Out of Love is War's 3 seasons, Season 3 has to be the one that I enjoyed the most. Not only did we finally get to see "the war" between Kaguya and Shirogane finally end with a sweet, passionate kiss on top of a clock tower by the school, but we got plenty of good moments from the rest of the cast from Ishigami, Hayasaka, Miko, and yes, especially Chika, that made this for a truly memorable and enjoyable watching experience across its 13 episodes. This anime has come a very long away from me, as back in Season 1 I had initial doubts that I would enjoy this anime before it finally settled in. Both seasons had their ups and downs, but I ended up enjoying both and consider seasons 1 and 2 to be good. While even this season had some weird moments, it didn't ever take me out of the moment and those moments weren't ever as jarring as they were in the earlier seasons.
Season 3 started off a little bit skit heavy (which wasn't a bad thing), going back to Kaguya's and Shirogane's usual antics with some of the side characters, especially Kaguya's distant cousin Maki (who calls her "Auntie" for some reason) getting the limelight, before developing a main storyline around the midpoint in the season: Shirogane has decided to study abroad next semester and go to the U.S. (Ha! Ironic!). As such, Shirogane has to man up and confess his feelings to Kaguya or risk her being the one that got away. This plotline really elevated the story as "the war" between Kaguya and Shirogane pretty much goes back into stalemate territory despite Shirogane's best efforts to seal the deal before things get in the way and prevent it from actually going anywhere. Additionally, the love bug bites Ishigami as he begins to pine for Tsubame, a senior classmate that he met from cheering at the sports festival and was one of the people that got him out of his shell. Both Kaguya and Shirogane try to help out Ishigami which always ironically reflects back on them as they're both seemingly unable to confess their own love. It made for an entertaining time watching everything unfold, and seeing Shirogane's little "grand plan" of him confessing to Kaguya slowly take shape throughout the episodes was fun to watch as well, even if what he was doing didn't make sense until the end. So while the first few episodes of season 3 hold pretty true to what the anime had been about (granted there's some pressure on both Shirogane and Kaguya early on to just finally confess to each other, at least more so than usual this time around), by around the midway point of the season things actually begin to get serious and the payoff at the end truly makes watching the entire series worth it. We'll go more into plot details down below.
From a production standpoint, the quality of Season 3 was pretty much the same as its predecessors. The animation, art style, voice acting and music all remained consistently good. I will comment on the season's intro a bit here. The song, "Giri Giri" sung by Masayuki Suzuki who had sung the intros in Seasons 1 and 2 as well (consistency is nice!), was great as always, but the animation we got for it was what I can best describe as "trippy". It's not that the animation was terrible by any means but it definitely wasn't my favorite. There's a moment where the frames "glitch" between Kaguya and Shirogane in the student council room and then there's a moment where Kaguya is running and it changes into different animation styles. The animation for this intro was very heavy on optical illusions and "glitch" effects which were hard on my eyes. Personally, I just wasn't particularly impressed by this intro in particular, even if the other two season intro animations weren't anything to write home about themselves. The weirdness also extended to the season outro as well. The outro's animation had a very heavy "Starship Troopers" vibe to it as Shirogane and his family, Miko, Ishigami and Hayasaka go off to some alien planet to rescue Kaguya. I thought the "Starship Troopers" vibe was an interesting choice and I wasn't expecting it, but I did like how it was all a dream by Shirogane and he gets woken up by Kaguya, which parallels the season 1 outro. I think the two outros are also connected because at the end some weird "angels" come to presumably abduct Kaguya and I guess in this outro's animation they go to get her back. If true, this was a pretty clever decision by the production committee and I gotta tip my hat off to them for it, even if I thought the whole Starship Troopers thing was a little goofy.
The best song this season (and I believe an argument could be made for the whole anime) was the exclusive outro for episode 5 and its song: My Non Fiction, which is a literal rap battle between Chika and Shirogane. Even though the animation style is different in the outro than from the anime and it was a little jarring the first time, seeing Chika, Shirogane, Miko and Ishigami busting moves and rapping their absolute asses off is easily a top moment of the whole anime (even if it's technically not canon because its an anime outro, but still it was awesome!). Anytime Chika has an outro song or is featured in one, it's a certified banger. Her exclusive song in Season 1 was excellent and I'd say was better than the actual outro for Season 1. They let this girl cook, and I think they should continue to do so. Just let Chika do the outros from now on!
The best moment of the season (and of course, probably the whole anime up to this point at least), was the kiss between Shirogane and Kaguya. Overall the Culture Festival Arc was certainly the best arc of the season as things had been building towards this arc for some time and a lot happens in this arc. It was a cute, sweet and overall rewarding scene, and it wasn't overly cliche! There wasn't a grand profession of love between the two characters which I'll admit I was somewhat expecting but I'm glad the moment played out the way that it did. I thought the whole act of Shirogane pretending to be this "Arsene" character who steals the school's dragon only to reveal it to be filled with love-shaped balloons made for a truly sweet scene.
Speaking of the Culture Festival Arc, there was a lot that went down besides the big kiss:
-Ishigami accidentally rizzes up Tsubame and what looked like a long shot for him, roughly has a 50-50 chance of her accepting. Frustratingly, he didn't pick up on what he was doing until after the fact and in my opinion should've just confessed to her, but I guess there's only room for 1 confession in this arc.
-Some random guy tried confessing to Chika, but she rejected him via a riddle, which was weird (but on par for the character). Also, this was the first time an actual love interest was at least somewhat seriously explored for Chika outside the alternate-ship tease for Chika-Shirogane.
-Granted this had been done throughout the season, but I found it very interesting how the relationship between Miko and Ishigami has changed and it's really highlighted in this arc how they've gone from enemies to basically friends. While Miko is all alone by herself patrolling the neighborhood, Ishigami tracks her down and shows her a video of the fire pit with all the balloons so she can feel like she was a part of it, which was a nice and sweet moment. Also, earlier Ishigami pretty much cockblocked a guy from going out with Miko to the festival and it looked like she was seriously considering it. Flash of jealousy there perhaps, Ishigami? I'm starting to think the idea of Miko and Ishigami actually winding up together isn't as far-fetched as it may seem...
It was a pretty eventful finale for season 3, and I couldn't look away for a second!
As I mentioned above, there was some odd moments in this season that I still didn't understand or could really make sense of:
-The whole Shirogane-Hayaska (in her male disguise) skit was a little weird for me. Now Hayaska going rogue to trying to rizz up Shirogane was hilarious and I actually thought for a second she could pull it off (and it would've been hilarious if it worked, sorry Kaguya!), but Shirogane wanting to get her to open up more and experience life was a bit of an odd choice. Of course we wouldn't have gotten another training montage of Chika torturing herself to train Shirogane in the art of rap or the banger outro, so I guess it evens out. Plus Hayaska finding the inspiration to turn around and telling Kaguya she was fed up with her crap was downright inspirational and a highlight of her character. Now I don't know why they have to put up with the whole "Hayaska male disguise schtick" (even around Chika, which from my understanding Chika and Hayasaka are friends, though Chika doesn't know that Hayaska works for her best friend Kaguya, and the anime does this animal analogy that made it seem like Chika and Hayasaka don't get along? I don't know.) I think that would've been the perfect moment to end that whole charade, but alas.
-I didn't find Maki (Kaguya's cousin) to be a particularly likable or compelling character, and maybe that's kind of the point. Maki pretty much spends the whole season coping with the fact that her best friend, who happens to be Nagisa, is dating the boy she likes, Tsubasa. Now while Nagisa and Tsubasa are essentially re-occurring side characters they're only ever brought in for the purposes of the skit for the episode and don't really change the plot that much, and this held pretty true for this season as well. Unless they wanted to show what a jealous, more impulsive Kaguya was like (which they succeeded, don't get me wrong), she didn't really add that much to the plot. She was entertaining in some bits but I'm kind of surprised none of the main cast took a solid stand to dissuade Maki's ambitions because all indications are Nagisa and Tsubasa are not splitting up anytime soon. So I'm not entirely sure where they're trying to go with this plotline but I can't say I find it enticing. Maybe it'll have relevance in a later season but Nagisa and Tsubasa just really aren't major characters like that.
I'll also give this season praise for finally diving more in depth on how Kaguya and Shirogane came to like each other and a little bit more of their backstories prior to the events of the anime. While it seems that there never was an exact moment where the two fell in love with each other (there was no classic boy runs into girl with toast in her mouth outside as they were running to school type of moment), it can certainly be implied that the two saw what they like about the each other in big moments and came to appreciate them for who they were, which turned into love. I actually ended up liking that approach and it works well in a story like this.
I'll close out this review by pointing out that aside from the many hilarious, entertaining and even emotionally-charged moments that we had throughout the season, part of the reason I enjoyed this season a lot more than the other two was because of the growth in some of the major characters. Shirogane and Kaguya finally got over themselves to express their feelings for one another (and all indications are in the last scene of the finale that they're a happy couple, though whether everyone else knows about them is unclear). Additionally, Shirogane eventually learned not to always rely on Chika for help on things he was less experienced in (highlighted by his initial inability to blow up balloons and do art stuff with them which he later used in his plan for Kaguya.) Kaguya also came a long way in her own right, being less cold and rude which had been an ongoing process but her attempts to always help Ishigami, especially with his efforts to win over Tsubame despite her own inability to confront her feelings about Shirogane, just goes to show how far she's come as a character. Speaking of Ishigami, dude has really blossomed over the last season and a half ever since the sports festival arc. He's a lot more open, outgoing and less jaded, and its thanks to his friends around him. Miko is always showing signs of being less rigid and more open to getting along with people as seen by her slowly warming friendship with Ishigami. Lastly, Hayasaka had a pretty big moment early on in the season when she got to finally stand up for herself and wanted Kaguya to treat her more fairly which I think I got through to Kaguya that time for good. I wish Chika would get her time to shine but the limelight can only touch so many characters.
This was a great season for Love is War and I think it sets up for some interesting things to explore in the next additions: What does Kaguya's and Shirogane's new relationship look like? Will Ishigami end up winning over Tsubame? What'll happen with Hayaska, Chika and Miko? I'm sure all these questions and more will be answered sooner or later, but again, this was a phenomenal season of Love is War!
*As a note: I did rate both Seasons 2 and 3 as 9's. I'd consider Season 2 to be a weak 9 while Season 3 is a strong 9.
