Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (2019)

[かぐや様は告らせたい ～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦～]

Season 1

Director: Shinichi Omata
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Starring: Aoi Koga, Makoto, Furukawa, Konomi Kohara
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
The president and vice-president of the student council at an elite private school engage in a battle of wits to get the other to make a love confession first.

Impressions:
With the second season ongoing as of the time of this writing, I'd been hearing things about this series and I'm extremely glad I decided to check it out. Usually I hate romcoms that resort to convoluted means to prevent a normal human relationship, but here it's played to great comedic effect, with Shirogane and Shinomiya's dance of mental chess (and the game's inevitable self-destruction) always a treat to watch. The support characters provide excellent foils to our leads and to each other. There are some moments of genuine sentiment amid all the comedy that manage to be quite effective as you do come to care for the cast. I haven't had this much fun with a series in a while. I'm reminded of the early high I got watching KareKano, but unlike that series, this one actually has a solid follow-through. I also want to give a nod to the opening and endings. The dream world depicted in the second ending reminds me of the music video Studio Ghibli made for "On Your Mark" and honestly could stand to be its own story. And of course the Chika Dance is incredibly catchy and a rare instance of a Japanese studio using rotoscoping. Anyway, this series easily warrants a place in your collection and I highly recommend getting it.

Rating:
Own It