O Kawaii Koto – Kaguya-Sama Mid-Season

Once again, I find myself not actively doing a myriad number of things I should be doing, and surrounded on all fronts by work, school, and social responsibilities. Once again, instead of doing something like my PMP course work, I write about the glorious bit of happiness that is Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War. The last few episodes have done a fantastic job of meeting and exceeding my expectations. We have had increasing love for everyone’s Moe Chaos incarnate, Chika Fujiwara. My favorite thing to note however is that our girl Kaguya herself is getting more and more love as well.

So our fourth episode of the season had one of my most anticipated highlights of Kaguya, with the student council of Shuchiin Academy hosting their French sister school. In this, we see a limitation of the President, as Shirogane cannot speak French fluently (or at all really), with Kaguya and Chika both exceptionally well versed in the French language. Some complaints here were that the French was likely auto-plugged into Google Translate but since I don’t know French this didn’t really act as a detriment to me. What I did enjoy was when a sharp tongued woman went to accost the President, much to everyone’s confusion when he simply stared blankly when she insulted his mother, brother, lover, and intelligence. This of course triggered our dear Kaguya who put the fear of god into this woman, causing her hair to go white and retreat quickly in fear of our dear Vice President.

The next episode showed us a peek at what shall become one of the greatest bits of supporting characters as Nagisa Kashiwagi (the girl who went out with the boy who asked Shirogane for love advice in the second episode) comes to Kaguya and asks for advice on how to break up with said boy. Kaguya then proceeds to explain how many people have differing opinions and interests and while trying to slow the break up, Chika rushes in to steal the show as “Love Detective Chika.” Using the “imagine if he was with another girl” technique, she instills a bit of jealousy (or abject hatred in Kaguya’s case) driving the fact home for both girls that they are into their respective love interests. This episode rolls into Chika being the star, as she helps our athletically broken President Shirogane as he tries (and fails miserably) at volleyball, to the joy of many meme-makers all around. Finally, we end the episode on a tried and true bit of romantic psychological warfare as Shirogane and Kaguya try to get the other to admit they have an umbrella and were intending the whole time to ask the other to walk with them.

The most recent episode was honestly one of my absolute favorite, with the fourth member of the student council revealed. The Treasurer, Yu Ishigami, is introduced and revealed to have been present through several frames and now that he was introduced, he proceeds to request a resignation from the student council. This leaves Shirogane in a pickle because he will be unable to keep the council financially afloat. He begins to convey fear that Kaguya is out to kill him, and Chika, hence his resignation. We have some backstory and see that behind the scenes, Ishigami has been there the whole time. Finally, we have Kaguya appear, covered in blood with a prop knife, along with prop-murdered Chika. At the end of the skit, Kaguya gives a less than subtle warning to Ishigami to not resign and cause issue for the President. The rest of the episode is an adorable and hilarious “psychology test” and insight into Kaguya’s maid, Ai Hayasaka. Hayasaka shows that she is a multifaceted individual, able to maintain the personal of a gal at school as she secretly serves behind the scenes at Kaguya’s behest.

Overall, the show has been progressing nicely and I’m still glad that the following is growing more and more. Between the amazing memes, jokes, and comments I see listing Kaguya-Sama at the top of many lists, I’m glad to see this fandom grow as a manga reader a year before the anime was even announced, into what it is now. While some of the characters have gotten individuals in trouble (see u/HOLOFAN4LIFE) thankfully there’s no crazy controversies or any hatred directed at any characters or their real life creators (see the Darling in the FRANXX/Bitchigo insanity). Hopefully you and others are enjoying the watch OR better yet you have been convinced to give it a shot. Just beware of Yandere Kaguya!