Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2020)
[ใใใๆงใฏๅใใใใ ๏ฝๅคฉๆใใกใฎๆๆ้ ญ่ณๆฆ๏ฝ]
Volume 18
Author/Artist: Aka Akasaka
Publisher: Young Jump Comics
Synopsis:
Onodera confronts Shinomiya about her relationship with Shirogane.
Story/Characters:
Our opening chapter with Onodera and Shinomiya gives us insight into how Shinomiya has gauged potential friends, but also into Onodera herself, who has been shaping up to be a pretty decent supporting character. Next we have Fujiwara challenging the student council to a cherry stem tongue-tying contest. It's one of the funnier chapters we've had in a while. After that, Fujiwara teaches Ishigami the trick to get on Iino's good side. Next, Shinomiya is trying to get Shirogane to pay attention to her while he's trying to focus on his work. After that, Mama Chika tries to take Ishigami under her wing and it's fun to see the contrast between this and her usual lessons with Shirogane. This leads into Ishigami seeking Shinomiya's help in planning out a date with Tsubame-sempai. Hayasaka prepares a plan and the reception it gets is worth seeing. We get a cliffhanger that doesn't get followed up on right away. We have a brief interlude with Shirogane and Iino where he tries to find some common ground with her amid some Ishigami-related stuff going on in the background. That cliffhanger with Hayasaka is then picked up with a chapter focusing on her daily routine and the reveal at the end hits pretty hard. We've got this big development that overshadows the school trip to Kyoto. Shirogane doesn't get to spend time with Shinomiya like he wants to, but instead he pals around with some bros, which like his "dates" with Ishigami, prove to be better than expected. We then play into what's set up as one of the typical public bath scenarios, but the author gleefully dumps a cold bucket of reality on the whole thing. I enjoyed the aversion. It's nice seeing Shirogane being protective of Shinomiya (and she's really into it, too). We close on a cliffhanger that involves Shirogane confronting Hayasaka and an appearance by Shinomiya's older brother Unyou. This was as far as I got when I first started picking up the manga, so it was really tough waiting it out for the next volume.
Art:
The art maintains the standard. The cherry stem chapter has plenty of good stuff to it. In Hayasaka's chapter we find out that she needs glasses, which makes me wish she didn't usually wear contacts. I also really like this shot we have at the end of that chapter with Shinomiya clinging to Hayasaka like a child. It says so much about the the scene and the characters without a single word. If you're like Shirogane's boys and like the sight of girls right after a bath, then you'll get plenty of that. Finally, Unyou is creepy as all get out. What a way to end the chapter.
Other:
After Chapter 172, we're given the results of Shinomiya's friendship test for the major and minor cast. Chapter 173 has the completion times for the cherry stem-tying contest. Chapter 180 gives us the team assignments for the school trip.
Conclusion:
We get a good balance of comedy and drama this volume, a number of cute moments and some big stuff getting set up. The plotline with Hayasaka in particular stands out and it'll have you on the edge of your seat to follow up on it. Definitely add this one to the collection.
Rating:
Own It