Hey folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to keep moving on one of our more recent projects, the goofy and visually enthralling Kaguya-sama: Love is War. If you’ve been following these articles, you probably know my overall impressions at this point – I’m constantly finding new things to rave about regarding Shinichi Omata’s direction, but haven’t yet been hooked by the show’s cast, and am generally just kind of whelmed by its comedy.

That’s not unusual for me, of course. It’s a rare anime comedy that can keep my attention for long, and altogether, I think Nichijou is the only one I’d count as a personal favorite. I’ve discussed before how comedy, like horror, is built out of the element of surprise – and in order to cultivate that surprise, it relies on an assumed set of common cultural assumptions. The more complex and ambitious a joke is, the more it must assume its audience is drawing from a specific cultural and knowledge base – and as a dude from New England, I don’t really possess the experience to parse genuinely clever Japanese comedy. What is left is the stuff that’s universal – slapstick, silly faces, and everything else that translates without translation.

In the end, this means that the anime comedy which I might find genuinely clever is frequently untranslatable to me, while the stuff I do understand feels simplistic and repetitive. Honing the fundamentals can certainly ameliorate this effect (Nichijou and Sun & Moon are strong examples of that), but ultimately, I tend to watch these shows more for the characters than the jokes. So here’s to hoping for more meaty character moments, as we explore one more episode of Kaguya-sama!

Episode 4

Opening the episode with Kaguya in cat ears saying “nyaa,” a powerful opening salvo

Miyuki’s deadpan over absurdity is one of this show’s most reliable weapons

The narrator is a variation on the same joke, playing up the disconnect between his dramatic tone and the mundane nature of the drama. I like his menacing intonation of “cats” over Miyuki picking up a kitten

“Is it really necessary to cosplay for the welcome party?” It seems Kaguya-sama is dispensing with the pretense at this point, and just directly dressing Kaguya up in a procession of silly outfits

Chika’s the one who’s pushing for this cosplay activity, of course – it’s embarrassing for Kaguya, and Miyuki asking her to cosplay would be like an admission of interest. In a show like this, built on the perpetual tension between the two leads, a character like Chika is a necessary dramatic device, as she can provoke drama freely

It does seem that they’re accelerating the infatuation of our two leads, which I’m all for. While they remained relatively cool all through the first couple episodes, at this point they’re basically drooling over each other in cat ears. I suppose it makes sense that it’d take a few episodes to dig under their self-serious affectations, but I’m happy to have arrived at a point where they’re so transparently in love

Giving Kaguya vertical cat pupils is a nice touch

You really could farm this drama forever. High school’s Absolute Horniness plus its Absolute Insecurity means they can ping-pong back and forth, each trying to conceal their feelings from the other, and each feeling insecure in turn at their partner’s concealment

Tiny cat Kaguya suspended over a lake of magma is a nice no context image

Konomi Kohara’s a relatively new actress, but she’s doing a great job with Chika. Apparently she’s the lead in Takayuki Hirao’s upcoming film, so that’ll be fun to see

“Why don’t we play a game, and the losers have to go shopping!” Once again, Chika the absolute menace unwittingly ignites a new war

She suggests a game where they each receive a banned word they’re not allowed to say, but can only see each other’s banned words. Miyuki is defeated immediately in her practice game, in a solid example of another of Chika’s strengths: in spite of Kaguya and Miyuki’s perpetual mental games, they’re actually fairly predictable people, and Chika is always happy to undercut their self-image with a bright smile

Miyuki chooses “check-it-out” as a single word, upon which Chika immediately starts quasi-rapping. A tidy example of a joke that likely parsed more cleanly in Japanese, considering how clumsy and confusing “check-it-out” is as a word choice. This joke assumes a close familiarity with Japanese rapping conventions, so we can only translate a portion of its intent

Kaguya Will Not Rap

Kaguya’s banned word is “love,” of course. Chika knows exactly what she’s doing

Miyuki asks Chika what she hates, and gets a surprisingly in-depth and honest response. Chika is aware of her own oblivious tendencies, and feels bad about being condescended to, and being excluded from genuinely important conversations. We got here kinda abruptly, but it’s nice to see her admit to some understandable vulnerability – particularly at this table here, since it reflects how much she trusts Miyuki and Kaguya

Oh my god, it was all a fucking act to make Kaguya say she likes her, and thus disqualify her. CHIKA IS A DEVIL

Chika’s little dances this episode are incredible. She’s really stealing the show this time

The distinct shading effects for Miyuki’s internal analysis are really neat. I feel like more shows could benefit from using this crosshatch-reminiscent shading, rather than the usual full color shifts for shaded areas. Granted, comedies are one of the genres where wild shifts in visual style are least disruptive, so you might need a lighter touch than this

Miyuki’s a very decent guy – even though Chika just used her feelings as a cudgel to manipulate Kaguya, he’s still intent on respecting the possibility that she really feels like an outsider

Unfortunately, he’s also predictable as heck, and thus loses immediately

Kaguya is actually able to be pretty honest with her maid at home, and discusses her feelings for Miyuki with roughly the same degree of honesty she’s able to admit to herself. Very happy to see the show doing pretty much exactly what I’d hoped for, and expand on its initial conceit by fleshing out the nuances of these characters’ personalities and feelings

Kaguya’s maid actually calls up Miyuki directly

Again, this sequence is more funny because it’s painfully relatable than funny because it’s farcical and ridiculous. You can do character work and comedy at the same time, you just have to build up your characters to an extent first, and then trust your audience to invest in their feelings

“Lady Kaguya, right now you’re talking to someone who’s completely exposed.” Excellent assist

At this point, the “results of today’s match” conceit is actually starting to seem a little outdated – they’re rarely directly competing anymore, and instead are both trying to progress their relationship however they can

They’re clearly holding back on the reveal of Kaguya’s maid’s full personality. The side ponytail scrunchie is an extremely loaded character accessory – if she’s truly the fabled maid-gyaru combo, then she will possess a moe threshold that may well outpace the range of conventional moe-measuring apparatus

Time at last for the French student exchange banquet. No surprise that Kaguya can speak french, but apparently Chika can, too. You really can’t trust that girl

I’m feeling for Miyuki here. It seems he’s the one person at the banquet who can’t speak french – but of course, why would he be able to speak french? Once again, this show is dabbling in issues of class that I’d be delighted to see explored more directly, but which wouldn’t necessarily gel with the show’s generally lighthearted tone. But the sensation of looking around you and suddenly realizing everyone is essentially aristocracy relative to you is one I can certainly relate to

Goddamnit, the principal is actually specifically testing him, to see if he’s “worthy” of being president of a school like this. Fortunately, he can’t actually understand the ways he’s being insulted, and thus maintains his cool

Based on the way this gag is playing out, it seems like any class commentary here is more accidental than purposeful

Seeing Kaguya step up to defend him is delightful, though

Aghast at her own foul mouth, Kaguya mentions that this “is like the old me.” Hmmm

And Done

Yeah, they certainly both won that encounter. And damn, things are really moving along now! It seems like we’ve more or less moved beyond the show’s original paradigm at this point; though both the cat ears and banned word segments possessed an element of competition, they were more about navigating the specific personalities and feelings of our main trio, and learning more about all three of them. At this point, the cast is established to a significant enough extent that they can play off each other even in the absence of external drama, and the farce has been turned down a bit to let their emotions really simmer. That’s all more than fine by me – this cast is charming as heck, and I’m happy to watch them show how much they care about each other!

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