Kaguya-sama S2 is just like its previous season, a lovely bit of light-hearted comedy mixed with a high school romance story. Not the most unique of settings, but the secret to success is not always in originality, but rather the execution, which the show nails. In this review, there will be no spoilers whatsoever, so no need to watch out for that.
Story: 8
As said, the setting is hardly the most original thing you've ever seen. While there is some novelty to the idea of "fighting" for love, at its core the story is still that of a high school romance with a dose of comedy.
That
...
being said, the story is by no means bad. While the story often takes a backseat while the comedy takes the spotlight, there is still a consistent progression in the overall story, and while the pacing is quite relaxed at times, sometimes you just can't help but wish it lasted longer still.
Art: 9
The visual design and art style is absolutely on point. The general style is quite detailed and high quality, while a lot of visual effects are used in conjunction with audio effects to really drive home the mood of a scene. While it may annoy some people, I personally quite love the simplistic still picture style of said visual effects, as if it was a panel out of a comic book (or manga) rather than a scene in an animation. Honestly, this show has probably done the best job of any anime I've ever seen in conveying emotion through facial expressions and style, and I don't think it's even close.
The colour palette and style are quite consistent and fitting, and the blend of 2D and 3D animation techniques is quite natural and well executed, albeit I'm certain there are some purists who would shun the use of 3D techniques no matter the context.
Sound: 9
The voice acting of the series has been quite widely praised, and I will definitely agree on that point. The characters are definitely brought alive by the acting, and the overall voice design fits very well together with both the visual design and theme of the show. Honestly, the voice design of the show is good enough that I could quite literally just listen to the show as a radio broadcast and be absolutely happy with that. Well, except for the fact that I don't speak Japanese so I'd need subtitles for that anyway.
The musical score of the show is usually very much on the background and unnoticeable, as the focus of sound design is definitely on voice acting. That being said, it does have by far the catchiest OP of the season, I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to skip that.
Characters: 9
The characters of the show are definitely flawed, naive, and at times quite annoying. However, I do consider that to be one of the best parts of said characters. A flawless character defined only by their positive qualities and at most some one very vague weakness that never even matters is not really something that anyone could truly relate with. Meanwhile, the characters in "Kaguya-sama" have well defined and consistent flaws, giving their personalities far more dimension and depth than might've been the case otherwise. However, whether you like the design of the characters is very much a subjective matter, so I'm not going to say that you absolutely must love them. All I'm saying is that you should definitely try to enjoy the characters because of their flaws, not despite them.
On the other hand, the show does portray a quite enjoyable development arc for its main characters. You can quite easily see Shirogane and Shinomiya growing closer and closer throughout the show, and see the visible change in their personalities (no spoiler), in addition to slowly learning to know them better and better as more and more information is shown. The side characters aren't given nearly as much actual development, albeit you do learn more about them as you go on as well. I don't mind this as much, as in my opinion it is the correct choice to focus mainly on the two main characters.
Enjoyment: 10
While none of the pieces of the show feel perfect by any means, the complete product is an absolute blast to watch! In the 5 episodes of the second season I've seen thus far, every single one of them has had me shed tears of joy either because it's so wholesome and happy, or because it's straight up funny. Sometimes both at the same time. I quite honestly just love watching the show, and I can't think of anything about the show that has in any way reduced the enjoyment of my watching experience. Then again I'm quite a sucker for wholesome humour (see: Fujiwara), so I suppose I'm a tad biased.
Overall: 9
Overall an excellent show, definite highlight of this season. Honestly you should definitely give it a go, but do start from season 1 if you haven't seen it yet. I'm looking forward to seeing where this season goes, as it can very well go from a 9 to a 10 if it keeps improving.
That concludes the first review I ever wrote here, have fun watching!
May 9, 2020
Kaguya-sama S2 is just like its previous season, a lovely bit of light-hearted comedy mixed with a high school romance story. Not the most unique of settings, but the secret to success is not always in originality, but rather the execution, which the show nails. In this review, there will be no spoilers whatsoever, so no need to watch out for that.
Story: 8 As said, the setting is hardly the most original thing you've ever seen. While there is some novelty to the idea of "fighting" for love, at its core the story is still that of a high school romance with a dose of comedy. That ... |
