaning nothing because nothing is actually happening intellectually, thematically, or—if you ... ask me—comedically, and the references it thinks itself so cultured and smart for including are never done artfully enough to appear as anything more than utterly pandering. And the fact the directorial tact on display throughout the entirety of this slideshow is that of a ten year old spastic with Tourettes doesn’t make it any easier to digest, it just takes your usual A-1 Pictures PowerPoint and adds those hideously garish .gif transitions to make it look as if any more thought than usual was actually pitched in.

I’m sure this show is, indeed, funny to people, but even should you put a gun to my head, I could not tell you their reasoning for finding it so, because everything about it is so milquetoast, juvenile, and watered down. From the time when I was a kid to my time in college—which is where I’m assuming all the fans of this show lie—I was always so perplexed by adults’ inability to empathize with younger generations, myself at the time included. From where I was standing, me not understanding their likes and dislikes was completely realistic, seeing as I had yet to live a life wrought with the level of experience they had, but them not understanding my likes and dislikes seemed totally unreasonable, because even if they’d grown out of it, they themselves were actually teenagers and college kids at some point in their lives. Was it so hard for them to recall what it was like to be me? Yes. No matter how harshly I whip my long-term memory into submission, it will not remind me why I or any who shared my age would ever find this endearing, funny, or even basically entertaining at all.

Despite its renown as a solid comedy with a heart of gold, I can never help but find its entire gimmick completely disingenuous. I’m not so daft as to think you’re actually meant to take the whole love-is-literally-war concept that seriously, but I also can’t help but seek meaning in a show this directionless, and what I find is discomforting all the same. From the concept to the execution, this show sounded like and ended up being two insufferable douchebags who I wouldn’t want to see succeed at anything—let alone romance—drowning in their own embarrassing egos, but opinions aside, to find the dynamic portrayed in this show to be anything other than destructively competitive and socially unstable, you’d either have to be old enough to have your own children and immensely optimistic enough to take the misunderstandings and awkwardness of youth to be nostalgic as opposed to infuriating or you’d just have to be of that age and ignorant enough to think a relationship this unhealthy would actually be fun because you know more about screen-written people than you do real ones.

When I was little, I knew this couple who lived next door who were just like this. I was close friends with their two children, and since my parents were always the communal types anyway, they became family friends as fast as their kids did. They were the kind of couple to play pranks on each other, and while they were always at each other’s throats, they were never uncomfortably so. At parties, they reminded me of the delightful class clowns I’d see at school, and my parents and family treated them as such: two funny little lovers who’s attitudes fostered this kind of playfulness. About twelve years later though, I heard they got divorced, and while my parents were pretty torn up about it, I couldn’t help but find it a matter of course. While I think using a single case to make a generalization about a whole is stupid, I also think they’re a perfect exemplar of why no normal human being with emotions could maintain a relationship like this for an extended amount of time. The second life gets real, the jokes will stop being funny, competition will become vendettas, and the competitiveness therein will become contempt.

For a show which is supposed to be about two people outsmarting each other, the logic at hand isn’t unique enough to have personality or twisted enough to be engaging on face value since the battle of geniuses which is supposed to be going on isn’t and no tactics are actually being put on display, and while this is just another factor to bore you to tears, the fact people aren’t bored to tears and actually find themselves laughing points to probably the biggest element of despondence I have towards this show: what in the world is the joke? Nothing that happens is over-the-top or compelling, but the narration and the aforementioned presentation is constantly trying to convince you anything is, so if the joke is just supposed to be how bombastically they’re depicting something mundane with overblown narration, then the joke honestly is not funny and really just leaves it all feeling like a stock standard romantic comedy which just happens to have ridiculous music and firecracker visual effects—all of which you want to stop—sprinkled overtop as if their addition added anything of value, which they did not.

Granted, if this is the joke after all—and I’m still not laughing—then the obvious subtext you can find therein is actually something which I can call worthwhile, no matter how brain-numbingly sophomoric it is in contemplation. The message is the characters are stupid, vain, and preoccupied with appearances to the point of being interpersonal failures, and as a viewer, you should take their self-inflicted headaches as a cautionary tale and just stop being a child and be honest with your feelings. But by that logic—the logic which argues on behalf of the validity of the show and states the show actually has something of critical value to offer—you shouldn’t even be watching the show beyond getting the point, because all you’d bear witness to after said point was made is a broken relationship you shouldn’t even be watching more of having already been taught why you should never emulate, entertain, or respect it in any way, shape, or form because it is legitimately unhealthy. And if the obnoxious dynamic of two uncharismatic narcissists is entertainment to you and worth staying around for beyond the theme, then the point is already lost on you.

If the argument is the show is a normal romantic comedy which just happens to have a suffocating amount of audio/visual gags which themselves were never really meant to be the point no matter how forcefully the director shoves them in your face, then that begs the question, why even watch it? Because if your gig is typical romcoms, and the argument is this show is too and people like me are silly for having overthought it in the first place seeing as the only real distinction between it and its contemporaries is said audio/visual noise, then would you not just want to watch a show without the noise so you can enjoy the thing you enjoy in its purest form? And asking this, it hit me: you people like the noise. You see a hideously rotoscoped ending theme dance sequence and start foaming at the mouth with mindless joy, reposting gifs of it on social media whilst the salivation still has yet to cease, and you accept its calculated pandering as a free source of internet memes and reaction images and validate your indulgence with the manufactured opinions of e-celebrities leeching their livelihoods off your clicks, surging with Google AdSense. This is a completely irrelevant talking point seeing as this season is exactly the same as the first, if just a bit uglier, but I still wanted to just give mention to how MAL users have this ridiculous propensity to give sequel installments exactly the same score as they gave the prior before even testing the waters. This show earned itself high standing after one episode not because such a feeble episode deserved such acclaim, but because your excuse to kill time had come screeching back on.

Thank you for reading.

Kaguya Sama s2 is everything that we got in season 1, but 100x better. Simply put, it’s one of the best adaptations I’ve ever seen.

Admittedly, season one of Kaguya sama was pretty meh to me. It definitely had some highlights like the final arc, but for large swaths of it, I felt bored. Kaguya-sama season 2 represents a total shift for me. The series keeps the same comedy that it had during the first season, but there’s definitely a lot more serious moments this time around. Every episode gripped me and went by quickly, to the point where I still don’t know how the ... hell 12 episodes have gone by this fast.

Part of the reason I’ve enjoyed this season so much is that the source material being adapted is just flat out better than last season. The new characters introduced are fun and the supporting cast from last time around are just as lively and dynamic as we’ve come to expect. A-1 really brought their A game to this season and in my opinion, did one of their best jobs ever. Every single episode offered finale quality with awesome direction. Only problem is that we only got 12 of them.

Technically, character animation is fluid, art is great and blends manga style comedic effects with traditional anime looks. Given the Rom-Com nature of the series, there’s not really much else to add on here.

In conclusion, Kaguya Sama s2 offers an improvement on just about every single aspect of the first. If you liked the first season, you’ll love this. If you were like me and thought the first season was ok, but not great, I think you’ll find a lot of your concerns addressed in this season and will enjoy it. Kaguya sama s2 gets 10 sorans out of 10.

What does a rom-com need? This may be a weird question but hear me out.
So many rom-coms foucs on plot twists and weird situations, but the most important thing that distinguishings a good rom-com from a great one is really the characters. If the characters aren't likeable the series breaks. And this why Kaguya sama works so well.
This season of Kaguya-sama is were it all starts coming togther- things have changed from last season. The characters starts being more serious, there is more delvopment, and shirgone and kaguya really starts considering conffesing. That's the thing that makes kaguya-sama special: it changes. Sure, small things happen ... most of the time, but add one small thing to another and you get characters that while wacky and weird, are also really interesting and somewhat deep.
I won't deny the show wouldn't apeel to everyone, but if you have an appreciation for this type of story, you might find a new favorite.

Kaguya-sama season 1 was already a good 9/10 for me, but season 2 is even better than that.

Story 9/10
The story of Kaguya-sama's second season is obviously a continuation of the first season, but after watching the first three episodes of the second season, the entire first season just feels like a introduction to the show. What i'm trying to say is that things really start to get going in this season. The main characters are getting a closer to each other little by little, few new characters get introduced and the side characters get some good development too. Kaguya-sama season 2 just took everything that ... was already good about its first season, refined it and made one hell of a good show.

Art 8/10
There really isn't much to say about the artwork and animation of this show except for the lineart beeing clean, the colors beeing beautiful and the animation just beeing smooth as always.

Sound 8/10
The sound design in this show simply is good, nothing more, nothing less.
Something I noticed while watching Kaguya-sama is that the openings of both season are really great and tend to stay in your ear for a while. Both openings come with a great song and astonishingly beautiful visuals.

Character 10/10:
Every single character in Kaguya-sama serves a purpose, even the side characters. But these characters aren't just there for the plot, rather are they most of the times really loveable, wholesome and funny. The harmony between these characters constantly feel organic, nothing seems to be forced. I'd say that Kaguya-sama's chacarters are amongst the best designed ones that I've seen so far. The best part about Kaguya-sama is the relation between Kaguya and Shirogane, which deepens even more in this season. It is just pure joy to see these two getting closer and closer with every episode. All in all, Kaguya-sama never ceases to suprise with it's few but prestine characters.

Enjoyment 10/10:
I personally already really enjoyed the first season, but once I saw the first episode of the second season, I knew i was in love with this show. I really didn't notice how much I missed the show, until season two started airing. I just missed the lighthearted atmosphere, the most of the time funny jokes and the rivalry / romance between Kaguya and Shirogane. There was not a single moment in this season so far without me smiling or laughing. Overall, kaguya-sama is one heck of a fun ride to watch, but the second season is just a total blast while watching, definitely continue with the second season after completing the first one.

Overall 10/10:
I think Kaguya-sama has it all, great slice of life / romance story, good lineart and animation, decent sound design and great openings paired with a bunch of the most loveable characters out there. These points lead into an absolute blast while watching the show, I think everybody can and should watch Kaguya-sama Love Is War.

* Non-Manga Reader Review*

After the massive success of the first season. It was inevitable that a season 2 was coming. The first season has many things going for it, a unique premise, high production quality, and fantastic voice acting. But what made this show into the massive success that it was, were the memes. This show has many clips and moments that can easily be made into memes, mostly coming from Chika. That along with the catchy OP and the Chika dance made the show very popular. It also helps that the show is genuinely great. So, has season 2 lived up to the first ... season? At first, I was afraid that the second season may not live up to the first one. But after watching the first episode, all of my worries were gone in an instant. For me, the season even surpasses the first season.
The animation has gotten better, but not by a large margin. The voice acting is still top-notch, especially for Kaguya. The OP and ED are both bangers and the sound design is still great. The characters are still as lovable as ever. The cast remains mostly the same, except for a few new characters. But the main reason season 2 is better than season 1 for me due to the main issue I have with season 1. Its lack of plot.
Season 1 of Kaguya-sama: Love is war seems like a bunch of random stories that barely connect to one another. They were enjoyable to watch but didn't seem like the story had an end goal or something the cast had to do. The end goal of the series as a whole is to have one of the characters confess, but we all knew that it wasn't happening in season 1. So for me, the season didn't seem like there was an end goal to look forward to. The stories also don't feel connected, apart from the last few episodes. Granted all these problems that I said did not make watching the show any less enjoyable. This is just me being nit-picky and stating my opinion.
Season 2, however, has a clear end goal. Winning the school's presidential election. It has something that ties the events of the show, instead of them all being random events happening. There also has been a lot of character progression between Kaguya and Shirogane. The show is also generally more enjoyable. Only 4 episodes in, and I'm already looking forward to watching the rest of the show! But as it stands right now, season 2 of Kaguya-sama: Love is war is shaping out to be one of the best anime of this season! (it currently is the highest-rated show currently airing and the 30th highest-rated show of all time. With a score of 8.79) If you enjoyed the first season as much as I did, then season 2 will surely not disappoint.

This season; the boy won't be raised; the cutes lack the hows; Chika doesn't dance. But.. even Haddaway will get to know what tsundere's heart disease is. *Oddly loud Rick whisperer meme* "It's war. He is referring to the war part. Ch [burp].. check the title, it's in there somewhere."

**Disclaimer: Miko is a very capable person and we all love her very much. You may disagree but know that no one's gonna call you a homie where I am from.

Without further ado,

The first 3 episodes are mediocre. After that Kaguya returns to its track with witty humor and new direction. The author seemed to ... be lost for a short while when he couldn't figure out whether to start strenghtening the already existing cast members with details or try and expand the universe of this series. At the end, he end up doing a fair amount of both by choosing the latter route. Let me explain. Person named Miko (who is very capable and we all love her very much), was added to our main cast, and she comes with a very different type of personality all around. The genius in this is not just that she adds color and diversity to the main crew, but actually she is able to pull out entirely new sides from the other cast members with her raw personality and behavior, adding character depth onto the original main characters. At first I was highly disappointed by the route the author chose, but after realizing that he was able to kill two bird with one stone, I can only conclude this with one phrase: good job, my man. Although the poor start still exists.

Based to my experience with rom-coms (and I have lot of that even if I say so myself), many romantic comedies are, at best, one season miracles. They do not have enough potential to last long, the author's caliber doesn't tend to be much (after all, romance is the easiest genre to write and that's often the reason why this specific genre was chosen), and quality drops are a common occurance. Kaguya manages to avoid this to a decent extent. It looked like the series was bound to go downhill, but the recovery was quick and now the humor is more spot on and more accurate than in the previous season. However, weaker parts do still exist. Such as Ishigami's past story which is incredibly poorly written. He saves an ignorant girl who is ignorant because she is ignorant from a bad guy who is bad because he is bad and then everyone turns against Ishigami because they are sheep. I cannot make it sound any more linear or black'n white than it already is because that's how black'n white and simple-minded it was.

What the series does well, it does well. One of the most magical parts that the core idea of the series allows it to do is entirely rekt down romance cliches. When Kaguya's story has a cliche story event, everyone knows it's an overused romantic gimmick. The characters know it, the author knows it, you know it. The way this is executed is not by any means a parody and it's also not a situation where "the author knowing it's cliche doesn't make it non-cliche". No. What this is is pure situational awareness. One of the best examples of this is a locked shed scene from this season during which both parties involved assume it's a preplanned scheme by their "opponent in love". This is one of my favorite scenes from the entire series, both seasons covered, because our main characters outwit themselves with overanalyzing. It's a classic shoujo formula, utter simplicity, a zero brainer, but it's made efficient and delivers in a way that can only be achieved by this anime. The way this entire scene plays out is not even brilliance, rather: It's pure rationality and logic to a point where it becomes art. You don't even need Kaguya say "how cute" in here, because let's face it: at least 40% of the audience said so themselves, and out loud.

As it is, this season has its downs and weaker moments. Criticism follows. The humor is superior to S01, but the same can't be said of everything. Overall, while the pinnacles; the best scenes, might reach higher grounds, I have to say S02 wasn't as solid as the previous one. The director also suffers from clear lack of ideas in certain parts, the OST is nowhere near as fantastic as it was in S01, and moreover, many scenes are very quiet. BGM is either at minimum volume or there is none. This really does lessen the atmosphere. Scenes where our main characters just sit around a table doing nothing are a good example that prove all of the points above, and these scenes don't really feel like Kaguya, but some other lesser anime. S01 radiated. You could see the love, passion and effort that was put into the anime from almost every scene. S02 comes with scenes that aren't treasured in such manner anymore. Overall: S02 is a good sequel, and certainly much better than what the beginning hinted, but in all honesty, I think it could have easily and very realistically been better, and I cannot do but wish that it had. Its flaws and shortcomings do not ruin the anime, but I think these things are very important to acknowledge because they are part of this season. To me, it felt like there was someone in the backgrounds yelling "let's cut some corners, no one's going to notice."

It's just top tier.

This is the kind of anime that everyone would enjoy because of the: Comedy which is that kind of comedy that catches you off guard at times and you just cant help but laugh and smirk the whole episode.

Story: It's not the most serious story but's it's still a good story people who read the manga know that in the future things will get a lot more serious but i'm gonna leave it at that for now. just know that the story is amazing and will get a lot better(which i thought was not possible but they nailed it)

Art: It's just pretty ... and looks amazing. Kaguya's eyes look amazing, characters look cute and very well made. it's just good. some anime's have the nerve to downgrade the quality of an anime if you compare it with the manga counterpart. but in this case i feel like they made it even better. Kaguya is cute in the manga but in the anime WITH her voice acting they made her even cuter which is NOT possible but somehow they did it again.(Thank you)

Sound: Music is sublime, both seasons have amazing intro's and outro's(chika dance) and background music. The voice acting is also top tier. with these kinds of anime's you wanna deliver the jokes and the punchlines on a way that a person WILL LAUGH when you do it.(a little bit like konosuba) Kaguya-sama does that amazingly.

Character: I can talk about them one by one but i just wanna say 1 thing about all of them. They are all amazing in there own right. Every character has the perfect personality to compliment each other and they fit SO WELL!. Which makes this group of people loveable like they're your silly friends you cherish IRL. You smile every time you see someone because you think "ah yes here we go again!" in a positive way lol.

Enjoyment: S++ tier. The last time i laughed this hard watching a show was when Konosuba came out. You'll get invested in the characters and you wanna just see the character progression of everyone. every scene, every character, every song, everything about this anime is enjoyable. and when people say "Kaguya and Miyuki are just overdramatic and just need to get it over with" are people who don't understand this anime. Because that's the whole premiss of the show! It's meant to be over the top and silly and it's one this to do what Kaguya-sama did but there is another thing to master it and blow our minds. Kaguya-sama did just that.

Overall: Just a 10 bro i cant remember the last time (like i said 1000 times be4) that i liked an anime this much. i can safely say that Kaguya sama belongs to my top 3 fav anime's of this genre. of all time it's in my top 10 for sure. Kaguya-sama proved that an anime in this time can be an instant classic and doesn't need a few hundred episodes to be good. and that's why Kaguya gets a 10 from me.

“Are you having a normie moment?” ~Ishigami Yuu
That's us Kaguya-sama fans to all those not enjoying it.

The battle of love between the idiotic geniuses tried to answer the age-old question of "If two tsundere fell in love would they ever find out" is back at it better then ever with season 2.

• STORY: 9/10
The story offering a premise so simple anyone can get behind it but captures the attention of the reader with its funny and entertaining mind games which make the viewer wonder if these characters are stupid or genius!? The answer to that only comes out as a "YES" cause it matters little ... if they are smart or not they are adorable and as the age-old saying goes:
"KAWAII IS JUSTICE"

• ART: 9/10
The art style of the anime in comparison to the manga is a bit different and can feel unnatural at the start to manga readers but it's hardly a bad thing as the obvious advantage anime has over the manga is that the images are moving which gives the animators room to truly mess around with the background and character movement that truly breaths life into some of the otherwise more plain manga chapters. Tho for non-manga readers this will be one of the best animation's they'll see character design and movements are good and the animation quality is amazing.

• CHARACTER: 10/10
The characters are arguably the best part of the whole series. Not only are the main cast of characters downright GREAT all the supporting characters are also GREAT pretty much each and everyone characters in the whole series is GREAT except for those who are obviously meant to be printed out pasted on a boxing bag and beaten the living shit out off. Everyone gonna go crazy over Maki when season 3 comes along you heard it here the first time (probably). She is a side character yet she has the potential to be the best and most liked girl that's how much characters are done well here, even the side characters have given nice details and made loveable

• SOUND 10/10
As we all are familiar with the amazing osts from season 1 this season brings even better with on point and lovable soundtracks to the amazing opening and ending which will leave you wanting to listen them on loop for hours!! Voice action is of top tier... overall the soundtracks literally makes the already amazing anime even better!!

• OVERALL: 10/10
At the end of the day, Kaguya-sama is one of the best rom-com anime to come out in recent times, and to sum up, all of that in a few words would be saying "It doesn't matter if you are a narutard, one-piece enthusiast, someone who says Boku no pico is the best anime of all time or a man of culture who knows the reference to all the Jojo memes out there... watch Kaguya-sama and you will without a doubt enjoy it greatly. And of course, Kaguya if you don't it just means you got shit taste"
Oh also at the end i'll like to say ISHIGAMI IS BUST GURLLLL!!!

This season kaguya-sama: love is war is the most popular, funniest and most enjoyable title, and although it is true that there was not much competition, the series is as good as many think?, we will know, I will try to make the most complete review possible.

Story
The main plot is very mundane and weak, so I will just say that, like other series of its kind, it is just an excuse for history to exist and It will not be relevant until a climax, it must also be said that it is irrelevant because it is not that the series ends only because ... The objective of our protagonists was achieved, which is to confesses their feeling (or rather that the other confesses their feelings).

Character
kaguya and miyuki are well characterized and have very good jokes, my problem is that their main joke is very repeated, they like each other, but they are very proud to admit itand is usually unbearable and insulting all the time that passes just to admit that he likes the other, but in this case it comes out very unappreciated by their humor, which doesn't make the show very unbearable or that you hate them, For the others, I can say chika (main meme) is only there to delay the plot and only for us Let's forget until the scene comes out, Ishigami is fine, his past is fine because they don't victimize him like in other stories that want to make a character look tragic (but he looks like a martyr), although He just has a joke and seems to be the wisest man in the cast, and finally we have has iino and hayasaka that their characters until the moment is not a problem, but they are irrelevant in this part of the series (I do not count what happens in the manga).

Development
like all series of its kind, it is a slice of life and episodic (school rumble, sket dance, etc), I mean, the plot rarely advances what is boring of moments for those who want to see something happen, and want a constant progress and kaguya sama is not the exception although it is the fastest I have seen,and the truth I never talk about humor because without a doubt it is what stands out the most and what gives it its "identity", The truth for me is something that I have already seen in other series, misunderstandings, (invented) games, that such a character is useless in such a thing, ect, does not stand out from nichijou, school rumble or another series of this type (although many denied it me).

Animation and others sections
the highlight of the series is the animation for its style is similar to shaft and is suitable for this type of humor and not makes her look pretentious, but something that must be made clear is that we are not going to give the "10/10" just for that the animation is very "pretty colors" and we are not going to say that it has an identity for this detail, the ost is very good and is suitable, the opening and ending is also good.

Conclusion
It is not a bad series, but if excessively overrated, it is just one more com-rom of the bunch, you will not miss absolutely nothing (it is more likely to waste your time than anything) so in my book it is a 5/10, if there is someone that gives a 6/10 a 7/10 I do not see the problem, but it is not worth so much to me.

Since I don't like the shape of the sections in a review of myanimelist, here my shape of the sections.
story: (1) / (2)
character: (1) / (2)
development: (1) / (4)
animation(others): (2) / (2)
5/ 10
thank for read:)

The first season of Kaguya-sama: Love is War was a breakout success. With its over the top direction and comedy along with its cast of well-rounded characters with amazing chemistry, the show became easily one of A-1 Pictures’ best works. On top of that, it was helmed by an acclaimed director of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, Shinichi Omata. Not only did he return for a second season, but the show would be adapting material manga fans consider to generally be better than what the first 12 episodes covered. With such lofty expectations, it’s difficult to see how a show would really top itself, at least ... until you see it in action.

Visually speaking, it’s an absolute oddity. There are moments where the show tries to escape its blander art style and delve more into something different and more appealing, only for most of the show to retain what it had before. The inconsistency between these two styles reminds me of the strange and ever-shifting artwork quality in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig. Said instability may be the weakest aspect of the show’s visuals outside of the inconsistently handled CGI, but if that’s the worst aspect, then the show’s still among the best in the studio’s catalog from a visual perspective. Shinichi Omata and his team have decided to play with the medium even more than last time. Were the optical illusion backgrounds not enough? Then the show will play with aspect ratios and screen filters, even having jokes where a character’s hand gestures affect both the screen size and loudness of the audio. The show will sometimes shift styles entirely for the sake of certain gags, such as when the show obtains a shoujo manga art style or switches to a fighting game perspective. Each new technique the show fiddles around with feels purposeful and for the sake of bolstering the show’s visual gags and overall stellar comedy. The animation itself is even more fluid in the first season as well and the show hasn’t forgotten how to make genuinely gorgeous shots, either.

Kei Haneoka’s music has not faltered much, either. There are not too many new standout tracks this season, but the few there are take a less comedic approach, such as “close attendant” and the track “birthday” which has a more grandiose and emotional feel to it. That singular track is perhaps a personal favorite for the entire series up to that point. The OST at times has a more emotion-driven feel to it, which fits the direction the season takes. The gag “opening” sequence in the shoujo gag from episode 7 is also one of the show’s multiple vocal tracks which are all good in their own right. Lastly, w I am no fan of the ED, the OP, “DADDY! DADDY! DO!” by Masayuki Suzuki feat. Airi Suzuki is a fun, jazzy bop that rivals that of the first season.

With the audiovisuals out of the way, it’s time to get down to what makes season 2 a somewhat different beast than its equally funny predecessor. Outside of the last 2 episodes, the first season of Kaguya-sama was more about establishing its characters and their dynamics while planting the seeds for things to come. Meanwhile, this second season can basically be split into 2 arcs with one overarching story of Kaguya and Shirogane’s awkward romance cat and mouse games remaining a constant. The first half of the season is about newcomer Miko Iino and the rivalry she develops against Miyuki Shirogane during the student elections of the new school year. She’s a surprisingly endearing new addition to the cast as an absolute hardass dork, though she certainly cannot compete with the main 4. The second half focuses on the sports festival and what our main leads do to prepare for and conquer it while Miko integrates into the main cast lineup. One thread tying these two together is Ishigami, the dark horse from last season. He effectively comes into the forefront for the bulk of the season with a compelling character arc that puts everything about him and how certain characters react to him into perspective. If season 1 didn’t establish him as a personal favorite of mine, then these 12 episodes most certainly have.

This isn’t to say the rest of the cast doesn’t pull their weight. The series has always been incredible at continually expanding on its characters and their dynamics. Kaguya’s progression towards being increasingly vulnerable and adorkable when it comes to her cat and mouse romance with manwhore Shirogane is as priceless as Shirogane’s arcs with her or how the show spotlights more times he has to be brought down to learn something new. Chika, who usually teaches him these things at the cost of her own physical and mental health, has been relegated to more of a dark horse position this time as her agent of chaos moments have been dialed back. Seeing her get more violent and frustrated is also an absolute joy to witness. Even outside of these characters, Ai Hayasaka’s growing frustration and humiliation over Kaguya’s embarrassing behavior regarding Shirogane is wonderful to witness. Other characters such as Tsubame and Shirogane’s dad have their own moments to shine as well whenever Shirogane’s and Ishigami’s arcs come to the forefront. It’s safe to say that by the time the inevitable season 3 rolls around, the show will have established quite the ever-expanding ensemble cast. Of course, some of their humorous antics would not be the same without the over the top voice acting and outstanding directing present, but it’s clear that Shinichi Omata and his team are working with a manga that really has a way with writing both main and side characters.

It’s not hard to see why fans of the source feel that the series gets better over time. Not only did this season put into perspective a lot of the character dynamics and gags from season 1, it also amped up its bombastic presentation from both a visual and voice acting perspective. What could have just been more of the same instead stepped up to deliver an astounding sophomore season of perhaps my favorite anime comedy at the time of writing. Its sweetest and most heartfelt moments are even more endearing and powerful than before while the chaotic, over the top comedy remains rock-solid for those who liked it beforehand. Can the narrator sometimes overexplain things when he’s at his best when riffing on the main cast? Absolutely. Is the pacing a bit weird at times with there being more chapters and gags put into each episode? Perhaps. However, that’s not enough to derail top-tier writing or uproarious presentation. Here’s to a third season in 2021 where the show will vie for the title of AOTY for 3 years in a row. The quaint finale cannot be the end.

Me: “Pfft. What’s everybody raving about? This anime is just a generic romcom and isn’t that good at all!”

Narrator: “He is lying. He’s actually an embarrassingly huge Kaguya-sama: Love is War fanboy and laughs hysterically at just about every joke in the show.”

Ok, I can’t hide it, I really enjoy this anime. The 1st season of Love is War wound up being the unquestionable anime of 2019 for me, and I'm pleased to announce that this sequel matches every bit of the quality and charm of its predecessor. What, you don't believe that a simple romcom could possibly be as good as I claim? How ... cute. Let me enlighten you to the brilliance that is Love is War.

Love is War continues its trend from the first season of combining humorous character interactions with psychological battles of wits- oh wait, it kinda slams the breaks on the battle of wits bits due to Kaguya's transformation into the ever lovable Baka-guya. This fascinating metamorphosis can be attributed to a rarity in this genre that I like to call GOOD CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. Kaguya initially starts off as a cold and calculating individual at the beginning of season one, but after her countless interactions with Shirogane and the rest of the student council, she has evolved into quite the precious lovestruck cinnamon roll. Even Hayasaka mentions in one of the later episodes that she hasn’t viewed Kaguya as being rational for quite awhile. And honestly, this sort of mental simplification seems to have affected Shirogane as well thanks to his ever developing feelings for Kaguya. One might think that this is actually a devolution and would be a hinderance to the narrative, but I would in fact argue the opposite.

It’s pretty clear that Love is War is a more character driven narrative as opposed to a plot based one as each episode generally covers three or so short stories revolving around diverse and amusing situations. So naturally, good presentation of characters is vital in the success of a show like this, and I think that the path the author took fits. The protagonists are both proud individuals who started out with hardly any real world experience…and sometimes a major lack of common sense. Yet this series is focused on showcasing their ever growing bonds with each other and those around them. So it’s natural that as time goes on, they’ll slowly start to let down their guards and become more competent (as far as anime goes) in terms of how they function in society. I’m just a big fan of the trajectory that the author took with Kaguya and Shirogane.

Oh yeah, and Shirogane is also the son of Dio Brando’s voice, so he’s a walking JoJo reference! That just naturally makes this anime even better. Speaking of references, there are a ton sprinkled throughout the narrative, and I just find the clever implementation of exterior work to be a bonus. And of course, it’s not just the two protagonists who are handled expertly as characters, but the hilarious supporting cast as well.

I didn’t think that Chika could get any better, but she totally transcended my exceptions and once again proved to be a superior support character. I didn’t realize just how passionate she was for music, so I actually was actually able to relate to this ditzy pink haired anime girl. I also think she shines the most when helping out the ever hopeless Shirogane, and her mama instincts are something to admire. Hayasaka also stepped up as a character this season, proving to be a top tier maid. I absolutely loved the episode where she tried to seduce Shirogane, and just her simple loyalty to Kaguya has been quite endearing.

Ishigami is the character who I think grew on me the most this season. I liked him from before and always thought he was a nice comic relief side character, but this season made him in to something much more. Episode 11 proved that Love is War was not only a master of comedy, but that it could effectively handle drama as well. what I loved about this episode was that the drama wasn’t anything ridiculously big and try hard like you might find in most drama anime. The issue at hand was actually quite simple, yet quite real. I actually found myself really connecting with Ishigami’s feelings and his general disinterest in people, and actively cheered him on when he finally got over his trauma. There’s beauty in simplicity, and this was amplified in Ishigami’s situation. He really is our guy. There was also some more drama, albeit to a lesser extent, involved with the new student council member Miko. I liked how her character was handled and look forward to seeing more from her in the future.

So to sum it all up, the cast is fantastic. “B-But they’re not realistic at all! They have a bunch of quirks that are totally blown out of proportion!” …wow. Can you believe I’ve actually seen people use this as an attack against the show? Here’s my response…”Shut up stupid!!” This is an anime after all. It’s basically mandatory for character personality traits to be over exaggerated. If you’re looking for more realism, I’d suggest pursuing your own romance in real life for some of that realism instead of watching a fictional show. The quirkiness of the cast really makes them stand out, makes me appreciate them more, and greatly enhance the entertainment that I derive from watching this anime. So the cast is a big win in my book!

I mentioned previously how the narrative takes a more casual, short story-esque approach. You’d think that by constantly repeating a similar episodic format with each passing episode, the anime would lessen in quality or at least get boring. Well, I'm pleased to say that it never does. Each passing episode gives us fun little segments that constantly keep me engrossed. Whether they were about cliche getting locked in the storehouse scenes or playing Chika’s flawed board games, they were all enjoyable and expertly directed.

The simple fact of the matter is that Love is War works because it's actually funny. So many comedy anime end up failing or falling into obscurity due to a lack of creativity behind their humor or they're simply just...not funny. Love is War succeeds immensely by keeping its humor fresh and fun. This is of course due in part to the strong cast, but also because of the superb audiovisuals.

You know, I feel like the technical aspects of anime don’t get as much appreciation or consideration as they should anymore. Visual aesthetics, passionate voice acting, good direction and a catchy soundtrack can go a long way in elevating an anime to great heights if done well, or completely ruin the viewing experience if done poorly. Love is War thankfully has the former, and let me tell you, it dramatically increases the presentation of the anime. I just love all of the unique visuals and over the top animation styles employed by the anime that keeps each episode fresh and exciting. Characters are drawn to have comically expressive reactions, and the presentation is heightened by the fervent voice acting going into each scene. I mean Kaguya’s seiyuu, Aoi Koga, alone does wonders with her impressive vocal ability and range. The direction is also excellent and comedic timing is just impeccable. I’ve already mentioned it, but I’ve laughed at several moments from each episode, which is a rarity for me. From a stylistic standpoint, Love is War is clearly at the top of the game, and I have to give major props to A-1 Pictures for a job well done.

Hey, hey! You wanna know what makes this anime even better? There’s an enlightening life lesson to be learned here. For as Love is War teaches us, "the first to confess loses." This means that if you're crushing on someone, don't just go up and ask them out! Not unless you wanna be the submissive dog in the relationship! No, all you need to do is wait for THEM to confess to YOU. Genius! Now that I've learned the secrets of starting a relationship, I can't wait to see the effects it has on my love life!

Though what I’m really excited for is seeing how things play out with Love is War’s penultimate romance. Who will prevail in the battle of love: Shirogane or Kaguya? I really want to see more, so we better get a season 3. Come on A-1, just let it be!