SPOILERS AHEAD. At this point, I think almost everyone in the anime community knows what Kaguya-sama: love is war is. It's the show that made many of us laugh constantly while we also enjoy the characters (ishigami) but now, with the OVA being out, the franchise has finally reached its peak (at least for now). ~~keep in mind that up until now the ishigami arc in the second season was the ultimate Kaguya arc.~~ In this review, I will mostly talk about the first half of the OVA for obvious reasons.
Animation:
I think most of us can obviously see a significant improvement in the animation department, especially when it comes to its fluidity. The camera shots are nothing less than superb and we can see that the director has finally taken a step up in the ladder towards making Kaguya-sama: love is war nothing short of a masterpiece.
Plot:
What can I say? amazing, superb, fantastic, exceeded my expectations with ease, I came into this OVA expecting pretty much nothing but it left me speechless with its touching moments during the first half of the show, moments like the bonding of ishigami and shirogane have left me feeling all emotional and I found myself "saluting" to the screen while feeling like a proud father. Seeing how far their relationship has gone since season one, from being quite "far" from each other they have now come to a point where they can enjoy an adult magazine together in public, needless to say, its something I have never seen done before in anime, the author is definitely on its way to the top.
Cooking Contest:
Now let us talk for a bit about the cooking contest, ultimately it felt like every other gag in Kaguya thus ill not write much about it. In the cooking showdown, we saw Kaguya cooking in order to impress shirogane with her cooking, obviously, it failed miserably, as iino decide to eat it all. After that ishigami and shirogane have also presented their cooking to the judges, iino, and chika, surprisingly ishigami's cooking was very good but iino was to shy to rate it and shiroganes cooking ended up with them laughing at his family situation, as i said, nothing really outstanding like the first half.
Negatives:
even if it is masterclass when it comes to Kaguya-sama: love is war, I still found something negative about it, the lack of Hayasaka screentime is a crime that should have not happened. Hayasaka could have easily made this OVA even better than it is now making it even BETTER, yes, even BETTER.
Summary:
In conclusion, the amount of emotions I have felt watching this superb OVA is something I can not embody through words, you will have to watch it for yourself in order to felt what I have felt. I full-heartedly recommend it. Peace out.