Kaguya-sama: Love is War is a light-hearted anime that comes under the slice-of-life genre. The anime industry is packed with action, and adventure anime is popular among fans. Breaking the stereotypical mindset, slice-of-life anime are soothing to watch and made a special place for them in the heart of light anime fans.
The anime showcases the “war” between the most eligible couple of the Shuchiin Academy, Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya. The war is none other than to make the other individual confess their love first.
Both Kaguya and Miyuki love each other but find it humiliating to express it themself. So, they come up with plots that may end up making the other individual confess. The war of making the counterpart confess first gives rise to many comic scenarios that are worth a watch.
Kaguya Sama: Love is War was written and illustrated by Aka Akasaka in the year 2015. He started the manga series in Shueisha’s Miracle Jump but later moved on to the Weekly Yong Jump magazine in the spring of 2016.
The anime premiered in January 2019 in Japan and in March 2021 in the US. The manga series was completed as of November 2022 with 281 chapters, and the anime had 3 seasons and 37 episodes. The anime was digitalized by the A-1 pictures.
The manga series Kaguya-Sama: Love is War made more than 19 million copies in circulation, including spin-offs and digital sales. It was the 9th best-selling manga in 2019 and won the 3rd Next Manga Award in the comics division in 2017. In 2023, the anime series won the 7th Crunchyroll Anime award for Best Romance.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War Storyline
Shuchiin Academy, the most prestigious school with a long heritage and established to educate the children of nobles and military families, still is enrolled by children born into wealthy families. Kaguya Shinomiya, the vice president of the Student Council, and Miyuki Shirogane, the president of the Student Council, hold the highest seat in the academy with a responsibility to lead the students with dignity.
The two are seen as the perfect couple by other students, but to everyone’s surprise, they are not dating. While they both start loving each other as they spend time with each other but instead of confessing to each other, they think of forcing the other one to confess, as they are too prideful and think the one to confess ‘loses’ in a relationship.
The schemes of them to make the other one confess is a pleasure to watch and generate many comic timings. However, somewhere in the middle of the series, they confess, and the pace of the story shifts from ‘how to force them to confess’ to ‘how to take the relationship a step further’ and, in the princess, the obstacles they face.
1. The romantic version of Death Note
Aka Akasaka originally planned to make the manga series a romantic version of Death Note. However, he dropped the plan and went with inspiration from School Rumble, another cult Japanese manga. Nevertheless, the references from Death Note can be noticed in the sequences of Miyuki and Kaguya scheming plots to force the other one to confess.
The viewers can also see one of the characters making plans and planning to execute them, while the other character mostly realizes their intentions and comes up with a plan to counter them. The same style that follows the Death Note story too.
2. Initial name
The author Aka Akasaka originally planned to title his manga series “IQ,” which was a letter opinionated by his editor to not do so. While IQ can be a misconception, the intelligence rating worldwide, in Japanese, has another meaning.
It can be meant as ‘Kikuyu,’ which means ‘love seeking.’ The author then settled on Kaguya-sama: Love is War because it is catchy and makes it easier for the readers to comprehend the story.
3. Miyuki’s voice Actor
While a voice actor can change the whole mood of a series, however, some voice actors have the potential to carry an anime on their own shoulders. Miyuki’s Japanese voice actor Makoto Furukawa is one of the trending voice actors. He has been the voice of many popular characters in the anime industry, such as Taiju Oki from Dr. Stone and Saitama from One Punch Man.
Also read: 35 Cool One Punch Man Facts You Need To Know
4. Kaguya’s voice actor
Kaguya’s Japanese voice actress Aoi Koga might be new in the industry but has been gathering popularity and slowly rising on the steps to success. She was the voice behind Akemi in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable and Rokuta Kamado in Demon Slayer. Another Kaguya-sama: Love is War fact is that Aoi Koga also did a cameo in the live-action movie as a theatre employee.
5. References to a classic Japanese prose
Kaguya-sama: Love is War, in some instances, takes inspiration from Japanese prose named “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.” The author Aka Akasaka was heavily inspired by princess stories in his childhood, one of them being Kaguya-Hime.
6. A prequel to the author’s new work
Aka Akasaka teases that both his works exist in the same universe. Oshi No Ko’s story revolves around a Gorou who is a gynecologist and is sad because of the sudden hiatus of his favorite star, Ai. But their lives somehow cross each other’s path, and the story continues. Aka Akasaka tells that the events of Oshi No Ko take place several years after Kaguya-Sama: Love is War.
7. Character developments
The author Aka Akasaki always emphasizes emotions while drawing a character. He would first think about emotions and then expand his perspective on emotions while keeping in mind the character. He would assign an emotion to a character and then arrange the scenarios and personals around that emotion.
A Kaguya-sama: Love is War fact about Akasaki drew Kaguya and Miyuki as twins but later developed more divergence between the two. This is where the similarities between their thought processes and decision-making come from.
Also read: 10 Characters Who Are Similar To Kaguya Shinomiya From ‘Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
8. Kaguya is left-handed
Despite being left-handed, Kaguya has been trained since early childhood to write and eat from her right hand. This is because previously, many left-handers were trained to use their right hand as the dominant hand, as it was a myth that left-handers would develop a mental illness later in life.
9. Kaguya’s name meaning
Kaguya means ‘radiant night’ or ‘moon princess,’ and Shinomiya is a mix of ‘Shi,’ which means ‘four,’ and ‘Miya,’ which means ‘temple’ or ‘shrine.’ This is also a reference to the classic Japanese prose, ‘The Tale of a Bamboo Cutter.’
10. Kaguya is fond of her sister-in-law
Kaguya seems to find the people of the Shinomiya household inferior in terms of basic human decency. As she is born into one of the richest families in Japan, she mostly spends her time with her maid, Hayasaka, and feels lonely sometimes.
However, Kaguya’s sister-in-law is someone whom she adores a lot, and she takes care of Kaguya too. She has been mentioned a few times in the series, but there are no appearances of her.
11. Fujiwara’s iconic dance
The ending of season 3 of Kaguya-sama: Love is War was surprising for its fans, as it was the ending of the anime and also had a special sequence by its animators. The famous Fujiwara Chika at the end was a delight for its viewers and made it to the trending lists too. To create the dance sequence, a unique method of animation called ‘rotoscoping’ was used.
To digitalize, the animators traced over the given live-action scenes to give their drawings more realism and fluidity.
12. Fujiwara’s rap
While the plot of Kaguya-sama: Love is War mostly revolves around the psychological wars of Kaguya and Miyuki, it is Chika Fujiwara who stole the show many a time. Be it her iconic “Chika dance,” her perfect comic timings, or her raps, she is a fan favorite without any doubt.
But a Kaguya-sama: Love is War fact that is not much known is Fujiwara has a ‘rap advisor.’ In the credits of episode 4, Shinobu Noshioka can be seen credited as “Fujiwara’s rap advisor.”
13. Hayasaka’s original identity
Over the series, Ai Hayasaka is shown as obedient and loyal to Kaguya Shinomiya and as someone who will do anything she tells her. It becomes quite common to notice that Hayasaka is not being true to herself and hides her real identity. She makes her personality with well-crafted personas depending on the activity.
In the series, it is shown that she currently owns four personalities and retains two or three at a time. However, her ability to do more is quite obvious, seeing her capabilities and if Kaguya gives her another task.
14. Miyuki Shirogane loses his cool
Miyuki Shirogane doesn’t have a strong backing and made it to the top based solely on his skills. With the pressure of being at the top and the responsibilities that come up, he is well aware that he has a persona to maintain. He usually has a cool personality but basically takes every step, calculating the slightest failures, and is always anxious.
Miyuki also wants to look good in the eyes of Kaguya and is conscious about his appearance to Kaguya. He is constantly anxious about Kaguya’s feelings and tries to keep it cool, hoping she someday will finally confess to her.
Also read: Top 9 Coolest Anime Characters With Glasses
15. Miyuki is a gentleman
Apart from being at the top of his class and the president of the Student Council, a less-known Kaguya-sama: Love is War fact about Miyuki Shirogane is that he is a gentleman to the core. He respects the girls in his class and is always ready to help his classmates in need.
This can be proved when Miko Iino choked during her Presidential candidate speech and when Kaguya was unconscious because of sedatives, and she pulled him to stay in bed with her. He lays on the other side of the bed doing nothing, just like a gentleman.
16. Miyuki is a man of love
Though both Kaguya and Miyuki want the other one to confess first and believes that the one to confess first loses, Miyuki is on the offensive when confessing his love. Despite Kaguya having feelings for him, too but it is Miyuki’s attempts that shine the brightest.
Miyuki breaks Kaguya out of her house to see festival fireworks, talks to her about astrology on a moonlit roof, and also tries to ask her out to the Cultural festival.
17. Miyuki doesn’t like to lose
Shuchiin Academy is an institution for the elites of the nation, and Miyuki Shirogane was able to attain the position of the president of the Student Council through his hard work. He knows that he has come a long way and has to work hard to remain at the top. He believes that he needs to save face for people for them to take him seriously.
Miyuki studies hard to keep his grades up but is dreadful in sports, singing, and dancing. Fujiwara helps him in volleyball and teaches him whereabouts of singing and rap.
18. Fujiwara loves the concept of love
Although a novice to the concept of love, Chika Fujiwara is a love enthusiast and likes to give relationship bits of advice. Whenever the subject of love comes up, Fujiwara’s alter ego of “Love Detective Chika” comes forward to solve the problems in love.
19. Hayasaka wants to have a normal life
Ai Hayasaka has been with Kaguya as her maid for approximately a decade and was trained from childhood to be a maid for Kaguya. After the death of Kaguya’s mother, it was Hayasaka took care of Kaguya.
A less known and mournful Kaguya-sama: Love is War fact is that Hayasaka misses her teenage years and always wants to live a life of a normal teenager. Her alter ego, Garyu, may have friends at school, but she does it so as to keep tabs on Kaguya.
20. Hayasaka was set up as a spy
Kaguya’s older brother used Hayasaka as his informant to keep tabs on Kaguya and exploit her when needed. Hayasaka did so for the past decade and acted as a spy for Kaguya’s older brother.
However, the bond between the two grows stronger, and they went to become good friends. Hayasaka feels the guilt of betraying her only friend, resulting in her retiring from her position.
21. Kaguya-sama: Love is War fan book
An official fan book for the manga series Kaguya-sama: Love is War was released on January 18, 2019. The fan book contains a character info sheet, random quizzes, terminologies, the love level of Kaguya and Miyuki, and some stickers and trivia.
According to the data given in the fan book for the love battles, Kaguya had a total of 18 wins, 16 losses, and 4 draws, and Miyuki had 20 wins, 22 losses, and 4 draws.
Also read: 20 Best Slice of Life Anime Series to Watch: From BL(s) to Classics.
