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

(Personal review from Facebook) My first anime finished after more than a month of preparing for Anirevo and Otakuthon over watching anime. Anime can be frustrating because they usually don't have a conclusion. They're glorified ads to read the source. That's part of the industry. It's so difficult to break out get a smash hit that once someone does, I don't blame them for milking the cow as long as possible. Romcoms in particular have this issue more than most. Personally, I feel that romcoms too often fall short on both the comedy and the drama, since they are both diametric opposites of each other. I lovedumb fun comedies like Asobi Asobase. A romantic drama, ef - a tale of memories, is my favorite anime of all time. There are also many other romantic dramas that I felt positive about. But romcoms? When someone asks me what the best romcom of all time is, am I supposed to say the first half of Clannad? Toradora was great but it couldn't meld everything into one union. I don't think Kaguya-sama did this well, either.

I felt S3 was a weaker season than S2, as it dropped much of the comedy in favor of a progressing arc. But the arc was centered around the saddest, most common trope in anime: the school culture festival. This arc tried to be as inoffensive as possible and lacked any real drama to stir strong feelings or investment from me. It didn't help that the narrator was still as obnoxious as ever.

Kaguya-sama S3 is currently the #2 ranked anime of all-time on MAL with a score of 9.13. While I have some shows that I agree with the public praise, far too often my tastes don't align with the mainstream. I can't dislike any of the characters in this show. But I didn't love any of them. And maybe that's why this show is so popular, because it doesn't provoke anyone. Kaguya-sama S3 is competent, but it's still a romcom with typical romcom issues, and won't be on my best-of-the-year short list. The ending suggests there won't be a S4 even though the source keeps going. It's still better than most other romcoms that don't go anywhere. 6/10 (This is usually a recommended score, but my expectations were so high that I feel mixed.)