Preface
I need to preface this by giving some detail as to my background with the rom-com genre before Kaguya. My first full rom-com was Takane and Hana (which I thought was solid), but while I was waiting for the final chapters of Takane and Hana to release, I encountered Komi Can't Communicate.
Let me tell you, I enjoyed KCC's (at the time) 300 chapters to an immense degree. I was completely caught up in the hilarious interactions and enjoyable characters with their obviously satirical gimmicks.
But then, something happened.
At some point in KCC, the main narrative turns almost entirely away from the rom-com premise to focus entirely on the romance for several dozen chapters. For the series, it makes complete sense to focus on that for at least some time, but for a reader that values comedy above all else, several chapters of a few lackluster jokes wore on my patience and I ended up growing off of Komi.
Enter, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War.
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Introduction
When I first saw Kaguya-Sama on my online library's figurative bookshelves, I decided to pick up a volume. What follows was the fattest binge I've done in my whole life. There were 240 chapters of Kaguya at that time. That night, starting at 9:00 PM, I read until 2:00 AM to finish all 240 of them. I am a fast reader, but even for me, I have a breaking point for almost all manga. I usually clock in around 150 weekly chapters' worth a night before going to bed, but this was insane for me.
What makes Kaguya so good? Well, for a manga to be able to keep you going for so long, it has to have a good introduction, and let me tell you, Kaguya-Sama has an excellent starting few chapters which establish its reliance on Characters
Characters
The first two chapters of Kaguya-Sama have exactly three characters:
- Kaguya Shinomiya, a cold, calculating, ~~unbearably naive~~ heiress to a massive conglomeration.
2. Miyuki Shirogane, a haughty, arrogant, ~~hilariously excitable~~ academic leader for his school.
3. Chika Fujiwara, who can only be described as a natural disaster like a hurricane or an earthquake, made into a person.
These three characters carry the brunt of making the plot work. The first couple chapters of Kaguya-Sama revolve entirely around Kaguya and Miyuki trying to get the other to confess, with Chika interjecting at the most inopportune moments to foil both their plans. This very simple concept results in hilarious situations, such as Kaguya and Miyuki both having their brains fried by Kaguya injecting chaos into their conversation and being forced to scramble for the closest source of sustenance to fuel their thinking.
These early chapters are like if you took that classic Death Note with Angry Birds shitpost
Once Kaguya-Sama establishes its value as a comedy, it adds more and more hilarious characters. You have my personal favorite, Yu Ishigami, the alarmingly frank straight man with a surprising past and a great character arc, Miko Iino, the straightedge square first year with a dirty (and I mean DIRTY) mind, and my personal favorite character interactions, with Nagisa Kashiwagi, her completely accidental boyfriend, and her best friend whose entire life constantly comes crumbling down around her when she sees her best friend going out with her crush.
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Kaguya's comedy revolves around the concept of subversion. It's not always as obvious as it seems, but often, character design comes down to "why not take a very simple character design and then just add a twist that makes the reality different enough from preception to make it hilarious?"
This is the most obvious right after Miko loses to Miyuki in the elections. Before then, we think of her as a bit of a killjoy who means well but doesn't really understand the heart of the people. She's valiantly campaigning against relationships in the school and against all sorts of "deviant' behavior, no matter how innocent it is in reality. However, once she joins the council, we realize that in reality, she's just a bit of a weird girl. She listens to recordings of guys telling her that she's doing well (one of my favorite chapters in the whole fucking manga), she constantly misinterprets events as being more lewd than they actually are (though often it's not entirely her fault), and you learn that all is not as it seems in increasingly funnier ways. This philosphy applies to much of the cast of Kaguya, and while not unique, the sheer dedication shown to this ideology is admirable.
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When Kaguya-Sama decides that it's time to get serious, it doesn't hold any punches. Stuff gets real, and while it's not as soul-destroying as some of the stuff that Akasaka has put in Oshi no Ko, it helps lend some credence to our characters and their struggles.
Honestly, I could keep going, but to spare my hands and your eyes, I'll stop for now. At the end of the day, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War is a must-read for any romance lover, any comedy lover, and any manga lover.