Review of Kaguya-sama: Love is War -Ultra Romantic-
If you need to know anything about me going into this review, it's that I really don't go for this kind of stuff. My taste in anime, especially as I've aged out of my awful teenage years, is picky, to say the least. There are a lot of tropes that I simply don't enjoy and a lot of them are prevelant in 99% of anime. Even the best shows have at least one or two of these tropes and so my liking it is usually because the best parts are good enough to overwrite the bad. So, with that in mind the question is: how thehell did I end up watching this?
Kaguya-sama, from the very get-go, boasts itself as a home for all of these unspoken tropes; like a microclimate for cheap sex jokes and chibi faces destined to become emotes for your degenerate discord server. Most of that stuff is an immediate write-off in my book as it's just not my style. Yet, I saw the score, curiosity got the better of me and, while my taste hasn't changed, I can honestly say I respect this show for its content and execution thereof.
The humour is better than I expected, which, given my profile from the first paragraph, should probably be taken as a stellar compliment. None of it had my sides-splitting but I don't think I've watched anything that has, from television as a whole, all year. There are some funny lines, some decent slapstick and some cringe-comedy that I actually found bareable, maybe even somewhat amusing. The characters, despite being strict archetypes, are actually examples of those archetypes being used well.The ditzy one, has self respect and talents, the child prodigies can't do literally everything and are infact modest, it's f*cking wild out here. I can't name anyone that i have enough of an issue with to dislike them, especially since they all have their own place in the roster and contribute equally to the enviornment that this show's numerous skits live and breathe in.
The tropes are present, but actually not overused. Lets put something into perspective: If I had a penny for every time a teenager in an anime made a joke about breasts, I would be able to afford the surgery to stop my eyes rolling all the way into the back of my head, and down my f*cking throat. Kaguya-sama, surprisingly, only makes two jokes pretaining to tits, they're very different jokes and one of them is actually quite funny (the newspaper bit). As far as I can remember, all of the major tropes float around this level of "present yet amicable" at least.
Thinking on it, I actually kind of enjoyed Kaguya-sama. It was the last thing I expected to be honest. It's like asking batman to enjoy the back-alleys next to a theatre. It's not the most incredible show ever, and I definitely wouldn't be as generous as the general consensus has been, putting it at a 9.1. But, I do understand why it's gotten there. Every episode from the very start has this comforting element to it. It's a safe, passive, relaxing show with an uncomplicated premise and even less complicated conclusions. You'll always come away from each episode thinking that what you've watched was 'nice'. There's no conflict that hasn't been resolved, no scheme without a payoff, no callback without something new and the few marginally down moments are paid back with steep interest.
It activates that part of your brain that comes online when you experience that satisfying, cosy relaxatiton. And I really like it for that. However, it doesn't go beyond the sum of its parts. In most of the show, the premise of two stubborn intellects is replaced too quickly with a shy girl struggling around an anxious boy. Other characters come in and take the lime-light, not because they're more entertaining, but because this show teaches us it's a slow burn. Very nearly too slow as it just escapes it's pace being a detriment (I doubt it was intentional, but given the context of the show, you never know ).
A 7 feels harsh but 8 feels a bit too generous. While I wrote this in the context of all the seasons, my score really only reflects the third season. (Season one - 6 , Season two - 6).