Tag Archives: Kaguya-Sama: Love is War

Initial Results: Kaguya-Sama Season Three

April 24, 2022 Jack Scheibelein Leave a comment

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

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Love is war, indeed, and the war now continues into the series’ third season. The competition: fierce, the battles: just as high stakes as ever. Even Chika is resorting to cheating just to get a leg up, much to Ishigami’s continued annoyance. Those who have watched the first few episodes already will understand what I am talking about, and those who have not…what are you doing reading this?

I mentioned in my seasonal intro that Kaguya was the series I was most hyped for. The first two seasons not only had me laughing my ass off but also genuinely had me invested in the characters as people. Luckily, the first episodes of the season have yet to disappoint.

Part of what has made Kaguya-sama work up until this point is its previously mentioned characters. Sure, Kaguya and Miyuki themselves could probably carry a good portion of the show. After all, their dynamic is well thought out on a comedic level. However, they can only be that funny for so long, and the elevated role of Chika, Ishigami, and the recent addition to the student council Miko has helped to prolong the show’s comedic value.

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Still, the opening bit between Miyuki and Kaguya is no less funny. With her first-ever smartphone now in hand, Kaguya attempts the daunting task of responding to Miyuki’s messages. The 4D chess of trying to get her to admit to staring at her LINE app for hours and then getting saved by Hayasaka and the “computer system” at the last minute is honestly brilliant.

The growing relationship between Ishigami and Miko is another that I am intensely curious about going into the rest of the season. At times, it can be hard to tell whether the two actually hate each other or if the combative aspects of their personality are just being played up for maximum effect. Personally, I am not complaining either way, but I do hope we get a real conclusion in that regard.

The anime is also no less beautiful than it was last time around. A-1 Pictures seems to be handling the production well enough, and director Shinichi Omata, who handled the first two seasons as well, seems poised to deliver on quality, per the usual. Musically, the series is still quite interesting. the OST feels as strong as ever, and both the opening and ending themes also have their strengths, along with also being incredibly well animated to boot.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War – Ultra Romantic seems to be on track to be one of the better entries of the spring season. Though I have definitely cursed other series with those same predictions into a spiral of bad writing, this series has a proven track record and a convincing one at that.

Are you excited about Kaguya-sama season 3? Let me know in the comments.

If you are interested in reading more from me, check under blog to read my most recent stuff, or look below for some related posts. Also, if you would like to support Animated Observations, consider donating on Ko-fi or through paypal, or pledging on Patreon. You can even support by just liking and sharing this post.

Check out my writing blog, Solidly Liquid!

As always, thanks to Jenn for being our amazing supporter on Patreon.

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

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Anime/Manga, Opinion

What I’m (Probably) Watching for Spring 2022

March 20, 2022 Jack Scheibelein 3 Comments

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

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It is about that time of the year again, where the anime of a given season finishes, and the list of new arrivals is all but determined. I tend not to dip my toes too far into the pool of seasonal offerings, usually because I am either too busy or too lazy to keep up with the series that I start. So, in the interest of not developing bad habits, here are the series that I may or may not watch for the spring season this year.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3

I honestly do not know what more needs to be said about one of the best romantic comedies of the last few years. Despite its admittedly gimmick-based premise, it has since managed to create many layers of depth within its story, with its central premise of two idiot nerds with way too much pride to even cut through some topical issues like classism. Above all else, though, it is genuinely entertaining to watch Kaguya and Miyuki exchange mental blow after mental blow, all the while the people around them perceive them as the weirdos they really are. I honestly had forgotten that this show was already confirmed for a season three, but there are certainly no complaints.

Komi Can’t Communicate Season 2

Komi is another romantic comedy series that, since its initial episodes, has come to genuinely surprise me, although certainly not to the extent of Kaguya-sama. Its humor is a bit more niche, and the jokes do not land for me as often as I feel they should, but the series also still has a lot to say, particularly about anxiety and its effect on our ability to navigate social interactions. While Komi is always surprised to see her classmates so supportive of her, it does not mean she is satisfied with sitting down and being quiet. I do not expect to get much out of this season outside of a few chuckles, but I am open to being pleasantly surprised once the rubber hits the road.

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Summer Time Render

Studio OLM also has another series airing this season alongside Komi, and that is Summer Time Render. Given my terrible relationship with social media, a lot of my news on upcoming manga adaptations comes from manga tik tok creators, and given that literally none of the many that I follow even so much as mentioned in this series, I am a bit hesitant. That being said, there is a certain allure in the vague plot description which serves as the series intro. On top of the incredibly 0-100 trailer which makes almost no sense, I am really only left with feelings of excitement and possibility.

SPYxFamily

If there was an honorable mention slot on this list it would probably go to SPYxFAMILY, because, while I do want to experience the series at some point, there is also a decent chance that I just end up reading the manga in my spare time. This is nothing against the anime, Cloverworks and Wit Studios have decent track records, after all, but sometimes I just need something to look forward to reading, so the anime will not be high on my priority list.

What are you watching this season? Let me know down in the comments. Also, since the season is starting soon that will mean full reviews for the Winter shows I watched and some initial reactions for the spring, so expect more seasonal content in the coming weeks.

Check out my writing blog, Solidly Liquid!

As always, special thanks to Jenn for being an amazing Patron

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

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Anime/Manga, Observation Deck

Final Thoughts on Kaguya-Sama: Love is War Season Two

January 6, 2021 Jack Scheibelein 4 Comments

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

Two positive reviews in a row? why it might just be a Christmas miracle!

Oh who am I kidding? Most of my reviews are positive because I rarely ever watch stuff I feel like I’m not going to like.

Well, anyway, yeah I doubt this is going to be much of a surprise, but “Kaguya-Sama: Love is War” is a truly exceptionally series. I’ve already mentioned a few times how my initial impressions of the series led me to believe that it was going to be an extremely repetitive series with little variation in its comedic focus and timing. Luckily, though, I ended up being sorely mistaken. Without further delay, here are my thoughts on the second season of “Kaguya-Sama: Love is War.”

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War Rages On

In my discussion of the first season of “Kaguya-Sama,” I noted how the show plays up the more conservative ideas around romantic interest for comedic relief, dumping on the idea that one needs to hide their emotions by showing how both of the main characters end up miserable for doing so. The series largely continues this idea, but also uses its time to bring new characters into the fold and develop others who were somewhat shunned during the first season, namely Ishigami.

While the battle between Kaguya and Shirogane to get the other to confess seems to be raging on, morale on both sides seems rather low. The series shows how this idea of not admitting ones love first can affect people. Shirogane becomes increasingly worried that the vice-president hates him, while Kaguya, in turn, becomes increasingly flustered and unable to come to terms with her own feelings. As sad as it is to say, though, this kind of scenario does make for great comedy, as one constantly tries to out do the other, despite the fact that they both just to end it all and be together.

Still, I should give the show’s writers a bit more credit, because while the idea itself is certainly amusing, especially given the hormones’-infused, rich kid high-school setting, it is the everyday scenarios which themselves are turned into battles of love that make the show so fun to watch.

Ishigami’s Struggle

I was genuinely surprised when I realized that they were giving not just more attention to the side characters, but a whole back story. While Ishigami was given a fair amount of screen time in the last season, it never really felt like he was an essential part of the story despite the fact that he was also extremely funny. It definitely makes sense that his past would be a little bit darker considering how gloomy he is, but those last three episodes were not the direction I was expecting.

Still, I am happy they went there. Ishigami’s actions with regards to Kyoko’s boyfriend do not feel as justified as the show probably wants them to feel. After all, he did just walk up and start assaulting the guy when he could have just confronted Kyoko herself. However, the sentiment is certainly a relatable one. After all, there are plenty of awful people in the world, and their is most certainly a visceral anger that arises when they just reveal their shittiness right in front of you.

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Conclusion

Thought there is not much information available right now, it does seem the series is ripe for a third season, and I for one am ready. The series is extremely enjoyable from start to finish, with only a few misses throughout the entire series. What will become of Shirogane and Kaguya? What will happen once they have graduated? Will we learn more about Fujiwara and the others? Hopefully these questions and more will be answers by “Kaguya-sama’s” eventual return.

How do you guys feel about the show’s second season? Let me know in the comments below.

Check out my writing blog, Solidly Liquid!

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

Anime/Manga, Observation Deck

Final Thoughts: Kaguya-Sama, Love is War

April 4, 2019 Jack Scheibelein 3 Comments

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

When I first started watching Kaguya-Sama, I was pretty immediately skeptical. It seemed like the type of show where the humor would run dry pretty quickly, and all that would be left are a bunch of stale characters with one dimensional personalities. Luckily, though, that wasn’t the case. Here are some of my final thoughts.

Kaguya-Sama’s Toxic Ideology

Love is a fairly complicated series of emotions, events, and interactions with other people, and can exist in a number of different forms. However, Romantic Love is arguably the most complex of them all. Romantic Love is something that also has different forms across cultures, and depending on the specifics customs and traditions that govern these cultures, can be born out in different ways.

In a much more conservative culture like Japan, and even to a certain extent in western countries like the U.S., the idea of admitting feelings first, or saying I love you first is, to put it lightly, a big deal. However, I also think this aspect of our culture is arguably the one of the most toxic elements of it. The reason I say this is because it often creates a situation where people have to live uncomfortably with their own emotions, and societal pressure keeps them from expressing how they feel for fear of being ridiculed.

This becomes even more prevalent in cultures, again like Japan and the U.S., where a hyper masculine ideal is still common, because in these cultures showing emotion becomes a sign of weakness. The reason I bring this up is because this cultural idea seems to be at the center of the show.

Now, in fairness, at least in Kaguya-Sama’s case, the comedic aspect of the show seems to playing this up as both of the main character’s weaknesses rather than their strength, showing that the two are much more miserable because of this type of pride, and that at least I can respect.

Comedic Greatness

Alright, but seriously though, this show is pretty funny. It has a lot of fantastic comedic elements that make it worth watching, even despite some level of toxicity. Probably one of my favorite parts of the show is when Kaguya locks Ishigami in a room in order to force him to study for their Mid-terms, because if he fails them he likely will have to repeat a year. One of the best eight minutes of the whole series.

How did you all feel about Kaguya-Sama? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you would like to support The Aniwriter, or are just feeling generous, consider donating on ko-fi, or using one of the affiliate links down below:

Check out my writing blog, Solidly Liquid!

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

Blog Updates

Aniwriter Update #17: College Preparations

March 31, 2019 Jack Scheibelein 2 Comments

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

Well, I forgot to post this when it was supposed to be posted, but to be fair, I haven’t had much going on, nor has there been a whole lot of interest on the The Aniwriter as of late. Still, I’ll go ahead and let you all know what has been going on.

Preparing for College

There has definitely been a not insignificant amount of work for getting into college, between filling out my FAFSA, setting up my account with the college, and registering for orientation so that I can even sign up for classes, but so far everything has been going relatively smoothly.

I’ve also had the pleasure of getting to talk about transferring colleges with a few co-workers who are also going to the same college. All of us are actually going to the same orientation together, so that should be pretty fun.

The Winter 2019 Anime Season

As with most seasons I tend not to bother with most of the shows and really try and focus on the shows that grab my attention. For Winter, there were three shows that have did just that: The Promised Neverland, Dororo, and Kaguya-Sama: Love is War. The Promised Neverland turned out to be as good as thought it was going to. Dororo, at least as much as I have seen of it, became a source of restored faith in studio MAPPA, proving they once again that they can make some great stuff. As for Kaguya-Sama, the show has been a pleasant surprise that I am excited to have started.

I plan on having some kind of post discussing each of these shows out hopefully fairly soon.

What things have you all been up to? Let me know in the comments below. If you would like to support The Aniwriter or are just feeling generous, consider donating on ko-fi or using one of the affiliate links down below.

Check out my writing blog, Solidly Liquid!

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

Anime/Manga, Opinion

Correcting the Record: Kaguya-Sama is not Boring

March 9, 2019 Jack Scheibelein 3 Comments

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

A couple of weeks ago I did my episode one reaction to Kaguya-Sama: Love is War. In that post, I was generally positive about the show, with my only concern being that the format could become super repetitive and uninteresting. I am here now to say that Kaguya-Sama is by far one of the most entertaining Slice-of-Life Comedies that I that I have seen in a while.

There are a lot of things that play into my current enjoyment of the show, but I think the main one is just how interesting the main characters are, or rather, how good the show is at getting me interested in said main characters. Both Kaguya and Miyuki are incredibly talented students, earning the best grades and easily acquiring the respect of their peers. However, on the inside, they are still awkward teens who have a crush on each other and just don’t want to admit it.

This leads into a lot of hilarious situations. One of my favorites so far is the scene where they are alone together in the student council room and in order to pass the time they decided to play a game of 20 questions, in which Miyuki asks Kaguya. The scene builds up a lot of dramatic tension by continually hinting that this might be when Kaguya reveals that fact that she like him, but that tension then becomes a wonderful payoff when at the end it is revealed that Kaguya was actually thinking of a dog instead of Miyuki.

This, however, is just one example of the great humor that comes out of the show, and not only is it great, it is diverse. There are so many interesting and funny scenarios that the two find themselves in, trying to out whit each other and get the other to admit there feelings, only to then be thwarted one way or another. In other words, I am glad I was wrong.

How have you all been feeling about Kaguya-Sama? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you would like to support The Aniwriter or are just feeling generous, consider donating on Ko-fi or using one of my affiliate links down below:

Check out my writing blog, Solidly Liquid!

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

Anime/Manga, Episode Reactions

Kaguya-Sama: Love is War Episode One Reaction

February 17, 2019 Jack Scheibelein 4 Comments

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

Well, after a lot of hesitation and general apathy towards this show, I finally decided to give it a go. I guess something just finally clicked for me and I realized that maybe there was something worth checking out solely based on the premise. I mean, an ultimate tsundere showdown does sound pretty funny. So, what did we get?

A decent amount actually. Kaguya-Sama: Love is War focuses on the President and Vice-President of Shuchiin Academy, Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya, respectively. The two have strong feelings for each other, however, both of them believe that, if they to the other, they lose. And so, the war begins.

Kaguya-sama is a show that, even while I was looking through the winter season before it started, I had fairly low expectations of. It seemed like a fairly gimmicky slice-of-life comedy that was not going to go anywhere.

However, after watching the first episode, I definitely see the appeal. While the two main characters personalities did not ring as loudly as I would have expected for a comedy show in the first episode, the jokes still came through and had me actually laughing, which is more than I can say for a lot of other comedy anime.

Shirogane and Shinomiya are both fun to watch, and there similar levels of intelligence I had me wondering what kind of mind games they were going to be playing next.

The only thing that really concerns me about the series is whether or not it can continue being funny beyond its initial few episodes. Some formats work for a whole series, and other jokes are only good for a few episodes, and I am just not sure if Kaguya-Sama’s format is a whole series one or not.

Still though, based on its first episode, if you have not seen it, I would give it a go.

How do you guys feel about Kaguya-Sama’s first episode? I know were half-way through the season at this point, but I’m still curious. Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you would like to support The Aniwriter, or are just feeling generous, consider donating on ko-fi or using one of my affiliate links: