Tag: Ultra Romantic

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Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 9

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

The culture festival is underway, and with it, Kaguya-sama: Love is War! drops the most lavishly-directed episode of its third season so far, with a dizzying array of style cuts and other interesting visual tricks. Despite that, we’re mostly going to be talking about the actual plot of the episode; three separate plotlines progress here, and I suspect that it wouldn’t be wrong to consider this the first part of a four-part finale. There’s a lot of ground to cover here (and for me personally, it’s already rather late in the day, whoops!), so let’s get started.

We actually begin with a flashback. An interesting choice, and one that establishes that the next few episodes are going to cut this plotline—set a year prior to where the series is at now—with the show’s present day. Here, we meet a far more bitter and burned-out Shirogane than the one we’re used to. One who hasn’t yet met the girl he’ll eventually devote so much of his time to, and one who is understandably fed up with Shuchiin Academy’s student body of rich kids, future heirs and heiresses, and so on. He isn’t wrong to feel this way, something I don’t think the show quite gives enough attention. But it is clearly hurting him emotionally, and he needs something to bring him out of that slump.

It’s here that we’re introduced to Shuchiin Academy’s previous Student Council President, an androgynous fellow that the anime gives a stylish purple undershade to his otherwise plain black cropped hair.

The former Council President is a mysterious guy, and we don’t really get the full picture behind him here. What’s important though is that he wants to recruit Shirogane to the Student Council. Why? Well, he describes Shuchiin Academy as a walled garden (true) and thinks that having someone who can look at the wider world with a “level gaze” would be an advantage. He probably isn’t wrong, there must be a reason, after all, that Shirogane eventually succeeds him. (In spite of the prejudice against “outsiders”, ie. people who didn’t come to Shuchiin directly from its associated elementary school, that we’re informed of here.) Shirogane is understandably skeptical, a skepticism expressed by an interesting visual detail; Shirogane idly picks at the decoration on the expensive ceramic the President serves him tea in when the two have their little meeting.

Before Shirogane’s even agrees to being recruited, the President has him help clean out a mucky pond on school grounds, and Shirogane understandably wonders if he isn’t just being taken advantage of. He doesn’t have time to wonder for long, though, as a genuine near-tragedy strikes as one of the girls cleaning out the pond falls in. Apparently the water is deep enough that drowning is a real risk, and everyone present wrings hands over what to do as the girl thrashes in the water. Everybody except, of course, a passing-by Kaguya, who leaps into the water without a moment’s hesitation and rescues the girl handily.

And so, Shirogane falls for Kaguya.

Kaguya-sama leans on the shadowless technique for emotional moments so often that it’s practically an internal cliche for the series. And yet, I love it every time.

Not because of her status or looks, but because of her decisive and bold nature. That may seem strange to us, the audience, given that we know Kaguya as much for her flustered pull faces, her hilarious but self-defeating exercises in denying that she has a crush on the Shirogane, etc. But the fact remains that this is the Kaguya that Shirogane first fell for; the sort of person who’d leap to rescue someone else without a second thought. And it makes sense, in a way. To step into the show’s narrator’s shoes for a moment; people are often attracted to those who possess characteristics they themselves lack. Shirogane seeing Kaguya as someone more driven and strong-minded than himself and eventually striving to meet her on that level makes perfect internal sense.

There is some interesting immediate aftermath here. Shirogane chastises himself for being indecisive and makes a mental comment to himself that it “doesn’t matter” if one was born rich or gifted, what matters is the ability to take action when it’s necessary. I’d argue this little aside is the one thing in the scene that doesn’t really work. One of Aka Akasaka‘s few notable weaknesses as a writer is an implicit conservative streak1 in some of the basic assumptions his work is built on. Here, he seems to have neglected that those born into comfort or otherwise advantaged have much more ability to learn the skills to become “decisive” in the first place. Shirogane, as a working-class student from a poor family who has nonetheless accomplished quite a lot from sheer drive, would be well aware of this.

Nearby, Kaguya tries to brush her own heroism off. Hayasaka praises her, but Kaguya claims it was just the obvious thing to do; the girl she saved is the daughter of a newspaper mogul, and being able to call in that favor someday might be important. It’s not impossible that Kaguya is telling the truth here and she really was acting out of, essentially, selfishness, but to me it seems more like the sort of mental gymnastics we’d eventually come to know her for. We could, if we wanted to be uncharitable, read her last comment here—to the effect of, “no one really does anything for anyone else without wanting something in return”—as the writer’s own beliefs. But to me, it seems more plausible that she’s again just denying her own feelings. Akasaka does seem to keenly understand how growing up in the sort of environment Kaguya did can mess with you.

All that in a flashback, which contrasts heavily with the Kaguya we see when the show returns to present.

A Kaguya who is wearing a Taisho-period traditional Japanese woman’s costume as part of her class’s cosplay cafe, yes.

Shout out to Mocksune Miku in the back, there.

This segment, which primarily focuses on Kaguya’s misadventures in said cosplay cafe, is probably the least “important” of the three here. But it does feature the return of the Ramen Guys, an advantage that cannot be so easily discounted. It also features Hayasaka “cosplaying” as a maid; ie., her normal, actual self.

And they interact, too, of course. The Ramen Guys insult Kaguya’s coffee pouring technique while complimenting Hayasaka’s (in one of the show’s oddest visual gags to date, they’re drawn as though badly greenscreened onto a backdrop depicting a galaxy. I think this may be a spoof of old educational programming, but I don’t know enough on the subject to comment.)

Ratio.

Kaguya counters that she can pour an expert cup of tea, at least, and is promptly taken up on her offer. All this causes Kaguya to miss interacting with Shirogane, which was her entire hope in working for the cafe in the first place.

But, one of the Ramen Guys (yes, I will keep capitalizing that) notes that Kaguya’s tea is so good that clearly she’s been perfecting it for a single specific person. He notes this very loudly, while Shirogane is relatively nearby, to Kaguya’s immense embarrassment.

As they depart, the taller of the two Ramen Guys wishes Kaguya well in her love story. He even briefly meets Shirogane, noting that he is “the one.” (Of course, Shirogane has no idea what he’s talking about.)

Kaguya, meanwhile, notes that she’d really like to get a bit of lead up if she’s going to confess her feelings to Shirogane at any point during the festival. Similar thoughts, meanwhile, are had by someone else.

Shirogane’s segment is the briefest of the three here, but it’s also the punchiest, and the only one in which a substantial development occurs. Before that, though, he gets to pal around with Maki, who spends these couple minutes just being a complete bummer in a very funny way.

But she also offers some genuine advice; suggesting that Ishigami ask Tsubame, who’s apparently into scary stuff, to the rather intense Haunted House one of the classes is putting on. (There’s an amusing, but also kind of sad, “I lead others to a treasure I cannot possess” sort of dynamic going on with Maki the Matchmaker here.)

There are some more shenanigans crammed in here, including a deeply awkward scene in which Maki’s former crush and his girlfriend show up. (Ishigami mentions that the latter gives him “sinister” vibes. I’m not sure if this is a callback to that whole business from early in the season where she thought her boyfriend was cheating on her, or some sort of foreshadowing. Given the bizarre visual style shift that accompanies the immediately preceding scene—that’s it in the header image—I think it might be the latter? But it’s hard to say.)

But in the end, Ishigami actually does ask Tsubame to the haunted house. Not without effort and not without some awkwardness, but hey! He did it! And she even agrees to go with him! (Whether she’s aware of his intentions or not is an entirely different subject, of course.)

Look at him, he’s like a happy puppy.

We don’t see that haunted house date here. (Although what little we do see of the haunted house looks pretty cool, and is shot like a found-footage horror film.) The episode ends on what’s essentially a cliffhanger.

So, until next week, Kaguya fans.

1: I here mean the term only in a general sense. I do not know the details of eg. Akasaka’s voting record, etc. Nor, frankly, do I wish to.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 7

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

Today we hit perhaps the densest episode so far of Kaguya-sama: Love is War!‘s third season. -Ultra Romantic- has not been shy about plot thickets before this point, so that’s saying something, but we’re introduced to three new characters and two new plotlines here. That’s a lot to take in all at once; enough so that this episode actually has four segments instead of the usual three. (If you wanted to split hairs, you could say the last two are more like two parts of the same segment.)

We open with a pair of familiar faces, though. Mito Iino and Yuu Ishigami are, once again, the characters we’re riding along with for the opening segment. They’ve been assigned to the planning committee for Shuchiin Academy’s cultural festival, making this the second anime episode I’ve covered in a row about that topic. (Although the one in Healer Girl wasn’t a pre-Winter Break festival like this one is.)

But this is Shuchiin Academy, home of the sons and daughters of Japan’s wealthiest and most important families, must of course have a suitably grandiose cultural festival. The planning involved here must be an absurd undertaking, and one does get that sense even though we only see a little bit of it here.

Both leads for this segment have an ulterior motive; Miko, for reasons we haven’t really had explained in full yet, really wants the festival to cap with a roaring bonfire. Ishigami, meanwhile, is trying to impress Tsubame, who is also on the planning committee. Ishigami has dealt with some of these people before, during the sports festival from last season, but Miko very much hasn’t, so she feels rather out of place.

And arguments break out over what the slogan for the festival should be, starting with several….creative suggestions from Ishigami’s ostensible romantic rivals, other boys on the committee.

This is probably also the worst the series has ever suffered from the official release’s subpar typesetting.

I believe this is also our formal introduction to Rei Onodera (Yuuki Takada), yet another member of the committee and one who initially clashes with Miko.

Miko’s able to stand up for herself though—including getting everyone on board for her bonfire idea—which is a nice way of showcasing some character development on her part. Ishigami offering to help is much the same.

The second segment deals with another pair of new characters, Karen Kino (Madoka Asahina) Erika Kose (Ayaka Asai). Well, they’re not new characters exactly. Karen and Erika, in addition to being the stars of the spinoff manga We Want to Talk about Kaguya!, have actually had several small appearances dating back to the beginning of the show. And I do mean the beginning. Karen was actually the very first character to get a voiced line in the entire series, other than the narrator.

Here they mostly go about and interview various folks about the upcoming festival. This includes Tsubame, who gets a little sequence showing off her gymnastic skills, and also mentions that there’s actually a legend associated with the cultural festival.

And later, when they interview Shirogane, he alludes to another tradition associated with the festival. A “prank” usually played by the student council that involves installing a giant papier-mache orb on the school roof.

They also interview Kaguya herself, who they promptly lose their entire minds over.

As the title of the spinoff focused on them implies, the two are both down absolutely horrible for Kags. It’d be enough to make me feel a little bad for them if they both didn’t also spend time swooning over, respectively, Tsubame and Shirogane. They’re fun, and they get a lot of entertainingly wrong ideas about what Kaguya is like.

(The fact that Kaguya is an absurdly prodigal archer and has been chosen to light the bonfire that the cultural festival committee worked so hard to get approved by firing an arrow at it makes their total misfires about her personality a bit easier to understand. Still, knowing what we do about her, they’re pretty funny.)

They also interview the game club, which is mostly an excuse for Love is War to once again show off how weird Chika and her (mostly offscreen) other group of friends are. One of them goes full chuuni while explaining their grand plans for the festival, which is animated like something out of Kill la Kill for presumably no real reason other than because it’s funny.

(This joke is also a nod to the origins of Love is War! itself. It’s a commonly known bit of fan trivia that the ancestral pitch for what eventually became Kaguya-sama was a death game manga.)

And lastly, what would an episode of Love is War be without Shirogane being comically inept at something? This time it’s balloon tying.

I don’t need to tell you that his inability to make funny balloon animals leads to him wallowing miserably on the floor, which nearly guilts Chika into helping him. (A decent chunk of the scene is also shot like a moody drama for, again, no real reason but amusing stylistic clash.)

It is notable that this time, though, he actually leaves before Chika can do her whole demon trainer / mom shtick on him. Instead he keeps practicing on his own, this time in the student council room. Kaguya, who is also there, has a hard time because of this, given all the balloons popping.

Here, Love is War pulls of a neat trick of flipping this usually comedic template—which it’s used several times at this point, including once before in this very season—into Shirogane genuinely reflecting on what he sees as his own shortcomings.

But, of course, Kaguya doesn’t see it that way. To her, this is Shirogane’s charm; a dedication in the face of challenge regardless of what that challenge is, be it large or, as in this case, small. The warm, full smile she gives him (and us, given that the scene briefly switches to his POV), is probably the most sincere we’ve seen in the whole show so far. This alone would justify the entire segment even if it weren’t already pretty good.

Things swing back to the comedic for the episode’s final few minutes, in its final scene.

Initially, it seems like Shirogane’s apparent incompetence here can be explained away by the fact that he was using old balloons. But then he tries the same method with brand-new ones, and they promptly pop as well.

Hang in there, Fujiwara.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 5

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

I knew this day would come eventually.

He wants to express his feelings in rap. Miyuki Shirogane, student council president of Shuchiin Academy, wants to express his feelings through song. No, through performance art, in what is probably the absolute worst medium he could’ve chosen to do so short of perhaps mime. Ask anyone who’s ever been subjected to Lil Dicky; rap and comedy do not mix. Rap and anime have a very uneven track record and historically mix even worse.

A conflux of the three should signal a truly epic crash where Kaguya-sama: Love is War! burns out and never recovers. Improbably, it does not, but that may be because this is A-1’s most impressive production on the season yet, a true cartwheeling display of visual panache put in service of a bizarre pseudo-music video. The music is still very much at its worst the closer it is to actual hip-hop, but at least it’s never unwatchable. The combined first two segments of the episode are basically this Tumblr post, I don’t know what else to say.

Anyone familiar with the “Chika teaches Miyuki to do something” skits of prior seasons will understand immediately what’s going on here. The twist this time around is that Chika is also completely clueless about hip-hop and has to teach herself before she can teach Shirogane anything. This is admittedly pretty funny, but it does drift into the notion that rap is just funny as a concept, which definitely isn’t true and is usually the domain of a specific kind of bad American cartoons. Although Shirogane’s profound badness remains hilarious. His first try at “rapping” here sounds more like a walrus dying slowly. It physically propels Chika into the air.

The “actual” rap as it eventually develops here is, I don’t know, fine. It’s not the kind of skin-peeling cringiness that I usually associate with rap music showing up in cartoons, which is a positive. Shirogane’s actual song is notably old school, having something broadly in common with the retro pop rap stylings of chelmico. and similar acts.

What is he rapping about? Well, initially this is just followup on that karaoke episode. He wants to convince Hayasaka to be more honest with herself and others and such. We also get a flashback to the karaoke place, where Hayasaka mentions that her job is to “keep tabs on” Shinomiya. Hmm.

In any case, the “musical” segment that follows this is pretty damn impressive, just from a production standpoint. For my money though it’s actually Kaguya herself who has the best song, despite it being probably the farthest-removed from hip-hop music. It also has the best visuals, including a truly inexplicable nod to Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” (Maybe it’s a pun? “Rap”sody? I don’t know.)

In the largely-unrelated final segment of the episode, we link back up with Maki.

She seems to be doing well.

In what seems to be a recurring pattern, this section of the episode is a lot simpler and less ambitious than what precedes it. It’s mostly Maki venting to the boys again. Ishigami correctly points out that it’s usually best to be quick on the draw in games of love. The fact that all three people in the room have crushes they can’t own up to having, some more involved than others, casts a palpable irony over the whole thing, something the series itself is very much aware of. Maki’s own regret boils hot enough to burn away the tea Ishigami prepares for her, and Yu and Miyuki nearly give themselves a stroke just imagining the other person stealing their crushes.

All in all it’s a pretty simple segment that serves mostly to close out the episode. And it is nice to see Maki making friends, of a sort, it helps all the comedy at her expense feel less mean.

There’s also a new ED this week, presumably a one-off. Once again done in a totally different stlye from the rest of the show, and also featuring a hip-hop soundtrack. (One that I’d go so far to say is a fair bit better than Shirogane’s rap in the actual episode.) It’s cool, but I’ll welcome the return of the usual ED next week.

Until then, Kaguya fans.

Bonus Hayasaka Screencap: Why have one Hayasaka when you could have five?

I should here note that Hayasaka’s song is probably also the one that comes closest to having any real bite to it. It conveys her increasingly fed-up attitude with Kaguya pretty well. She even has something that might actually qualify as a Bar™ if you’re generous, rhyming that she has so many faces that she feels like “a hydra.”

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 4

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

Yuu Ishigami has a conundrum. He, with all of his nerdy insecurities, is harboring a crush on one of Shuchiin Academy’s Popular Girls ™. Our boy is distraught by this in a manner not rare for internet natives of his age. He sees the object of his affection, cheer vice-captain Tsubame Koyasu (Haruka Fukuhara) as untouchable and perfect; somebody who lives in a different world than him and is forever beyond his reach.

He has plain black hair. She has quirky anime hair complete with a two-color gradient. It could never work between them!

Ishigami’s situation would be unenviable even in a normal school. Obviously, he’s not entitled to Tsubame, and what she thinks of him we don’t currently know. But the unspoken, yet, obvious, underline here is that Ishigami’s biggest obstacle to getting Tsubame to consider him as a romantic option is actually himself. Namely his own lack of self-confidence, not any inherent difference between them. Were he in any other high school on Earth, he might get advice that actually reflects that reality. But, he is a member of Shuchiin Academy’s student council. And the person who first pries the knowledge of this crush out of him is none other than our title lead, Kaguya Shinomiya.

Kaguya, I genuinely believe, has nothing but the best of intentions when she tells Ishigami that women are attracted to power, so his first step should be to gain “clout” of some kind. (She suggests gunning for a Top-50 placement in the upcoming exams.) Now, Kaguya may not entirely be wrong in suggesting this course of action—it certainly will attract peoples’ notice if one of the school’s worst students is suddenly out-scoring most of his grade on exams—but anything she says should be taken with a grain of salt. We know, but Ishigami unfortunately does not, that Kaguya comes from a deeply broken home. The Shinomiya Family has drilled into her the importance of regarding others only as tools for self-advancement. And while it’s true that she’s shed much of that programming by this point in the series, the roots of such a dog-eat-dog hypercompetitive mentality are hard to pull out. She’s still approaching this from the wrong point of view by encouraging Ishigami to change himself rather than simply be honest. (Of course, as the series itself humorously points out, that’s as much a reflection as her own unwillingness to be honest as anything else.) Regardless of what happens next, we should keep Kaguya’s upbringing, and how it informs this advice of hers, in mind. Although it is worth noting that she does realize that he needs to do something, or else….well.

At least she’s self-aware.

She does, at least, wisely shoot down Ishigami’s ideas for “ultra romantic” confession gestures, including such bizarre notions as leaving themed flowers on Tsubame’s desk every day for a week and presenting her with a half-empty photo album and expressing a desire to “fill it up with pictures of us together.” That much is probably the right call.

Now, let’s be clear here. Regardless of any romantic intentions, Ishigami improving his grades would hardly be a bad thing. He spends the second third of the episode studying, and it’s explicitly pointed out to us that it’s not the thought of wooing Tsubame so much as simply the fact that Kaguya actually believes he can improve that motivates him to try his hardest. Recall that not many people have ever expressed even that much faith in Ishigami before.

But, in a recurring theme for Love is War!—and honestly, Aka Akasaka‘s work in general—simply wanting something is not enough. Despite his best efforts, Ishigami places only around the 150 mark. An improvement, to be sure, but a far cry from his attempted coup of the grade rankings. He is absolutely devastated. (“So bitter that blood might as well shoot out of his eyes”, in the words of the Narrator (Yutaka Aoyama).)

But, of course, failure is not the end. Kaguya confronts Ishigami, getting him to admit that he is torn up about this, and he will try his damnedest to do better next time. Kaguya approves, although (jokingly?) warns him that the “kid gloves” of her study help are coming off.

It is interesting to me, in a series that is very firmly in the romance genre, how well Kaguya and Ishagami’s relationship is written. They’re certainly not romantic partners—and many romance anime neglect to depict friendship as much more than a steppingstone to love at all—and honestly, they don’t seem terribly close as friends in the typical way one imagines such a relationship. But they clearly care for each other; Kaguya would not spend as much time trying to push him as she does if she didn’t. Ishigami, in turn, would not care about those attempts if he didn’t on some level like and respect Kaguya. It’s an interesting, tangly relationship, which makes it feel very real. The two have come along way from Ishigami frequently suspecting that Kaguya was trying to kill him back in season one to a true kouhai / senpai pair.

I do fear I’ve perhaps made this entire part of the episode sound overly serious or even dour. In truth it’s not much more so than any episode of the season so far, but I think the character work here is interesting enough to devote the bulk of the column to. The gags are great throughout, here, of course, but that’s par for the course with Love is War! I particularly like this little nod to a fact we know about Shirogane; his tendency to shadowbox when psyched. Showcased here when he again scores the #1 spot on the exam rankings.

In any case, the final third of the episode is about Chika and Kaguya FaceTiming with Shirogane while sleep deprived.

There’s nothing particularly complicated about this segment, which brings the episode to a fun close that avoids being a trifle. Chika stays over at Kaguya’s place for a sleepover. She meets “Mr. Herthaka”, yet another of Hayasaka’s alter egos. This one has….quite the backstory, as we soon learn.

But really, the highlight of the evening comes when, through a series of convoluted misunderstandings, Chika gets the idea that Shirogane and “Mr. Herthaka” are romantically involved. In doing so, she resurrects a proud, ancient tradition perfected by her ancestors.

A completely unironic nosebleed gag in an anime in 2022? Nature really is healing.

The episode ends on a sweet note, though. Kaguya, very much past her usual bedtime and barely able to think straight, nearly tells Shirogane that she’s into him, only to pass out mid-sentence. A little frustrating? Maybe, but I can’t help but find it adorable. Will these two colossal nerds ever truly have the courage to own up to their feelings? Perhaps we’ll find out next time, Kaguya fans.

Oh, and before I forget, the Bonus Hayasaka Screencap. How about the chart of the many faces of our favorite blonde maid that we get at the episode’s end?

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 3

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

Here’s the first line in this week’s episode of Kaguya-sama: Love is War -Ultra Romanic-.

Pretty bad, right? Of course, because this is this show, it quickly becomes obvious that Nagisa Kashiwagi (Momo Asakura), the short-haired girl there, is overreacting, and that her boyfriend, fellow C-String character Tsubasa Tanuma (Taku Yashiro) is not actually cheating on her. But he has been spending time with another female student, one Maki Shijo (Kana Ichinose), Kaguya’s distant relative and perpetual loser of the love games that the entire rest of Shuchiin Academy seems to be caught up in. And that’s suspicious enough for both Nagisa herself and for Kaguya. This leaves Miko to play the role of the straight man. Pity her.

As always, -Ultra Romantic- spices up what was a fairly straightforward scene in the manga with all kinds of weird audiovisual tricks. When Kaguya and Nagisa both immediately conclude Tsubasa is cheating, their halves of the table are “squished together,” and their voices are run through what sounds like a flutter filter. A pretty effective way to convey that Miko, the only reasonable voice at the table, feels like she’s losing her mind.

When the topic turns to the fact that the accused were recently at a karaoke booth together, Kaguya of course immediately changes her tune, only for Miko to agree that that is solid evidence of cheating, since “people often do indecent things at karaoke.”

The whole thing turns out to be a misunderstanding, of course. Maki and Tsubana had spent the day together because the latter wanted help picking out a six-month anniversary gift; an extremely cheap-looking heart necklace. All girls present—including Chika, who happens to arrive just as this is all happening—think it’s hopelessly tacky. But Nagisa loves it, so this particular sketch ends on a happy note. At least, for her. Not necessarily for everybody.

If you’re next thought, for some reason, is “but what about Maki?” Do not fret, Love is War has you covered. As mentioned, Maki is the loser of Kaguya-sama‘s cast. She, as we learn here, has been crushing on Tsubasa for months, maybe years, and is all burnt up about Nagisa hooking up with him, so seeks out the Student Council’s advice on the matter. Specifically, that of Shirogane and Ishigami. (Irony of ironies, you may remember Nagisa and Tsubasa only got together in the first place because of Shirogane’s advice, way back in season one. If you don’t, the show explicitly calls attention to it, so no worries.)

Maki is a somewhat pitiable character. She’s basically Kaguya herself minus the charisma and most of the status—she takes a lot of pride in being a member of a minor branch family of house Shinomiya—down to the fact that they have similar mannerisms. This segment of the episode is less heavy on the wonky visuals, although there are still certainly some. Especially when the series needs to draw comparisons between Maki and Kaguya.

Ishigami has an interesting role here. He completely cuts through all of Maki’s anime trope defenses, eventually getting her to drop the tsundere act, but also making her pretty sad in the process when he outlines how being someone’s second girlfriend is different than being their first.

But eventually, the two do convince Maki to at least make an earnest attempt at telling her crush how she feels. She also does explicitly say that even just talking to someone about this makes her feel a bit better. I’ve never been entirely able to love the Maki mini-arc, maybe because she reminds me too much of a few people I’ve met over the course of my life whereas most of the other romantic misunderstandings in Kaguya are firmly in goofier territory. Nonetheless, she does get a last laugh here, as she’s about to leave (and as Kaguya enters), this happens.

Of course, to keep the show’s main plot going, Shirogane can’t exactly just say that it’s because Maki reminds him of Kaguya.

The third and final segment of the episode is a classic “Chika sets up a game” sketch.

The series has done these since near the start of season one, and they’re always fun, so I’m happy to see them make a return. Chika’s grand plan for this particular round is to play a common group date game. (Called the “Ten Yen Coin Game.” It’s basically group truth or dare without the “dare” part and restricted to Yes/No questions.)

Chika has never struck me as all that interested in romance, quite unlike the entire rest of the cast. Indeed, a throwaway line in the manga seems to imply she’s aromantic, whether or not she was deliberately written as such. But she does love games, especially if she can use them to fuck around with people, and that is precisely what she does here. She even brought a lie detector along, just to make sure no one tells any fibs.

The questions quickly take a turn for the heavy as soon as it’s Ishigami’s turn to ask. This is, of course, played for comedy. But damn dude, asking people if they secretly hate you is not generally a great strategy toward making sure they don’t. (One person answers yes anyway, probably Miko. Ishigami promptly breaks down in happy tears that it’s only one person.)

Miko isn’t much better, asking if they really need her around. And when no one answers no, she’s also absolutely ecstatic.

Ishigami tells her that she shouldn’t go on group dates because she’s so easily swayed by flattery that she’d be an easy mark. It’s a little rude maybe, but honestly, it’s solid advice.

As for Kaguya and Shirogane, you can probably guess that they use the game to convolutedly try to scheme into getting the other to confess their feelings. It does not work out, although both leave the game on a positive note. As they clean up, Shirogane feels the need to make it clear to Kaguya that nothing, you know, happened during that whole karaoke incident. Kaguya believes him, though she doesn’t make that totally clear.

The episode ends on a sweet note, then. But I can imagine that some of you might be hungry for this plot to move along a little faster. I can’t say when, but I do have a hunch that more substantial developments are on the horizon. There’s only one real way to find out if that’s true though, so to that end, I’ll see you next Friday, Kaguya fans.

Bonus Hayasaka Screencap: This one was hard. Hayasaka isn’t actually in this episode at all other than a brief flashback scene (and I feel like that doesn’t really count.) So instead, have a shot of her appearance in this season’s ED, a wonderful fantasia where Shirogane and Kaguya are star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of a war in a faraway steampunk kingdom. The whole thing is just Shirogane’s dream, of course, but he does have quite the imagination, doesn’t he? Anyway, Hayasaka sells the soldier look quite well.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 1

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

Kaguya-sama: Love is War! returns like it never left at all. Mercifully, unlike the second season, 2020’s Love is War?, the third is marked by an actual, distinct subtitle: -Ultra Romantic-. The first episode is, of course, excellent, and we’ll get to the how’s and why’s of that momentarily. First though, it feels right to simply appreciate the familiarity, here. Speaking just for myself, with as much of a gamble that any given anime season can be, it’s nice to have one or two things that you’re pretty damn sure are going to be great.

Eventually, this season will likely delve into the more dramatic parts of Kaguya-sama‘s storyline to an even greater degree than the second season did. I’m not sure what the reception will be–like many popular romcoms, Kaguya‘s wide popularity does not always shield it from backlash–but for now, it’s simply nice to have it around again. Since the second season concluded, the only real drop of Love is War! we’ve gotten was a short OVA from last year, which, frankly, is best left unremembered.

It’s natural to wonder, all this in mind, how something this widely anticipated marks its dramatic return, and the answer is very simple.

One of the characters completely embarrasses herself in a very funny way.

Keep an eye on the camel, it will be relevant momentarily.

Miko Iino (Miyu Tomita) and Yuu Ishigami (Ryouta Suzuki) are perhaps Love is War!‘s second-most important pair of characters, after the leads. -Ultra Romantic- chooses to open on a somewhat lowkey note by focusing on the two of them for the episode’s first “short.” (If you’ve forgotten; Kaguya-sama tends to divide its episodes, with only rare exceptions, into three “chunks” of about equal length.) The core premise with this one is very simple. Have you ever accidentally left your headphones slightly unplugged? Especially while listening to music you don’t necessarily want others to know you listen to? No? Just watch this short, then. It encapsulates the feeling of total, day-ruining embarrassment perfectly.

Miko sits down to study after chewing Ishigami out for not doing the same. Her case here is actually worse, because what she’s listening to isn’t music at all. It’s ambient sounds. First, fairly normal (soft rain noises). Then, somewhat odd (the sounds of a construction site). Then definitely odd (the loud braying calls of a camel). And finally, outright embarrassing (ASMR recordings of a bunch of “heartthrobs” telling the listener that she’s a good girl and is doing her best).

Dissecting humor like this tends to kill it, so it’s not nearly as funny in the retelling. But Love is War!‘s ability to simply ramp up a joke like this is easy to underappreciate. The final blow comes when the rest of the student council returns. Ishigami–in-line with his habit of falling on the sword for others, no matter how trivial the reason–then deliberately leaves his music leaking for all to hear. (The track must be heard to be believed. Its lyrics consist entirely of “moe moe kyun kyun.”) Only for Miko to then scold him, talk about how embarrassed she is for him, and then promptly not realize that her phone is also still leaking audio.

Fatality.

The second segment is more frantic and uptempo. Love is War! has repeatedly used a trick of directing comedic scenes revolving around misunderstandings–or the leads’ attempts to get each other to confess their feelings–like high-suspense thrillers. The approach makes its triumphant return here, as the technological inexperience of title character Kaguya Shinomiya (Aoi Koga) ensnares her in a trap laid by the greatest adversary of any modern woman. No, not her love interest / rival Miyuki Shirogane (Makoto Furukawa). I’m talking, of course, about read notifications. Kaguya leaves Miyuki on read because she’s just so happy to have gotten a text from him. Miyuki can see the notification but, obviously, not her reason for doing this. He is a bit panicked.

Another key part of Love is War!‘s appeal is that it understands how to involve the foibles of modern life in its scenarios. Many anime only touch on technology briefly, but this entire segment rests on a social stress stemming entirely from what is supposed to be a convenient feature of instant messaging platforms (LINE here, rather than iMessage itself) but, is more often than not, a total headache. On the character side of things, there’s also Kaguya’s far more tech-savvy maid Ai Hayasaka (Yumiri Hanamori), who could explain all this to Kaguya, but opts not to. Hayasaka has long served as something of a stand-in for the section of the audience that wishes Kaguya and Miyuki would just knock it off and kiss already. It’s hard to imagine that fact not playing some role in her decision to not bother here. Even so, for the second time in the episode, second-hand embarrassment plays a big role.

The whole thing is resolved with a lie and minimal social casualties, but not before Hayasaka gets hit with quite the death glare.

Continuing the escalation, the third segment is the goofiest of all. The impetus? An arm-wrestling tournament, started by Chika Fujiwara (Konomi Kohara), but certainly not ended by her.

This is probably the short with the least to talk about, which is a shame because in spite of the lack of any pesky things like “emotional resonance” or “forward narrative development”, it’s pretty fucking funny. It’s also the most visually engaging of the three, integrating a grab-bag of visual tropes from fighting games and shonen anime (especially Dragonball Z). Conceptually, rendering something ridiculous by welding it to shonen tropes is nothing new. (Hell, Birdie Wing did it only a couple days ago.) But as it has in prior seasons, what sets Love is War! apart is sheer commitment to the bit. We even get a battle shonen-esque vaguely plausible-sounding explanation for our protagonist’s extraordinary abilities. Kaguya wins the tournament. Why? Well, she’s in the archery club and bow drawstrings are heavy, helpfully illustrated by a cute callback to season two’s OP.

It’s hard to be too surprised when the entire thing caps off with what I’m fairly sure is a Cho Aniki reference after Kaguya wins. Why wouldn’t it? The show’s grip on reality is loose at the best of times, and when it goes headlong into full surreal comedy mode it feels like it can do just about anything and have it make sense. A giant pile of muscle men, why not?

Sadly, not everything is entirely smooth sailing. While the actual show remains as great to look at as ever, this is the second romcom this season to be afflicted by a pretty bad case of subpar typesetting. The translation is as good as it’s ever been, but there is enough text on screen that plain multi-tracking (one up top and the other on the bottom) just doesn’t cut it anymore. I will still be covering the anime weekly as it releases officially, but if the more patient among you were inclined to wait for fansubs I would completely understand.

As for this episode? It’s a solid return for the series. Some might take issue with the series not launching right back into The Heavy Stuff ™, but we’ll get there soon enough. In the meantime, I can again speak only for myself, but I’m happy to just be along for the ride.

Ah, and since I like to make a habit of including a small something extra for folks who make it all the way to the end of the column, please enjoy this Bonus Hayasaka Screencap. A recurring feature from this point forward.

I’m sure some of you will be looking forward to that.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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