When Kaguya-sama, Love is War premiered I, along with many others I presume, was skeptical about how long could a show keep the will-they-won't-they dynamic relevant, fresh, and more importantly, funny. Now, after season two has come and gone we have our answer. It's probably going to be indefinite.

To start understanding the success of this sequel requires a deep dive into what the show has done differently from the first season. And although it feels like the answer is "very little" since it still maintains or enhances all of its original qualities, the truth is a lot has changed.

Let's start with the most obvious change, the title. Yes. Kaguya-sama, Love is War is now Kaguya-sama, Love is War? This change, though subtle in the opening sequence, is key to the satisfying feeling of progression we get with the sequel. Kaguya is definitely, more than once this season, half a step away from giving in to the whole war and declaring her love for Shirogane (even if sometimes that is only to herself). Shirogane, too, is in a different state though his change is more subtle, perhaps because we spend less time seeing things through his perspective. The side characters have also shifted a bit, with Chika, feeling jealousy when someone else steps into the shoes of mentor for Shirogane's incredibly inept side. This is something that seems incongruous to the carefree Chika that we know and love. Ishigami gets the most fleshed out in this season, with a whole arc explaining his lackadaisical attitude in order to move him to a new status. Before the arc he was lackadaisical because of trauma, now he can be that way by choice.

Next to change, albeit subtly, is the tone of the show. Where the original was engulfed in tension and comedic drama (and yes, that's a thing in Kaguya-sama), this season movies into actual drama without forgoing its comedic value. The tension that the show still exerts comes, therefore, not from the love denial, but from genuine connections that feel way more rewarding. It's in the interactions, in the growth of the characters and in, yes, the HOPE that our leads will find each other because they deserve it.

Overall the show has managed to keep all the elements of the original that made it great and yet change them just enough to keep the audience not only engaged but totally invested in the storyline. I could not think it possible that I could like Kaguya-sama more than I did when I finished the first season and was all aglow with romantic promise, but this season did top that feeling with a feeling of camaraderie and promise. The promise is that more Kaguya-sama can only be a good thing. So if the anime gods are listening: Another season, please! We'll be good boys and girls and eat all our vegetables.