Kaguya-sama: Love Is War? is the second season based upon the manga. It is twelve episodes long and follows two high school prodigies, Shirogane Miyuki and Shinomiya Kaguya. Both are in the student council and they both like each other. However, due to their pride, they want to force the other to confess first and thus this romantic comedy is born. The first season was great with plenty of hilarious moments, and the second season continues with the same format. Each episode has several sections that depict the events of the pair, usually joined by other student council members, like Fujiware and Ishigami.
Shinomiya was already trending towards this in the last season but she becomes even more infatuated with Shirogane. This is to the point of constantly losing her composure and acting like a typical teenage girl with a huge crush. This would be usually quite normal but her original (and apparent) cold and cal
culating demeanor is disappearing, making it feel that the pendulum is swinging too far on Shirogane’s side. It feels that Shinomiya cares much more about Shirogane that he does for her, or at least it is more apparent in her actions and body language in comparison.
The current situation is that it is blatantly obvious, to each other, that the pair like each other. You wonder how the story can continue when they get so close, that surely, there is nothing more to develop? Well, as any anime does with these kinds of situations, it just amps it up even more. Scenarios get more exaggerated, and the fact that even the characters react in shock to the craziness of their situation is what makes you laugh. It takes things that are normal, and embellishes them to the point that it’s a smooth and natural extension of that concept, yet still outlandish.
Time marches forward in this season and the school year ends with Shirogane finishing his first year as the student council president. He considers leaving, given that he doesn’t have any need for the position any longer now that he has his letter of recommendation from the school. However, the student election is brought up to be a big arc, so naturally he throws his hat into the ring again. In this arc, we see how scarily competent Shinomiya can be when she wants to, although she melts back into a mess as soon as Shirogane is anywhere related to anything she’s doing.
The student council election introduces a new recurring character, Miko Iino. She is uptight and serious. At first, she’s the only straight one of the group, and the humor comes from all the misunderstandings that she unfortunately has to witness. It’s complete when she exaggerates the situation even more in her head. She refuses to be corrupted by the unruly student council and granted, the council now trends towards play rather than work. Miko has a history with Ishigami, who always had the short end of the stick. He’s an integral part of the student council, and the anime, given that his reactions are always gold. His honesty and straightforwardness gives him cold stares and disgust from effectively all the other characters, but gives rise to dialogue that will leave you in stitches.
While the season, and the anime in general, is a comedy with plenty of silliness, there was an arc towards the end of the season where it packs an emotional punch. Maybe it’s because it is one of those scenarios where the good guy gets framed for something they didn’t do, or maybe it’s because Ishigami gets fully fleshed out and we see why he is such a recluse. Either way, it is something that you’d wish that Ishigami got the justice he deserved, but sadly, that isn’t fully the case. It’s still got a good ending but you’d just wish there was more to it.
Fujiwara remains hard to fathom. Sometimes she is just an airhead with no clue on what’s happening in front of her eyes. Other times, you suspect that she does have a clue and is secretly scheming and manipulating the others. This is reflected in Shinomiya’s view of her, where it swings between suspecting Fujiwara plotting against her, and then softening up and forgiving her afterwards.
A-1 Pictures aren’t exactly known for their high quality animation but it works here. The deformed models and lack of detail in certain scenes is used to good effect for humor, although there is a tendency for it to happen too frequently. There are a lot of static scenes and cost-cutting moves, but the story itself lends well to this type of animation given that the majority of scenes are talking or walking. What happened is that the writing helped overcome the shortcomings of the animation quality. The humor continues to ramp up all the way to the end of the season, where it peaks.
The anime has a lot of sexual references, which can be surprising since you don’t expect it to be so explicit. The OVA dials this up as it is completely filled with fan service, done in a funny way of course. The amount of fan service is surprising, especially with how far it goes, given that the seasons were normally so restrained. It constantly plays on the fact that Shinomiya is a sheltered rich girl who is still brimming with innocence and naivety. She might be clever in most areas, but love and relationships are not one of them.
Overall, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War? is a great season and it definitely provides you more of what made the first season so good. While at the beginning, it doesn’t quite hit the highs of the first season, given that you now have expectations, it manages to exceed those very same expectations by the end of the second season. The fact that the characters are so quirky but likeable, and how it twists even the most mundane of scenarios into scenes with so many laughs, is seriously impressive.
-----------------------------------------------