[Spring 2022] Kaguya-sama: Love is War - Ultra Romantic Discussion Thread

[Buckeye]

かぐや様は告らせたい-ウルトラロマンティック-

Kaguya and Miyuki continue their war on romance through all sorts of crazy developments as now, it has entered the third round.

Airs: Friday, April 8, 2022

Studio: A-1 Pictures

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Third season of Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen.

Notes
As usual, please try to follow these two easy forum courtesy habits when replying:
1) If you're the first person to post about an episode in any given week, please indicate in the first line which episode you're posting about.
2) If someone has already posted about an episode before you, please quote that post (or a relevant reply to that post), or include the episode title in the first line. ("Re: Episode 1") Just make sure the episode is indicated.

For more guidelines please refer to this thread.

[Buckeye]

Episode 1

Not getting the message.

Things pick up right where they left off as it begins with a reminder of how crazy things got at the end of the second season. And then Kaguya has quite a lot to learn when it comes to using a smartphone as she's not using it right, especially with LINE. Then it ends with an arm wrestling competition as Kaguya shows that she's ambidextrous and wrestling with her left arm gives her a huge advantage. Chika's loss to Miyuki was all sorts of wacky there as her mind shouldn't be drifting off at a time like that. And after Kaguya defeats Miyuki, she gets the title of Muscle Queen, something she's not exactly proud of. This show is back and as funny as I remember it to be as the show starts off strong once again.

[Buckeye]

Episode 2

Keeping an eye out for him.

Miko and Ishigami sure make an odd couple, but a couple nonetheless, at least according to Osaragi as they become confrontational towards each other. And then Miyuki goes out with some friends to do some karaoke, and little did he know that Hayasaka is also there under Kaguya's orders disguised as Herthaka, Miyuki's ex-girlfriend. Hayasaka shows that she can sing, and Miyuki reminds everybody from the second season just how bad he is at singing. Funny stuff once again as it's great to see Kaguya's bodyguard getting more attention, all while Miyuki continues to be such an awkward guy.

[Buckeye]

Episode 3

This is what ten yen will get you.

Kaguya and the student council hasn't kissed anybody yet, but they just saw Nagisa kissing his boyfriend in the hallway, and that was quite a shock. Then Maki comes and it turns out that she's from one of Kaguya's branch families as she's stirring up quite a lot of commotion. And then there's the ten yen game where nobody is supposed to know who answered yes or no to a question. Kaguya was onto something noticing the year the coins were made, but Miyuki was alert about this and switched coins from his pocket. Hilarious stuff once again going to show that Chika knows how to tease everybody, while Miyuki just can't catch a break.

[TnAdct1]

Episode 3

Hilarious stuff once again going to show that Chika knows how to tease everybody, while Miyuki just can't catch a break.

If you mean the "Shirogane loses" thing at the end, that was a mistranslation on Crunchyroll's part. Miyuki actually won there.

[Buckeye]

Episode 4

A failing grade in romance.

I'm having a hard time wondering how Ishigami managed to make it into this school seeing that his academics are bad and he barely studies. But when it comes to getting his girl that he thinks is out of reach, doing well on the exams can only help his chances, so he goes through Kaguya's boot camp and while he did better than last time, he still has quite a long way to go. And then Kaguya goes over to Chika's house and meets her genius butler. And then she has a video conference with Miyuki and Kei, and then Kaguya falls asleep while Hayasaka, as Herthaka, says some pretty harsh things to Miyuki. Funny stuff once again as these kids are finding all sorts of ways to fail at confessing.

[Buckeye]

Episode 5

MC Miyuki's in the house!

Just yesterday I was watching a rap battle in Ya Boy Kongming, and now it's Miyuki trying his hand at it. Miyuki is a terrible singer whose singing is so bad that it even had a disclaimer up. But Chika taught Miyuki how to rap, and the results are amazing. He's determined to make Herthaka his soulmate not realizing who she really is, and those four sure put on a show, and then with that ending going to show that they have it in them. And then there's Maki revealing that his boyfriend is Tsubasa and she becomes friends with Miyuki and Yu. Quite a great way to show just how far Miyuki has come along with his voice that his inability to sing figured to be the death of him.

[Buckeye]

Episode 6

Thinking about the future.

With graduation coming close and the parent-teacher conference even closer, everybody is thinking about the future. Kaguya has Ai's mother stepping in as her parent, all while Miyuki's father is there as well. While Kaguya plans on continuing into the academy's college, Miyuki is deciding to go attend college at Stanford as he definitely has the grades to make it in. So with their time together running short, Kaguya and Miyuki need to settle things before graduation. And then Miyuki and Kaguya go out on a date, and yet another trip ending without a confession. And then there's the question about masculinity as Miyuki doesn't know what to do about it. Funny stuff once again after some serious developments at the beginning as that sets the stage for there to be a sense of urgency to tie loose ends on this relationship.

[Buckeye]

Episode 7

Pop goes the culture festival preparations.

This episode introduces a lot of minor characters as with the culture festival happening, everybody is putting out all sorts of ideas, as well as showing off what clubs are at the school. Miko is on the committee, and she really speaks her mind there seeing that they are planning a campfire, which carries a huge hazard along with it. And then Kaguya does her archery club activities showing just how great she is with the bow, all while Tsubame, who leads the committee, shows off her gymnastics skills. And then Miyuki shows just how much he lacks in artistic values once again, this time popping all the balloons he's tasked with twisting. Chika should have known better than to trust all that to somebody who has been strictly about doing well in the classroom.

[Buckeye]

Episode 8

Ready for war at the culture festival.

Miyuki doesn't have any fashion sense at all, and given his frugal lifestyle and his dedication to studying that it's easy to see why. But
Kei wants him to dress at least halfway decently and that's where things get out of hand. Then Kaguya gets a necklace from Tsubame to give to Miyuki during the culture festival, but she's not completely sure about it. And while Kaguya is making preparations, he meets Yu in the hallway where he's trying to work up the courage to confess to Tsubame. Pretty much, it's all preparation for the war at the culture festival as it looks like this war of chicken could very well come to an end.

[Buckeye]

Episode 9

It all begins here.

As the culture festival begins, Miyuki looks back at the time he started out at Shuchiin Academy and remembers Kaguya acting cool when she jumped into a pool of dirty water to rescue a classmate that fell in. Then Kaguya goes out and dons the Taisho-era uniform for the cosplay cafe, and a couple of unruly customers makes life difficult for her. But just leave it to her to whip up her special tea and those customers are still unruly, but in a much different way. And then Yu gets some advise from Maki as he is out to confess to Tsubame, and that means taking her to the haunted house. Pretty intense things are getting seeing that things are being set up for the war to finally be decided at the culture festival, but whether or not it actually does happen is another thing entirely.

[Buckeye]

Episode 10

At the heart of the matter.

Amusing and dramatic this episode is. First up, there's Kozue doing some crazy things with earphones, which includes blindfolding Miko and using that to scare her. Then Moeha is brought to the school as Chika attempts to discredit Miyuki, but that failed. And Yu wins a heart-shaped cookie in the festival game and offers it up to Tsubame not realizing that this is a sign of confession. So Tsubame just took the cookie and ran off without giving a reply. The tension continues to build at the festival as Yu is still trying to make Tsubame his, all while Miyuki is still trying to do things on his end.

[Buckeye]

Episode 11

Confess now or forever hold your peace.

The culture festival continues, and now there's a sense of urgency to wrap up this war soon as with that ending, Miyuki lets Kaguya know that not only is he going to attend Stanford and study abroad, but that he will be skipping his senior year to begin attending college. Quite a big way to set the stage for stuff to go down at the end of the festival there. While that's going on, there Yu waiting for a response from Tsubame, and while she still isn't committed, at least she's going to give it a chance. One more episode left, and with it being double in length that it should be great.

[Buckeye]

Episode 12

Think like a thief.

And the buildup continues as after Miyuki's bombshell, it looks like the confession is coming to its climax. Miyuki puts on the Lupin act and has Kaguya going up to the clock tower where the confession is going to happen from all indications. But in any case, Miyuki has something big up his sleeve.

[Buckeye]

Episode 13 (Season 3 Finale)

Up, up, and abroad.

And so it ends with Miyuki unleashing his plan that was months in the making. Right after he applied to Stanford, he learned how to do balloon art, then created that fancy mechanism to release those heart-shaped balloons into the sky. And in the end, Miyuki did this in order to convince Kaguya to apply to Stanford and go study abroad with him. Seeing that Stanford is one of the toughest schools in the world to get accepted to that Kaguya has her work cut out if she wants to fulfill his wish as while her grades are great, Miyuki's are on a whole different level, all while he has being the student council president going for him. And then it ends with a kiss, which she spins into something totally hilarious there at the end. Quite an amusing fake-out that was as the leadup led me to believe that this war will finally be settled at the end of the culture festival, but while the feelings have been shared, there's still no confession by either Kaguya or Miyuki. So with that, onto the next season or whatever is planned seeing that the story will continue, but maybe not as season 4.

Overall, this show continues to do everything that made this show so great. But what really stands out about this season is the amount of advancement in the story as there was quite a lot of that in this season. Quite a lot of progress was made with the relationships, all while the humor continues to be top-notch. In all, this season takes everything that made the first two seasons great, and make them even better than ever.

MAL Rating: