Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2017)
[ใใใๆงใฏๅใใใใ ๏ฝๅคฉๆใใกใฎๆๆ้ ญ่ณๆฆ๏ฝ]
Volume 4
Author/Artist: Aka Akasaka
Publisher: Young Jump Comics
Synopsis:
Fujiwara challenges the student council to love quiz.
Story/Characters:
The love quiz chapter is quite funny. After that, we have Mama Chika teaching her boy how to sing, which will actually come back later. We then have Shinomiya try to engineer a driving date with Shirogane, only for it to backfire on her (of course), leading into the mini-arc where she's out sick. Sickly Shinomiya is rather amusing, as are Fujiwara's attempts to be the one to check in on her. We get the debut of Hayasaka's alter ego Smithee Haasaca (or however you want to romanize it) and I love how she tries to tempt Shirogane into taking advantage of her mistress. The payoff is great. The resulting tensions take a couple chapters to get sorted out. I love the parallel conversations with Shirogane and Ishigami and with Shinomiya and Kashiwagi. While the Kashiwagi conversation plays out fairly typically, but the Ishigami one feels very meta and it's a big part of why Ishigami is so well-loved by the fans. Next up we have the first proper appearance of Shirogane's sister Kei. I rather like Kei and wish she could get more screentime. We close on a discussion of summer plans, calling back to the earlier chapter about it. Fujiwara's selfish streak comes to the fore, she gets called out for it by Ishigami, and in a rare twist on this sort of situation, the other characters actually have his back. It's a nice aversion from what we usually see.
Art:
The art maintains the standard you'd expect with the great reaction shots that are the series' trademark. Kei has very striking eyes that border on uncanny valley. It works better in color than in black and white as you can see on the cover.
Other:
We have a Q&A at the end of the volume that needles the author a bit and Akasaka's responses are amusing. The little mini arc with Shinomiya getting sick and the aftermath is quite good. More than likely, you've already been won over, so it's no surprise that I'm going to recommend you adding this one to your collection.
Conclusion:
The series continues to deliver some great moments. Ishigami shines whenever he shows up.
Rating:
Own It