Review of Kaguya-sama: Love is War -Ultra Romantic-

Congrats, kaguya sama, for finally attaining the top spot of the top anime on MAL! now obviously it's gonna get bashed by fma fans before i can even finish typing this review, but nonetheless it's a moment that I wouldn't forget. Which begs the question, does kaguya s3 deserve the title of "best anime of all time"? well, no it doesn't, but seriously speaking the same goes to most of the top ranked anime on this site. Anyways, what even qualifies as the best anime? It's ultimately all subjective, no? I am someone who has put kaguya sama near and dear to his heart. It wasthe first non shonen thing I've ever experienced, and till this day it's still my favourite manga to reread every now and then, when things get too stressful, or I'm just burnt out of manga to read. The anime was my first experience with kaguya, and I loved it, but it was the manga that truly hooked me and made me a lifelong fan of this series. So I'm gonna be honest; this review is heavily biased, and is written by someone who finds the manga to be his preferred medium when revisiting this series.

I will be judging this based on its merits as an adaptation, and not from a perspective of an anime-only. Once the manga ends, I will sum up my full thoughts on this series with a review for the manga.

So, where shall we begin? For a great anime, I'd prefer to start by getting the negatives out of the way.

Ok, I wouldn't go so far as to call it the negatives, but rather the not-so-good. I genuinely have almost nothing to say, other than the fact that the kaguya anime does struggle a bit with the same plight any adaptation of a slice of life manga faces, and that is the accursed "P" word.

Pacing.

It's precisely the same reason why I dropped the Spy x Family anime, despite being quite a fan of its source material. The fact that I am revisiting the series requires at least some level of willpower to compel myself to watch it, what more revisiting a series that you already know what's going to happen but you're forced to watch things play out at a far slower and drawn out pace. And don't get me wrong, that's most of the time not the fault of the adaptation, it's just the reality that comes with adapting a manga. Pacing is especially crucial in a comedy series, since pacing is one of the key components of delivering a good punchline.

The Kaguya Sama anime has always done rather well in that regard, and Season 3 does not disappoint, however it's also not as snappy and, well, perfect as the manga's delivery often is, leaving jokes that used to have me chuckling now merely having me crack into a smile.

Yes, that is a nitpick. The kaguya sama anime still does make me smile, which is an incredible feat since comedy adaptations whose source material I've read before always leave me cold. It's not really the adaptation's fault, just the fact of the medium.

I will also say that reading through the manga is an absolute breeze, however watching the anime is a tad bit more tedious since you have to follow the events at the show's pace, something that manga as a medium always had an edge over anime on.

Also, one last nitpick. The big scene (you know what i'm referring to) does keep getting intercepted by other scenes during the climax, which while understandable is still a bit grating.

Yeah that's it. Other than that, season 3 blew it out of the water.

What a great adaptation. It might never be the manga in my heart, but as a fan I shed tears not once but twice, first during the rap episode and the second during the last. This is not an adaptation the people working on want to release just to get a quick buck, or an adaptation that aims to meet the bare minimum and deliver an unoffensive, albeit boring take on the source material. This is a work of passion and love. You could tell that the animators and directors working on this really went above and beyond with making this anime, it's honestly beautiful. Season 1 and 2 were incredible already, and season 3 somehow blew it out of the park. The absurd imagery that the Kaguya sama anime relishes in, also the defining trait of the anime out of the cesspool of slice of life shows, is perfected in this season. It is so bizarre yet hilariously overdone, that I can't help but have an idiotic grin plastered on my face despite seeing this joke done in the manga before. The animation is also plenty fluid, with no janky scenes standing out to me at least. The visual touches on the emotional moments are also wonderful, such as the redrawing of manga panels during the flashback episode, or the touching imagery during the final episodes driving home the characters' feelings towards each other. There are so many things that the animation did to enhance the experience of the manga, that just excited the inner fanboy out of me. Especially the rap episode, which I will talk about later.

The background music is decent. It hits all the right beats, and is quite catchy, but yeah definitely not a soundtrack I will religiously listen to.

The OP is not as catchy as Love Dramatic or DADDY DADDY DO!, both of which are some of the best romcom OPs of all time, but it's still quite the slapper. Also visually it's probably the best out of the three.

The ED is quite catchy, but let's be real here the animation is the best part. Sci-fi Kaguya-sama with characters reimagined as scifi characters, with an art style that is aesthetically pleasing. The other ED, My Nonfiction, is a certified banger, not because Shirogane is a good rapper but simply due to the fact that you can really hear him attempting his best, and it actually sounds decent. As a big Miyuki fan, that is very touching. And of course, the animation is sick af, though the character models do look pretty weird (especially Kaguya).

Lastly, the voice acting. Stellar as always. Aoi Koga is still in my mind by far the best in the series, and one of my favourite seiyuus in general, but everyone else's voice is amazing as well. I did enjoy Shirogane and Hayasaka's performance in the more emotional parts of the season, and the comedy parts are perfected by the voice actors by this point. However the real stage where Shirogane and Kaguya's seiyuus get to show what they're truly made off is next season, by far the most emotional season yet, and from the looks of this season's performance I have faith they'd kill it.

So, with all these elements, you get an amazing adaptation that adapts faithfully what the source material did while also pushing their limits to flex their creativity and talent in the animation department. It's so good, that I would honestly not have any issues with calling this the second best animated comedy I've seen, right after Nichijou of course.

The episode that truly embodies these elements is the rap episode. Now, the final episode is a close second, but in terms of adapting an arc in the kaguya sama manga this episode is the best. It's not even close. Fireworks? Sports Festival? Even cultural festival?

The rap episode was incredible. The manga's version was always hilarious to me because visualising how it'd actually be like with voices and movements was the most stupidly hilarious shit ever, so you could say that adapting it does take the fun from that. However, the animation more than makes up for it. This is a hundred times better than anything I visualised in my head. I remember back then people were discussing about how awesome it'd be if rap arc was adapted, and yes, it was as glorious as I'd hoped for. The rap itself, the visuals, the voice acting, and finally Shirogane saying "Blue ass" made everything worth it.

I guess I should talk about the last episode. Yeah, that was everything I wanted. The music was fitting, the flashbacks were extremely effective, the emotion from the seiyuus. I was literally tearing up watching the scene from my tiny screen of a phone while standing uncomfortably in a train cabin jam packed with people, trying not to be a public nuisance but probably failing miserably at that. It was everything I wanted.

I've seen the final episode a billion times with the manga, but it was my first seeing it animated. And that was such an indescribably awesome feeling. I could only imagine what it must be like for anime only fans to finally get to that episode.

I love Kaguya sama. And just like a mother who is fiercely protective of her child, I am extremely critical when viewing this adaptation. And suffice to say, it nailed it.

Is it the best anime I've watched? Nah. Am I happy that it's number 1 for now, and the fact that I have faith this season will be talked about for many years to come?

Fuck yes.

Cheers to Kaguya-sama season 4, and all of its potential sequels to come. This season might be epic, but I would argue the best has yet to come. I'll see you when season 4/ the movie drops, and until then, I'll be rereading the manga for the billion-and-oneth time.