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～

2020 spring | Episodes: 12 | Score: 8.6 (900960)

Updated every Saturdays at 23:30 | Status: Finished Airing

Type: TV

Producers:Aniplex | Mainichi Broadcasting System | Shueisha | JR East Marketing & Communications

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Synopsis

After a slow but eventful summer vacation, Shuchiin Academy's second term is now starting in full force. As August transitions into September, Miyuki Shirogane's birthday looms ever closer, leaving Kaguya Shinomiya in a serious predicament as to how to celebrate it. Furthermore, the tenure of the school's 67th student council is coming to an end. Due to the council members being in different classes, the only time Kaguya and Miyuki have to be together will soon disappear, putting all of their cunning plans at risk. A long and difficult election that will decide the fate of the new student council awaits, as multiple challengers fight for the coveted title of president. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Voice Actors

Kohara, Konomi

Tomita, Miyu

Suzuki, Ryouta

Koga, Aoi

Furukawa, Makoto

News

Reviews

Mr_Stuff_Doer
04/21/2023, 09:32 PM
Who gave this show the fucking right? I watched the dub of this show, which, for those who don't know, is almost a different show in terms of its comedy. Now, it's not like the ever-popular Ghost Stories dub in how much it alters the characters and plot, but it is comparable in that it made me laugh my absolute ass off. The narrator is the main change, and is fucking hysterical; Ian Sinclair is often joked about as probably having done cocaine before recording his lines. And as someone who generally doesn't laugh at shows much beyond a chuckle or a nose exhale, the factthat this makes me burst out laughing to the point of pausing to catch my breath is a baffling achievement. The comedy and performances from the dub are spectacular. But that's more just season 1. Season 2 comes in with unreasonably good character writing and drama to match the comedy, with a portrayal of social isolation to rival A Silent Voice. Such well-handled drama has no right to be so well done in a show this goddamn funny, but here were are nonetheless, nearly making me cry in the same episodes I'm laughing harder than I have in years. Rating a show that's primary goal is to make me laugh a 9 is impressive, and S2 went above and beyond in all categories, and is one of the only comedy-centric stories I would ever rate a 10. It's just that funny, and the character moments are just that good.
Maginobion
10/12/2020, 09:48 AM
Only first four episodes of the first season were watchable, everything else is just cringy sentimentalism and penis jokes. This season really disappointed me, I was hoping to see some kind of evolution, but this series really loves the status quo. Was Chika meant to be funny? Every one of her appearances made me want to drop this idiotic show. Don't be fooled, guys. References to other media were the only things that made this anime stand out among the others all season (which was really bad). I'll give it a 3 because production was decent and the opening is catchy.
XZXZXZ
09/21/2020, 12:32 PM
not RomCom. just a comedy show. It's not even funny. Story is written very badly. or in this case; very average. mostly boring. = 4/10 Art very average 4/10 Sound kind of ok = 5/10 Character = Ok 4/10I can sort of enjoy it if I turn of my brain. But I won't spend a cent for this anime. That.s how bad it is. Not worth the money. Is a great starter anime for noops though. newby will easily find this anime fun to watch as it is easy to understand. Very easy to understand, if they can't understand; probably had some serious problem on the education ends. This anime does teach some values, but are mostly crooked. Don't try similar things if you go to japan unless you want to be an actors. Then again, this is something like for fantasy. This anime do not need you to be a litter good in intelligence at all. You can be a kid of 3 years old and will still enjoy it. basically, the anime is easy to understand. good for beginners.
Denisu-
07/06/2020, 03:28 PM
“Practice makes perfect!” When hearing that quote for the first time, one would feel motivated. As for the second time, one would probably feel motivated. As for the third time and so on, one would probably not feel motivated- though some exception here and then, as someone like “Ishigami” would probably deny it from the first hearing, or nevermind. “Kaguya Sama Season 2” suffers the second-season-of-comedy-anime syndrome. Or in simple terms: “The overused/repetitive jokes from the first season or the unnecessary arrival of serious tone”. Or in Anime terms: The repetitive humor of nose-bleeding in Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!, or the pointless drama ofAyumu’s killer in Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? But how exactly? In vague terms, “Kaguya Sama Season 2” fails to innovate new jokes, due to the fact that they didn’t feel the need to expand their “plot-choices”. When you look at the characterization of each characters in the show, it’s clear that they have little to no depth, however it’s fine for a comedy anime, such as this, that excels on the brilliantly directed comedy and witty remarks(sometimes), as the concept of “forcing the other to confess their love” is good enough to naturally grow, and endlessly be funny. But that’s not the case, as it goes on and are used again and again, such concept shares the same fate as the quote “Practice makes perfect!”, but then why does a show like Konosuba works? Well, Konosuba doesn’t have any characterization too, but what truly makes it funny is the natural, fun character interactions between Kazuma and the gang. And something as universal as good character interactions, have infinite plot-choices, that is able to infinitely grow and create something truly unique every time. The thing to point out is that, there are no, one specific joke at all, but it's their character dynamics and chemistry that makes it funny, however those things are not pre-determined, rather naturally created. As for the case of “Kaguya Sama Season 2”, although still having good directing, the “outwitting” concept can only go so far. As for the season goes, the comedy is 80% executed through a misunderstanding, whether it be through Kaguya’s boomer knowledge of the world, or Miko’s bad timing, followed by Kaguya and Shirogane doing “things”. Then another 15% is thrown into the old, repetitive exploits of the characters’ traits, whether it be the interactions, such as Ishigami thinks Kaguya is a devil, or just Chika being “Cute”. While, the remaining 5% goes towards actual fresh, funny humor, such as the manga parody or the balloon scene. One thing to note is, that indeed comedy is subjective, but it’s scientifically proven that the same jokes repeated over and over won’t cut it, and I don’t mean the nature of “misunderstanding” as a whole, as it can be executed in brilliant ways multiple times, but “Kaguya Sama” cannot do this. Not because it doesn’t execute it brilliantly, even if it did, it can’t, because the plot-choices are very limited, in fact the comedy can only happen in the student council room and only to the bland members of the student council. This happens because of the lack of new settings, or bad usage of new characters, or just the lack of characterizations, etc. (Unlike in Season 1, with the Kashiwagi Consultation Arc, or the introduction of Ishigami, and the fact that the concept of the show was still fresh and new) At episode 6, a glimpse of hope arrived, as a new character is introduced, which’s Miko Iino, a girl who seemed to be a “stickler”. But what surprised me the most, is the change in tone from a fun, lighthearted comedy, into a serious character backstory. This sudden change, causes a huge reveal in what the writer is trying to do, expand plot-choices, indicating that perhaps “Kaguya Sama Season 2”, is willing to characterize more characters- well unfortunately it didn’t end up that way. Although the backstory was believable, and explained Miko’s character to an acceptable level, the show decided to use Shirogane’s magic- I know what you’re thinking, what is Shirogane’s “magic”, well in fact it doesn’t exist, but anyways through the “magic”, Miko is able to overcome her anxiety when it comes to public speaking. Yeah, it’s pretty bullshit, because it is bullshit. Aside from the terrible development, what disappointed me the most is the character usage of Miko. Introducing a new character is good news, if used correctly to make the comedy better, as it allows more plot-choices to happen- but no, instead of using her “stickler” character to develop the already existing concept of “outwitting”, she barely got any screen time. Even when she did, she was only there as a punchline to a certain joke (they did her really dirty), an example is when she walked in to “Kaguya giving Shirogane a massage”, hence creating a misunderstanding by her. Moving on to further emphasize the lack of characterization of the main gang, it’s easy to say that they’re all two dimensional, except of course Miko and Ishigami.(which I'll point out later), in fact, it’s very easy to describe their whole personality in one word: Kaguya is a tsundere, Chika is cute, and Shirogane is image-conscious. What makes it sad is the fact that the show tries to conceal this fact, through melodrama and the bright, orange color of sunset, as the characters cry while recalling all their activities in the student council, before leaving their last farewells. Yes, I'm talking about episode 3, where the gang bid their farewell to the student council. However, it just doesn’t work, as we don’t care about the characters, nor had the chance to even be attached to them in the first place. The lack of depths, made that whole scene to be summarized as “A wolf in sheep’s skin”. “Kaguya Sama Season 2” continues to disappoint as it hints characterization here and then, yet it never commits to it. A good example is the romance progression that’s non-existent. There was this scene where Shirogane and Kaguya was stuck in a shed, and Kaguya accidentally fell to a perfectly safe matrass, however being madly in love, Shirogane tried to save her, as a result the two of them were in the position to kiss. Like any other people, they decided to kiss- well almost. Surprise, surprise Miko “walks in” on them and the whole scene became a comedy relief. Not only does that emphasize the bad usage of Miko, it also shows that the series can’t seem to balance between being “serious” and being “funny”. Although, I must give them props on how they handled Ishigami’s development. It was amazingly executed and it succeeded at making me, a person who dislikes the show, become attached to him. However, the timing of this development does no good to the whole season, as it was located at the last 3 episodes. What I mean by this, is indeed it expands the plot-choices, however the show ends after he developed, hence the comedy aspect can’t be affected by it this season. Then, it’s also very interesting that the show decided to develop Ishigami first, instead of Kaguya or Shirogane, logically the leads of the show needs to be developed first before the side characters, but looking at the nature of the show, and its concept of “outwitting” between the leads, a development in a sign that isn’t romance, wouldn’t affect much, in fact it may hurt the nature of the show, whether it be Kaguya maturing, or the other, even if it was only to add depths to her already-existing characteristics, it doesn’t allow more plot-choices to appear, as the show revolves around her and Shirogane’s “love”, trying to make the other “confess”. Unlike, Ishigami’s which would most definitely help a lot in the upcoming season, whether it be from character interactions or the comedy aspects. Speaking of the upcoming season, such development of Ishigami indicates that perhaps even more characterizations will happen, and the show will only benefit from this. At the end, “Kaguya Sama Season 2” was disappointing, however by the end it seemed like it is finding its feet. Despite the constant criticisms I gave that leads back to the main point of: “expanding plot-choices", “Kaguya Sama” has the wonderful choice to just make amazing creative comedy, that takes a break from the whole “making the other confess” concept/theme. The show has proven that they’re capable on being a creative comedy as shown in several arcs in Season 1, such as the French exchange party and twice in Season 2, with the best being the manga parody in episode 7. With that being said, they can’t entirely escape the main concept, hence an expand in plot-choices is essential to “Kaguya Sama” right now. In fact, if a competent person, or someone looked up by others said: “Practice makes perfect!”, no matter how many times they say it to someone, that someone will always be motivated by it.
JiangHaoyi1979
06/30/2020, 01:45 PM
Ok so wtf was studio A-1 Pictures's exe were thinking when they decided to come up with a sequel of this anime, given that this simple just ended in a opening ending where nether Kaguya nor Miyuke had confess their love for each other and IMAO, that last episode's ending was just too too lame to say the least....so let's get down to brass tax: Story- Mediocre 5: The first one was just A "OK" but as somebody decides to make a sequel of this anime, well, from there it was just mediocre and IMAO, there was just no fun in it anymore.....When nothing has change,It would have been better if the last episode features Miyuki's term as president ended and that's the part where they should've given the open ending where both Miyuki and Kaguya were attempting to confess to each other. Art- Mediocre 5: As usual don't expect nay fanservices from any of the girls around here, no swimsuit , onsen and any locker room changing services around. Sound-Mediocre 5: Even though the opening and the ending themes have change the message were still the same and I have no love for it......As for the seiyuu's , well I just don't give a damn as to who did who.....well I kinda still hate Chika's voice for being a retard... Character-Mediocre 5: Still a bunch of retards from the student council, like Miyuki Shirogane, who was trying to be this student council president who acts cool and pretends to be cool as if he knows everything and still pretends to be cool to the things that he doesn't have any idea about in which makes him kinda stupid for a guy who has good grades, Kaguya Shinimiya, still this VP who was as retard as the student council president where she too acts cool instead of being honest with her feelings , and as usual they still beat around the bush instead of be direct, thought their attitude with each other were good in the first sequel , the second sequel that's were they become annoying, Chika Fujiwara maybe a very odd but likable character in the first. But here, she was pretty much annoying. Yu Isigami , well nothing has change about him, in fact she one character that can be sacrifice and nobody would give a shit about him, and new addition, to the student council , Iino, Miko who would have been better of being Miyuki's successor that's if only Miyuki had stepped down....then again who was she anywayz...... Enjoyment- Poor 3: Because it was a sequel , I only felt like being dragged on my ass watching it, TBFH, I did skipped a few episode or two given the predictability of this anime. Overall- Poor 3: Don't even think about having a season 3, bioch!
Agent_Redacted
06/29/2020, 02:57 AM
I've always thought of Kaguya-sama as a mediocre happy show offering nothing more than comedies just for laugh. Not until I watched the second season where my entire perspective of the series changed dramatically. Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai?: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen, or the second season of Kaguya-sama offers more than just comedies. The second season of Kaguya-sama offers more aspects of High school. Which of course obviously include depression and tiresome. Now people might be thinking, "won't that just ruin the reputation of the show as a comedy high school?". I think otherwise. And apparently a lot of people agrees with me, judging by theskyrocketing score this season has received which is nearly as high as Steins;gate!! I'll be honest. I started this not expecting much but another 12 additional episodes of comedy. Unexpectedly getting hit by depression as I'm lying down on my bed comfortably and waiting for them to make more jokes was quite a shock. But as a big fan of psychological and drama. I highly approve of this shit. Although it was quite obvious that it would happen as the expression on their face sometimes look like the expression every high schooler would make ( I don't know if this is just me but I'll just point it out ). 10/10. Very good. Must watch. Recommended to all.
noodlesleeping
06/28/2020, 11:54 AM
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 becauseThe 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:)
CodeBlazeFate
06/27/2020, 11:02 AM
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 leastuntil 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.
ragiolow
06/27/2020, 10:44 AM
Love is war season 2 is the saviour of the spring 2020 anime season undeniably.This anime is like Moses that parted the red sea of despair and disappointment of the spring 2020 anime. The spring 2020 anime season was supposed to be filled with amazing anime and sequels that would entertain and hype us up amidst the unforeseen virus that has befallen on humanity out of nowhere. But with the suddenly lockdown in Japan , many anime were postponed to the upcoming season. Many shows were postponed left and right and to be honest , I thought that the spring 2020 anime roster will beleft with bang average anime. When news announced that Love is war season 2 was going on as scheduled, I was glad that at least there will be a hyped anime that was going to air now. And thankfully , I can say without a doubt that Love is war season 2 has lived up to my expectation of being an amazing anime that carry the spring 2020 season behind its back. Animation - 9 The animation of Love is war season 2 was amazing. From the first episode all the way to the last one , the animation never drop in its quality. I really enjoyed the animation and was really immersed in it. The art style done by A1 picture used for this season was the same as the last one and I’m glad they keep it. The characters design and facial expression were also top notch. The animation really compliments the different scenes in the anime. The emotions and feelings that was exuded by the characters in the anime was able to be felt due to it’s high quality animation and art style. Story - 9 The premise of the story for love is war is the same as the first season; it is just both kaguya and shirogane finding ways to make the other person to confess their love. However , this season was quite different compared to the first season. There are more screen time given to the side characters. The story also allow the audience to know more better about the side characters and enjoy their presence.The story also introduces new characters and was able to keep the new characters relevant even after their respective arcs have ended.Because of this , the story isn’t just about 2 characters trying to make the other person confess in every single episode. This makes the story less dull and regurgitating .Other than that, as a romcom anime , the story has progression, albeit slowly. All those small interaction and scenes between kaguya and shirogane actually was not only fun and enjoyable, but it was great that those scenes were able to serve as progression toward their character growth and relationship. Therefore, the story is pretty good. Character- 8 Since most of the characters in the anime were already introduced in the first season, all I can say is that the characters are interesting and are well written. The characters also show character development which really elevate the show as a whole.Well , romcom show sort of suck if the characters have a characteristic of a paper and have limited character development. Sound-9 The opening and ending of the anime was great.The opening was catchy and suited the light-hearted romcom anime it is.The ending was soothing and was a fitting ending song of an episode. The voice actors and actress also played a tremendous job in the anime, especially kaguya voice actress. She was able to voice act kaguya perfectly and was able to execute all the scenes well especially the transition between kaguya’s inner monologue and her real life interaction.The background music also complements the anime really well. Enjoyment -10 I really enjoyed this season more than I think I would.I’m glad they didn’t postpone the anime.The episodes were funny and enjoyable and was worth waiting every week. As the spring season comes to an end , there are many bad things we wish to forget and hope to move forward from. I for one, wish to forget about this lackluster season and wish to move on to the next season. However, if there is one thing to remember about spring 2020 , is that there is one amazing anime that was able to shine brightly out of them all.
Hudsonwt
06/27/2020, 10:25 AM
Overall, another solid season. I don't think it was as good as the first season, but it has some really great moments. I think a large part of why it wasn't as good was because there was no important climax in Miyuki and Kaguya's relationship like the first season. Although some could argue that something like that wasn't needed because we had Ishigami's arc as the main focus in the last few episodes, which I really enjoyed, I still feel like the the season petered out. There isn't as much fuel or drive behind Miyuki and Kaguya's conflict as there was at the end ofthe first season. That said, the quality of the show was consistent throughout, reaching the same level of quality as the first season. I love the animation and the voice acting is so good and really entertaining to listen to. I guess the only problem I had with the show was the way the show was paced in the end. Still a super solid show though and the character development is stellar. Can't wait for the next season.
subh0404
06/27/2020, 10:20 AM
This is such a good anime and the first season was a blast even the second season started with wonderfully. But lately I was so disappointed going into the last 4 5 episodes. I mean they were exceptionally good episodes but it was all about friendship or sometimes just to make you laugh or the emotional episode of Ishigami. But there were no or hardly any episodes related to Miyuki and Kaguya. Production wise it was worst. If all these episodes were on the beginning side it would still be fine but it had the worst possible ending. If I wanted to watch something aboutfriendship and have a laugh wouldn't I watch The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. The ending episodes were really disapointing.
Marinate1016
06/27/2020, 09:01 AM
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 thehell 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.
Otaku329
06/27/2020, 08:20 AM
“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 littleif 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!!!
Inferno792
06/27/2020, 08:07 AM
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 seenbut 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.
HellLyter
06/27/2020, 08:07 AM
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? Howcute. 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!
Stark700
06/27/2020, 08:04 AM
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 producingromance, 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.
Johan__Liebert_
06/27/2020, 07:58 AM
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 Idon’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.
SingleH
06/27/2020, 07:58 AM
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 youask 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.
Karhu
06/27/2020, 07:57 AM
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 tobe 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."
AlucardNoYuuutsu
06/27/2020, 07:54 AM
[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 probablyapply 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.

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～

2020 spring | Episodes: 12 | Score: 8.6 (900960)

Updated every Saturdays at 23:30 | Status: Finished Airing

Type: TV

Producers:Aniplex | Mainichi Broadcasting System | Shueisha | JR East Marketing & Communications

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Synopsis

Voice Actors

Kohara, Konomi

Tomita, Miyu

Suzuki, Ryouta

Koga, Aoi

Furukawa, Makoto

News

Reviews

Mr_Stuff_Doer
04/21/2023, 09:32 PM
Who gave this show the fucking right? I watched the dub of this show, which, for those who don't know, is almost a different show in terms of its comedy. Now, it's not like the ever-popular Ghost Stories dub in how much it alters the characters and plot, but it is comparable in that it made me laugh my absolute ass off. The narrator is the main change, and is fucking hysterical; Ian Sinclair is often joked about as probably having done cocaine before recording his lines. And as someone who generally doesn't laugh at shows much beyond a chuckle or a nose exhale, the factthat this makes me burst out laughing to the point of pausing to catch my breath is a baffling achievement. The comedy and performances from the dub are spectacular. But that's more just season 1. Season 2 comes in with unreasonably good character writing and drama to match the comedy, with a portrayal of social isolation to rival A Silent Voice. Such well-handled drama has no right to be so well done in a show this goddamn funny, but here were are nonetheless, nearly making me cry in the same episodes I'm laughing harder than I have in years. Rating a show that's primary goal is to make me laugh a 9 is impressive, and S2 went above and beyond in all categories, and is one of the only comedy-centric stories I would ever rate a 10. It's just that funny, and the character moments are just that good.
Maginobion
10/12/2020, 09:48 AM
Only first four episodes of the first season were watchable, everything else is just cringy sentimentalism and penis jokes. This season really disappointed me, I was hoping to see some kind of evolution, but this series really loves the status quo. Was Chika meant to be funny? Every one of her appearances made me want to drop this idiotic show. Don't be fooled, guys. References to other media were the only things that made this anime stand out among the others all season (which was really bad). I'll give it a 3 because production was decent and the opening is catchy.
XZXZXZ
09/21/2020, 12:32 PM
not RomCom. just a comedy show. It's not even funny. Story is written very badly. or in this case; very average. mostly boring. = 4/10 Art very average 4/10 Sound kind of ok = 5/10 Character = Ok 4/10I can sort of enjoy it if I turn of my brain. But I won't spend a cent for this anime. That.s how bad it is. Not worth the money. Is a great starter anime for noops though. newby will easily find this anime fun to watch as it is easy to understand. Very easy to understand, if they can't understand; probably had some serious problem on the education ends. This anime does teach some values, but are mostly crooked. Don't try similar things if you go to japan unless you want to be an actors. Then again, this is something like for fantasy. This anime do not need you to be a litter good in intelligence at all. You can be a kid of 3 years old and will still enjoy it. basically, the anime is easy to understand. good for beginners.
Denisu-
07/06/2020, 03:28 PM
“Practice makes perfect!” When hearing that quote for the first time, one would feel motivated. As for the second time, one would probably feel motivated. As for the third time and so on, one would probably not feel motivated- though some exception here and then, as someone like “Ishigami” would probably deny it from the first hearing, or nevermind. “Kaguya Sama Season 2” suffers the second-season-of-comedy-anime syndrome. Or in simple terms: “The overused/repetitive jokes from the first season or the unnecessary arrival of serious tone”. Or in Anime terms: The repetitive humor of nose-bleeding in Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!, or the pointless drama ofAyumu’s killer in Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? But how exactly? In vague terms, “Kaguya Sama Season 2” fails to innovate new jokes, due to the fact that they didn’t feel the need to expand their “plot-choices”. When you look at the characterization of each characters in the show, it’s clear that they have little to no depth, however it’s fine for a comedy anime, such as this, that excels on the brilliantly directed comedy and witty remarks(sometimes), as the concept of “forcing the other to confess their love” is good enough to naturally grow, and endlessly be funny. But that’s not the case, as it goes on and are used again and again, such concept shares the same fate as the quote “Practice makes perfect!”, but then why does a show like Konosuba works? Well, Konosuba doesn’t have any characterization too, but what truly makes it funny is the natural, fun character interactions between Kazuma and the gang. And something as universal as good character interactions, have infinite plot-choices, that is able to infinitely grow and create something truly unique every time. The thing to point out is that, there are no, one specific joke at all, but it's their character dynamics and chemistry that makes it funny, however those things are not pre-determined, rather naturally created. As for the case of “Kaguya Sama Season 2”, although still having good directing, the “outwitting” concept can only go so far. As for the season goes, the comedy is 80% executed through a misunderstanding, whether it be through Kaguya’s boomer knowledge of the world, or Miko’s bad timing, followed by Kaguya and Shirogane doing “things”. Then another 15% is thrown into the old, repetitive exploits of the characters’ traits, whether it be the interactions, such as Ishigami thinks Kaguya is a devil, or just Chika being “Cute”. While, the remaining 5% goes towards actual fresh, funny humor, such as the manga parody or the balloon scene. One thing to note is, that indeed comedy is subjective, but it’s scientifically proven that the same jokes repeated over and over won’t cut it, and I don’t mean the nature of “misunderstanding” as a whole, as it can be executed in brilliant ways multiple times, but “Kaguya Sama” cannot do this. Not because it doesn’t execute it brilliantly, even if it did, it can’t, because the plot-choices are very limited, in fact the comedy can only happen in the student council room and only to the bland members of the student council. This happens because of the lack of new settings, or bad usage of new characters, or just the lack of characterizations, etc. (Unlike in Season 1, with the Kashiwagi Consultation Arc, or the introduction of Ishigami, and the fact that the concept of the show was still fresh and new) At episode 6, a glimpse of hope arrived, as a new character is introduced, which’s Miko Iino, a girl who seemed to be a “stickler”. But what surprised me the most, is the change in tone from a fun, lighthearted comedy, into a serious character backstory. This sudden change, causes a huge reveal in what the writer is trying to do, expand plot-choices, indicating that perhaps “Kaguya Sama Season 2”, is willing to characterize more characters- well unfortunately it didn’t end up that way. Although the backstory was believable, and explained Miko’s character to an acceptable level, the show decided to use Shirogane’s magic- I know what you’re thinking, what is Shirogane’s “magic”, well in fact it doesn’t exist, but anyways through the “magic”, Miko is able to overcome her anxiety when it comes to public speaking. Yeah, it’s pretty bullshit, because it is bullshit. Aside from the terrible development, what disappointed me the most is the character usage of Miko. Introducing a new character is good news, if used correctly to make the comedy better, as it allows more plot-choices to happen- but no, instead of using her “stickler” character to develop the already existing concept of “outwitting”, she barely got any screen time. Even when she did, she was only there as a punchline to a certain joke (they did her really dirty), an example is when she walked in to “Kaguya giving Shirogane a massage”, hence creating a misunderstanding by her. Moving on to further emphasize the lack of characterization of the main gang, it’s easy to say that they’re all two dimensional, except of course Miko and Ishigami.(which I'll point out later), in fact, it’s very easy to describe their whole personality in one word: Kaguya is a tsundere, Chika is cute, and Shirogane is image-conscious. What makes it sad is the fact that the show tries to conceal this fact, through melodrama and the bright, orange color of sunset, as the characters cry while recalling all their activities in the student council, before leaving their last farewells. Yes, I'm talking about episode 3, where the gang bid their farewell to the student council. However, it just doesn’t work, as we don’t care about the characters, nor had the chance to even be attached to them in the first place. The lack of depths, made that whole scene to be summarized as “A wolf in sheep’s skin”. “Kaguya Sama Season 2” continues to disappoint as it hints characterization here and then, yet it never commits to it. A good example is the romance progression that’s non-existent. There was this scene where Shirogane and Kaguya was stuck in a shed, and Kaguya accidentally fell to a perfectly safe matrass, however being madly in love, Shirogane tried to save her, as a result the two of them were in the position to kiss. Like any other people, they decided to kiss- well almost. Surprise, surprise Miko “walks in” on them and the whole scene became a comedy relief. Not only does that emphasize the bad usage of Miko, it also shows that the series can’t seem to balance between being “serious” and being “funny”. Although, I must give them props on how they handled Ishigami’s development. It was amazingly executed and it succeeded at making me, a person who dislikes the show, become attached to him. However, the timing of this development does no good to the whole season, as it was located at the last 3 episodes. What I mean by this, is indeed it expands the plot-choices, however the show ends after he developed, hence the comedy aspect can’t be affected by it this season. Then, it’s also very interesting that the show decided to develop Ishigami first, instead of Kaguya or Shirogane, logically the leads of the show needs to be developed first before the side characters, but looking at the nature of the show, and its concept of “outwitting” between the leads, a development in a sign that isn’t romance, wouldn’t affect much, in fact it may hurt the nature of the show, whether it be Kaguya maturing, or the other, even if it was only to add depths to her already-existing characteristics, it doesn’t allow more plot-choices to appear, as the show revolves around her and Shirogane’s “love”, trying to make the other “confess”. Unlike, Ishigami’s which would most definitely help a lot in the upcoming season, whether it be from character interactions or the comedy aspects. Speaking of the upcoming season, such development of Ishigami indicates that perhaps even more characterizations will happen, and the show will only benefit from this. At the end, “Kaguya Sama Season 2” was disappointing, however by the end it seemed like it is finding its feet. Despite the constant criticisms I gave that leads back to the main point of: “expanding plot-choices", “Kaguya Sama” has the wonderful choice to just make amazing creative comedy, that takes a break from the whole “making the other confess” concept/theme. The show has proven that they’re capable on being a creative comedy as shown in several arcs in Season 1, such as the French exchange party and twice in Season 2, with the best being the manga parody in episode 7. With that being said, they can’t entirely escape the main concept, hence an expand in plot-choices is essential to “Kaguya Sama” right now. In fact, if a competent person, or someone looked up by others said: “Practice makes perfect!”, no matter how many times they say it to someone, that someone will always be motivated by it.
JiangHaoyi1979
06/30/2020, 01:45 PM
Ok so wtf was studio A-1 Pictures's exe were thinking when they decided to come up with a sequel of this anime, given that this simple just ended in a opening ending where nether Kaguya nor Miyuke had confess their love for each other and IMAO, that last episode's ending was just too too lame to say the least....so let's get down to brass tax: Story- Mediocre 5: The first one was just A "OK" but as somebody decides to make a sequel of this anime, well, from there it was just mediocre and IMAO, there was just no fun in it anymore.....When nothing has change,It would have been better if the last episode features Miyuki's term as president ended and that's the part where they should've given the open ending where both Miyuki and Kaguya were attempting to confess to each other. Art- Mediocre 5: As usual don't expect nay fanservices from any of the girls around here, no swimsuit , onsen and any locker room changing services around. Sound-Mediocre 5: Even though the opening and the ending themes have change the message were still the same and I have no love for it......As for the seiyuu's , well I just don't give a damn as to who did who.....well I kinda still hate Chika's voice for being a retard... Character-Mediocre 5: Still a bunch of retards from the student council, like Miyuki Shirogane, who was trying to be this student council president who acts cool and pretends to be cool as if he knows everything and still pretends to be cool to the things that he doesn't have any idea about in which makes him kinda stupid for a guy who has good grades, Kaguya Shinimiya, still this VP who was as retard as the student council president where she too acts cool instead of being honest with her feelings , and as usual they still beat around the bush instead of be direct, thought their attitude with each other were good in the first sequel , the second sequel that's were they become annoying, Chika Fujiwara maybe a very odd but likable character in the first. But here, she was pretty much annoying. Yu Isigami , well nothing has change about him, in fact she one character that can be sacrifice and nobody would give a shit about him, and new addition, to the student council , Iino, Miko who would have been better of being Miyuki's successor that's if only Miyuki had stepped down....then again who was she anywayz...... Enjoyment- Poor 3: Because it was a sequel , I only felt like being dragged on my ass watching it, TBFH, I did skipped a few episode or two given the predictability of this anime. Overall- Poor 3: Don't even think about having a season 3, bioch!
Agent_Redacted
06/29/2020, 02:57 AM
I've always thought of Kaguya-sama as a mediocre happy show offering nothing more than comedies just for laugh. Not until I watched the second season where my entire perspective of the series changed dramatically. Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai?: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen, or the second season of Kaguya-sama offers more than just comedies. The second season of Kaguya-sama offers more aspects of High school. Which of course obviously include depression and tiresome. Now people might be thinking, "won't that just ruin the reputation of the show as a comedy high school?". I think otherwise. And apparently a lot of people agrees with me, judging by theskyrocketing score this season has received which is nearly as high as Steins;gate!! I'll be honest. I started this not expecting much but another 12 additional episodes of comedy. Unexpectedly getting hit by depression as I'm lying down on my bed comfortably and waiting for them to make more jokes was quite a shock. But as a big fan of psychological and drama. I highly approve of this shit. Although it was quite obvious that it would happen as the expression on their face sometimes look like the expression every high schooler would make ( I don't know if this is just me but I'll just point it out ). 10/10. Very good. Must watch. Recommended to all.
noodlesleeping
06/28/2020, 11:54 AM
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 becauseThe 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:)
CodeBlazeFate
06/27/2020, 11:02 AM
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 leastuntil 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.
ragiolow
06/27/2020, 10:44 AM
Love is war season 2 is the saviour of the spring 2020 anime season undeniably.This anime is like Moses that parted the red sea of despair and disappointment of the spring 2020 anime. The spring 2020 anime season was supposed to be filled with amazing anime and sequels that would entertain and hype us up amidst the unforeseen virus that has befallen on humanity out of nowhere. But with the suddenly lockdown in Japan , many anime were postponed to the upcoming season. Many shows were postponed left and right and to be honest , I thought that the spring 2020 anime roster will beleft with bang average anime. When news announced that Love is war season 2 was going on as scheduled, I was glad that at least there will be a hyped anime that was going to air now. And thankfully , I can say without a doubt that Love is war season 2 has lived up to my expectation of being an amazing anime that carry the spring 2020 season behind its back. Animation - 9 The animation of Love is war season 2 was amazing. From the first episode all the way to the last one , the animation never drop in its quality. I really enjoyed the animation and was really immersed in it. The art style done by A1 picture used for this season was the same as the last one and I’m glad they keep it. The characters design and facial expression were also top notch. The animation really compliments the different scenes in the anime. The emotions and feelings that was exuded by the characters in the anime was able to be felt due to it’s high quality animation and art style. Story - 9 The premise of the story for love is war is the same as the first season; it is just both kaguya and shirogane finding ways to make the other person to confess their love. However , this season was quite different compared to the first season. There are more screen time given to the side characters. The story also allow the audience to know more better about the side characters and enjoy their presence.The story also introduces new characters and was able to keep the new characters relevant even after their respective arcs have ended.Because of this , the story isn’t just about 2 characters trying to make the other person confess in every single episode. This makes the story less dull and regurgitating .Other than that, as a romcom anime , the story has progression, albeit slowly. All those small interaction and scenes between kaguya and shirogane actually was not only fun and enjoyable, but it was great that those scenes were able to serve as progression toward their character growth and relationship. Therefore, the story is pretty good. Character- 8 Since most of the characters in the anime were already introduced in the first season, all I can say is that the characters are interesting and are well written. The characters also show character development which really elevate the show as a whole.Well , romcom show sort of suck if the characters have a characteristic of a paper and have limited character development. Sound-9 The opening and ending of the anime was great.The opening was catchy and suited the light-hearted romcom anime it is.The ending was soothing and was a fitting ending song of an episode. The voice actors and actress also played a tremendous job in the anime, especially kaguya voice actress. She was able to voice act kaguya perfectly and was able to execute all the scenes well especially the transition between kaguya’s inner monologue and her real life interaction.The background music also complements the anime really well. Enjoyment -10 I really enjoyed this season more than I think I would.I’m glad they didn’t postpone the anime.The episodes were funny and enjoyable and was worth waiting every week. As the spring season comes to an end , there are many bad things we wish to forget and hope to move forward from. I for one, wish to forget about this lackluster season and wish to move on to the next season. However, if there is one thing to remember about spring 2020 , is that there is one amazing anime that was able to shine brightly out of them all.
Hudsonwt
06/27/2020, 10:25 AM
Overall, another solid season. I don't think it was as good as the first season, but it has some really great moments. I think a large part of why it wasn't as good was because there was no important climax in Miyuki and Kaguya's relationship like the first season. Although some could argue that something like that wasn't needed because we had Ishigami's arc as the main focus in the last few episodes, which I really enjoyed, I still feel like the the season petered out. There isn't as much fuel or drive behind Miyuki and Kaguya's conflict as there was at the end ofthe first season. That said, the quality of the show was consistent throughout, reaching the same level of quality as the first season. I love the animation and the voice acting is so good and really entertaining to listen to. I guess the only problem I had with the show was the way the show was paced in the end. Still a super solid show though and the character development is stellar. Can't wait for the next season.
subh0404
06/27/2020, 10:20 AM
This is such a good anime and the first season was a blast even the second season started with wonderfully. But lately I was so disappointed going into the last 4 5 episodes. I mean they were exceptionally good episodes but it was all about friendship or sometimes just to make you laugh or the emotional episode of Ishigami. But there were no or hardly any episodes related to Miyuki and Kaguya. Production wise it was worst. If all these episodes were on the beginning side it would still be fine but it had the worst possible ending. If I wanted to watch something aboutfriendship and have a laugh wouldn't I watch The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. The ending episodes were really disapointing.
Marinate1016
06/27/2020, 09:01 AM
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 thehell 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.
Otaku329
06/27/2020, 08:20 AM
“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 littleif 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!!!
Inferno792
06/27/2020, 08:07 AM
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 seenbut 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.
HellLyter
06/27/2020, 08:07 AM
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? Howcute. 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!
Stark700
06/27/2020, 08:04 AM
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 producingromance, 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.
Johan__Liebert_
06/27/2020, 07:58 AM
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 Idon’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.
SingleH
06/27/2020, 07:58 AM
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 youask 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.
Karhu
06/27/2020, 07:57 AM
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 tobe 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."
AlucardNoYuuutsu
06/27/2020, 07:54 AM
[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 probablyapply 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.

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～

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Spring 2020 Simulcast List [Update 4/28]

Q2 2020 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 6/5]

PV Collection for Mar 16 - 22

Spring 2020 Preview

Second 'Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai' Season Reveals New Cast, April 2020 Airing

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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～

'Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai' Gets Third Anime Season, OVA in 2021

Spring 2020 Simulcast List [Update 4/28]

Q2 2020 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 6/5]

PV Collection for Mar 16 - 22

Spring 2020 Preview

Second 'Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai' Season Reveals New Cast, April 2020 Airing

Second Season of 'Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai' Announced