When we talk about the most popular romantic comedy
franchises of all time, surely more than one will mention “ Kaguya-sama: Love
is War “. And this is not a surprise considering that the work was
able to establish a fairly attractive initial idea: two geniuses in love who
compete to make the other declare first."
With each new chapter, readers expected to see
progress in the relationship of these two, Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki
Shirogane, until eventually Shirogane lost the battle by declaring his love for
Kaguya during the school festival, and establishing themselves as a
couple. But as teacher Rumiko Takahashi once stated, “there is no work
that works after confession,” and “Kaguya-sama: Love is War” was no exception.
Although Aka Akasaka, the author of the
work, knew how to maintain the readers' interest even after the confession with
the "Ice Kaguya Arc" , where both
Kaguya and Miyuki emotionally strip themselves to accept themselves as they
really are. , eventually the narrative quality of the work was rapidly
declining until the last story arc , where many things were resolved
"just because" and the opinion of the fans reached a point where they
only thought that "it had already lasted too long."
Precisely because of the above, the third season and
the movie “Kaguya-sama: Love is War – The First Kiss That Never Ends” are so
popular and extremely highly valued among the fan community, because they cover
the best story arcs of the work. original. But of course, it's not that
the following arcs don't have memorable moments, they simply as a whole no
longer matched the quality of the previous ones.
And this is precisely what Internet users debated in
a popular forum on Reddit, almost two years since the conclusion of the
“Kaguya-sama: Love is War” manga, what did the author go wrong?
- « For
me, the Christmas arc is without a doubt the high point of the series. The
way it takes the characters and strips away some of the comedy to show how
damaged Shirogane and Kaguya are to have acted the way they did for the
first half of the series is great. The series was never able to recapture
the comedy of the first half or the drama of that arc for me afterwards.
If they continue with the anime, I really hope they can improve some of
the weaker elements of the second half .
- « Yes,
the Christmas arc was Kaguya-sama: Love is War at its peak and the series
was never able to recapture that drama in the second half. However, I
don't agree with the comedy, personally the funniest chapters of the
series were right after the Christmas arc ."
- « The
last third of the manga seemed more like a well-written fanfic to me and I
would have preferred something more grounded than what they did with the
Shinomiyas. However, I still like it ».
- « To
be fair, the author put up a disclaimer at some point saying that the
story was over and that they were only going to finish each character's
story; although I have to admit I don't remember if that was before what
you said or after. But yeah, it was clear to me that they just wanted to
finish it and focus on something else; "It seemed like working on
Kaguya-sama was very tiring ."
- « Everything
that came after the Hayasaka Arc was in decline. But it is normal in a
manga .
- « If
you learn Chinese and take a look at their community (and the Taiwanese
one), you will see that they hated the middle ending of the story with a
passion that they even wanted to hunt down Aka Akasaka in Apex legends,
the game he plays in . »
- " Tsubame
did nothing wrong and is one of the best written characters in the series ."
- " I
really don't understand why people think Tsubame is a bad person just for
being honest and rejecting the best character in the entire series ."
- « The
hatred towards Tsubame confuses me so much. "She literally rejected
him in the least harsh way possible, debunking the rumors about him and
stopping him from being seen as an outcast by the school ."
- « Kaguya
forcing Iino to reconcile with Osaragi is the most toxic thing she has
done in the series. The worst thing is that, as seen from the way she
treats Ishigami, she can be tough but fair, but I didn't feel any of that
in that chapter, I felt like I was angry with Iino and on Osaragi's side .
- « That
chapter made me angry. I actually lost interest in the series a little
after this, seeing how Osagari's psychotic actions were just called
"girl stuff." It was a bit insulting actually .'
- « The
Iino-Osaragi arc was terribly written to be honest, even worse than the
Shinomiya Family arc, and it interrupted the entire «Iino playing games to
get closer to Ishigami» arc. "He made me think less of Kaguya with
the way he sided with Osaragi instead of Iino, under the lame pretext that
Iino needed to grow up ."
- " The
Shinomiya Family Arc was beyond disappointing and the last quarter of the
manga was really rushed by Aka so he could shift his focus to Oshi no Ko ."
- " I
tend to group the Hayasaka arc in the outing with the final Shinomiya arc
as a bad thing ."
- « Speaking
of the last arc, I think it would have been better for Shirogane to be
captured by the Shinomiya instead of Kaguya, and for Kaguya to have to
save him. That would have reinforced the fact that Kaguya was openly
opposed to her family instead of being a damsel in distress. And yes, I
get it, Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is parallel, it doesn't matter. This is
the story of Kaguya Shinomiya, not Princess Kaguya, so they should not be
treated the same way .
- « I
don't mind the open ending of the Ishimiko ship, but I do hate the open
ending of Chika's love life (especially when there was a chapter where
something was established between her and Mikado, and there's always the
ship with Hayasaka that could also have occurred) ».
- « Speaking
of Ishimiko shipping, all that shit with Osaragi was really, really bad.
It's probably my least favorite story arc in the series. It seemed so out
of place to me. Why would she date the guy from the cheer team during the
cultural festival and Christmas arc if she was actually in love with
Ishigami? ».
- « Contrary
to many of the comments, I actually like the later parts of the series.
Seriously, I don't dislike any part of the story .
- « The
manga was great from start to finish. In fact, I think it got better and
better. I never understood the hate towards the arcs that came after First
Kiss wa Owaranai, for me they are as good or even better than the rest of
the series. The only complaint I have is that Akasaka rushed the ending
and left out some plot lines .
- « After
the school trip Hayasaka has been a wasted character. Like, considering
how funny she's been in her little cosplay episode I wish we could see
more of her comedic side of him."
- « The
way Shirogane moves to America is horrible. It is the only reason the
confession occurs and is treated seriously at the time. But once the move
happens, it's like nothing has happened since they put their face on TV. I
wish Shirogane wasn't in more chapters after that until the end ."
- « Retroactively,
thanks to the arcs that followed after it, the Ishigami Sports Festival
arc sends a terrible message to fans because of how it treats Ootomo, the
real victim of the Ishigami incident. It's true that the arc's resolution
empowers Ishigami, but keeping poor Ootomo in the dark about Ogino's true
nature and portraying her as an "ungrateful and clumsy fool," as
fans like to paint her, because of the way she would treat who she
perceives as the one who scared and hit her "good and loving" boyfriend
in the past, it made me angry at the way the topic was handled, especially
afterwards. The fact that Ootomo never matured after the incident and
continued searching for Ogino when he visited Shuuchiin thanks to
Ishigami's stubborn (and incredibly self-righteous) insistence that he not
know the truth "to preserve his innocent smile" horrified me.
for the poor girl .
- " I
honestly think the final chapters and arcs, including Osaragi's fight with
Miko and the final arc as a whole, are fantastic and more than live up to
the story that precedes them ."
Source: Reddit
