It's been about a year since this chapter came out and I've finally gotten around to seeing it off. There was a time when I would eagerly read and enjoy each new chapter on a weekly basis. But some time after the culture festival arc reading weekly became less and less enjoyable and I would find myself focusing more on the negatives and what each chapter was lacking rather than appreciating the good parts. Finally, after the ABC's arc I decided to stop reading since I was sceptical about how enjoyable the Shinomiya family conflict would be and ultimately decided to read the rest in one go. Haven't been consuming as much anime and manga in the last year but I had to eventually back to a series that I really loved at one point. Reading the last ~50 chapters in one go was a good decision for me, I definitely feel like if I had read it weekly I wouldn't have enoyed it as much and would have complained about a ton of stuff. With that out of the way, my thoughts on the series as a whole:
The Mindgame Phase (Basically everything up to Sports festival) - It's crazy to look at the early series and comparing it to the later chapters. I really enjoyed the early, almost episodics style chapters and thought the mindgame structure was a great hook that made you interested in the characters. Obviously it couldn't have gone on forever and Aka chose a good time to transition into more consistent storytelling and characterization (sans Fujiwara). The comedy was at it's best in this period, some of my favorite parts include: Ishigami's intro/him trying to quit, the french exchange party, Hayasaka trying to seduce Miyuki. Can't go without mentioning the fireworks arc either, probably the point you realise the series is something special, that title drop!!!
Peak Romcom Phase (Sports Fest to Culture Fest) - The Sports Festival portrayed more darker and serious topics, and I think it did it in a good way where the series was a bit more hit or miss with this stuff later on. Ishigami's backstory was compelling and him getting closure on his past was satisfying. the chapters from the sports festival to culture festival is when Aka was at his absolute best IMO. Each chapter would flow very nicely into the next and Aka did a great job of constantly planting seeds and foreshadowing even for comedy purposes (think of Fujiwara training Miyuki in the chapter Kashiwagi went to Kaguya for relationship advice). One of my absolute favorite stretches in the series is from the karaoke arc to the rap arc. The comedy and storytelling were both top notch in these chapters and the rap arc is a top 3 arc for me, it does such great job of delivering serious characterization/plot whilst also being hilarious - the arc really solidified Hayasaka as one of my favorite characters. Finally, this stretch of chapters ends with the culture festival which was the longest arc up till the point and boy did Aka smash it out of the park. He did an excellent job of showing everyones experience during the event whilst also building Miyuki's scheme/plan leading to that ultra hype climax, hands down the best arc of the series. Reading these stretch of chapters weekly was truly some of the best enjoyment I've had consuming any piece of fiction.
Post Culture Festival Phase - A lot of romcoms decide to end after the main couple get together and that's because you lose a lot material to work with; the "will they won't they" tension, misunderstandings, miscommunications. There's also the trend for romcom audiences to care more about the build up to the relationship then the actual relationship. Regardless, I applaud Aka for giving us tons more chapters after Miyuki and Kaguya got together but ultimately I feel like everything after the culture festival was the weakest part of the manga. Firstly, and this is an unpopular opinion, but I didn't enjoy the ice arc as much as others. I think the arc had execution issues though I acknowledge the conclusion was heartwarming and it addressed importants issues in Kaguya and Miyuki. The arcs up to culture festival all had minimal to no flaws IMO, but I found myself nitpicking and having issues with every arc after. Won't go through all my gripes but the main ones include: IshiTsuba should have ended at Christmas to give more room for IshiMiko (I'm not an ishimiko shipper btw), Shinomiya family drama always felt awkward and out of place, Iino/Osaragi conflct felt uneccesary. That being said, I'm still glad Aka continued the series after Kaguya and Miyuki got together because it was still enjoyable as a whole (just not as good as the first half of the manga) and the ABC's arc was a great way too address the final hurdle in the main couples relationship (excluding external stuff like Kaguya's family).
Overall, I can understand if some people feel like there are some loose ends or plot points being rushed (i.e IshiMiko, Shirogane's mom, the new characters when the new year started). but I think the extras for the final volume do a good job of explaining why Aka thought it was a good time to end the series. Kaguya's profile in the extras notes "this becomes the story of how a lonely girl decided to be a normal girl" and it ends on "HAPPY END". Compare this to every other characters profiles, even Miyuki's, which ends on some variation of "their story will go on". What that tells you is that whilst the series gives attention to a lot of characters, the story is still built around the titular character and by the end of the series Kaguya had pretty much become a complete character and has achieved her happily ever after. I'll reiterate that I understand some people might feel unsatisfied with certain plot points but I'm okay with it since I view it from the perspective that this is Kaguya's story and her story is complete.
I'd give the series an 8.5/10 as a whole, the first half is perfect IMO but the second half not so much (but still enjoyable). I consider this the pinaccle of the romcom genre with some of the highest highs in any manga regardless of genre.
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