KAGUYA-SAMA WA KOKURASETAI: ULTRA ROMANTIC

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyKaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensaitachi no Renai Zunousen
ANIME ComedyKaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai?: Tensaitachi no Renai Zunousen
ANIME ComedyKaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: First Kiss wa Owaranai
ONA ComedyKaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Ultra Romantic 3rd Season Teaser PV - Ishigami Yuu wa Kataritai

REVIEWS

• 

  Alicemagic18

  63/100
  Reduced, Reused, and Recycled

  This review contains a few spoilers

  Season 1 was good

  Season 2 was great

  But Season 3 was Ultra Average or Cliched

  Ehh...

  One of those letdowns I’ve experienced when I mostly watched romantic comedies when I truly let my guard down, and most people said that this will surpass the previous seasons. Mostly said this season will be peak among the rest and they suddenly made the anime only jumped into the hype train, and if their expectations will surpass it. Most of them will say that this is the best. And some of them will say (including me), same (or not) flick like the rest.

  As much as I hate to say this, especially I’m a long time fan of this show…

  When I heard many noisy fans about what will happen in this season, I am already imagined that the ending would be 2 possible scenarios: There will be a confession in the last episode or, by default, they never confess their love to each other (misunderstanding in other words). At the end, I was right, because the last scenario happened in the first part of the season.

  I couldn’t emphasize this enough, but the story is just the same. When you watched the first two seasons, the formula or flow of the show is just the same as the others. It goes like this; introduction of the characters, most of the number episodes are full of slapstick comedy fillers that are not irrelevant to the plot, and some sudden serious moments in the last few episodes. I thought this season will be different but it followed the same formula that I mentioned earlier. To be frank, this season is boring, compared to the other seasons. I know it’s mainly a troll comedy but it’s a romance too. I was annoyed with this kind of formula because I don’t know when this show is going to be serious at some point. I don’t know why the author started to pulled those side characters, as they are irrelevant to the main plot. I think he wanted to splitting his attention onto numerous side characters giving us several different generic romances at the same time. Mostly the developments will happen in the last few episodes and it’s lacking, as I expected this season would become grand since manga readers overhyped this. Come on, it’s the third season already. It suffocated me for some reason and the flow of the story is the same all over and over again. I wonder why the chapters from the manga are extremely long because the story has fillers and is mostly stretched out.

  Going to the “filler episodes” that I mentioned before, it’s… average. Not unlike the previous seasons, that full of surprises. The quality of the comedy was degraded, since the dialogues are the same as in the previous seasons, and the jokes were overused and felt forced. It’s like they were trying hard to be funny like before but not anymore. The expressions, the punchlines, the vibe, and many more are like from the previous seasons. The segments are still the same but from different situations. The aftermath punchlines from the games were quite more predictable than I expected. In short, the comedy in this show is repetitive as fuck. I think only 100% die-hard fans of this show and new to comedy can laugh to these. The only thing that surprised me was the rap segment. I mean it’s from the same segment when Mama Chika teaches her son, Shirogane to improve his talents and skills. But, the unexpected actual rap battle between the characters was surprising.

  As for the “serious romance” that was lacking, due to the lack of episodes for the serious moments, the festival arc was very generic and annoying. It’s like a minimalized version of Rent-A-Girlfriend that Kaguya couldn’t confess to Shirogane, even him, each other due to unexpected reasons. Remember when Shirogane invited Kaguya to enjoy the festival? She thought that if the students see them together, there will be rumors that they are dating. It’s just one of those Kaguya’s habits from the previous seasons, just to intimidate Shirogane. But, so it’s not a right, and is it bad for Shirogane to enjoy the festival too? One of the reasons why I don’t get Kaguya’s motives at all. If I may remember, those two or three episodes of the festival arc, led to a cheesy and predictable “serious moment”, where Shirogane will leave the school to study abroad, that lasted just 1 or 2 episodes. Again, this is the third time that they used the same formula from the previous seasons. That last episode lasted an hour and it was pretty rushed than the manga. The pacing was fast, I think and they condensed those 10-15 chapters, I think into an hour, heck it’s 45 mins if you exclude the commercials. At the part where this mysterious thief showed up, I predicted that was one of Shirogane's schemes. Well, the legend of giving hearts was the catalyst for Shirogane to come up with a plan to confess to Kaguya. I don’t know if is it just me because I watched too many romance shows and films, and this kind of scheme was pretty obvious. The dialogues were half-baked and didn’t reach the point of the “serious” moment. It’s pretty cringe to be exact. The strengths of this show were in its hilarious and unique premise, but it excelled as a comedy that satirized romance tropes, not as an actual romance. From being a unique school comedy to an unfocused mess of a generic school romance anime. The part when Shirogane invited Kaguya to join him at Standford was pretty obvious. I mean they are both geniuses for fuck sake so there’s no way that it’ll not happen. They didn’t confess to each other at the end, and the whole thing ended with a ridonkeylous kiss. Remember, a kiss has different meanings. Overall, all the “serious” stuff, in the end, was cliched, forced, half-baked, and predictable. It was a beautiful moment, but still a generic melodramatic romance.

  The characters are still the same. For this season, they developed due to their inspiration for their crushes. The main characters, Shirogane and Kaguya, were pretty developed. They set aside their pride to conceal their feelings and fought with each other if who’s the one would confess first. As for the other characters, they are still funny, likable, and absurd as ever, and that’s it. They are still the same as the previous seasons.

  As for the animation, it’s still the same and nothing to be expected about. I’ve seen some panels and scenes where the quality degraded. I know that the charm from the manga was different from the anime because the expressions from the manga were dark and well expressed than the anime. As for the sound, it is also still the same. Although I had problems with the OP. The OP from this season was pretty weak and I like from the previous seasons better. The ED was okay, nothing to be surprised about. The music was still forgettable in the end.

  Overall, this season was pretty weak than the previous. Honestly, I enjoyed a few of the segments, but the rest were pretty the same. I had a few laughs from some parts of many segments from this season, but I expected something greater quality of the jokes than the previous. The previous seasons are still superior compared to this season. I set my expectations high that this will be different, but in the end, hope seemed to be lost. The serious development was good but honestly, the whole thing could be better. Even if the jokes from this show are new and executed well, it’s still a hit-or-missed comedy in the end.

  For some reason, The “Ultra Romantic” from its title was very misleading. The whole season isn’t ultra-romantic and it should never be.

  Story: 5/10
  Animation: 7/10
  Characters: 6/10
  Sound: 6/10
  Entertainment factor (Comedy: 3/5, Romance: 2/5): 5/10
  Enjoyment: 6/10
  Score: 6/10

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• 

  Mcsuper

  96/100
  Blessed Are We To Have Been Able To Witness This Masterpiece

  *Potential spoilers below

  Love is complicated, scary, fleeting, but certainly not war. For Kaguya and Miyuki, though, it is. For months upon months, they have played this game where whoever confesses first loses, having lots of fun along the way, but when faced with a time constraint, was all this “war” a waste of time? Love doesn’t always wait for us, people come and go, and that’s why people must take advantage of every opportunity to be with those they love.

  Watching this third season of Kaguya-sama was like watching the last act of a play, or listening to the last verse of a song. It felt like at the end of this cour, something momentous would happen, and the characters would step away from the status quo, starting potentially a new journey in their lives.

  I have to credit mangaka Aka Akasaka’s brilliant storytelling and hysterical comedy in the original work, but I can’t give enough credit to the wonderful work of A-1 Pictures, the animators, and all the staff working on this passion project. The anime brings the manga to life so well, with adaptations shattering all expectations. For example, that rap sequence in Episode 5 this season was one of the best single anime episodes I have ever witnessed, with references that made me shocked. Throughout the series, we’ve seen so many different references, such as the Monogatari series, Dragon Ball, and even Western culture references like A-Ha’s “Take On Me”, and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Once again, I cannot give enough credit to the staff for coming up with this type of modern masterpiece. What I find most impressive is director Shinichi Omata’s grasp of modern society. He has done his research on what kind of comedy works in this day and age, and it’s not always situational comedy, it’s comedy that harnesses works from other mediums other than anime, which is such a creative spin that borders on comedic genius. Comedy is subjective, and it’s possible that not everyone enjoys this comedy, but for me, it couldn’t have been much better and funnier.

  My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

  STORY: 22.5/25

  The continuation of the antics of the student council. The continuation of Kaguya and Miyuki’s relationship. Similarly to previous seasons, each episode is divided into skits, but this season is a bit less episodic than the rest, because the meat of the season lies in last few episodes focusing on the cultural festival.

  I never can get too much of Kaguya and Miyuki’s mind games, and there is no shortage of that this season. It’s not all the same as the previous seasons though, because there are some important developments, and near the end of the school year, Miyuki gets accepted into Stanford University, a renowned school in the United States. That would mean he would be separated from the student council earlier than expected.

  The underlying reasons of these mind games and why they never confessed is simple. One, it is scary. Two, they thought they had all the time in the world. When we are in a good place in our lives, with little time constraint, it’s hard to leave the status quo. In fact, it’s scary leaving a comfortable place in our lives. For Kaguya and Miyuki, it would have been comfortable and fun to play their mind games forever, but each person has their own lives and ambitions, and when there is a time constraint, they had to act upon their feelings and get it all out there. It’s really a tale that depicts the different sides of every person, the playful side, the childish side, but also the mature side. It’s a pretty relatable story of one’s growth in high school.

  A side story, and one I was very invested in watching, was Ishigami’s story with Tsubame. Ishigami has been one of my favourite characters since the first season, and he has a very intriguing personality, delivering cynical lines now for fantastic comedic relief. Tsubame is the leader of the Cheer club and the organizer for the cultural festival, so naturally, she was pretty popular amongst the students. Ishigami doesn’t come off as a very confident person, so a relationship with him and Tsubame didn’t seem very possible at first, but Ishigami, with some help from Kaguya, was able to take action in search of a date with her. The funny thing about all this, is that this is hypocrisy to the highest degree, in that she’s telling Ishigami to go forward with his ambitions, but she doesn’t want to confess to Miyuki herself. It was honestly very entertaining to watch the twists and turns of this relationship play out.

  Overall, there was a lot of development this season for a few characters, not just the main couple, which was a good take on the romcom genre, allowing many characters to shine.

  ART: 9.6/10

  As I mentioned, this is a passion project made with a lot of love. The animation is vibrant, and always adds to the comedy. It’s a visual feast always, with chaotic animation every episode. I would also love to shout out Vercreek, an 18 year old animator who was the key animator for the Episode 5 ED “My Nonfiction”, which was such eye candy. The regular ED was also very good and colourful, with yet more references, this time, to Kaguya-Hime, and Starship Troopers! Sasuga A-1 Pictures!

  MUSIC: 9.5/10

  Masayuki Suzuki had yet another wonderful opening in “Giri Giri”, though I do prefer the previous two openings. You can’t have Kaguya-sama without Suzuki though. The two endings were wonderful musically as well, especially “My Nonfiction”, which took rap elements and k-pop elements in a visually appealing ending. The OST is also great, as always.

  CHARACTERS: 19.5/20

  The main cast of characters bounce off each other very well, for great comedy. The voice actors do a great job, and I bet they had a lot of fun while doing the lines. Aoi Koga is such a great voice actor for Kaguya, killing it yet again, with her excellent range, balancing her dark side and shy side so well! I’ve talked about the characters a lot already, and it’s no surprise that I like every single one of them. I’ll just go over some of the characters I found interesting, besides Kaguya, Miyuki, and Ishigami.

  Let’s start with everyone’s favourite comedic character, Chika! I noticed her somewhat lack of screen time in the cultural festival arc, and that made sense, since she’s more of a comedic character. Her running gag this season, similarly to previous seasons, is her being Miyuki’s teacher for many things, and getting PTSD from those experiences. Every time, that type of comedic bit is great, though I think they overly used it this season. Her bubbly personality was still a joy to see.

  Next, we have a new character, Maki Shijo. I admit, I found her kind of annoying at first, but her friendship with Ishigami was why I ended up liking her. She has her problems with romance, but she’s able to use that to help Ishigami in his pursuit of romance. She was a wholesome character to watch, and had some great moments.

  Lastly, let’s talk about Iino. Her “healing music” made for one of the funniest comedic moments of the season, as it was just so weird, but in a funny way. Her sensitivity to indecency made for an obstacle at times, so maybe she’s the “fan-service police”? Because of her, the fan-service in the show was limited? That’s how I like to see her as.

  Great cast of characters that made for awesome comedic moments, while having their own character development in the process.

  ENJOYMENT: 15/15

  Had so much fun with this series, as I usually do with Kaguya-sama. Always was invested, so I was frustrated with the cliffhangers, but that’s a sign the show made me excited.

  THEMATIC EXECUTION: 19.7/20

  Basically, all the excellent animation and musical themes helped coalesce the production, and establish drama and suspense. Director Omata’s cinematography and grasp of modern culture and the human condition made for excellent comedy. The romance felt as well paced as ever, never forced.

  OVERALL: 95.8/100

  Kaguya-sama has been a work of pure love, and it has always been made with great passion. I love works of art like this show that doesn’t rely or flashiness or fight scenes to create suspense, but just relatable romance tales that keep me engaged and excited all the way through. I found that when there was a great episode, I always smiled throughout the end credits, and honestly, this show made my day sometimes. It’s one of the most fun I’ve had with an anime ever, and if anyone ever wants a funny romcom to watch, or even if they’ve never watched anime, this would be near the top of the list for me to recommend. I haven’t poured my heart out this much writing a review, and that’s a testimony to how good this show is. I feel blessed to have been part of this 12 week journey, and to be able to share all my thoughts to you. If you’ve read everything, I truly appreciate it.

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• 

  CodeBlazeFate

  92/100
  "My heart has surrendered"

  “My heart has surrendered” -Airi Suzuki

  With each passing season, Kaguya-sama has remained one of the absolute best anime of this past half-decade. As a comedy, it is uproarious, however, part of why it succeeds so above and beyond is due to being one of the most visually inventive and passionately-driven manga adaptations, perhaps ever. A-1 Pictures’ current flagship non-SAO title is a three-time triumph, with this latest series pushing everything to new heights while ratcheting up so much of last season’s drama to create one of the most electrifying binging experiences this side of Mawaru Penguindrum!

  For the 5th time in a row, it bears repeating that Shinichi Omata (or Mamoru Hatakayama) is among the best TV anime directors of our time. It cannot be understated how spectacular and versatile he is. Anyone who has seen the masterpiece that is Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu can attest to how stunningly presented the show’s drama is while giving each season their own feel that matches the content within. However, he and his team have proven time and again how spectacular they are at comedy. Exaggerated facial expressions, optical illusion backgrounds, aspect ratio manipulation, striking changes in color and texture to dramatize every single frame that merits such amplification, and inventive transitions all carry over and then some. Not only does this current season have some of the best examples yet, the editing even beyond those transitions is top notch. Episode 1’s arm-wrestling scenario is the perfect example, utilizing the beat of “We Will Rock You” by Queen at the mention of an immovable object akin to a rock during competition, and weaponizing the opening beats of S2’s OP as the explanation of Kaguya’s archery skills boosting her strength replicates the first second or so of said OP…ON LOOP!

  The sheer passion and vision on display continues to elevate an already solid production to heights far beyond the vast majority of the studio’s output. It is difficult to do justice in text. The closest one might come would be to highlight the drawing count for the main ED of the season being around 2000 when the average episode can range from 3-4K or even 5K drawings. Keep even further in mind that S2 had a full-blown shoujo manga look adopted for part of one of its sketches, and that it’s been so handily surpassed that the first scene of this season puts a spin on the final, show-stopping ending minutes of that of the previous season’s school-crumbling and ensemble-flailing finale while matching its vibrance and creativity pound for pound. Finally, keep in mind that only the first two episodes were discussed, and that the show consistently keeps up with its baseline standard of quality and even outdoes itself on numerous occasions by its legendary conclusion. Even as resources dwindle at points, their solutions continue to provide insane and diverse visuals through out of the box thinking in ways never seen previously. Not many anime have the balls to just showcase their source material’s panels like this show does, after all. Even if it didn’t have all of that going for it, the show’s vibrant and expressive facial expressions combined with how frequently fluid it is would still keep it well above average.

  Fuck, that was overwhelming, but in all fairness, Kaguya 3 is nothing short of massive. Season 1 largely had its story arc be at the end, being more of an establishing season until episode 10. Season 2 is split between two halves. Meanwhile, this season interweaves and/or concludes several character arcs while slowly building up to one packed story arc. Shirogane and Kaguya’s will they won’t they romance, Hayasaka’s frustrations with Kaguya and budding kinship with Shirogane, Ishigami’s feelings towards Tsubame, the love triangle between Maki and the Kashiwagi & Tanuma couple, and how all of these intersect and build on top of each other. There are so many moving parts this season, on top of other subplots, that it’s by far the most packed season to date. It never stops introducing new hobbies, traits, and curveballs to every single solitary member of the cast, even extremely tertiary or even seemingly one-off characters like Chika’s sister and two of the Four Ramen Kings. Simply put, Kaguya 3 is a Rube Goldberg Machine of romcom subplots and grandiose emotional payoffs. Even simple one-scenario mini-arcs have their own resonant conclusions to them that add to the character of the setting and each individual cast member, weirdly short as some are.

  To those who complained for seasons of the seeming lack of progress between Kaguya and Miyuki’s cat & mouse romance, let it be known that amidst a million different aspects, they’re still at the forefront. The adrenaline never slows down, and even when it seems to, a seemingly irrelevant gag will reinforce character traits brought to the forefront to aid this arc like Chika’s complicated yet progressive dickishness towards Shirogane and Ishigami (and everyone) underscoring her care and motherly willingness to see them succeed. After all, every character has their own motivations and subplots that tie into each other and the ultimate push towards Kaguya and Shirogane’s relationship moving more tumultuously than ever.

  And in a sea of climaxes, the ending tops everything that has come before as everything clicks into place. Music to one’s ears, is it not?

  That being said, Kei Haneoka’s OST for the series is still on par with the previous seasons, offering several new tracks to fit every situation. There are a handful of pieces that are more resonant than ever, adding to the series’ repertoire of solid music. The OP by Masaaki Suzuki, “GIRI GIRI feat Suu” by Masaaki Suzuki, is yet another smooth bop following the same steps as previous seasons. It may be the weakest of the 3 we’ve been presented with, but it’s still another solid song. The ED, meanwhile, was a pleasant surprise compared to the shrill moe type songs of previous seasons. “Heart wa Otage” by Airi Suzuki might be the best song of the entire series, inserts and all. If there was anything that immediately set this season up as a climax, it was this beautiful song filled with finality and love.

  That final word really is key to everything, eh? Kaguya-sama is a romcom of epic proportions, with an adaptation that is nothing short of an ingenious, passionate labor of love. Even somewhat stale and intrusive elements like the narrator are backed up with stellar presentation as to be more forgivable, with several shots and sequences that even in isolation can decimate over ¾ of any given seasonal’s visual output. Even the voice acting finds new ways to impress while matching the insane editing and presentation on display. The team’s clever manipulation of audio tracks is almost unheard of in professional Japanese animation, especially to the extent that’s been displayed this season compared to the last. It’s the culmination of coming to love these characters and their ever-expanding web of relationships and quirks. It’s the climax to the very premise laid out at the start of the series. In spite of everything, there appears to be more on the way, so what the hell can top this?! Does it even matter? Perhaps, though ending here would have been fine, too. If we get more of this wonderful cast and their antics, that’s all that matters. Nothing will be the same way after this anyway, and besides…

  “My heart has surrendered.”- someone smitten long ago

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