Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is a Japanese seinen manga series written and illustrated by Aka Akasaka. It began serialization in Shueisha's Miracle Jump in May 2015 and was transferred to Weekly Young Jump in March 2016.
A 12-episode anime television series adaptation by A-1 Pictures aired in Japan between January and March 2019, and a second 12-episode season premiered between April and June 2020. It was also adapted into a directed by Hayato Kawai, which was released in Japan in September 2019. In North America, the manga is licensed in English by Viz Media, while the anime series is licensed by Aniplex of America.
As of December 2019, the manga had over 9 million copies in print. In 2020, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War won the 65th Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category.
Premise
Student council president Miyuki Shirogane and vice-president Kaguya Shinomiya appear to be the perfect couple. Kaguya is the daughter of a wealthy conglomerate family, and Miyuki is the top student at the school and well-known across the prefecture. Although they like each other, they are too proud to confess their love as they believe whoever does so first would lose. The story follows their many schemes to make the other one confess.Characters
Main
;Kaguya Shinomiya;Miyuki Shirogane
; Chika Fujiwara
;Yū Ishigami
;Miko Ino
;Ai Hayasaka
Supporting
; Kashiwagi's boyfriend; Nagisa Kashiwagi
; Kei Shirogane
; Moeha Fujiwara
; Kobachi Osaragi
; Tsubame Koyasu
; Maki Shijo
; Karen Kino and Erika Kose
Production
Conception
Akasaka was writing the manga Instant Bullets for Young Jump and wanted to come up with another series. In an interview on Livedoor News, Akasaka said the original plot for Kaguya-sama was more of a fantasy and game of death, but his editor wanted something more mainstream and, at the time, Young Jump did not have a casual romcom series. It was Akasaka's first manga in the romcom genre.Akasaka set the series in high school as it was a time when he did not have much experience with dating and romance himself. He was thinking of high school relationships while smoking some food, and came up with the concept of wanting to reclaim some of his emotions of his youth in a fantasy. He envisioned "two tsunderes who like each other having battles of the mind". He thought that was a very common concept, but was surprised to find that readers were telling him that his premise was innovative. Also at first, he wanted to do more intellectual battles like Death Note but the theme changed more to "clashing of romantic emotions".
Character design
The characters' names were from The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. He liked princess stories, and Kaguya-hime was one of the most famous princess stories. In developing the characters, he said that Kaguya and Miyuki initially have the same personality and thought process, like twins, which made their exposition to the reader easier to understand. He then developed more divergence between the two. Other characters were developed in the same manner, starting as shallow and template-like, but being filled with realistic feelings and drawn from the experience of the author and of others he knew. He especially liked contrasting characters whose internal personalities differ from their external portrayal.Development and themes
In developing a chapter or story, Akasaka would think about emotions first and then write about experiencing the emotions, such as what Kaguya would feel if she were jealous. He would then arrange the characters and events around that emotion. When he thinks of some emotion that he hasn't developed into a story yet, he writes it on a sticky note or notebook to be used later.Akasaka said that he originally wanted to make a manga that would help office ladies relax, but since he is an otaku, it seems to follow in that. He also believes the manga is more about providing the reader with something exciting and conveying meaningful messages about human relationships rather than to showcase a number of character gags and reactions.
Akasaka said that Miyuki and Kaguya's becoming third-year students marks the second half of the story. When asked about the ending, he said he does not know whether he will go with the bad ending as with Kaguya-hime, but wouldn't mind if it did. He is also considering giving each character a curtain call chapter like they do in the dating sims.
Media
Manga
launched the series in the June issue of Shueisha's Miracle Jump magazine on May 19, 2015. The series last chapter in Miracle Jump was published in its February 2016 issue on January 19, 2016. The manga was then switched to the publisher's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump on March 24, 2016. A special chapter ran in the debut issue of Young Jump Gold on May 18, 2017.North American publisher Viz Media announced their license to the series during their panel at San Diego Comic-Con International on July 20, 2017.
A spinoff manga by Shinta Sakayama, titled Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Dōjin-ban, was launched on Shueisha's Tonari no Young Jump website on June 14, 2018, and it was serialized on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month. The manga finished on June 25, 2020.
A yonkoma spinoff, written by G3 Ida and titled Kaguya-sama o Kataritai, launched in Young Jump on July 26, 2018. The yonkoma focuses on two newspaper/press club girls who idolize Kaguya and the gang but have no clue what really goes on inside the student council.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced by Shueisha on June 1, 2018. The series is directed by Shinichi Omata under the pseudonym Mamoru Hatakeyama and written by Yasuhiro Nakanishi, with animation by A-1 Pictures. Yuuko Yahiro is providing the character designs, while Jin Aketagawa is the sound director. Kei Haneoka is composing the series' music. The series aired from January 12 to March 30, 2019, broadcasting on MBS, Tokyo MX, BS11, Gunma TV, Tochigi TV, Chukyo TV, and TV Niigata. The series ran for 12 episodes. Masayuki Suzuki, Rikka Ihara, and Yoshiki Mizuno performs the series' opening song "Love Dramatic feat. Ihara Rikka", while Halca performs the series' ending theme song "Sentimental Crisis". Aniplex of America have acquired the series in North America, and streamed the series on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and FunimationNow. In Australia and New Zealand, AnimeLab simulcasted the series within the region.A second season titled Kaguya-sama: Love Is War? was announced on October 19, 2019. The staff and cast returned to reprise their roles. It aired from April 11 to June 27, 2020 on the Tokyo MX, Gunma TV, Tochigi TV, BS11, Abema TV service, MBS and TV Niigata. The second season will feature Kaguya's character song "Kotae Awase" and a key visual with the new characters Miko and Osaragi as they join the returning main characters of the series. Suzuki returned to perform the season's opening theme "Daddy! Daddy Do!" with Airi Suzuki, while Haruka Fukuhara's "Kaze ni Fukarete" was used as the ending. The season received its world premiere prior to Japanese broadcast at Anime Festival Sydney on March 8, 2020. Funimation acquired exclusive streaming rights for the season in late March; the company will also release an English dub for both seasons.
Live-action film
The film premiered in Japan on September 6, 2019. Sho Hirano was announced for the role of Miyuki Shirogane, and Kanna Hashimoto was announced for the role of Kaguya Shinomiya. Hayato Kawai directed the film, Yūichi Tokunaga wrote the screenplay, and principal photography was conducted in March to April 2019.Reception
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War had over 6.5 million copies in circulation as of April 2019, over 8.5 million copies as of October 2019, and over 9 million copies in print as of December 2019. It was the 9th best selling manga in 2019, with over 4 million copies sold.In 2020, along with Aoashi, the manga won the 65th Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category.
Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network gave the first two volumes of the manga a positive review, calling it "one of the more unique rom-com premises out there". She noted that the second volume was better than the first, indicating development on the part of the author, and commenting that it boded well for the lastingness of the series. She was more ambivalent about the art, saying that it lacked polish and that faces in particular tended to suffer.
At the 2020 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, the Kaguya-sama: Love Is War anime was selected for Best Comedy, Best Couple, and Best Ending Sequence. The character Chika Fujiwara was nominated for Best Girl in the awards.