Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2018)
[ใใใๆงใฏๅใใใใ ๏ฝๅคฉๆใใกใฎๆๆ้ ญ่ณๆฆ๏ฝ]
Volume 10
Author/Artist: Aka Akasaka
Publisher: Young Jump Comics
Synopsis:
Shirogane tries to come up with a way to confirm Shinomiya's feelings for him.
Story/Characters:
With her routine in place, Shinomiya makes for a formidable opponent. However, once the dust settles, she gets carried away and manages to annoy Hayasaka. This comes back to bite her in the tail when she sends Hayasaka to keep an eye on Shirogane when he's invited to go out for karaoke. This leads to a big moment in the development of Hayasaka's relationship with Shirogane, and then she decides to go in for a revenge match after failing to woo Shirogane the last time. We then have a chapter with Ishigami and Iino, where Ishigami tries to spare Iino some embarrassment and his efforts are rewarded about as well as you'd expect. We then have a cooking contest that seems to parody series like Shokugeki no Souma. We then have the latest entry in the tempestuous romance between Kashiwagi and her boyfriend when she suspects him of cheating. Once that's resolved, Background-chan makes her debut as a named character. She's Maki Shijou, a relative of Shinomiya's (first cousins twice removed if I read the family tree correctly). She acts as a vehicle to comment on the ineffectiveness of roundabout approaches to romance (hint, hint, Shirogane and Shinomiya) and I like how she latches on to Shirogane and Ishigami. Next, Fujiwara sets up the 10-yen game amid Shinomiya's lingering concerns about the karaoke incident. After that, the principal enlists the student council for a photo shoot and an accident costs Shinomiya her phone. In her efforts to replace it, we get a bit of deja vu of the chapter when Shirogane got his smartphone, closing on a nice poignant note.
Art:
The cover for Chapter 93... Just putting that out there. Also, the final full-page spread for Chapter 101 is very nice. Other than that, the art does what it's done so well up until now.
Other:
We get mini-profiles for Shirogane's friends Toyosaki and Kazamatsuri and the stinger for Chapter 94 gives us the important detail that Shirogane and "Haasaca" exchanged contact information (which will come into play later). There is an abbreviated family tree I alluded to before in the stinger of Chapter 98 that clarifies how Maki is related to Shinomiya (as the term Maki used would probably be unknown to most readers except for those with an interest in genealogy).
Conclusion:
I'm always happy to see more Hayasaka, so that alone has me on board. The cell phone two-parter is quite nice, so nice in fact that they went ahead and grabbed it for the Season 2 finale of the anime. If you've been following along this long, you're probably sure to expect it, but this is one for the collection.
Rating:
Own It