Kaguja-sama wa kokurasetai: Tensaitači no ren'ai zunósen

[Season 1] The Japanese have gotta be Olympic champions when it comes to (not) professing their love. While many Western romances deal with trappings such as how to reach the chosen one on the other side of the hemisphere or how to pry her from the clutches of a malevolent entity, in anime the "final boss" of obstacles is often something insurmountable like... holding hands. Here, for 12 episodes, we witness our secretly in love couple trying to kick the other one out of the way so they don't damage their inflated egos. We got to see a very similar fighting style and almost copied character template in Masamune-kun's Revenge, but at least Kaguya fires funnier ammunition, doesn't need as much fan service, and tries to dodge the already heavily-trodden pond of genre clichés. Despite the initial freshness of the point and the amusing hyperactivity of sidekick drone Chika, the anime noticeably runs out of steam towards the end, and the lovelorn rivals not only start to overreact, but tediously mirror each other, inventing, wondering, shuddering, only to finally attempt some tears and then immediately return everything to the default beginning. Leaving out the unambiguous rational question "A year down the line, is it still worth it to you?" and concentrating on the decent gags, it's pretty good fun, but don't look for much depth. Fingers crossed for Kaguya and Miyuki, but they won't get more than a better 3 stars from me. Uso! (30/03/2021)

I can't help but give frequent nods to Jeoffrey's comments. My chin didn't find a single reason to drop in Series 1, yet the start of Season 2 made no such promises, as the central theme of elite non-confessional warfare (which was de facto the main driver of Season 1, especially as far as gags were concerned) was unpleasantly turned on its head. The anime stopped hiding behind the screen of a fairly ordinary romcom as soon as Kaguya loosened her knees and a batch of misunderstandings horrifyingly unoriginal for the anime genre came along. And yet! Despite the considerable gripe that new characters get minimal space, our favorite quartet made relative progress and always had something to offer, whether in terms of tickling the diaphragm or hints of bias towards their personal stories, namely Ishigami's. What I also have to appreciate are the damn apt allusions and excellent caricaturing or commenting on the funnier situations, artfully complemented by either the stylishly chosen music or the narrator's dry commentary. The freshness of the incorporated visual gags is unrivalled in the field of current anime, and the performance of Kaguya's dubber, the excellent Aoi Koga, must be singled out. Despite the fact that the storyline isn't very original and it drags substantially (and that's actually on purpose), I'm relatively satisfied with Season 2 of Love is War. A weak 4 stars (16/07/2020)