Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Otona e no Kaidan

Let me be clear about what I mean from the start: DO NOT WATCH THIS before reading the manga if you genuinely care about the animes storyline. It skips far too much essential content—over a hundred chapters’ worth, including multiple important arcs and significant character development. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is one of my most favorite anime series during my teenage years. The previous seasons and films were genuinely amazing. So when I heard it was getting another movie, I was genuinely happy. But this time, they kinda messed up. This TV special can be good if it were an OVA dedicated to those skipped hundred chapters. The production quality is solid, just as funny as I remember it, if not more. The emotional moments still hit. Masayuki Suzuki’s songs are great as ever. Matter of fact, it’s still a pretty good TV special. HOWEVER, as a Kaguya-sama fan who practically grew up with these characters—characters that are really special to me—I genuinely felt betrayed that they thought it was acceptable to skip such a huge chunk of the main storyline. This special crams over a hundred chapters of crucial content, multiple character arcs, and significant development between the Main and side characters into a single TV special. You start watching this special, they drop very few moments from what felt like a long skipped period of time as memories, and before you know it, it’s over, which left me with an Bittersweet, empty and hollow feeling inside. I didn't even get the time to feel that nostalgia watching kaguya sama after all these years For anime-only viewers, this is the worst position to be in: you’ll get spoiled on major plot points while missing the huge emotional, narrative and development context that makes Kaguya-sama so special in the first place. Because of that, I strongly recommend reading the manga first. Even if you don’t usually read manga, this is the exception. You can start after the “First Kiss That Never Ends” arc and read through the skipped chapters. Once that’s done, the special works much better as an OVA-style epilogue rather than a full adaptation. Despite its flaws, I still rate it a 9/10, not because it’s a perfect adaptation, hell nah but because Kaguya-sama is something I deeply love and cherish. This special had incredible potential as an OVA for those hundred chapters, and while it didn’t fully realize it, it’s still worth watching—just after you’ve read the manga.

Really happy to see Kaguya-sama back in anime. The episode itself is extremely funny, well-paced, and the chemistry still works perfectly. On top of that, the opening is an absolute banger, yes, again ! However, the way the adaptation continue is genuinely disappointing. It feels rushed of course, leaving too much on the table. Because of that, reading the manga becomes almost mandatory to truly experience the rest of the story and its proper conclusion. There was so much more that could have been adapted, especially the full arc around the family and, of course, Ishigami. Overall, a very enjoyable and entertaining episode, but with a clearly mixed feeling due to how the adaptation ends. I'm so happy and sad at the same time.

Doesn't even feel real that we're finally getting more Love is War content. First of all, I wanna say that I love all the arcs that are in here and they were all very well adapted with the highlight being ABCs of Men and Women. However the did completely skip over some very important arcs in the manga like the school trip arc and Ishigami's Christmas arc. It's a little hard for me to view this with an anime only eye, having read the manga and knowing all the context, but there were some moments I noticed, like during the airport scene Mikado is there and I couldn't help but think how anime only viewers would have no idea who that is. Also during the airport scene Iino says something about viewing Shirogane as an older brother. That line has a lot less weight in the anime compared to the manga because we don't see Shirogane helping out and supporting Iino like we do in the manga. It's just a shame that all this context is completely cut out, and it doesn't seem likely for it to ever be adapted. But again, I wanna say that the arcs that were in here I very much enjoyed Overall, a fantastic TV Special held back solely by the fact that a bunch of context is missing. Under the assumption that the arcs that are missing will never be adapted, I give it an 8/10.

This special is an incredibly blatant insult to every manga readers that were expecting a proper adaptation. This is the end of Kaguya-sama. Sure, there's a movie in the works, but it's going to be an original story, meaning that the HUNDRED CHAPTERS worth of content that were never adapted are never going to be experienced outside of manga readers. It skips *everything*. Kaguya's struggle with her family, Miyuki's deep inferiority complex and maladaptive overworking, Ishigami's relationship with Tsubame, Iino's everything. If you expect this to give conclusion to ANYONE, you're solely mistaken, this is nothing but a collection of sketches while Kaguya once in a while goes "Well, wasn't that such a nice memory?". It's shameless in its laziness. This should be ridiculed just as much as The Promised Neverland season 2, it's only slightly better because we got more episodes out of Kaguya. The only reason it doesn't get a 1 is that at least the sketches they chose are entertaining.

Summary: Smart decision by Aka Akasaka not to animate boring part of original comics. It is very common in Japanese comics industry that magazine forces a writer to extend famous ongoing work to retain readers. Many manga artists have suffered from this situation. For example, Ohba/Obata criticized Jump magazine in their Bakuman for this which they experienced while publishing Death Note. Aka Akasaka also did it in Oshi no Ko, Tokyo Blade arc. Aka also expressed in comics Vol. 22 that "stories for other characters are a bit apart from entertainment, but I'm writing them due to responsibility." Those side stories were necessary for subcharacters, but not all of them were funny or enjoyable. Most of all, Hayasaka's hair cut story requires school trip episodes, which introduce Shinomiya family - the darkest part of comics. So they choose not to animate all characters' side story, which is impossible without Aka's approval or direction. After Season 3, I always insisted that they should not animate S4 or after to keep it as one of the best RomCom animations in history. Beyond my expectation, they extracted best parts into one movie and one TV special. They also announced one more original movie as Final, and I'll be happily waiting for Makihara's craziness. Also, this animation gave me a hope that Oshi no Ko animation might have a different ending from comics.

Happy we got more Kaguya-Sama. It was just as funny as the last time I saw it. The visuals and character dynamics stayed true to the series. I get the backlash about the anime skipping chapters and using the photo album to fast-forward the plot. That said, this was still enjoyable and worth the watch, especially for anime-only watchers. The Ishigami arc being skipped was a devastating loss, but hopefully he gets his own special or spin-off called “Ishigami-kun: Life is War!” The real question is, who is even taking these pictures? Perhaps it was the narrator. Papa Shirogane's return and next-level antics made this a 10/10! And uhh… let's just say significant progress was made as well. It sets everything up for the final chapter of course!

Short version: As an *anime-only*, I absolutely loved this special episode, and if you're anime only, chances are high you will as well: The student council is back, the comedy is back and the romance is back, more intense than ever and with better animation to boot. We get a psuedo-epilogue episode with Kaguya looking back at past events and in many ways it's very(!) satisfactory, especially in regards to our main couple. Basically most of what made previous episodes of Kaguya-sama great is back in some form - most of it... There are some issues that prevents full score though: Even as an anime only I can detect that some things have been cut/skipped from the manga, which results in a few situations that felt disjointed and made me go "...huh?" while watching. It's nothing major, but the feeling was there. In addition, the sidecharacters we've all grown to (mostly) love get a bit sidetracked with little to no wrap-up of their own. That said, this feels like exactly like the kind of thing that the announced anime original movie will focus on and remedy, so fingers crossed. (If it does, I will change my overall rating from 9 to 10.) In the end, I sat with a silly grin on my face while watching almost the entirety of this special episode. Now for the Long version: (Might contain vague spoilers-but-not-really from the manga, but not the anime.) While I am an anime-only, I do have some manga knowledge, so I'm well aware that they skipped *a lot* of chapters and arcs by releasing this special, and in doing so, I also fully understand if manga readers feel frustrated/disappointed/angry with what they where given. Basically half(?) of the story was scrapped as the show jumped from the midwaypoint after The First Kiss That Never Ends to basically the epilogue. That said, I also understand *why* they opted to skip all of these chapters: - Manga ended in 2022 and the anime aired between 2019-2022. Basically Kaguya (the show, not the lovely FMC) is getting old and losing steam among the manga/anime community, and the main reason for doing anime (increase sales for the source material) doesn't really apply since the manga ended 4 years ago already. Basically, adapting 2-3 more seasons of Kaguya would be a big economic gamble for everyone involved. - The First Kiss That Never Ends this was about a good as stopping point as they where gonna get, in order to make the jump to this epilogue special. Doing only one more season wasn't really an option, because at that point they'd have to commit and do the whole thing or it would've ended up terribly disjointed and/or with a ton of stuff skipped anyway. - The general concensus among manga readers is that the second (skipped) half of the story isn't nearly as good or well written as the first half (the reasons for which can certainly be discussed), and there's also a big tonal shift in the story compared to the first half, which can alienate watchers that came for mainly the romance and comedy. - "Nothing important was lost". Now before you grab your torches and pitchforks, I mean this from an anime-watchers perspective: I know that there are important and well liked plotpoints and arcs that was skipped from the manga, but ultimately they aren't really important or crucial enough to the main story to make an anime-only go "Wait wait wait, but what about...?" You can remove the entire Ishigami/Iino/Osaragi-arc and an anime-only would not feel or know that something was missing. You can remove a certain important plotpoint about Hayasaka, and an anime-only would be none the wiser (although they would know why she suddenly had a different hairstyle in this special...) You can basically remove the entire War-arc and nothing would really change for an anime-only watcher. (- This might be wishful thinking on my part, but some parts of the original manga ending seem to have recieved very mixed, if not flat out bad response upon release, especially in regards to certain side characters, and by not adapting the manga and instead doing an anime original ending movie, it seems that Aka Akasaka wants to change the ending to what he nowadays percieve to be a better ending. This has also given me hope for Oshi No Ko, but thats a different story. Anyway, fingers crossed.) Ultimately as a big Kaguya-sama fan, I would've naturally preferred if they adapted the entire story (with an anime only original epliogue to boot), but I do understand the decision to cut 100+ chapters, and as an anime-only, it really doesn't affect me all that much, if at all. I do however sympathize with manga readers who loved the second half of the story. You deserved better. In the end I loved this special, and with a little more care, it would've ended up perfectly. Instead it ended up great, but slightly flawed.

The episode itself was very good, if you ignore the blatant skipping of about 100 manga chapters and an entire character arc for Hayasaka. Just no explanation whatsoever as to why Haysaka changed her hair and how her relationship to Kaguya changed. Not to mention skipping all the way to the end of the series and leaving out the entire character of Mikado, who is just a random side character that anime onlys don't know. AND leaving out Iino and Ishigami's entire character arc where they start to grow feelings for each other and develop more as characters. Wait...this episode actually sucked if you're a manga reader. For those who don't know, the anime ended around chapter 160. This episode takes place during chapter 220. THEN they skip from chapter 220 to chapter 267 where Shirogane actually leaves for America. In total, over 100 chapters are completely skipped. Now, I don't know what the plan is for the rest of the series, but I absolutely hate how this series is being done. If they are going to continue the series as normal and this is just a special episode or something, the audience already knows everything turns out fine in the end. Decent episode for anime onlys, terrible episode for manga readers who want to see the whole series animated.

5/10 After a perfect adaptation consisting of 3 seasons and 1 movie… They decided to RUIN EVERYTHING. Do not misunderstand me. The special episode’s animation quality was as excellent as always. The direction was a masterpiece, as always. There were many catchy and engaging moments throughout this special episode. So, what went wrong? Everything seemed to be okay… Well, there is a small detail that was overlooked... They decided to RUSH through 115 CHAPTERS of the original manga in a 40-MINUTE TV SPECIAL. They skipped several important arcs, reducing them to mere photographs in an album. Worst of all, during the final scene of this special, a new character appears without any prior mention, appearance, or introduction. He is simply there, as if he had always been there, and is apparently a friend of the protagonists. Completely unacceptable. I hope A-1 Pictures will release something like “Kaguya-sama: The Missing Pieces” sooner rather than later.

The release of these specials has me very conflicted. On the one hand, the quality of these episodes is as good as ever with some top tier jokes. On the other, I’m SO disappointed that we’ve skipped so much of Kaguya’s actual relationship (as well as what some say are the best arcs of the manga…) The manga has been done since the release of earlier seasons, so I’m not sure what led to the studio making these decisions, but it’s depressing that this + a movie is all we will get for the ending of this anime. I’ll miss this series so much, and I can’t help but feel so incredibly disheartened that it’s been cut short like this. I also heard Aka (author) is rewriting what is supposed to already be a perfect ending to the series for the final movie?? Do NAWT let this man near a pen bro, after Oshi no Ko ending I’m so scared for what’s to come

I'm so deeply disappointed by this. DISCLAIMER: I want to make it clear that "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai" is one of my favorite manga and stories ever. I'm absolutely no expert on romcoms, but it really did feel like one of the most endearing and enjoyable manga to read out there. The cast is nothing short of spectacular and every arc feels even better than the one that came before it. The world of Shuchiin just keeps holding you tighter and tighter as you go on, and by the end of the story, the series leaves you with sincere closure and painfully bittersweet feelings about leaving the story you've come to love so deeply. It's a gorgeous, heartfelt and above all, incredibly fun manga. Somehow, Kaguya-sama's anime adaptation topped the manga in almost every regard. The voice acting of every single member of the student council is fantastic, adding a level of personality and life to every punchline and romantic scenario that you just never got in the manga (Aoi Koga as Kaguya being my favorite performance - her ability to shift between cutesy and cold is phenomenal and never stops being hilarious); the soundtrack is stellar (Kokuhaku brings out the waterworks every time it comes on), and the pacing of the series and the all-around effort that goes into the fluidity of the animation for both comedic and romantic scenes are all sublime. It's a fantastic adaptation - one of the best in the industry. I would go as far as to say that it's a rare case of the anime overtaking the source material in its quality and enjoyability. But this statement, unfortunately, only applies to the adaption until S4 / The "Kaguya-sama: Love is War -The First Kiss That Never Ends-" movie. A-1 clearly took the wrong feedback from the success of "First Kiss". Cutting off the comedic backbone of your story only worked for a small arc as meaningful as the Christmas story was. After all, the manga handled it in a very similar way, and the change in tone is very, very warranted - your main characters need to sort out their most damaging insecurities and truly and sincerely come to love and accept one another. Even so, they gave the story time to breathe and develop. A simple 10-chapter arc was given four episodes, and the movie still felt like a near 1:1 recreation of the manga. But I feel like this was the last time this series truly felt like itself. "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Otona e no Kaidan" or "Stairway to Adulthood" honestly doesn't even feel like the same series anymore. This TV Special sprints past so many important story beats (The Christmas Party, Hayasaka and the Shuchiin School Trip, Valentine's Day, Tsubame's Graduation and the finale to the Ramen Kings subplot JUST TO NAME A FEW!) and simply expects anime-only viewers to catch up as they go along. Tens of chapters are skipped entirely and the pacing couldn't be any more claustrophobic. The "COM" part of the "ROMCOM" is nonexistent at this point, and even the chapters they chose to adapt for this special are events that would have take up an episode previously but are now shafted into 4-5 minute slots. All the fun and joy of the previous seasons feel so crammed and crushed into these short segments, and they end up feeling more like a recap compilation than an actual adaptation of an acclaimed and beloved anime series. It makes sense, of course - if so much material needs to be jammed into 40 minutes, the first thing to be chopped off would be the comedy, but this simply wasn't a good decision. The magic of the series just isn't really there like it used to be, and it really saddens me to say so because I was SO excited to see some of the arcs I just mentioned in anime format. It's really upsetting to see that none of those fantastic arcs are getting any official adaptation. Don't misunderstand - it's still Kaguya-Sama. The special is still endearing and fun. I've given it a 7 precisely for that reason, the core stories this special adapted are all superb. The new material, while very little in quantity, is still very fun to watch! If you've finished the manga already, you'll still get quite a bit out of this adaptation. But if you've not read the manga and are an anime-only watcher, I'd highly, highly, highly recommend just going for the manga instead. The first 4 entries of the anime only reach about the halfway point of the entire story - the manga is far superior from this point onwards, both in quality and in quantity. If you're a manga reader who wants to get as much out of the anime as you can, go ahead - it's why I watched it. But for anyone else I'd not be too quick to recommend this TV Special. Let's hope that the final movie will be a fitting goodbye to the series!

First of all, I want to make it clear that romance in general,and romcoms in particular—is my least favorite genre. However, Love Is War is one of the very few romcoms that I never get tired of watching. This movie has many strong points, but it also has aspects that I personally find bad or confusing. As for the good points, I think anyone who has watched the film already knows them well, so I won’t dwell on that. Instead, I want to focus on what I find confusing in this movie. Because the film cuts out too many manga chapters, viewers who haven’t read the manga may not understand how the relationship between Kaguya and Hayasaka changes through various events. Secondly, the removal of Ishigami’s drama arc after being rejected by Tsubame,one of the best-developed drama arcs in the series,takes away much of Ishigami’s growth and character development. Furthermore, the progression between Ishigami and Iino feels very awkward to me. There is almost no development at all, which makes Iino feel like a random “reward” Ishigami gets after contributing to the story. Why is there no proper drama arc for Ishigami, or a meaningful journey showing how his feelings for Iino develop? And why does Iino suddenly break her arm? Honestly, I don’t know either. The movie ends with Shirogane leaving for the USA, which if I remember correctly,means the family arc was cut in order to rush the ending. I understand that the family arc is often considered a weak drama arc that doesn’t quite fit the tone of the series, but by rushing the ending and removing the development of side characters, how exactly is the story supposed to conclude? Overall, I think this movie is still decent, but it becomes confusing when viewed purely through the anime’s adaptation flow. There may be mistakes or inaccuracies in this piece; if so, I hope you’ll understand and feel free to point them out.

Wow, this is yet again another great adaption. But man, the level of content and chapters left out from the manga is truly ridiculous, and I’m not talking filler either. I’m talking very important and brilliantly written arcs, that are important to the story and characters and provide imperative context to the chapters that are actually adapted. This causes this special to feel very rushed and to lack important details. For instance (without going into spoilers), there are new characters and details that are merely glossed over or ignored in this special (as if the viewer should just assume they exist for an unknown reason). This very much isn’t the case in the manga. I’m very annoyed at this, because damn, the content that is adapted is excellent. What a shame. All I can hope is that in the future the unadapted chapters are adapted. If you’re a fan of the series, please do yourself a favour and read the manga.

I really hate to have to do this, but this really isn't all that great. If you're a really big fan of the Kaguya series and it's characters and just wanna see more of it no matter what, then it's a decent use of your time. Aside from that, this really just seems like a monologue of various nice events that happen after the end of the 3rd season/first movie as an extra made for fans, but I wouldn't really call it a good watch, even for those who like the Kaguya series. The big thing that made Kaguya anime so great was the comedy, like most people I was absolutely laughing my head off and enjoying the entertainment from the then unique take on a high school romcom. Even the things outside of the comedy like the time spent on character development, especially for Ishigami Yuu, was very enjoyable and added more to it's cast of already good and enjoyable characters. This here however, has pretty much none of what made watching Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai enjoyable, the comedy is really spaghetti-ed all over the place and doesn't really have much of a setup like you would expect from the series, Personally I wasn't really laughing, but it wasn't exactly boring or dull either. The characters also struggle to be nearly as entertaining as the main show because of the monologue like pacing of this, you're watching them act out specific scenes with very little context behind them, making it much harder to actually understand and care for whatever is going on in the scene which doesn't really help. It's nice to see these characters on screen again, doing something new after a few years. But there's simply no denying that this is more of a "short" extra instead of a properly written continuation. One that is only enjoyable if you're already very invested in the characters enough that anything works. Personally I've seen much better entertainment from the original OVAs with other shows that release with the blu ray releases of a show. One Punch Man S1 OVAs by MadHouse are a prime example of that. In the end this is really a 6/10 but only because the fans who've already seen S1-3 before this might get some enjoyment out of it. It works as a nice treat for fans I suppose, but there's many "treats" for fans that are done much better elsewhere.

You hate to see an amazing series getting butchered like this, as they skipped half of the manga like it was nothing just to adapt few of the most popular chapters. It feels like this OVA was made for tiktok edits and profit, instead of love for the story. This ova is terrible unless you read the manga previously, as it references things that are straight up cut in the anime. If you did, however, it’s actually pretty good. The animation is incredible, and they chose great chapters to cover, showing the improvement of Miyuki and Kaguya’s relationship, and adapting some extremely interesting and funny stories. But I cant recommend this to an anime-only, just read the manga after season 3 ends.

As an Anime only, this feels like a perfect end to a perfect romance anime. The characters grew up past school, life changed them a bit but overall, love prevails. This short is hearthmelting in it's pure sweetness and feels like the perfect payoff for the seasons of buildup from before. I know that they cut a lot of content but I also know that a lot of manga readers disliked the later arcs and the ending, so I assume that the studio decided to finish this like this was the best way to avoid the discourse and end the series on a high note, and I couldn't be happier with it.

Yeah, I don't know what to say, really.... and I'll explain why. I'm an anime only, but I'm familiar with Aka Akasaka's other work, Oshi no Ko. No, I will not discuss that series here, but I'm mentioning it as it has influenced why I didn't enjoy this as much as I did due to the nature of how Aka Akasaka writes endings and has "allegedly" treated his work when creating a conclusion. As an anime only, I think you'll enjoy it. You get the cute moments and humor you are all used too and it's quite wholesome as you get to see our two MC's live life, dating, leading up to Miyuki parting ways for America. Somehow, I can shake the feeling of it feeling rushed. We're all used to the style of episodes. Short 6-11 min-ish scenes, however, this time it felt different. More so, like if it was made to play catch-up to the 80-plus chapters I've heard were skipped. I'm not a fan of skipping content at all, and I can imagine how frustrated and angry manga readers must feel to have spent time reading and keeping up with it only for it to get cut in the anime. I don't mean a panel or two, but 80 chapters of story and content???? What's that, maybe a year of keeping up with the manga??? To me, it just feels disrespectful to the fans who kept up with his work. Idk, to me I watched this, and I enjoyed it, but as I said, it felt odd to me. It felt like we could have gotten more before Miyuki departed for America. I'm glad I've stayed anime only for Kaguya-sama to give it a fair review. Even more so now that I've heard Aka Akasaka is planning to make an anime original ending for the upcoming movie. So essentially I have no reason to read ahead even if I waited to. Ultimately, if the ending is better than the manga ending then I'm all for it, however, I still feel bad for the manga readers as I can relate, having read his other work.... Btw Mikuyki's dad is the goat. He solo'd bringing the score as high as it did (I'm kidding btw, but it did help)

This is a very risky gamble. While side-lining chapters from an adaptation is not uncommon, the problem comes down to whether or not it works with the work in question. Two examples I can name off the top of my head that skims over/skips chapters that works better than what was presented here are 'Kingdom' season 1 and 'The World God Only Knows' season 3. In Kingdom's case, it's about the same as skipping a training arc. For 'The World God Only Knows,' most of its arc up until that point in the narrative season 3 takes place in follow a similar structure. In some ways, skipping them would do little in terms of damage as you would already know the general idea of how it goes down. The only real problem that season has is when characters introduced during them arise once more. Here, it plays out awkwardly. The flashback structure of the first episode doesn't work, especially with that cluster at the very beginning being all over the place. It sort of reminds me of the movie 'Dreamgirls' which has troubles transitioning between scenes in the first half. Still a good movie, but a hard buy to get into. The comedy and sporadic styles are still consistent, but starting into it is a case of mental whiplash. Frankly putting it, the first episode in this special is weak. The second episode does a better job at holding itself together (not going there). It might be having to adapt to the first episode, the second moves better. A personal complaint is how little the other characters are given their dues in this: The relationship between Ishigami and Tsubame is left hanging at the end of the previous work. The characters at the airport just pop in. What happened with Hayasame? She appears in a good manner, but it felt like more happened before hand, but what? Chika- is Chika. The only other characters to get any decent time outside the main couple are the Shirogane household. Is this terrible? There are worse. This is Promise Neverland 2 bad, but it has its flaws. Is it unwatchable? No. Does it still retain its charm? Yes. Recommendability - left to personal judgment.

IT FINALLY HAPPENED! It took years, but we finally got here. Kaguya and the president’s love finally blossomed, and it truly went all the way. This is what every fan was waiting for, and it delivered. What more can I say? This is one of my favorite romcoms, and it makes me laugh a lot with the hilarious situations. Moreover, the characters are very likable, and you can see how they have evolved over time. This part is chef’s kiss. It feels like the perfect and mature progression of their relationship. There are just a few chapters left to adapt and I hope they deliver a good ending.

This is a great watch for an end in my opinion, they skipped a whole lots of parts and important ones which made it look too fast. Especially the last few volumes. The ending was great we get to see something new unlike the ending of the manga. However I do feel like if they added back the missing parts I’ll be way better. The opening song was peak www. It’s been a great journey, sad to see it end like this but I’m proud to be apart of this journey! We need that prince in a helicopter scene (if you know you know) Update: After rewatching the movie I saw the last season announcement at the end, LET GOOOOO!!!