I love a series that requires no background knowledge, no real thought in order to enjoy
it, and has an absolutely stunning amount of polish to make me wonder why anyone would
bother on such a stupid series, but I’m extremely grateful that they did.
Oh right, did I just call this show stupid?
I did, didn’t I?
But I’m not wrong.
It’s a dumb premise, with even dumber characters
who masquerade as being far more intelligent than they actually are.
They parade about like each is a mastermind with intellects
the size of the sun, trapped in an epic struggle the likes of which we haven’t seen since
the last time someone tried to pen a fanfiction where Lelouch from Geass and Light from Death
Note found themselves in a death match.
But here’s the thing.
As stupid as it is, that stupidity is what makes it one of the
best shows to watch this season.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War is a currently airing anime series from A-1 based on
the manga of the same name by Aka Akasaka.
Is that a pen name?
idk.
It follows both the titular Kaguya, a wealthy student council VICE-president, and her struggles
dealing with the less wealthy but academically gifted PRESIDENT of the student council, Shirogane.
They struggle not with their duties as members of the student council, nor with their academics
in this exceedingly rich high school.
They instead struggle with the innate problem that
they are madly in love with one another, but neither of them wants to be the one to make
the first move and they are both somehow oblivious to the infatuation each has for the other.
This is the crux of the show’s comedy.
Each episode is split into three different stories
(or battles, more like), that place our protagonists into absurd situations, where they try to
ascertain the other’s thoughts or – the real goal – to force the other to admit
to being interested in them.
But they are both extremely prideful individuals who believe
that whoever makes the first move in this regard is doing nothing more than offering
themselves up to be subjugated by their aspiring partner for the rest of their relationship.
So they circle each other like rabid dogs, constantly trying to twist the situation to
their advantage with every minute making the circumstances more and more ridiculous.
Let’s take the very first story as an example.
The student council Secretary and front runner for best girl of the year – don’t fight
me on this, you’re going to lose – Chika offers the pair a set of movie tickets for
an upcoming film.
Shiogane, halfway through explaining that he potentially has a free weekend, Chika
cuts him off to say that people who go to see this movie together often end up as a
couple.
THEREFORE, if Shirogane continues his sentence and invites Kaguya to join him
in going to the movie IT WOULD BE TANTAMOUNT TO INVITING HER ON A DATE WITH THE INTENT
OF THEM BECOMING A COUPLE!
Of course this situation wasn’t a coincidence born out of happenstance, but a meticulous
calculation that involved Kaguya buying the tickets for a weekend she KNEW Shirogane had
free and then slipping them to Chika in a way that she would later offer it to the pair
of them!
THE GAME, MRS.
HUDSON, IS ON!
I’ll save you the spoilers about this particular scene to reveal that in all of these increasingly
bizarre situations, neither one of them wins or really loses fully.
They may suffer losses in battle, but as the title dictates, love
is war.
And the war won’t end until the series does, presumably.
But that’s what I like about it.
It’s almost entirely predictable, not in the twists
that any individual story will have, but in the fact that you can rest easy knowing that
you will get a continued experience the same as last time that will remain as enjoyable
with each new episode.
No surprise twist-endings that massively shake up the status quo like
some other shows this season.
Not that shake-ups are bad.
In fact, in Mob Psycho’s case, it’s probably going to be amazing.
But I don’t watch Kaguya-sama for that kind of
narrative.
I watch Kaguya-sama to relax and chill and just watch two loveable idiots have
a shouting match at each other without actually saying a word.
All wrapped up in production values that far exceed what I was expecting.
I’m really not joking about that either.
This is a series that the production could have half-assed and, as long as the VA’s
got the comedic timing down, everyone could have probably called it a day being no worse
for wear.
Not true here.
The animation is top notch when it wants to be, emphasis on
when it wants.
Because to be fair, panning shots are the norm when you have characters
spouting inner monologues.
But the series also sports one of, if not, the best OPs of
the season, and that’s saying something as it’s going head-to-head with the banger
of an opening for Promised Neverland, and the visual spectacular that is the opening
for Mob Psycho II.
Even if you disagree with me – a concession I’ll grant, given the
competition – I will not concede that any other anime series has a better ED then Kaguya-sama’s
3rd episode.
You’ve probably seen clips of this ED making the rounds on social media
AS IT SHOULD.
ED’s are, more often than not, unremarkable sequences of key animation panned to music
that may or not be more interesting to listen to than the idea of clicking away to
watch something else.
But in this specific case, this ED here is more interesting than
most OP’s I am used to watching.
Which only makes it more tragic that for some reason
they only used it for that one episode and, so far, never again.
That’s a shit ton of polish and quality for a one-off ED.
But that’s the kind of thing that Kaguya-sama seems to
do best.
On the whole, Kaguya-sama is a series that shatters the basic expectations that it sets
up, and it has been an absolute delight to watch each and every week.
Yes, the situations are dumb and break things like the laws of
physics constantly, but it does it in a way that is infinitely charming and exciting to
watch – which, I hope, I have somehow convinced you to do.
This series is great.
But then again, this is only my first reaction to the
series.
Perhaps it could turn out to be quite a bit different.
Thanks for joining me for this quick discussion.
There will be streaming links in the description should you require them and let me know down
in the comments what you have been following this season.
Hopefully I’ll be able talk about it in a future video.
A big thank you to my patrons who make these videos possible.
And until next time, WATCH MORE ANIME!
And stay frosty everyone.