Countless reviews of this chart breaking anime (now more settled in the top) have been made within all the hype this season yielded. Now, I would like to give my view on this anime and, in general, the Kaguya-sama series (though I did same with the manga I reckon it's valuable to discuss only the anime by itself as well). Spoilers will be made, though I'll try to mark them so the read is spoiler-free.
First things first, let's talk about the plot surronding this series. In the two first seasons we saw a (in general) more light-hearted mood primarily focusing in the comedy part of the series. Exceptions to that are some drama moments such as
How many romcoms have you seen with a cool premise or lovable characters that got stuck in the same blushing jokes & not advancing plot? I myself have, and in fact I liked some of them in spite of it. But here, we start at the same point, both Kaguya and Shirogane are blushing for literally everything and doing the same stuff I mentioned but evolving little by little. This evolution leads inevitably to destroy the initial premise of the show "Love is War" (as highlighted in the title of every season, from "Love is War" to "Love is War?" and finally "Ultra Romantic").
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It is just at the very end of this season where love is not war anymore and, as we'll all see (and manga readers have seen) it just mutates to some kind of "Love is life & Life is love".
But all this evolution topic sounds empty without talking about the characters present in this show. I've already mentioned the two main protagonists, the ones dealing with "小倉世帯" (wanting to be confessed to) and particularly the ones showing more evolution so far. But the side characters are also second to none, from the first to the last.
Let's briefly talk again about Kaguya and Shirogane. Two geniuses head over heels for each other with too much pride to confess and then wanting to make the other confess. In this last season (and in fact the one I'm reviewing) they still maintain this position but in a highly lighter way than before. Their character evolution in the previous seasons has lead to that and here a major change is happening.
And now, let's talk about the side characters.
Ishigami is probably the best one of them, with his evolution having been seen in the previous season. The nerd with a dark background that defines why he is as he is. In this season, he makes a step further.
The stubborn girl that does not really accept other opinions, yet she lacks self-confidence in a way that if you flatter her she acts like a puppet. And so here it is Ishigami, his saviour and his enemy, to protect her with the help of Osaragi. They love-hate relationship is probably the best of this kind I've seen in anime. They're both genuinely concerned about each other, still they have their struggles and evolve together. And will evolve even more, not only about their relationship, but also about their own personalities and ways of viewing the world.
Then we have Hayasaka, with not that much screen-time but doing a crucial work as the love assistant of Kaguya. There's not that much to say, since her major evolution is still to come. But we can start to see interesting things about her, namely her vision of people's social aspect and their personas. I really like this topic discussed between her and Shirogane and how they do it. I don't want to comment that much about it since it already hast to reach its end in coming seasons.
And the other side characters are also okay. Maki, Tsubame, Nagisa... they all do their work with their parallel stories, and supporting the main story. "Where's Chika?" you may be thinking. I have mixed feeling with her. She's probably the character I like the least of this series, yet I don't think se's a bad one. She's, in fact, chaos. And it's used in the plot as it. She represents the randomness, the whim of destiny and chance and ultimately chaos itself. And I'm not the one saying that, it's Shirogane himself.
Still here? We'll finally talk about the technical aspect, not to be underrated. In fact, Kaguya-sama anime series has an exceptional and incredibly well made animation. Remember the Chika dance? That was an ode to animation detail. And S3 does not fall too short. In some scenes it can be not that pampered as in previous seasons, but still is one of the best animation work I've ever seen. All is incredibly fluid, the backgrounds have actual live (they move, something occurs in every scene, and that's, sadly, not a normal thing in anime) and facial expressions are nailed. This technical exhibitions permits to fully show the full potential of the series. It gives a lot to its dramatic side but also to its comedic one. The source material is incredible, but the work made by A1 adapting it is surprisingly even better. Flawless, maybe. My only concern about the technical part in this season is the background music, sometimes overused. I'd have liked some scenes with more silence, letting them be. But that's looping the loop, the technical part is practically flawless and enhances every aspect of the anime.
And finally, the most subjective part: my enjoyment and the TL;DR. You know my opinion about it, if you have read 'till here, but let me express it with words. This series (and particularly this season) is my 2nd favourite animanga of all time, just behind Steins;Gate, unbeatable for me. I really like romcoms, but that one brings freshness to a quite too populated world. This series have made me cry to the extreme, in a good way, due to its credibility and its plot-building. This particular season has adapted one of the best moments of the manga practically flawlessly, and I feel blessed to be able to see it live. Definitely, a masterpiece in practically every aspect. In fact, it's the perfect romcom and it will difficultly be surpassed, but I hope so since it sets the bar very, very high.
I hope you liked my thoughts on Kaguya-sama, though this review is maybe too long. Thank you very much!
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