i had my first experience with love is war few years ago, when i was just a naive teenager (as opposed to a naive adult) and had been just getting into the animanga world. i saw the anime and fell in love completely. i wasn't much interested in romance as genre, still aint, so a measly rom com anime hitting me like that was very unexpected. I tried to take it slow and enjoy it thoroughly.

and then came the climax, the first kiss film and i cannot put into words what i felt that day. it is one of the most intense emotional experiences i have ever had in any medium. easily takes the cake for the most intense emotional romantic experience, not just in media but even including real life. i know how much of a basement dwelling virgin sewer rat or emotionally shallow psychopath that makes me look, but its is true. and i am not even mad about that. cuz this series and the chars are just that special to me. besides, i think there's a reason for it besides the lack in my romantic life, or the non-existence of it. even if i did have the most novel romantic experiences, i dont think they would be able to replicate the feeling of this. maybe the intensity, but i think emotion is such a complicated thing to understand that it wouldnt matter. i think the only way for me to feel this is by being a bystander, through a story. and there is no another fictional couple i would rather have this with. no other series. kaguya and shirogane have been as dear to me as they could.

but all of this is the talk of the past. the distant past when i was nothing but a little boy. its easy to move a little boy who has seen 3 films in his life and has barely felt. you can fool him with cliches and cheap gimmicks. its not until you face a man, a man who has seen close to 11 films (12 if you count short films), that you can e tested for your quality. so, at this mature age of 20, i decided to get a trip down memory lane and revisit one of my most cherished stories. this time i chose the source material, since i had never read it (and also cuz people say the adaptation is skipped a lot of chaps). and its the only fair way to go about it. and after a just under a week, here i am at the end, writing a review (which is my first on this website, yayy)

[ the real review starts here, but i needed to give you a bit of context. the last couple of paras arent useless, actually they are very critical to understanding my relationship with this series, but if really are a lazy pig with the attention of a goldfish with adhd, you could start your reading from here :) ]

kaguya sama follows the story of the prideful, elite status, highly competent people. they seem to be perfect in anything and everything they do, but it turns out, love is not one of them. kaguya sama is... not doing anything new. you knew that. i knew that. but, thats not the point. it rarely ever is in rom coms (hence my despise for the genre). you dont have to do anything new to move people. and kaguya sama proves that repeatedly. ever since the first chapter, it grips you and as long you are in the bubble, you will feel the comfort you were promised. and the entertainment. kaguya sama is very romantic sure, but its incredibly funny too. even if the over the top, slapstick comedy isnt your cup of tea, i think you will have a good time. and its very consistent. it keeps the balance of drama, comedy and romance pretty well throughout. it switches from romance, to drama, to comedy before you get bored of any of them so it doesnt feel tiring. but it also doesnt abandon its plot consistency, the over the top actions taken by chars for the sake of comedy arent thrown away when the drama comes. they matter. they hold weight. comedy fuels drama, which fuels romance, which fuels comedy, and though it does get a bit repetitive, it doesnt feel boring.

the characters are prolly the heart and crown jewel of the series. kaguya and shirogane are the mcs, the focal point of the story, sure. but they arent the only ones you care bout. the rest of the student council, other students in the school, the staff, the parents, even one off chars, all of the cast pretty wholesome and entertaining. though they all dont have depth, no one feels shallow. if you love the main cast, you will prolly end up loving everyone. the way aka akasaka handles the cast is pretty impressive. he doesnt make them too cliched and gives them more nuance than is expected of him. it actually surprised me.

and i think that development is prolly is second strongest suit after char writing. he makes it seem flawless. you dont even notice it happening, cuz you are too busy laughing your ass off. sometimes it feels like he just pulled it out of his ass (maybe he does). but it gives the story and the char choices the weight it needs to stand its ground and be something of value after you've finished watching/reading it.

backstories are, and this may be an unpopular opinion, kinda lackluster. they are hit or miss for me, and even when they do work, they just feel like a tool to set up a plot point, pull background chars out of irrelevancy, or provide depth to already established ones, instead of being ends in of themselves. i know its kind of an impossible task and may even confuse you since it seems so contradictory on the surface, but i have seen happen enough times for it to be turn off for me.

my biggest complain though, is the second half of the manga. the first half is borderline perfect, i wouldnt change a thing about it. but after the cultural festival arc, when our lead couple reach their climax ( or one of the climaxes) they story gets considerably dull. it doesnt happen instantly, i do think its good until the christmas, but as soon things cool down, and we get back to the normal routine, i feel like its lost the magic. it doesnt become boring but it loses its freshness, its charm. the plot feels unplanned, the arcs are unexciting and it feels like its just barely keeping it head over the water. it doesnt sink, but it doesnt float either. good news is it doesnt keep deteriorating in quality, its consistent. but the final arc is an exception to that.

ok lets talk bout the final arc then now shall we. i am not in the kaguya sama fandom, so i dont know whats the general opinion of my fellow readers is on it, but i hated it. and i dont mean i thought it was kinda underwhelming or bit loose. i mean i thought its as utter dogshit. why the fuck are a bunch of highschoolers fighting the biggest conglomerate in the world and winning??? are you kidding me. this arc honestly gave me ptsd about the game of thrones finale (though its closer in the parellel to the us office) , its not nearly as bad of course, but did scare me. the epilogue is kinda corny, but its not unexpected. i dont like the overly sentimental "remember when"s nostalgia baits and future flashbacks where everyone's life goes exactly how they dreamed of and then everyone lives happily ever after but theres not many ways to end a rom com and and reading what i had read up until that point, it was an obvious choice. it was corny but it could have been a lot worse. im thankful to it for not ruining the specialness for me. though i really like the very last panel. all of them walking together, with the landscape of the huge city in front of them, putting you into perspective of how mundane and inconsequential it all was. that no matter how epic and dramatic it seemed, its was just a bunch of high schoolers living their lives.