Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War (Season 3)

The funniest anime on the air is finally back, and its third season is a bit different compared to the first two. Not bad, mind you, it's another great season of another great anime, but it is different.

Season 3 of Kaguya-Sama goes for a bit of a slow burn approach this time, focusing almost entirely on the buildup towards a culture festival that the school is holding. So much of the season is spent setting the stage for the event, from Kaguya and Shirogane coming to the decision that they want to finally confess, to a love interest for Ishigami getting introduced, to the reveal that Shirogane might be moving away. And course, the last four episodes of the season all chronicle the actual cultural festival itself, which makes for a pretty fantastic climax. That season finale was especially great, paying off everything the season had been setting up. Due to the added focus on plot, this season is a lot more dramatic than the first two, which I pretty much saw coming after the last two episodes of Season 2. Thankfully, the people behind Kaguya-Sama have proved they can pull off these dramatic moments incredibly effectively, and as a result, some of the most memorable moments of the season were the dramatic ones. It's also worth noting that this season has a subplot for much of its first half about Hayasaka wanting to befriend Shirogane (and Kaguya predictably thinking they're dating). Hayasaka increasingly becomes my favorite character of the show with every passing episode and I love that this season fleshed her out a bit more.

However, Season 3's extra focus on drama does have a bit of an unfortunate side effect, and that's that it just isn't as funny as the previous two. Not to say that there aren't a lot of strong comedic moments, many of which I'll mention in the usual highlights, but it definitely feels like this season of Kaguya-Sama was more of a dramedy than a comedy. However, I did feel like a few sketches weren't quite dramatic or comedic, rather solely being focused around setting up for the culture festival to the point of coming off as unmemorable. However, as mentioned above, the final few episodes were so good that I'm mostly fine that the earlier episodes were a bit more uneven. I'd rather have the consistency of Season 2, but I wouldn't say this approach is any worse. Although, one thing I can say has certifiably improved is that goddamn animation. Kaguya-Sama was always a well-animated show with some very creative visuals, but Season 3 takes that up to eleven in pretty much every episode. Moments like the rap battle, the Karekano homages in episode 8, and the haunted house scene are really elevated the shifts in animation style, and the whole season remains visually interesting regardless of what's going on. And don't even get me start on all the video game references, the last two episodes alone had Persona 5, Resident Evil, and Touhou references, and those are just the ones I managed to catch!

Highlights:

Chika Fujiwara Wants To Beat A Rhythm/Ai Hayasaka Wants To Talk/Maki Shijo Wants To Help: Resolving the Hayasaka/Shirogane subplot, this episode takes the running gag of Chika struggling to teach Shirogane stuff and amps it up to eleven, with Shirogane's initially funny attempts at learning to rap culminating in a downright hysterical rap battle. But it's Hayasaka who steals the show when she finally opens up and reveals how much she wants a friend.

Kozue Makihara Wants To Have Fun/Chika Fujiwara Wants To Unmask/Miyuki Shirogane's Cultural Festival: This episode had the perfect balance between comedy and drama, with the haunted house sketch being probably the funniest and most unique in the season, only for Ishigami's accidentally confession to Tsubame to suddenly darken the tone for the rest of the episode. 

Kaguya Wants To Confess/Dual Confessions/The Shuchiin Afterparty: This is the first double-length episode of Kaguya-Sama and it shows. It's grand and climactic, utilizing the entire cast, and it feels like a massive culmination of everything that the season was doing. The Arsēne mystery was a ton of fun, the rooftop confrontation was super climactic and grand, the way the finale references and reuses scenes from previous episodes to put them in a new context was super clever, and the entire ending montage that wraps things up for all the characters is very satisfying. This could have even worked as a series finale, but I'm glad we're getting more Kaguya-Sama later down the line.

Overall, this was another great and visually inventive season of Kaguya-Sama, and while it took a bit of a slow burn approach, it all paid off with that phenomenal finale. However, because of that approach, as well as a general increase in drama, this was also probably the least funny season yet. Still a great season of a great anime, but not my favorite.

4/5 Stars

Episode Rankings: Kaguya-Sama Love Is War

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War is hysterical, it's one of the funniest anime ever made and an absolute joy from start to finish. While the writing is sharp, the premise is inherently funny, the animation is energetic, and the balance of comedy and drama is perfect, it's the cast of characters that really makes the show amazing. Each character is simultaneously lovable and fleshed out, and the vocal performances are absolutely fantastic. I love all these dorks and am very excited to see them again in Season 3. But for now, here's my ranking of its episodes so far:

1. Kaguya Wants To Confess/Dual Confessions/The Shuchiin Afterparty (S3.12)
2. Yu Ishigami Closes His Eyes: Part 2/Miyuki Shirogane And Yu Ishigami/Kyoko Otomo Doesn't Realize (S2.11) - "Go to hell, dumbass." And everyone cheered.
3. The Student Council Would Like A Group Photo/The Student Council Is Going To Get That Group Photo/Chika Fujiwara Wants To Inflate (S2.12) - This was a fantastic and emotional season finale... and the best part was the cast trying to blow up a balloon without popping it.
4. I Can't Hear The Fireworks: Part 2/Kaguya Doesn't Want To Avoid Him (S1.12)
5. I Don't Want To Make Miko Iino Smile/I Want To Make Miko Iino Smile/Kaguya Isn't Getting Called (S2.06)
6. Kozue Makihara Wants To Have Fun/Chika Fujiwara Wants To Unmask/Miyuki Shirogane's Cultural Festival (S3.10)
7. Chika Fujiwara Wants To Beat A Rhythm/Ai Hayasaka Wants To Talk/Maki Shijo Wants Some Help (S3.05)
8. Kaguya Wants Affection/The Student Council Wants It To Be Said/Kaguya Wants Him To Send It/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Talk (S1.04)
9. Ai Hayasaka Wants To Stave Them Off/The Student Council Has Not Achieved Nirvana/Kaguya Wants To Get Married/Kaguya Wants To Celebrate (S2.01)
10. Ai Hayasaka Wants To Get Soaked/Chika Fujiwara Really Wants To Eat It/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To See You/I Can't Hear The Fireworks: Part 1 (S1.11)
11. Kei Shirogane Can't Speak/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Dance/Kobachi Osaragi Wants To Crack Down/Miyuki Shirogane's Dad Wants To Find Out (S2.10)
12. Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Gaze At The Moon/The 67th Student Council/Kaguya Doesn't Want To Say It (S2.03)
13. Kaguya Wants To Give A Gift/Chika Fujiwara Wants To Pay A Visit/About Kaguya Shinomiya (S1.09) - Sick Kaguya is adorable.
14. Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Make Her Confess: Part 4/Tsubame Koyasu Wants To Say No/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Make Her Confess: Part 5 (S3.11)
15. Kei Shirogane Wants To Show Off/About Kaguya Shinomiya: Part 2/Kaguya Wants To Confess (S3.08)
16. Miko Iino Wants To Control Herself/Kaguya Doesn't Scare Easily/Kaguya Wants To Be Examined (S2.08)
17. Miyuki Shirogane Still Hasn't Done It/Kaguya Wants To Be Figured Out/Kaguya Wants To Walk (S1.03) - That Chika dance still blows me away, so fluid and well-animated.
18. The Student Council Wants To Move Forward/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Make Her Confess: Part 2/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Make Her Confess: Part 3 (S3.06)
19. Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Work/Kaguya Wants Him To Join In/Kaguya Wants To Control It (S1.07)
20. Ai Hayasaka Wants Him To Fall For Her/Kaguya Wants To Be Confessed To/Miko Iino Wants To Set Things Right (S2.04) - Hayasaka's "Hey, hey!" lives in my brain rent free.
21. Miko Iino Wants To Be Soothed/Kaguya Doesn't Realize/Chika Fujiwara Wants To Fight (S3.01)
22. Kaguya Wants To Handle It/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Show Off/Kaguya Wants To Be Covered (S1.05)
23. Kaguya Shinomiya's Impossible Demand: "A Cowrie A Swallow Gave Birth To" Part 1/Yu Ishigami Wants To Prove Himself Worthy/Chika Fujiwara Wants To Stay Over (S3.04)
24. Kaguya Wants To Trade/Chika Wants To Go Somewhere/Miyuki Wants To Hide His Ignorance (S1.02)
25. Kaguya Wants To Know/Kaguya Wants To Give A Gift/Chika Fujiwara Wants To Confirm It (S2.02)
26. Spring Of First Year/Kaguya's Culture Festival/Yu Ishigami's Culture Festival (S3.09)
27. Kaguya Wants To Undress Him/Kaguya Wants To Make Him Let Go/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Make Her Read/Kaguya <3 Aquarium (S2.07)
28. Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Mediate/Kaguya Wants To Take Him Out/Kaguya Wants To Interrupt (S3.02)
29. Kaguya Wants Her To Say It/Miyuki Shirogane Can't Lose/Ishigami Closes His Eyes (S1.08)
30. Miyuki Shirogane Wants Girls To Fall For Him/Nagisa Kashiwagi Wants To Console/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Sing/Kaguya Wants To Kick Them Down (S2.05)
31. I Will Make You Invite Me To A Movie/Kaguya Wants To Be Stopped/Kaguya Wants It (S1.01)
32. Yu Ishigami Closes His Eyes: Part 2/Kaguya Wants To Touch/Kaguya Doesn't Say No (S2.09)
33. Kaguya Won't Forgive/Kaguya Wants To Forgive/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Go Somewhere (S1.10)
34. Nagisa Kashiwagi Wants To Kill/Maki Shijo Wants To Take Action/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Be Believed (S3.03)
35. Yu Ishigami Wants To Live/Chika Fujiwara Wants To Test You/Kaguya Wants To Be Noticed (S1.06)
36. Miko Iino Can't Love: Part 1/Students Wish To Discuss The Culture Festival/Miyuki Shirogane Wants To Blow It Up (S3.07)

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War (Season 2)

Kaguya-Sama's first season was a super enjoyable comedy with great animation, funny humor, and a lot of heart. Its second season is pretty much more of the same, but it executes all of these things even better than the first.

Similarly to Season 1, Kaguya-Sama's second season doesn't really have an overarching story, rather it continues to progress the main conflict between Kaguya and Miyuki. Even though we don't really get any resolutions here, you can tell that the two are starting to let their guards down, especially Kaguya who starts turning into a flustered idiot far more frequently. This season also starts to implement arc-driven storytelling, with stories involving Miyuki's birthday, Kaguya losing her cell phone, a big sports festival, and biggest of all, the election for the new student council president. This arc is especially big, spanning a whopping four episodes and introducing an entirely new member of the cast in Miko Iino. I really like Iino, her more rigid attitude serves as a nice foil for the other members of the Student Council (not unlike Asuka in K-On), and the running gag about her walking into the room at the wrong moment was hysterical. I also really liked the sports festival arc, which fleshes out Ishigami a lot more and revealing his backstory. I didn't like him much at first, but learning what he's had to deal with made me warm up to him a lot more, and his character development is genuinely great. I also like that his storyline was resolved in the penultimate episode so the finale can focus on Kaguya and Miyuki, along with the group as a whole.

The main reason why I like this season better though is definitely the character interactions. There are far more sketches in Season 2 which focus entirely on the cast just hanging out and goofing off together, along with plenty of sketches that focus more on the side characters. Hayasaka's increased role was definitely a pleasant surprise as well, with her having some of the funniest moments in the season. This was also the season that really made me aware of how much I love this show's running gags, from Chika's struggles to teach Miyuki basic life skills, to the aforementioned Miko gag. I'm a big fan of this type of humor and Kaguya-Sama executes it incredibly well. The animation is also willing to be a lot more experimental with split second gags and hilarious parodies becoming all the more frequent. There are also a ton of neat details like the camera fogging off if it gets too close to someone or the Mario Kart parody having music that uses the SNES soundfont. So not only is this season stronger in terms of its drama, it's stronger in terms of its humor as well.

Nearly every episode this season had at least one hilarious sketch, but these were my favorite episodes of the bunch:

Episode 1: This was a hilarious opener where nearly every single sketch was excellent, especially due to the strong character interactions within the student council. There's the council spying on Nagisa and her boyfriend, Chika's board game, and the horoscopes sketch, all of which are great. But the real highlight is the first of several Hayasaka-centric sketches which has her defend the council room by all means necessary.

Episode 3: While this whole episode was a strong start to the election arc which introduced the stakes and gave us a brief glimpse of Miko, the best sketch of this episode was easily "The 67th Student Council". An emotional and funny reflection of the past term which brings back many of the best jokes and running gags from Season 1.

Episode 6: This episode was the climactic finale to the election arc, and it was a ton of fun. Seeing the cast take the same tactical knowledge they use for the "love war" and use it for the debate was a ton of fun, and I like how the conflict shifted from winning the election to making Iino happy. The ending is really sweet and having Iino join the council adds an interesting new layer to the group dynamic.

Episode 10: This Shirogane-focused episode was just adorable. His family members got some sketches to themselves, I especially loved the one where Kaguya meets his father, but we also get a great Chika-teaches-Miyuki sketch that adds in Kaguya herself to shake things up. Add in a Kobachi sketch that reveals a bit of Ishigami's backstory and you get a really entertaining selection of sketches that focuses on the side characters a bit.

Episode 11: This penultimate episode felt like it belonged to Bojack Horseman rather than a comedy like Kaguya-Sama, and not in a bad way at all. The more serious tone and focus on Ishigami was a surprising and incredibly well-executed change of pace that did a good job at depicting his social anxiety with the seriousness it deserved. It wasn't all sad though, the second half was incredibly sweet and satisfying, from the reveal that Miyuki saved Ishigami, to the cheerleader squad embracing Ishigami, to that legendary "Go to hell, baka". This episode was unlike anything in the series to this point, and it genuinely showed me how much range it has. If only Season 3 was out...

Episode 12: While this wasn't as grandiose as the Season 1 finale, I thought it had this great sense of finality to it that might have made it even better! I like how this episode lended importance to Kaguya's cell phone and how it gives her a sense of normality, and was rivaled last episode in sheer emotional impact. I also love how even after the more serious phone storyline, we get a hilarious sketch to round off the season, probably one of the funniest in the season, and the way it gave every character something to do, brought together all of the major plot threads only to throw them out the window, and even showed off all the side characters at the very end just felt so masterful.

Overall, Kaguya-Sama's second season was excellent. It takes the strengths of the first season and elevates them all. The humor was funnier, the animation is wackier, the drama hits harder, and the characters got a lot more development and time to interact. This was already an excellent second season and I can only hope the show gets even better from here.

5/5 Stars

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War (Season 1)

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War has been all over the internet when its first two seasons were airing, and was one of the first anime to catch my eye. I'm glad I checked it, because it's a incredibly funny series with great characters and a ton of heart.

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War has a simple premise. Kaguya and Miyuki both have crushes on each other, but they're too prideful to actually admit it. So, they spend most of their high school days running the Student Council while playing tactical games of war to bait each other into confessing, while the secretary unknowingly intervenes. It's a great example of a simple concept executed brilliantly, mostly because of how seriously everything is played out. Kaguya and Miyuki have these dramatic monologues as if their "battles" are some sort of epic battle sequence, the score is booming, and there's a deep voiced narration going on in the background, even though it's really just a bunch of dumb teenagers being stupid. The show is jam-packed with hilarious irony like this that drives a lot of its humor, and most of the sketches end on these truly genius punchlines that nearly always makes me doubled over in laughter. 

However, most of the comedy probably wouldn't land as well if it weren't for the great characters. The show's entire cast is enjoyable to watch together, especially Kaguya and Miyuki who have a ton of chemistry with each other. It's not just them though, Chika is a hilarious agent of chaos, Hayasaka's snark is great, and I love the high school couple that repeatedly asks Kaguya and Miyuki for advice. The only character that falls flat for me right now is Ishigami, but even he starts to warm up to me in the later episodes. Even with the focus on comedy, this anime also packs in a ton of heartwarming and emotional moments that rank as some of my favorite scenes in the season. Another thing that's worth noting is Kaguya-sama's structure. As an adaptation of a manga, each episode is divided into a bunch of sketches depicting one of said manga's chapters. While this structure ends up making some episodes feel a little disjointed, most of the sketches are incredibly entertaining on their own merits. There's also a great sense of continuity with plot threads that reappear throughout the season, and a strong ending that brings all of the characters and threads together on a heartfelt note.

Presentation wise, Kaguya-Sama fares really well. The animation is great, it's fluid and expressive, and the hilariously dramatic shots do a great job at helping the comedy land. There are also plenty of scenes that go above and beyond with the animation, particularly Chika's iconic dance in Episode 3. It didn't need to be that intricate and fluid, but it ended up being one of the show's most memorable scenes. The voice acting is also pretty good too, especially from Kaguya's voice actress who perfectly toes the line between calculating and utterly adorkable. But the real star of the show is the narrator who says some of the silliest things in the most serious voice, it just fits the show perfectly. The music is also pretty solid, jumping between incredibly dramatic and hilariously derpy (not quite unlike Konosuba's music). It works really well for the show.

While most of the episodes are entertaining at the least, these are the highlights:

Episode 4: This episode was the first to have an overarching storyline between the sketches about the Student Council preparing for a party with a sister academy in France. It's a great blend between humor and drama, between scenes like Chika's beat-boxing and Kaguya accidentally calling Miyuki's father, and the surprisingly heart-warming ending which has Kaguya defend Miyuki from insults.

Episode 9: Similarly to Episode 4, this episode has an overarching story, this time about Kaguya accidentally getting herself sick during a rainstorm. All three sketches here are great, from Kaguya frantically trying to bait Miyuki, to Chika cheating during a card game, to sick Kaguya in general.

Episode 11: The summer vacation arc that ends off the season is a pretty great final storyline, and this episode does a good job of leading you to think it's going to be super lighthearted and goofy until it isn't. The first two sketches are hilarious, especially that bizarre ramen shop sequence. However, the episode then takes a far more dramatic shift as Miyuki and Kaguya are unable to see each other, and then we learn about Kaguya's family and ouch, that hurt.

Episode 12: "I Can't Hear The Fireworks" is easily the best sketch of the season. It's dramatic and heartwarming, and I love how Kaguya's friends team up to try and help her see the fireworks. It ties up a lot of the threads and running gags as well, like the Ramen King sketch, and Kaguya's reunion with Miyuki was incredibly sweet. I also like how the final segment of the episode was a bit more lighthearted, serving as a bit of a palette cleanser.

Overall, the first season of Kaguya-Sama is pretty great. It has strong humor, a likable cast, and an emotional finale. Not all of the sketches land entirely, but more often than not, this anime was a joy to watch.

4/5 Stars