Review of Kaguya-sama: Love is War -Ultra Romantic-
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW I have been a fan of "Love is War" for quite a while now. It is by far one of the most unique and interesting romantic comedies i have ever seen. Season one introduced the viewer to our main characters and the prime conflict of the show : getting the other one to confess. Season 2 expanded the idea while also getting into the backstories of some of the side characters. And now we have season 3... Story - 9/10 This season feels like a culmination of everything we have seen so far in the series. It has the characters, the funny scenariosan the insane visualization techniques we already know. But what sets this series apart is the humour. In my personal opinion, this has been one of, if not the funniest season of anime ever. It manages to depict these absolutely ridiculous scenarios in a very random way while still being completely relatable and in character. The visual metaphors are on another level this season, containing a lot of popcultural references to movies and bands from the 20th century. Every episode brings something new to the table. The most outstanding part of this season is by far the final arc, the festival. Every episode is filled with fantastic moments especially the last one, which was filled to the brim with wow-moments and ended on an absolutely fantastic note. I can´t go into it here because even touching on what happens to our main characters Kaguya and the president would lead to me spoiling it. So if you want to go into the final clean, i would suggest to be very careful and instantly start watching.
Art - 9/10
The art is another level-up from seasons 1 and 2. The facial expressions alone, combined with the choice of background art and lighting highlights every joke very well. Usually, in romantic-comedies the jokes tend to be very forgettable and without the crowd laughing in the background it can be easy to miss them. But here the studio in charge really put in the time and effort to polish every scene with creative ideas to the point were i can´t imagine another studio other than A-1 Pictures doing this show.The visuals of the opening alone are impressive enough. They also weren´t afraid to use CGI in very cool ways to underline the tension of "certain scenes :D".
Sound - 9/10
The opening song "Giri Giri" is sung by the exact same singer as the other openings. It fits the show perfectly and lines up very well with the other songs. With the ED they took a similar idea like in the ED for season one, which is definitely a plus. The music in the show starts to get inside your head over time and underlines every scene fantastically. A very important thing for an anime is of course the voice acting. Speaking as someone who watched every season in the original japanese dub, i have to say that this has to be one of the highest qualities ever, and while a lot of popular shows get amazing voice talent, i really feel like the cast of "Love is War" is just one little step better than the rest. The characters bounce of each other perfectly in the dialogue which shows how much fun they must have had during recording.
Character - 10/10
The characters in this show have been fantastic since episode one, and this season expands their personalities and makes them even more unique and entertaining as before. What this season does very well is the balance between newly introduced characters and our original group.Often times, manga authors tend to randomly introduce a bunch of new characters to keep the show interesting without realizing that they disturb the pace it had before.The new characters added in this season however were all amazing. Especially Lino and Kashiwagi were a ton of fun. But the true standout for this seasons immense success is the relationship between the student council president Shirogane and the Vice president Kaguya. In this season they truly hade to go to their limits to win the battly of confession leading to an extremely satisfying finale.
Enjoyment 10/10
I binged the first 10 episodes in a day and then followed the series weekly. I can only say that this was a true rollercoaster of emotions and a highly entertaining watch. And i am not the only one thinking that ,because at the moment of me writing this review,"Love is War" season 3 is sitting as the Nr.1 best anime of all time on myanimelist with a rating of 9,17. If you haven´t caught up to it, now is the chance. You will definietly not regret it!
I have never given a romantic comedy a 10 out of 10 but im afraid this will be the one and only time where i have to give this show the rating it truly deserves!
- Marco_Yooo
FINAL SCORE - 10/10