Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Kaguya-sama: Love is War anime series cover art
Kaguya-sama: Love is War

Overview

Kaguya-sama: Love is War (Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen / かぐや様は告らせたい~天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦~) was one of the two best anime to come out of the Winter 2019 season, the other being The Promised Neverland. But, as I’m sure I mentioned in my review of that series, these two are nothing alike.

Both are highly psychological but in vastly different ways. I won’t be going over The Promised Neverland here since there’s already a post dedicated to it, but Kaguya-sama uses its psychological aspects as a form of comedy, which isn’t something you see too often.

Usually, psychological anime are action-filled thrillers as well, but not this time. And, I’m actually a bit surprised that this series was as popular as it was due to that simple fact. I don’t like series like Death Note as much as the general populace, and I would have thought they would see something like this as automatically inferior due to the way it uses psychology.

Basically, the story revolves around the student council of a prestigious high school for the children of Japan’s wealthy and powerful elite. Within this student council, the president and vice president each have crushes on one another but see confessing their love to be a sign of weakness.

With this setup, the series follows the mind games of these two as they constantly try to trick each other into confessing their true feelings. However, it isn’t quite as simple as a one-on-one battle of wit. There are also the other two members of the student council, as well as a few other characters, who serve as obstacles in the quest for love.

Characters

The titular Kaguya Shinomiya is probably the best main girl in the series despite what the uninformed attempt to claim. I won’t say that she’s the most entertaining character, that distinction does fall to Chika, but she’s still the best main girl.

Kaguya is the vice president of the student council as well as one of the smartest students in the entire school. As for her background, her family owns some corporate conglomerate, which also means she comes from one of the wealthiest families of all the students as well.

With all this in mind, Kaguya is definitely an opponent worthy of the president of the student council, Miyuki Shirogane. While his family isn’t as wealthy and powerful as Kaguya’s, Shirogane more than makes up for it by being the top student of the academy.

Shirogane is also cheap, works a part-time job, and bikes to school, all characteristics which reflect his family’s lower-income status when compared to his classmates. His younger sister, Kei Shirogane, is also low-key the best girl in the series, but she doesn’t play much of a role, so I’ll allow Kaguya to keep her title.

The third member of the student council is Chika Fujiwara, the secretary. Unlike the other student council members, Chika doesn’t actually seem to serve any real purpose, and it’s unclear exactly how she came to hold this position. Perhaps she was merely chosen by Kaguya.

As previously stated, Chika is the most entertaining character in the series due to her nature as the wildcard. You never quite know what she’s going to do or how she’s going to get in the way of Kaguya and Shirogane’s love. She’s also obsessed with love and rumors, even going so far as to refer to herself as love detective Chika.

Chika Fujiwara from the anime series Kaguya-sama: Love is War
Chika Fujiwara

The fourth and final member of the student council is the treasurer, Yuu Ishigami. I forget exactly why he was chosen for this position, but Ishigami was hand-picked to be the treasurer by Shirogane despite not wanting to be a member of the student council in the first place.

Ishigami would much rather simply go home after school and play video games, making him the most relatable of the bunch. He’s also the worst student in the student council, frequently failing or nearly failing his exams.

As a bonus fact, Ishigami is terrified of Kaguya and believes that she wants to kill him, which is a major reason for why he doesn’t show up to the student council room unless a meeting is scheduled.

Finally, we have Ai Hayasaka, another candidate for best girl. As you can see, despite Chika being a great character, she’s still the worst of the girls in this series. If nothing else, that should just prove how likable the characters are as a whole.

Ai Hayasaka isn’t a member of the student council, but she is Kaguya’s valet and so can frequently be found by Kaguya’s side. Her family has served the Shinomiya family for generations, which is why she was tasked with getting into the same school as Kaguya in order to be of service to her there.

Of these five major characters, Hayasaka is the most normal. She’s not out of touch with the world like Kaguya, she’s not a cheapskate like Shirogane, she’s not crazy like Chika, and she’s not a shut-in like Ishigami. Hayasaka is just a normal girl who has to put up with Kaguya’s antics.

Conclusion

Overall, I gave Kaguya-sama: Love is War an 8/10. It’s really good, but not every chapter which was adapted is perfect. There are a few episodes that didn’t really adapt any chapters I thought were amazing, and most of the time the chapters which were adapted were hit or miss.

That said, even the misses were decent, and the hits were bulls-eyes. If you’re a fan of comedy anime, I’d suggest checking this one out if you haven’t already. But if you’re looking for a more traditional romance series, this one might not be what you’re looking for.

I’d also like to include a clip of what I thought was the best part of the series, Chika’s dance from one of the EDs. But unfortunately, every video of this on YouTube gets taken down, so I can’t.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below, and let me know in the comments who you think the best girl is (it’s Kei). Also, you should follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about becoming a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the second season is available here.

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