Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai? Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen

After a slow but eventful summer vacation, Shuchiin Academy's second term is now starting in full force. As August transitions into September, Miyuki Shirogane's birthday looms ever closer, leaving Kaguya Shinomiya in a serious predicament as to how to celebrate it. Furthermore, the tenure of the school's 67th student council is coming to an end. Due to the council members being in different classes, the only time Kaguya and Miyuki have to be together will soon disappear, putting all of their cunning plans at risk.

A long and difficult election that will decide the fate of the new student council awaits, as multiple challengers fight for the coveted title of president.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shinomiya, Kaguya Main

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Ishigami, Yuu Main

Suzuki, Ryouta Japanese

Fujiwara, Chika Main

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Shirogane, Miyuki Main

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Iino, Miko Main

Tomita, Miyu Japanese

Hayasaka, Ai Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Shirogane, Kei Supporting

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Shirogane, Father Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Narrator Supporting

Aoyama, Yutaka Japanese

Shijou, Maki Supporting

Ichinose, Kana Japanese

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Ishikawa, Tatsuya Producer

Hayashi, Tatsurou Producer

Kikuchi, Yuuichirou Producer

Reviews

Jun 27, 2020

Inferno792

Recommended

If someone shits on Kaguya-sama in front of me, I have only one reply for them. “Urusai, baaka!”

Kaguya-sama: Love is War was a great show and one of my favorites of the year 2019. It had an entertaining cast of main characters, a group of just as amusing side characters that made an appearance every now and then, and to freshen things up, a simple yet compelling tale about two geniuses trying to outwit each other in a totally contrasting way to Light and L from Death Note, with top tier comedy to top it all off. It had certain elements that we’d previously seen ... but the overall product of everything it offered was something very unique.

Now, take everything I said above and add a progressive plot, some more characters who’re just as delightful as the ones introduced last season and the previous cast getting development as well as becoming even more charming. All this executed so spectacularly that even the first season that I liked so much pales in comparison. Oh, and also, add sick animation, a captivating OP and OST, and you’ve got what Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 offers.

In short, this season has all of what made the first season great and does it better. To me, Kaguya-sama S2 is almost a perfect Slice of Life/romcom. This season has taken Kaguya-sama to the top echelon of romcom or heck, even SOL anime in general, in my list.

The first season was an introduction to the characters, focusing more on telling the tale in an episodic fashion without a lot of story progression. This season instead, focuses on the plot moving forward. Instead of hilarious episodic stories, we get hysterical episodes with the plot progression every inch of the way. The academic year is about to end so tensions rise during the student council president election as a new foe appears, Shirogane’s family is explored more and Ishigami’s character is fleshed out in the latter half of the season. The anime is not about just making you laugh now. It’s about trying to make you cry before having you burst out laughing, rolling on your couch.

One of the (many) reasons why Kaguya-sama shines over other romcoms is because it’s not afraid of doing where most of them would falter. You want the main protagonist being called a manwhore for multiple episodes? It’s got you covered. You want a Monogatari scene reprised? Gotcha. You want a guy’s father saying how his high school son is still a kid and his hair down there hasn’t even sprouted yet to a girl’s father? Sure, it’s there. You want the female lead to think about all the intricacies of the male’s underpants? Oh, you’ll get that. Point to remember, Kaguya-sama is still rated as PG-13.

Misunderstandings are the source of a lot of comedy and that’s one thing that you’ll find in a lot of romcoms. Kaguya-sama though managed to create amusing moments not in spite of them, but because of them. I could watch entire episodes on the same jokes and still wouldn’t get bored. But no, we don’t get the same joke used over and over. You’ll have tens of new ones every episode.

In this season too, Kaguya continues in her quest to make Miyuki Shirogane confess his love to her. Same goal but the approach has changed. Or rather, evolved. She’s a lot bolder in this season using tricks as well as other people, to be put Shirogane into difficult situations. And sometimes, this puts her in situations that she loves yet fears. This is when, the best girl of the season for me, at least for the first few episodes, Hayasaka Ai comes to her aid. Oh, how I’ve loved every moment of watching her. She shows us a side of her personality that I didn’t think she had. And then turns into another character who’s almost unrecognizable. Frightening!

Now, let’s talk about Miyuki Shirogane. Out of all of the main characters in the series, he’s the least talked about and the most underrated. Ishigami-kun is everyone’s best boy while all the girls are contenders for best girl. But our protagonist just doesn’t get enough love from the fans. To me, he was the hero in this season. And he was the hero to the characters as well. He goes out of his way to help people; people whom he doesn’t know that well, and helping them in a way that wouldn’t really benefit him. When, in the biggest moment of her high school life, Iino Miko faces a problem that’s haunted her all her life, Miyuki comes to the rescue, disregarding the fact that it puts his own reputation and image on the line. When Ishigami can’t deal with his problems, current and past, Miyuki gives him a shoulder to lean on. And of course, he’s always there for Kaguya. His acts of selfless heroism made him the character I most enjoyed watching this season. Of course, the others had their arcs and moments but in all of those, Miyuki was the focal point at the most prominent moments. He’s the hero this world needs but doesn’t deserve. Truly a chad!

The character who got the most development was undoubtedly Ishigami Yu. As I said above, he’s best boy for a ton of fans and for good reason. The Ishigami arc in S2 had been hyped up by the manga readers and although I personally wouldn’t put it on a pedestal over the other arcs in S2 (to me, the entire season was top notch and I can’t put one arc over the other), delving into his past and exploring his character was fantastically handled. We not only get to see why he’s become so afraid of associating with people, but also him overcoming that and recognizing that the people around him are not as awful as he’d thought they’d be. There’s so much room for growth with him and I’m really looking forward to seeing more of the same in the future.

The best aspect of the show? I was in quite a conundrum when I asked myself this question. The season is so well rounded that neither could I think of a real weakness, nor could I find something that I could put over the other aspects that easily. The clean and smooth animation, a deep dive into the characters’ past and personalities, the use of a pretty good OST, Daddy Daddy Doo and everything I’ve mentioned earlier were all so brilliantly executed. Even so, I can’t help but applaud one thing over all of these: the voice acting. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the other facets lacked in comparison. No, no. It’s just that I don’t think I’ve ever come across an anime or a show in general, in which I could so easily make out that the level of voice acting I was experiencing was exemplary.

The Japanese voice acting industry is brimming with talent and we see extraordinary performances from these guys all the time. But the level of voice acting from all of the people involved in Kaguya-sama S2 and the range that they exhibited just made me appreciate that what I was experiencing was the makings of something truly special. I feel that most voice actors are able to show their true talent in a show in which they’re able to convey a multitude of emotions and SOL/romcom have the most freedom in that regard. Some of my other favorite comedy shows have had superb voice acting like Saiki Kusuo, Grand Blue, Great Teacher Onizuka but I felt that the voice acting in Kaguya-sama S2 surpassed all of those. Could it be recency bias? Possible but I still can’t find any that I’ve watched that I can say has an undeniably better voice acting performance than this. The cast for Kaguya-sama is very young. For most of them, Kaguya-sama is like a breakthrough anime through which could take that leap which makes them one of the top names in the industry. And I honestly believe they’ve done that. The ones who impressed me most were Yumiri Hanamori and of course, Aoi Koga, the VAs for Hayasaka and Kaguya respectively. The range of tonal shifts that they displayed is fascinating and a treat to listen to. Just watch a video of them voicing Kaguya and Hayasaka and you’ll understand exactly what I mean.

Kaguya-sama is easily my Anime of the year thus far. And right now, I can only see two anime, both sequels that could potentially take that title this year, for me at least. Oregaieru S3 and Attack on Titan S4, if it does indeed air this year, are the two. And if they manage to surpass or even equal what Kaguya-sama S2 did, then we’re in for something epic. I’ll miss watching Kaguya-sama every week until Season 3 comes out. It was an anime that truly enhanced the source material and turned it into something very, very special.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Sep 29, 2023

AlucardNoYuuutsu

Mixed Feelings

[Minor "spoilers" might be included here: they're not too important and merely references, just a warning for people who don't want to know absolutely anything]

Kaguya-sama: Love is War is an anime that came out during Winter 2019 and since then, it has become quite a very popular and well-received series. I'm not going to lie, I liked the first season a lot when it first came out, but my tastes towards anime and things as a whole has changed a lot since that period, in fact I don't like the first season that much anymore, so my negative perspective towards this new one would probably ... apply to the first season too if I re-watched it. Or perhaps, Kaguya-sama just outstayed its welcome.

As I said before, I'm not sure I'd like the first season if I re-watched it, but I'm dead sure that it would be more enjoyable than watching this one. Kaguya seemed a lot fresher back in 2019 because it brought a kind of unique way to portray a comical romcom anime, using a "psychological" approach through the two protagonists trying to be confessed to each other without doing it directly. Well, the main problem is that this season brings little to no difference whatsoever, using the same over the top and exaggerated formula, which results in this season being a chore to watch. In fact, I NEVER laughed during this whole season. Not at all. Zero. I chuckled so few times that I can count them on the fingers of one hand. In fact, this repetition might have exposed what was unnoticed to my eyes because of the novelty that I thought was there. The "Huh we're in love but we cannot say it so we're going to do everything stupid" gimmick still remains and it's basically unchanged with the apparent progress in the relationship being just a comical factor. I'm sick of it, because it gets annoying after a while.

My problem with Kaguya-sama is the fact that it tries SO HARD to be funny in every way possible through supposedly "strange and original" gimmicks. This is the problem: it's overthought to the point of not being funny anymore. An example is its use of a narrator that says "a character is walking" while the anime shows that a characters is, indeed, walking. What's the point when the anime doesn't need any? That's overdoing it and makes it more unfunny than it already is. Additional unfunny and stretched things are the overuse of the so-called "psychological" stuff: over the top mental trips that have no meaning, its use repetition that in some anime is funny but in this case it simply isn't. How many times did Iino Miko walk inside the room and find Kaguya & Shirogane doing misunderstandable things? This reaches to the point where I can predict what's going to happen in a lot of moments and that's a terrible thing for a comic anime that relies on taking the viewer by surprise.

Another thing I hated in this season is the fact that some moments looked like they were never supposed to be funny. An example is the election moment. What am I supposed to get out of it when it's an anime that's supposed to be comical? The atmosphere was tense for absolutely no reason and made me question: "What the hell is this supposed to be?" - The same goes for some other moments that I'm not going to write about. Anyways: I'm not going to feel like I have to take seriously this one, when it had one moment where Kaguya fainted, they brought her to the hospital, to be visited by a DOCTOR and... HUH it's a "sickness" that makes your heart beat when Shirogane is around. Yeah. When they were talking about it, while I thought "well, this will probably turn out to be some stupid joke too", on the other hand it might've been some serious stuff. Turns out it wasn't, so every time this will happen in the next events, I'm not going to take it seriously, regardless of it being a joke or not and this damages any good intentions that the series might've had to tackle greater themes. Speaking of which, in episode 11 they decided to talk about ISHIGAMI'S DIFFICULT PAST out of the blue, but I'll focus on it in the next section...

Story and characters? Well... there's not much to talk about. The story is still the same: Kaguya and Shirogane are in love but because the writer said so they're never going to confess until this series stops being profitable and its fans get sick of it (never). As I said before, there's basically no progress in their relationship and everything that happens between them is taken as a joke so... nothing there. I wouldn't mind a dumb nonexistent story if the anime was actually funny, but since it's NOT, well, I'm looking for anything to grab hold of. Characters? Oh well - they haven't changed at all since the last season, they remain the exact same cliches and they're just bounded to their own gags, perhaps they're even more ridiculed: Kaguya doesn't want to confess, Shirogane doesn't want to confess, Chika is Chika, Ishigami is still an incel nerd and isn't the character the makes me laugh out loud anymore, Hayasaka Ai says "haha me secretly crazy am I cool yet am I cool yet", the new "character" Iino Miko is as deep as a glass of water and all we know about her is that she walks inside the room and find Kaguya & Shirogane doing misunderstandable things. As I mentioned before, they decided to talk about ISHIGAMI'S DIFFICULT PAST in episode 11, but what's the point of it being there? The two leads are parodies of themselves, the apparent progress is not taken seriously, so why would an episode about his past make someone a real character? The series is joke-oriented and comical, so it's not like, say, this character is very sad all the time in this drama series and now that we know more about him we can empathize and feel his sadness. No, since the rest of the series is just jokes, the characters are just going to be ridiculous for the rest of the series, so it's completely pointless. The real purpose is just trying to make the series SEEM actually deep behind its comical mask with layers of depressing background. Yeah, seem, because it's just empty, after all.

The art is cool, nothing that blows my mind but it's definitely not bad too look at. Other than that, of course Kaguya-sama stretches and tries to put random writings, colours and styles of drawing, just to be exaggerated and try to be ridiculous in every aspect possible (Teen Titans GO-core).
About sound, there is not much to say about it: it's background music to add up to the "atmosphere" and nothing to listen outside of it. OP is sung by the same dude who sung the first one, so it's something I'd never listen to seriously, the ED is nothing out of the ordinary too.
Well, I don't mind these two aspects that much.

All in all, this season was repetitive, it outstayed its welcome and it was an unfunny journey all along. Don't think of me as a pretentious guy who wants DEEP PHILOSOPHY in every bit of anime, in fact I really enjoyed other comical anime; what I mean is: when I watch simple non-comical anime with a bit of slice of life, there are plenty of times in which I smile or chuckle, because I don't pretend THAT much, I prefer simple things than "overdone and overthought to the point of unfunny" gags that try too hard.
Well, it looks like I'm the minority here, since this season has a busted 8.93 mean score.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 15, 2024

Johan__Liebert_

Not Recommended

Kaguya sama wa kokurasetai season 2 is the disappointment of the season. It has its ups and downs, the ups being the final three episodes, and the downs being the rest of the season. Only the final three episodes provide any sense of progression, be it for the characters or for the plot. Ishigami’s long awaited character arc was freaking fantastic, but the same can’t be said about the other characters'.

Even after 24 episodes have aired, many of the characters are as bland as they were in the first episode of the first season. I was able to overlook this in season 1, because I ... don’t expect the author to be able to completely characterize and develop the personalities of four main characters in the span of 12 episodes, but I do expect that, or at least half of that, to happen within 24 episodes. If I don’t even know or understand the characters, and if I’m not even the least bit acquainted with them, how can you even expect me to give two shits about their romantic feelings for each other?

All the female characters (and I do mean all) are basically reskinned versions of various “-deres”. Kaguya is a tsun-dere, Hayasaka is a kuu-dere, Iino Miko is a baka-dere and Chika is an annoying-dere. The female characters have no personalities of their own, but have inherited their dispositions, if you can even call them that, from stereotypes. Chika’s character is just to be “cute”; I prefer the phrase obnoxiously irritating but whatever. The entirety of Kaguya’s character revolves around Shirogane; if we were to remove Shirogane from her life all that would be left is an empty husk of a high school girl. Indeed, if this is what the anime intended for her character to be, then I would’ve had no qualms with that, but that is definitely not the case. She’s supposed to be one of the leads, and all we know about her is that she loves Miyuki and has daddy issues. Do we know what caused her daddy issues after two cours? Nope.

Hayasaka has been Kaguya’s maid since her childhood, and that’s her character done for the series. I did feel myself liking Miko initially when she was introduced, because she was actually given a purpose, a purpose that wasn’t relied upon any other character, until that very purpose was daddy-daddy-dooed into oblivion. She was an interesting character and her struggles – public speaking and isolation – were well established. These are complications that I’m sure most of us could related to at some point in our lives. I was invested. I wanted a resolution for her character, not some sort of catharsis but something that would be satisfying and relatable, but all we got was a 5-minute scene where she overcomes it all through nakama power. I wish I was making this up.

A small pep talk from Shirogane is all it takes for her to overbear her fear of public speaking, fear that has cultivated in her mind since her elementary school days, and all it takes for her to overcome it is a debate about why boys in their school should shave their heads in order to conform uniformity. Yeah, BS.

That episode made me question something. Does this show want to be a comedy with serious moments, or does it want to be a serious show with comedic skits; because neither of the two seem to fit the show’s agenda, yet the show still tries its hardest to juggle the two topics. The comedy is more or less hit or miss. The jokes are predictable, 90% of them rely on some sort of misunderstanding between the characters, and frankly, though not a chore to watch, were a bit out of place at times. The joke about Shirogane being not very good at volleyball, and Chika having to teach him tirelessly worked in Season 1, but here that very same joke is repeated two different times; once with singing, and once with dancing.

There would be a moment or two where it feels like the show is actually trying to progress the characters’ relations, but then out of nowhere S Y K E, nothing happens because someone walks in on them.

I can’t go on berating the show as it does have some actual good humour. For example, my favorite in this season is when Kaguya, Ishigami and Shirogane are in a Shoujo manga parody. Now that was hilarious. Taking an already oversaturated genre and saturating it even more created some hysterical moments.

The actual witty comedic timings of the first season were lost somewhere and almost all the comedic moments in this cour are either forced, or mountains made out of molehills. For example, Shirogane approaches Kaguya in front of her classmates and explicitly asks her to PREPARE A SPEECH FOR THE STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S ELECTION, but somehow the absolute donuts in the supposedly prestigious school for elites, mistake that for a confession.

The male main characters, are what carry the show because they actually have emotions and act like friends. The show WANTS us to believe that the main quad are friends but shows nothing to instate said relationship between the characters. Let me give you a rundown of how the characters treat each other –
1. Kauguya, with
a) Shirogane – lovey dovey
b) Ishigami – same joke about her being a cold af devil is repeated a million times
c) Chika – considers her a cancer to society and then immediately does a 180 and suddenly she’s her bff

Chika is the same with everyone because she’s got no personality. Shirogane and Ishigami are the only ones who show some sort of realism in their emotions. I know that it’s an anime and all and it doesn’t need to be that realistic, but what gets on my nerves is that the show tries to conceal the lack of depth in the characters and tries to swindle the viewer, using poorly constructed recurring jokes, into thinking that maybe the characters aren’t just ink droplets on a piece of paper.

There’s a scene in this season where the Student Council is disbanded and the characters may never get to spend much time together, but the only thing I could think about is how much I don’t give a shit. The author tries to employ various techniques in order for the viewer to feel sad, which include but are not limited to – crying characters, other characters joining in on the crying, walking into the sunset and more crying. The characters also keep reiterating about how “nostalgic” the past year was as if to convince the viewer to feel the same. If you need to explicitly ask the viewer to have a poignant feeling during a scene, then you need to redo that entire part from scratch.

Show, don’t tell. That’s one of the main philosophies in writing, but unfortunately the show believes in “Tell, don’t show”.

We are TOLD that Kaguya worked the hardest to defend Ishigami, even though we are SHOWN that Shirogane was the one to pull Ishigami out of his “darkness”.

We are TOLD how Kaguya planned something, but we’re never SHOWN how or when she did it. For example, we are told, through Hayasaka, that Kaguya planned for two of the students to go to different schools after they graduated from middle school, only for Kaguya to later state “masaka, I am not that cold”. Is this the author’s way of building up Kaguya? Or is this the author just trying to give Kaguya’s character some edginess? Because, neither of them particularly worked.

The highlight of this season definitely was the handling of Ishigami’s character. The way his character arc was structured is praiseworthy. All the foreshadowing for his character, in Season 1 and the first half of this season, are finally compiled into two episodes and they were magnificent. The resolution was fantastic, the build up was fantastic, everything was fantastic. If only the author cared as much about the female cast as he does about the male counterpart.

The animation is as fantastic as it was in the season prior to this one. There is a sense of fluidity in the characters’ movements which go hand in hand fantastically with the amazing lighting and directing of the skits. There is always something in motion, be it in the foreground or the background, and if we get a still shot it’s usually accompanied with ambient music and gorgeous lighting. In terms of animation, there are no corners cut and there is almost never a dull moment.

The music is great. I like the new Opening and Ending songs this season, though I wasn’t particularly a fan of the previous season’s OP and ED. The rest of the OST is good.

I said it at the start of the review, I’ll say it again, “Kaguya Sama wa Kokurasetai Season 2 is a disappointment”. It has its highs sure, but the time used up in the detours it takes and the meandering it does in order to reach said highs, could’ve and should’ve been used more deftly.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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