In my previous review of the 2nd season of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, I compared my experiences of watching the first two seasons of the show to that of a plane taking off and flying among the clouds - a metaphor that I had every intention of adding onto after I completed the 3rd season. Fast forward a good couple of weeks and I have done just that; I have not only watched the 3rd season and OVA to their completion, but also pushed myself to sit down and write a review that can accurately encapsulate what I felt from watching this 3rd and - as of 8/2024 - final season of a truly incredible anime. To add onto my metaphoric interpretation of the show, I would say that after gliding through cloud nine for most of the series, the 3rd season ended the ride with the smoothest of landings - though I can't say that I wanted the ride to end.

Everything that I mentioned in my review about the 2nd season of Kaguya-sama: Love is War regarding the incredible shift in pace, the expansion of the incredible cast of characters, and the hilarious sense of humor seen in each episode was, in my head at the time, so remarkable that I struggled to comprehend a world where each of these categories could get even better. Needless to say, I was transported to that world the moment I hit the play button.

The story of Kaguya-sama: Love is War: Ultra Romantic largely picks up right where the 2nd season ended, both figuratively and literally, as the first episode takes the audience back to the hilarious final credit roll of S2. You know the music by now, so it's time to dance (again, both figuratively and literally, as I will discuss in the Music section of the review) - the star-studded Shuuchiin Student Council helmed by Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya is back by ludicrously popular demand, and their classic bout of "love is war" is as memorable as it was one season ago. Also notable is how the entire five-member student council is all together right from the get-go - something that, as a big fan of Miko, made me very happy to see. I have mentioned in each of my previous reviews of Kaguya-sama: Love is War that the incredible cast of characters are what make this anime so great, and they somehow managed to make Ultra Romantic even better than its predecessors.

With what appears to be the final cast of main characters ~~(pls give me S4 to prove me wrong)~~ established from minute one, the creators have so much more liberty in not only progressing the story through Shirogane and Shinomiya's quest for romance, but also adding onto already established side-stories and even creating new ones. This can be seen in countless different instances, but I'll start with the interactions between Ishigami and Iino - two of my favorite characters. There were certainly plenty of memorable instances where the show's cutest "rivals" were at each other's throats in S2, but seeing as how Iino only became an established member of the crew midway through the season, the audience, myself included, were left wondering how their relationship would improve ~~(or degress)~~ in the next season. I, for one, was not disappointed with the result. With Iino present from the get-go, Ultra Romantic blessed us with so many hilarious fights that I couldn't help but love the two even more - something that I was not expecting to happen.

Another example of the aforementioned creative liberty giving characters' more development can be seen with Ishigami yet again. I absolutely loved how Ultra Romantic introduced a target of romance for Ishigami: Koyasu Tsubame. For someone who had, up until this point, been so reserved and unwilling to interact with those outside of the student council, seeing Ishigami awkwardly throw his hat into the rink with a girl that he himself admits is out of his league was one of my absolute favorite arcs to witness. And who could forget the greatest anime rap-battle in history? Shirogane and Hayasaka's relationship was always unique to me entering Ultra Romantic, but bruh - you can't just drop a man-to-man confession between Miyuki and Male Harthaka in the form of a rap-battle out of nowhere like that. It all cycles back into the show's incredible sense of humor and I could not get enough of it.

And speaking of that sense of humor, holy references, references, references... The amount of external media that is spoofed upon in this season is not only amusing, it's unironically brilliant. I can only mention the 4th-wall-breaks that I, personally, was smart enough to catch, but ___Ultra Romantic_ drops cameos of other popular anime, spoofs the automated text-to-speech Touhou videos seen on Japanese YouTube, blatantly calls out users of the social media app LINE and it's "Read" function, and even parodies the 1986 MTV music video of "Take On Me"... that one was my favorite.__ In all seriousness though, I cannot express enough how cool I found this, and I guarantee that you'll feel the same.

1. Music: 97/100 - Remember earlier on when I foreshadowed the Music section? That was intentional, because the music of Kaguya-sama: Love is War: Ultra Romantic once again slaps so hard, that it makes me wanna boogie. Not much has changed from the previous seasons in this area, if I were to be honest - Masayuki Suzuki blesses us with yet another incredible OP in "GIRI GIRI," pretty standard. But what Ultra Romantic managed to do this time around was show me an ending theme that I enjoyed more than the OP. Airi Suzuki, after helping make "Daddy-Daddy-Do!" the bop that it is, blessed us with「ハートはお手上げ」, or "My Heart Has Me On My Knees." As much as I love Masayuki Suzuki, I have to give props to this ending - it's living rent-free in my mind.

2. Plot: 92/100 - Previous to its predecessors, Kaguya-sama: Love is War: Ultra Romantic continues to build upon Miyuki and Kaguya's long-standing mental battle for romantic supremacy, but it is in this season where everything comes to a head. With the increasingly bleak circumstances that threaten the two's very global proximity in play, the suspense slowly builds throughout each episode until it boils over in the show's final moments. This anime gives its audience the ending that everyone wants, though it doesn't mean our hearts were prepared for it. What a way to send it all off...

3. Characters: 101/100 - I'll be damned, the good somehow got that much better. I have long since praised the incredible cast of characters in Kaguya-sama: Love is War as the best aspect of the show, but Ultra Romantic somehow went and made them even better through further lore development of many of the characters, new side-characters who make the main cast even more loveable, and a full season with the complete student council. Simply put, this series would not be the same without the incredible humor and character development given to the cast, and all I can do is pray that they come back for another season someday.

4. Art & Animations: 90/100 - Once again, the art-style and animations of Ultra Romantic remains largely the same to that of its predecessors, but seeing as how hard it went with its countless visual references to seperate media entities outside the anime itself, as well as how beautiful that final, glorious moment between Miyuki and Kaguya was, I couldn't help but toss a few more brownie points in recognition of the animators' incredible work.

When like-minded artists with their own innate skills come together with the goal of creating something memorable - something that will live on in the hearts of their audience for years to come - an amazing thing happens. To call Kaguya-sama: Love is War one of those amazing things would be an understatement - it has proven to be something so much greater than that. After finishing all three seasons and an OVA, I can safely say that this series deserves the praise that so many people throw at it, without a doubt. It is an anime that, in my opinion, ought to shoulder the honor of representing the good that can come from this diverse entertainment medium. There's only so much that a simple reviewer, such as myself, can say through words alone, so go and watch it - let your senses of joy, laughter and imagination take flight, like the show proudly does itself.