Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2021)
[ใใใๆงใฏๅใใใใ ๏ฝๅคฉๆใใกใฎๆๆ้ ญ่ณๆฆ๏ฝ]
Volume 23
Author/Artist: Aka Akasaka
Publisher: Young Jump Comics
Synopsis:
Shinomiya decides to confide in Fujiwara about her relationship with Shirogane.
Story/Characters:
It's long overdue for Shinomiya to bring Fujiwara into the loop and while Shinomiya is working up the courage to tell her, Fujiwara reflects on how they first became friends. It's no exaggeration to say that Fujiwara is the way she is now because of Shinomiya. It's all very touching... until Fujiwara goes full Chika about the reveal. It gets worse when our main couple goes on to include Ishigami and Iino, who prove to be more perceptive about the whole thing than poor Fujiwara. However, Fujiwara's sudden antagonism against Shirogane quickly gets put aside when another opportunity emerges for Mama Chika to take the stage (this time with dancing). I like how the chapter ends with a promise of future training arcs. Excellent.
Before the story shifts to the next arc, we have a brief interlude told from the perspective of Shirogane and Shinomiya's homeroom teacher, dealing with the difficulty of communication between teenagers and adults. (I'm amused at the portrayal from Shinomiya's perspective of this massive gap between the teenaged highschoolers and a teacher who hasn't even broken into his thirties, considering that I and most of my colleagues have an even bigger age gap between us and our students.) It almost seems like a spinoff is getting set up, or maybe we'll just have the occasional chapter featuring Oohashi-sensei when we want to have fun with miscommunication.
Next, we focus on Iino's pursuit of Ishigami. Egged on by Fujiwara, she starts to take a more assertive approach. It looks like things are going to start progressing quickly, but we have a bit of a reversion to the old ways (to Fujiwara's relief) and a big discussion about using Discord as means of communication (not surprising for a gamer like Ishigami when compared to the more LINE-centric Iino). Fujiwara introduces Ishigami to Gigako's gaming circle, which leads to the introduction of a new rival, Koromo Shiranui. Now, there doesn't seem to be much sign of anything romantic going on, but mutual interests could have one thing leading to another, so Iino decides to jump into FPSs so she can get in on the fun. Of all the people to teach her, it's Papa Shirogane, which later leads to some (rather amusing) misunderstandings. With all this going on, Osaragi is feeling conflicted and her conversation with Shinomiya gets overheard by Iino. Things are said and we have yet another tangle to work out.
Art:
The art maintains the standard you've come to expect. There are a few comic shots I particularly like. Shinomiya's misperception of Oohashi-sensei is amusing and Iino's interactions with Ishigami are pretty cute. We actually get a couple glimpses of Osaragi's eyes in her chapter and she really is quite pretty. Clearly the lenses on her glasses are depicted as being opaque so she doesn't outshine the rest of the cast.
Other:
We get a number of useful notes at the end of several chapters, such as the different hobbies the cast have pursued and the definitions of some lingo general audiences may not be familiar with.
Conclusion:
I'll admit to being a little more conflicted in my evaluation this time around. It's definitely a worthwhile read and while the new arc focusing on Iino and Ishigami should be fine, I'm not feeling the same fire that kept me going earlier in the series. A lot of the central conflict is pretty well wrapped up and as it seems that we're going to be ending when Shirogane goes off to the US, some of the heavier stuff farther in the future aren't going to be addressed. Sure, I'm invested enough in Iino and Ishigami that I want to see how things shake out, but it's definitely an order of magnitude below Shirogane and Shinomiya's relationship. Fans will be getting this anyway, I'm sure, and out of respect for the strength of Chapter 222 and what it does with Shinomiya and Fujiwara's friendship, I'm still going to recommend adding this to your collection.
Rating:
Own It