Kaguya-sama wo Kataritai

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Having an outsiders perspective on a conflict is always an interesting thing. What's great about it is that we get to see how their perspective is. Now whilst there isn't really a conflict in the original Kaguya-Sama: Love is war series, there's still a battle, a battle of love and brains between 2 highschoolers. With highschoolers, of course, comes gossip, people constantly shipping each other if a male and a female student are close in friends. This 4koma manga shows off what an outsiders perspective to these 2 lives is like, but from 2 obsessive fans always misinterpreting the situations they are seeing.

Characters:
There are 2 ... main characters within this story: Karen Kino and Erika Kose. They're not exclusive to this story as see them as background characters within the original manga. Heck, they're in the first chapter, they're the ones who mentioned that Kaguya and Shirogane must be a couple. So instantly, not even from this manga, we know what these 2 people are like, kind of. From the original manga, we realise these 2 people must be normal highschool girls, shipping people as mentioned earlier, but no. It's much more extreme. Karen and Erika are both different yet the same. They're both obsessive. Karen is obsessive over shipping Kaguya and Shirogane, going as far as to write fanfiction of them 2, to from a normal minded person can come across as creepy and disturbing. To some, this may seem as relatable. In the anime/manga community, there are definitely people who enjoy writing stuff like this, no matter who extreme the, let's say details are in the romance. Erika is obsessed over Kaguya herself, idolising her, imaging her as some goddess, so superior to everyone, to where even just looking at her or being alive in the same time period as her, is a win in life. This is basically the main premise of the story as a whole, but what's nice is to see how these 2 characters interact with themselves, others, and kaguya. And because what they both do is out of the norm, at points in the story they gradually realise this, and their struggles with having these obsessions, trying to overcome them or improving themselves as people. Both of them are in the mass media club, and attempt to exploit this fact in writing specifically about the student council. Both aren't complex characters, and their developments can seem inconsistent at times, but it's there, and it's fine being simple. This is a comedy spinoff of a comedy. It's not supposed to be the most serious and well thought out thing in the world. It just needs to work and do its job. As time goes on, because of their changes in character, we see some alteration in their perspectives to others and Kaguya.

The side characters in this story include mainly the characters from the original manga. This includes Ishigami, who helps Karen with her fanfiction by critically analysing it and giving her feedback. This allows Karen to see Ishigami in a different light. As we know from the original, Ishigami is portrayed as this gloomy, introverted character who many people avoid interacting with. But here, it uses the same idea's from the original, but changes around the character and setting. Whilst being completely unoriginal, it fits both characters perfectly well, to where it's acceptable. Sadly this means the appearances of Ishigami doesn't really improve his character. Hayasaka, who becomes more of a main character as time goes on, joining the 2 main characters in a Kaguya fan club, having to note these 2 characters actions, in case they become a problem for Kaguya, once again putting on a fake persona to get along with them; her role in this series is one that I would say is more important to a character than anyone else. She's, what I would like to say, the main side character in the original series, and seeing her more behind the scenes being cautious around people who are constantly obsessing over the person she has to protect, gives her more structure as a character. Like with Ishigami, we see her familiar actions and personality from the original and uses it in this story, but unlike with Ishigami, it actually adds more. Having to be around 2 Kaguya experts puts up as a challenge to Hayasaka, sometimes there's glimpses of her nearly giving herself away and being contradictory, but due to the stupidity of the mcs, she's able to be free, but having to make up more about her story to them. Understanding the struggles behind Hayasaka is very important to her character, we see this a lot in the original, but never to people who could easily defeat her [ well except chika]. We also see characters like Nagisa, Maki, and Shizuku [the mass media club president]. Nagisa and Maki are used to show how Erika and Karen interact with others which connects the main story, and Shizuku mainly serves as an obstacle when Erika and Karen try to exploit their club for their own benefits. These side characters help the world feel more real, which was always one thing I loved about the original manga, there's exploration around the school which just made everything more detailed. In other high school series, it was usually hard to get a grip on the structure, people, clubs etc of the setting, but Love is war does it perfectly, and is even further improved by this spinoff.

Story:
The story is just Erika's and Karen's life through high school, but follows the same timeline and events as the original, from a different viewpoint, making it episodic with still a story in the background. And it works. To create a good spinoff, you have to add to the story. In this case, it's adding more detail to a story, rather than adding more story. What I mean by this is that it's not its own thing , or a prequel or anything, it's the same story, but from an outsider view, which may seem boring in concept, but the fact we see the humour of Erika and Karen's misconceptions over the main story line, it adds more flavour to the original and doesn't feel boring or tasteless. Being familiar with the story all ready means when we know at what time a chapter is in, we understand what's happening, and comparing this manga's view on that event and the original, is always fun. Every chapter isn't like this though. Sometimes we see more to the original behind an event, sometimes we see new events involving Kaguya and other main characters, and sometimes chapters just focus completely on Erika and Karen in their lives. Mixing in all these adds variety and life to the story. Not every chapter is just the same gag of Karen and Erika fangirling over Kaguya, we see more to why these 2 characters, are characters and not just devices for comedy.



Is it better than the original? Of course not. Is it worth reading? I would say yes, but only if you're interested in the original. The 4koma is only really for those who are a fan of the original and doesn't get tired of it easily, due to the excessive amount of callbacks and references to the original, which drives this manga's purpose. If you get bored of that, then this manga isn't really for you. But if you love the original, and want to explore more of it with newish characters and existing characters, then go for it. It's easy to read, with a bit of boredom at the start, but once you get into it later on, takes no time.

7/10

compared to its parent manga, it's definitely not as good. the two main leads basically each have one gag; one of them is a shipper, the other being a kaguya simp. still somewhat entertaining but to be honest I'd only read it because it's related to the main series.

HOWEVER, any chapters that involve Ishigami and most importantly, Hayasaka, are amazing. Ever wanted more Hayasaka material? Then definitely check it out.

Overall, far from being as charming as the main series, but Hayasaka definitely raises the score from a 4-5/10 to a solid 6. Each chapter is short enough to not feel like a drag, and ... despite what I'd stated above the two main leads are still kinda charming at times, just not in the same way as the other Kaguya characters.

I was looking at critiques of the parent manga to this, Kaguya Wants to be Confessed to, and a point I saw brought up several times were the fact that the characters were too simple, and are nothing more than the embodiment of a character archetype. I find myself on the side of fans of the manga, so I don't really see it as a huge issue. I enjoy the characters and the situations they create nonetheless, plus I probably haven't consumed enough anime/manga to get irritated by character tropes. But this manga, THIS MANGA. The two main characters of the manga aren't built around ... a trope or personality type, but rather upon one single thing they like. Karen Kino likes shipping Kaguya and Shirogane, and Erika Kose likes Kaguya herself. That's it. That's their personality.

This manga had potential as a cute spinoff. I think the author was trying to get at Karen and Erika being representative of the audience, but the fact that they have very little grasp of what goes on in the student council room means they have little opportunity to comment on it. There is no worldbuilding either, which I was looking forward to. There is very little talk of daily life at Shuchiin, no gossip about other groups or clubs there, no side-stories of other students at the school, nothing showing the slightly altered universe of Kaguya-sama, where things like the four great zaibatsu still exist.

Every single chapter is Karen and Kose talking about liking the main characters. That is all. If I'm so bland as to enjoy the basic characters in original manga, then that means these characters must be really REALLY bland (which they are). The ONLY interesting thing that happens in the story is way later, when they show Hayasaca having to keep close tabs on these two, in case they manage to obtain a photo of Kaguya or something. This is why the manga gets a 2 instead of a 1.

What little that is in the manga, such as the involvement of Shirogane's friends later on, hardly go anywhere. This manga is a huge waste of time. Nothing is done with anything. It's the same dialogue over and over. It's a Groundhog Day manga.

NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENS. I'm surprised that the mangaka could make a spin-off this terrible. Getting through it was a total slog, the only saving grace being that the chapters are quite short. If you feel yourself getting bored with this manga, your boredom will not be curbed later on.