This review contains a few spoilers

Season 1 was good

Season 2 was great

But Season 3 was Ultra Average or Cliched

Ehh...

One of those letdowns I’ve experienced when I mostly watched romantic comedies when I truly let my guard down, and most people said that this will surpass the previous seasons. Mostly said this season will be peak among the rest and they suddenly made the anime only jumped into the hype train, and if their expectations will surpass it. Most of them will say that this is the best. And some of them will say (including me), same (or not) flick like the rest.

As much as I hate to say this, especially I’m a long time fan of this show…

When I heard many noisy fans about what will happen in this season, I am already imagined that the ending would be 2 possible scenarios: There will be a confession in the last episode or, by default, they never confess their love to each other (misunderstanding in other words). At the end, I was right, because the last scenario happened in the first part of the season.

I couldn’t emphasize this enough, but the story is just the same. When you watched the first two seasons, the formula or flow of the show is just the same as the others. It goes like this; introduction of the characters, most of the number episodes are full of slapstick comedy fillers that are not irrelevant to the plot, and some sudden serious moments in the last few episodes. I thought this season will be different but it followed the same formula that I mentioned earlier. To be frank, this season is boring, compared to the other seasons. I know it’s mainly a troll comedy but it’s a romance too. I was annoyed with this kind of formula because I don’t know when this show is going to be serious at some point. I don’t know why the author started to pulled those side characters, as they are irrelevant to the main plot. I think he wanted to splitting his attention onto numerous side characters giving us several different generic romances at the same time. Mostly the developments will happen in the last few episodes and it’s lacking, as I expected this season would become grand since manga readers overhyped this. Come on, it’s the third season already. It suffocated me for some reason and the flow of the story is the same all over and over again. I wonder why the chapters from the manga are extremely long because the story has fillers and is mostly stretched out.

Going to the “filler episodes” that I mentioned before, it’s… average. Not unlike the previous seasons, that full of surprises. The quality of the comedy was degraded, since the dialogues are the same as in the previous seasons, and the jokes were overused and felt forced. It’s like they were trying hard to be funny like before but not anymore. The expressions, the punchlines, the vibe, and many more are like from the previous seasons. The segments are still the same but from different situations. The aftermath punchlines from the games were quite more predictable than I expected. In short, the comedy in this show is repetitive as fuck. I think only 100% die-hard fans of this show and new to comedy can laugh to these. The only thing that surprised me was the rap segment. I mean it’s from the same segment when Mama Chika teaches her son, Shirogane to improve his talents and skills. But, the unexpected actual rap battle between the characters was surprising.

As for the “serious romance” that was lacking, due to the lack of episodes for the serious moments, the festival arc was very generic and annoying. It’s like a minimalized version of Rent-A-Girlfriend that Kaguya couldn’t confess to Shirogane, even him, each other due to unexpected reasons. Remember when Shirogane invited Kaguya to enjoy the festival? She thought that if the students see them together, there will be rumors that they are dating. It’s just one of those Kaguya’s habits from the previous seasons, just to intimidate Shirogane. But, so it’s not a right, and is it bad for Shirogane to enjoy the festival too? One of the reasons why I don’t get Kaguya’s motives at all. If I may remember, those two or three episodes of the festival arc, led to a cheesy and predictable “serious moment”, where Shirogane will leave the school to study abroad, that lasted just 1 or 2 episodes. Again, this is the third time that they used the same formula from the previous seasons. That last episode lasted an hour and it was pretty rushed than the manga. The pacing was fast, I think and they condensed those 10-15 chapters, I think into an hour, heck it’s 45 mins if you exclude the commercials. At the part where this mysterious thief showed up, I predicted that was one of Shirogane's schemes. Well, the legend of giving hearts was the catalyst for Shirogane to come up with a plan to confess to Kaguya. I don’t know if is it just me because I watched too many romance shows and films, and this kind of scheme was pretty obvious. The dialogues were half-baked and didn’t reach the point of the “serious” moment. It’s pretty cringe to be exact. The strengths of this show were in its hilarious and unique premise, but it excelled as a comedy that satirized romance tropes, not as an actual romance. From being a unique school comedy to an unfocused mess of a generic school romance anime. The part when Shirogane invited Kaguya to join him at Standford was pretty obvious. I mean they are both geniuses for fuck sake so there’s no way that it’ll not happen. They didn’t confess to each other at the end, and the whole thing ended with a ridonkeylous kiss. Remember, a kiss has different meanings. Overall, all the “serious” stuff, in the end, was cliched, forced, half-baked, and predictable. It was a beautiful moment, but still a generic melodramatic romance.

The characters are still the same. For this season, they developed due to their inspiration for their crushes. The main characters, Shirogane and Kaguya, were pretty developed. They set aside their pride to conceal their feelings and fought with each other if who’s the one would confess first. As for the other characters, they are still funny, likable, and absurd as ever, and that’s it. They are still the same as the previous seasons.

As for the animation, it’s still the same and nothing to be expected about. I’ve seen some panels and scenes where the quality degraded. I know that the charm from the manga was different from the anime because the expressions from the manga were dark and well expressed than the anime. As for the sound, it is also still the same. Although I had problems with the OP. The OP from this season was pretty weak and I like from the previous seasons better. The ED was okay, nothing to be surprised about. The music was still forgettable in the end.

Overall, this season was pretty weak than the previous. Honestly, I enjoyed a few of the segments, but the rest were pretty the same. I had a few laughs from some parts of many segments from this season, but I expected something greater quality of the jokes than the previous. The previous seasons are still superior compared to this season. I set my expectations high that this will be different, but in the end, hope seemed to be lost. The serious development was good but honestly, the whole thing could be better. Even if the jokes from this show are new and executed well, it’s still a hit-or-missed comedy in the end.

For some reason, The “Ultra Romantic” from its title was very misleading. The whole season isn’t ultra-romantic and it should never be.

___Story: 5/10
Animation: 7/10
Characters: 6/10
Sound: 6/10
Entertainment factor (Comedy: 3/5, Romance: 2/5): 5/10
Enjoyment: 6/10
Score: 6/10___