Should you try it: Kaguya-Sama: Love is War

For this week’s “Should you try it” I am taking a look at the anime “Kaguya-Sama: Love is War”

Kaguya-Sama: Love is War is an anime that came out in this recent winter anime season and it spanned 12 episodes. While it is complete with no announcement of a season two, I expect there will be a season two down the line, hence why this is in the “Should you try it” category instead. 

This anime follows the President of the student council at Shuchiin Academy, Miyuki Shirogane, and the Vice President, Kaguya Shinomiya, as they both try to get the other to confess their love because they both think a confession of that nature would lead to the other having the upper-hand in the relationship.  

This anime’s premise is overall so dumb. However, it is also done beautifully. An anime about two people refusing to confess their love to one another for such an outlandish reason should probably not be that great because it is such surface-level stuff and seems like it could get boring quite quickly. But it doesn’t. 

I think the reason it doesn’t get stale is for many reasons. The first of which being the characters. Miyuki and Kaguya both approach things so differently in regards to manipulating the other to confess. Miyuki is more of a guy that thinks on his feet while Kaguya is a meticulous planner that plans her strategies ahead of time. Watching these two go to outrageous lengths to try to win this love war and not get tricked into the other’s carefully-laid mind traps is a joy to watch every single time because it is all so outrageous. And this is before the other main characters, Chika Fujiwara and Yu Ishigami, come into the mix to make things even stranger. 

Miyuki and Kaguya have convinced themselves that the other likes them while also both thinking that the other doesn’t know they like them back. They both know the same thing but think they are the only one who knows, so they both try to pull off massive trickery thinking they have the upper hand. They are both fighting the same battle against each other but yet they both are losing somehow because they sabotage themselves more than they sabotage each other. And the narrator coming in every little bit to spell out how ridiculous this all is in the most non-ironic way possible is just the icing on the cake. 

As I said, the anime is very surface-level so there really isn’t any real story thread besides maybe one or two little things (though it looked like they were at least trying to build up a plot line later on in the season). It’s more so an anime that has three smaller vignettes an episode. So it almost takes on a short form style but they give you three an episode to make it a full-length anime episode. 

Done by A-1 pictures, this anime looks like a visual masterpiece. But not for the usual reasons most people think of. The art style is pretty unique in its own little way because of just how much the style changes constantly throughout each episode. While many anime do changes to the art style for a few frames or even a whole scene to depict a change in tone or mood and to emphasize it, Kaguya-Sama does it way more than many others. It is just another thing that makes this anime over the top. 

But the beauty of all these changes in art style is they all seem well thought out and are used in such a way that makes it feel as impactful as it is. They aren’t just thrown together changes of the art style just for the sake of doing it to try too hard to be funny or whatever else. They simply do it a lot, but at the same time they do not overdo it to the point where it gets stale and bland. Every scene is simply a work of art on its own given all the styles used. 

My favorite part of this anime is easily how funny it is. There were plenty of times throughout it that I found myself laughing so hard that I had to stop the episode just to collect myself for a minute. Most of the comedy comes from just how outrageous and over-the-top that it all is, but the characters and the art styles emphasize the comedy even more. The combination of all these things turn a pretty lackluster premise to an anime into one that has to be one of the best romantic comedy anime we have seen over the last few years. 

What makes this different from most romantic comedies is that the struggle isn’t about whether one will reject the other if they confess. No, both of these egoitistical super smart people don’t have any doubt they’d be in a relationship if someone just confessed. The struggle instead is that neither person wants to be the first to confess because they are too prideful and don’t want to risk being the loser. It is in a more strategic mind game style as opposed to the style most romantic comedies have. Kaguya-Sama: Love is War has a very unique way about it, and it is very different than what we are used to seeing in the genre. 

And if nothing else, the OP and EDs are great, especially the ED after episode 3 that became very famous online in the anime community because the Chika dance is just too precious. But the normal ED is good in its own right. I prefer the OP myself, but all of them are good. 

I really hope this anime gets a season two really soon, and I hope that new season doesn’t lose its way as to what made it a very enjoyable watch in the first place. I want to continue to see these two geniuses try to outwit each other over something that is being way overplayed by both of them. I also want to see more of the adorable yet manipulative nature of Chika and the outrageously dark life views of Ishigami. I just want to see more crazy antics that could possibly ensue before one of the two egotistical wannabe-lovers finally gives in. 

If you have yet to see this anime yet, you are going to need to get on that. If you want an anime that is an easy watch that is going to make you belly laugh, this is one that fits the bill perfectly. I am certain you will really enjoy this one, even if it is dumb and super extra at its core. 

Should you try it: Yes