Boy, this is a vexing series for me. I’m not sure what to make of it, and I don’t know if that’s going to change anytime soon. For every moment of genuine charm I get one of eyeroll, and – like most gag comedies – the humor’s effectiveness is wildly inconsistent. Worst of all for me is that self-important, St. Vitus’ Dance Shaft style that won’t give you a moment to breathe. I just want to scream “BACK OFF!” at the screen sometimes – for jeebus’ sake, give me a moment to enjoy something at my own pace. But I know from experience that no such break is coming.
The problem is that I see the kernel of something in Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai, and it manages to poke its nose out like a timid groundhog just often enough to keep me interested. There are some genuinely funny moments in every episode, and that was no less true this week. Heck, we even got a moment of actual warmth between Shirogane and Shinomiya at the end there, the first real clue that there might be some tonal diversity in the offing (which manga readers have been promising is the case). But I want more of it – and more cast members. The humor is getting pretty one-note with only three of any consequence.
There was just a bit of tweakage to the format, too, and maybe that helped a little. While it was still the standard gag manga multi-chapter setup, there were sort of four instead of three – or five depending on how you count, as the last chunk of ep was a bunch of vignettes that were all interconnected. The cat-ear thing which started us out was about as by-the-book as it gets – this series has one main joke, and that was all this skit was. The banned word one was much better for me – not least because that’s a cool idea for a game and I’d never heard of it. But it had some quite amusing moments in its own right, though by the end Fujiwara’s act was starting to wear on me.
The first two chapters probably benefited from a bit less narration too, but the narrator was back with a vengeance in the final montage. It starts out with Kaguya stressing over texting Miyuki to make plans for the shopping trip the banned word game was all about and continues through to the party for international students the shopping was for. It started off well – maybe as well as any chunk of the first four episodes, actually. I was really laughing when Miyuki was showing off his French (all five words of it). But once again I felt this bit dragged on too long, and recycled the same basic gag until it was no longer funny (though it was interesting to hear Japan-based, American-born idol Sally Amaki playing a foul-mouthed French exchange student).
I’ve kind of given up on the idea that there’s going to be a eureka moment where everything clicks, and all of a sudden I see what all the fuss is about and love Kaguya-sama to bits. I think it’s just too much of a stylistic mismatch with me for that to happen. But while I don’t think I’ll ever love it, I genuinely want to like it – not just part of the time as I do now, but enough of the time that the scales are fully tipped in that direction. Will it happen? I honestly have no idea, but if it’s going to the show has to seriously branch out, and soon. The heavy-handed and pushy nature of the gag segments is never going to change – it is what it is. But if they represent part of an episode rather than all of it, and if they layer in more characters to at least give the humor more stylistic options, that would go a long way towards winning me over. But the clock is ticking, I won’t lie.
Simone
February 3, 2019 at 10:28 pmI don’t think you’ll get your watershed moment if at this point you don’t like it. There’s only two characters of some importance outside of the main trio: Hayasaka, Kaguya’s blonde no-nonsense maid that we saw pushing her during the phone call skit, and another boy who’s part of the student council (Chika mentioned him during her ED song) and I expect will be introduced around episode 6 or 7. Not sure whether you’ll like him either, but he certainly has a very different personality from anyone else. There’s also a few more character dynamics (an important recurring one will be introduced next time, having seen the chapters that will be adapted). But concerning progress for these two dorks, from using their genius antics to mask their feelings to true emotional sincerity, it’s a slow burn and we get only glimpses most of the time. Last week’s bike chapter was one (and honestly the anime downplayed it a bit). This week’s phone chapter as well as the final scene was another. But we won’t get anything major before the finale, probably – and all the best emotional straightforward moments lay out of the reach of a first season.
I’m not sure what makes humour click or not. In many ways you seem like a bit like the straight guy in a comedic couple – reacting with something that ranges from indifference to mild annoyance to the silliest kinds of jokes, in which this manga indulges a lot (funny faces, weird misunderstandings, the occasional sexual innuendo). If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, I guess. No reason to force yourself. It’s perhaps the absolutely most subjective thing in all of art, what makes people laugh.
Guardian Enzo
February 3, 2019 at 11:03 pmI think that’s kind of a misread of my tastes in humor, honestly. I mean, for me Python is the pinnacle of comedy, and while it’s whip-smart it’s also often incredibly juvenile and gross (it’s the juxtaposition that makes it work, as is so often the case in comedy). I just feel like when comedy tries too hard (“See? Laugh now – that was funny!”) it loses its charm.
Simone
February 4, 2019 at 12:43 amI really don’t feel like Kaguya-sama is a “laugh now” comedy though. You keep bringing that up regarding the narrator as if that was his function, to be a sort of laughing track replacement, but I feel like that misses the point – for me the narrator works because he strengthens the sense of this story as a parody of typical “mind game thrillers”. Monty Python are indeed great (seeing Holy Grail for the first time might be the thing that made me laugh more in my entire life), so I don’t know… maybe it’s the visual humour? Like, I find a lot of the expressions and visual gags in this manga intrinsically hilarious, and those things sell a lot of the humour to me. It’s hard to analyse, probably for the same reasons why it’s hard to predict whether it will click or not with someone.
L0ken
February 4, 2019 at 12:39 amWhile taking in account you personal taste I guess it’s because anime naturally exaggerates manga especially with so many visual quirks and higher pace so for some people it gives the impression that it tries too hard(besides the fact it 4 chapters in one episode)?
For me I much often enjoy comedy manga then comedy anime,it just works better for me and when I read Kaguya I thought it works so well in manga format that i was worried how it would even look as anime and would I enjoy it?Turns out,even knowing the jokes and plot already I very much enjoy anime mainly because creative visual direction and just seeing character interact while having full perpective on story and how things were at the begging+voice acting,sure some jokes may not land as well and some chapters skipped but other things compensate it to me.
So I dunno,manga may work for you better,considering you listed things you want from anime – more cast members and genuine moments between characters,narration adn some jokes naturally less annoying in manga medium,different pacing e.t.c,anime still won’t cover bigger and better parts of the manga with only 12 episodes…or maybe not and it’s just not for you no matter what,well at least you would know it definitely?
Guardian Enzo
February 4, 2019 at 6:43 amWell, we’re already 1/3 through it but I suspect this may do pretty decently and get a sequel – we’ll see.
I do think more ambling series (like Tanaka-kun, Kono Bijutsubu, Minami-ke etc.) tend to do better in anime form unless you’re a fan of the Shaft style.
Rui Carvalho
February 4, 2019 at 10:43 pmI’ve been liking this show more and more and the latest episode was my favorite yet. It’s not a laugh out loud series, but I had a stupid grin plastered across my face the whole time (maybe a bit like Kaguya, lol). Those two are definitely adorkable and I’m fully on board their ship.
Yuuki
February 5, 2019 at 12:33 amIf the anime isn’t working for you as much as you’d like then I’d suggest you give the manga a try. The narration is just in text boxes so it isn’t quite as overbearing and the shaft-isms aren’t there so you might enjoy it more.
Zack
February 5, 2019 at 10:01 pmI think you might be expecting a bit too much out of Kaguya, in the sense that due to all the word of mouth going around, you might have been expecting the series to hit it off week in and week out, which honestly, is quite hard for Kaguya to do with the issue of it only having one cour.
There definitely wouldn’t be enough time for them to pump out more episodes on word building. Heck, the adaptation have been doing a pick and choose selection of chapters, e.g jumping forward then going back for a certain etc, even the 4th council member that some people have mentioned and teased will probably appear at the 6th episode (at the earliest that is, since next week’s episode titles are more or less confirmed), while we might get mob characters (that went on to get even more focus in the manga) in the next few episodes or so.
Episode 4 marked what some might feel was the first “mini-arc” of the Kaguya manga, and although I’m happy to see A1 adding some stuff on stuff of it, it is inevitable that there might be some content from the manga that was cut, or maybe reserved for a future episode, since episode 4 was honestly already a rush for them, trying to go for 4 chapters in one episode when they normally use the broadcast time for 3 chapters, which was why the french speaking part might have felt a bit off.
Looking at it, the anime still seem like it will on track for the first major climax of Kaguya, so if you feel some enjoyment out of Kaguya, I would really recommend sticking with it till the very end of the first cour and of course, if you feel like the directing style might be a bit too much at times e.g episode 4, I’m not too sure if you might like to take a look at the respective chapters of the manga to see if that form of Kaguya might be more appealing towards your taste? (For reference episode 4 covered chapter 17/18/19 and 20 in order).
I personally got into Kaguya through episode 1 and 2 and went on to binge the manga afterwards. It’s always fun to do a comparison (e.g the recycled explanation of episode 2 was mainly because the manga had a switch of magazines, so the author Aka-sensei had to explain the whole plot again for the new readers)
Hope to heard your thoughts on the series whether be it on RC or here should you continue to stick to it
(but like I mentioned, people hype up the series a tad too much since it is the “in” thing at the moment for the average anime viewer like myself, so I personally feel it’s best watching the series with somewhat lowered expectations. It’s still a pretty solid adaptation so far though).
Still respect your personal opinions though.
Cheers
Guardian Enzo
February 5, 2019 at 10:22 pmThanks. I don’t know if I’m expecting too much, as I always had some doubts based on the premise and format. It would be fair to say I wonder what all the fuss is about, I suppose.