The First Kiss That Never Ends is a direct continuation of the ending of Season 3 and shouldn’t be viewed on its own or skipped over. It also continues the more slice-of-life presentation that the series evolved into. However, while this movie has the same type of writing and visuals as its anime, the actual plot becomes the most serious Kaguya-sama’s tone has ever been by far. Plus, it returns to focusing on Kaguya and Miyuki’s relationship again which is welcome (even for someone who loves the side characters and their stories like me).

The first half or so of the movie is the usual Kaguya-sama goofiness. Maybe it was because everyone in the theater was laughing, but I had a great time with the jokes in this one.

Then the plot starts shifting, focusing on Kaguya’s past and insecurities. While these are touched on throughout the series, this was a surprisingly deep dive into Kaguya as a character. Personally I’ve always been in the camp of wanting to see Kaguya be cute and silly instead of a Shinomiya, so I was surprised at how much I enjoyed all of the time spent on that other side of her. It’s very well-executed, using discomfort to great effect. Her backstory also hit me pretty hard personally. Miyuki has a similar light shown onto why he’s the way he is that’s also great to see, though not as much as Kaguya. While this is a bit of a shame, I don’t think he needed it as much. On one hand it’s a bit unfortunate that it took this long to really flesh these two out, but on the other hand I think using a “separate” movie like this to really highlight it was a great move.

The movie also has a very strong and lovely theme. Considering it’s basically the plot of the movie I don’t want to spoil it, but I think it carries a great message that also perfectly encapsulates the series as a whole. (While it seemed to contradict itself near the end, ultimately I think it actually helped reinforce the point by being more realistic about it.)

One criticism I could see people disliking more than me is that the writing can be pretty verbose and thick with what it’s having the characters convey. At times even I thought “I caught that before you spelled it out”, and a few sentiments from characters didn’t feel like something a 17 year-old would actually say. However, I personally don’t think it was egregious enough to detract from the experience that much. Plus, I’d rather have it be like that instead of obscure anyways. The movie makes up for it somewhat by actually having a good amount of little clever showcases of its theme in the first half before making it obvious.

Another criticism (that’s not new to Kaguya-sama) is that the movie will throw in jokes right after a dramatic segment without giving emotions enough time to really settle in. Fortunately this only happens a couple of times and isn’t bad enough to linger on, but it’s especially unfortunate here considering how much more meaningful these moments are. (Though admittedly I still laughed at them...)

Regardless, The First Kiss That Never Ends successfully focuses on and conveys its message about what it means to be in a relationship. It blows out even the series’s best “drama” moments while still having the charm it’s loved for. It might not be perfect, but it’s the most solid representation of Kaguya-sama as a whole.