Anime Review: Kaguya-sama: Love is war – Ultra Romantic

I am going to be honest here, Kaguya-sama is one of my favorite anime of all time. I just love everything about it, the whole storyline, weird narration, characters, openings, endings, etc. As I am writing this, the anime is still trending #1 on Myanimelist with a rating of 9.16. I’ll try to keep this review spoiler-free.

Anime: Kaguya-sama – Love is war Ultra Romantic

Manga: Kaguya-sama – Love is war (Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Ultra Romantic)

Mangaka: Aka Akasaka (Story & Art)

Status: Releasing

Episodes: 13

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Demographic: Seinen

Studio: A1 – Pictures

Main Characters:  Kaguya Shinomiya, Miyuki Shirogane, Chika Fujiwara, Yuu Ishigami, Miko Iino

Synopsis:  Considered a genius due to having the highest grades in the country, Miyuki Shirogane leads the prestigious Shuchiin Academy’s student council as its president, working alongside the beautiful and wealthy vice president Kaguya Shinomiya. The two are often regarded as the perfect couple by students despite them not being in any sort of romantic relationship. However, the truth is that after spending so much time together, the two have developed feelings for one another; unfortunately, neither is willing to confess, as doing so would be a sign of weakness. With their pride as elite students on the line, Miyuki and Kaguya embark on a quest to do whatever is necessary to get a confession out of the other.

Story/Writing: In season 1, we were introduced to this bizarre concept of this anime while in season 2, we watched the whole premise of the story and the characters started to grow slowly. And finally, in this season, we watched everything come together and woo-ed us. Had season 1 or 2 not shown the way they have, Season 3 wouldn’t have created such a long-lasting impression. Hats off the Aka Akasaka (Mangaka), Shinichi Omata (Director), and the staff to pull this off.

This is by far one of the best-written anime I have watched this year. The anime checked both the boxes for comedy and romance. The jokes/gags were unpredictable and it makes the situation funnier they are being triggered due to the adorable traits of the characters. The character development combined with the story progression made the whole journey worthwhile. We also found out the reasons why Kaguya and Shirogane were so adamant about not confessing their feeling and why the other one should confess to them. I would rate the story and writing as 10 out of 10.

Characters: The anime has one of the best character development that too for multiple characters which I haven’t seen in a while. I like to think of the student council as a family. Kaguya and Shirogane are the loving parents, who take care of their children; Chika is the oldest meddlesome child, Ishigami is a shy and troubled middle one, and Miko is the innocent youngest child.

Here are some of the aspects of the characters which I really love.

• Kaguya Shinomiya – Kaguya is my favorite character in this anime. She is one with the most character development. From cold-hearted beauty to realizing her feelings, from finding usefulness in people to going so far as to help Ishigami study and convince him to confess his feelings, she is one who has grown the most. I love it when her madly in love side (Bakaguya) is shown in the anime, with a high-pitched voice and chibi-style animation with a flower on her head. Because of her ego, she wants to be confessed but as soon as she realized she might lose Shirogane, she threw away her ego and was willing to confess her feelings.

Bakaguya!!! Must protecc!!!

• Miyuki Shirogane – Shirogane is the guy who tries his hardest at everything despite he is bad at everything. He is smart, top of his class, and works multiple part-time jobs to support his family. His interactions with his father and his sister are just priceless.

• Chika Fujiwara – Chika is genuinely one of the funniest characters in the show. Her interactions with Shirogane are truly hysterical. Shirogane used the fact she loves playing make-believe detectives to keep her out of the way during the season finale.

• Yuu Ishigami – For me, Ishigami is the most relatable character here. Even after being bullied for most of his middle school for doing the right thing, he still is just and sincere. He keeps eye on Miko even tho she loathes him and saves her from troubles from the shadows. His character truly shined in the last 2 seasons.

• Miko Iino – She is the newest member of the student council and her character is still going through development. Her interactions with Ishigami are really comical and her obsession with Chika is hilarious.

This season too also had some great moments with the side characters such as Tsubame and Ishigami misunderstanding, Shirogane’s father has a better style than his son. I would rate the characterization as 10 out of 10.

Animation: As usual animation was great. I loved the animation style in both opening and ending songs. I would rate it 9 out of 10.

Sound: All the voice actors in the anime are great. I just love Koga Aoi (Shinomiya Kaguya’s voice actress). It’s just super fun to see how her voice changes, whenever Kaguya is shown as a maiden in love.

Both opening and ending songs are also just great as in previous seasons. The opening is “”GIRI GIRI” by Masayuki Suzuki and Suu. Again, the animation is great as in previous seasons.

The ending song is “Heart wa Oteage” by Airi Suzuki. She sang the previous season’s opening with Masayuki Suzuki.

There was a second ending that was only featured in episode 5 in the episode we saw how Shirogane is trying to convey his message to Hayasaka that it’s okay to show her true feelings and show her vulnerable side. The ending is called “My Nonfiction” by Makoto Furukawa(Miyuki Shirogane) & Konomi Kohara(Chika Fujiwara). The storyboard for the ending is created by 18 years old animator Vercreek. The futuristic animation fits perfectly with the premise of the episode and the ending. Also, Ishigami’s moves are quite slick in this.

I would rate the sound/music 9 out of 10.

Overall:  I would rate this anime as 9.5 out of 10. The anime is just superb. I would like to recommend this anime to everyone regardless of their preferred genre.

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