To describe Kaguya-sama: Love is War as a battlefield of love, between two prideful geniuses, who see confessing as a sign of “weakness” is well-sort of misleading. It's baffling to see so many positive reviews and the amount of praise it’s received when it lacks substance and does nothing special compared to other rom-coms. The dynamic between the two leads doesn’t change as they are no closer to confessing to each other than they were at beginning. Overall, Kaguya sama is a fun rom-com, but it's cliche and filled with troupes that would otherwise be criticised in other shows. The opening visuals are creative, however the opening song is cheesy and the ending is forgettable. I’ll give it to A1, the animation is great, the osts are good and the stylistic presentation is visually impressive enough for you to overlook most scenes taking place in one location. He’s often mentioning stuff that’s obvious on screen with info dumps, which is jarring because it comes across as if the viewer is too stupid to think for themselves. I don’t know why the narrator is keeping score of their matches because it ultimately amounts to nothing and we get the same rinse-repeat scenario next episode. The writer clearly didn't grasp the concept of 'show, don't tell' because i don't want to be told about the characters and their thought process like they’re puppets. The narrator might as well be his own character with how overused it is, to the point it becomes overbearing and annoying. The main problem with this show is the narration. He's the most interesting, relatable and got varied comedy. He’s the best of the main cast in my opinion. The president is the hardworking and studious guy. 'oh no, Kaguya is going to kill me! I'm going home President!'. He's easily the worst character because of how one dimensional he is and all his jokes being so predictable e.g. Chika is the cute ditsy airhead, Ishigami is the depressed emo okatu that fans relate to calling him 'our guy'. The characters are a bunch of troupes who receive no character development: Kaguya is a rich, childish, pampered tsundere with barely any endearing qualities. The episode about the wiener joke (no, I’m not kidding) was so childish. the skit where the President and Kaguya gave love advice dragged on too long. The jokes and gags are repetitive and become stale e.g.

The comedy is hit or miss most of the time, with the odd joke being able to crack a smile from me.

Fans have dubbed Kaguya sama as the 'Death Note of romance', which is laughable because the mind games here are pretentious, basic tactics. Story? There’s no story beyond two teen high schoolers failed love attempts at getting the other person to confess. Every season there is one entry the anime community overhypes beyond belief and this time it's Kaguya sama.

Kaguya vol 22