“Japanese high school girls are scary.”
What They Say:
“Kaguya Wants Affection / The Student Council Wants It to Be Said / Kaguya Wants Him to Send It / Miyuki Shirogane Wants to Talk”
For some reason, Kaguya and Shirogane indulge Fujiwara’s idea of doing cosplay for the upcoming gathering with students from their sister school in Paris. Deep down, Kaguya thinks it’s silly, but when she puts on cat ears, a subdued “meow” escapes her mouth. Moreover, that minor cosplay is an unexpected major hit with Shirogane, an avowed cat lover. He’s so bowled over by her cuteness that he isn’t able to maintain his usual presence of mind. The situation becomes more complicated when Shirogane follows suit and puts on cat ears, which secretly thrills Kaguya. Unable to hide their thoughts that each other looks cute, the two act weirder and weirder…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There’s no introductory piece whatsoever this time, instead starting with a cold open that leads directly into the first sub-episode after the opening song. While the comically fast-forwarded sequence barely took any time last episode, the exclusion of any extraneous material as well as some shorter-than-normal vignettes means that this episode is able to squeeze in four main segments as well as a brief in-between, rather than the usual three. However, this offering is also different in that they’re all connected, making them seem less arbitrary and likely a sign of more overarching stories for the future of the series. It even claims a few of these parts as a proper arc, albeit one cut humorously short by unlucky weather, but even beyond that, everything in the episode is tied together as the events surrounding the school’s gathering with its French sister school. After the initial premise, much of this still stands alone well enough, but it is intriguing to think about how the series could slowly become less episodic.
The cat ear showdown isn’t an incredible psychological bout, but the mutual attraction that Kaguya and Shirogane feel toward the other in cat ears, the mutual sense of dread they anticipate about the other’s intentions, and the mutual death glare that belies their true feelings is as funny as it is telling of how perfect a match they are for each other. Chika’s contribution is her usual role of being the reasonable one compared to these two extremes, but that really just results in her putting an end to the fun.
Not unlike the game of 20 Questions in the previous episode, part 2 of this episode also sees the student council play a casual game that Shirogane takes very seriously for his own motives. This time it’s not the usual goal of prompting a confession but instead simply controlling when each player loses to ensure he and Kaguya get their shopping date together. Still, like its predecessor, it’s probably the finest selection from this episode, this time helped immensely by Chika continuing to prove to be the most delightful character even after the episode 3 ED already raised the bar so unbelievably, as well as Kaguya’s deadpan reactions to her absurdity. Everything around Chika’s character, combined with the comic timing of their exchanges, make this a hilarious offering all around, even before Shirogane’s analysis of the nature of the game leads to a thoroughly satisfying punch line.
The follow-up to this puts the focus on Kaguya outside of school again, providing a bit more time with her personal assistant Hayasaka, who is shown to have the same sense of humor as the series itself, an important asset to manufacturing comedic situations since she is also the only character so far to know that one of the protagonists is in love with other. This is a small chunk of the episode and doesn’t have a great deal of content, but Hayasaka’s contributions are immediately effective, especially for giving Kaguya some of her most adorable moments that rival Chika. This is followed by a brief scene that anticlimactically preempts a hopeful plot thread, which is a little disappointing due to the potential that could’ve held, but still amusing as a sign that these kids can’t get their perfect date so easily.
Finally, we get the actual meeting with the French students. The premise for most of the humor here comes from the surprising twist on who can speak French and who can’t among our Japanese cast, but much of the rest is predicated on the French school using verbal abuse to test Shirogane’s worth, which is a little hard to believe. I’m curious what was actually said, but Kaguya’s defensive ferocity is impressive.
In Summary:
With four segments instead of the usual three, this episode becomes even more of a mixed bag, but still a largely successful one, and with a common thread connecting them all together, the most cohesive story-wise. While some gags fall flat, each character has at least a few particularly shining moments. We see new sides of Kaguya and to a lesser extent Shirogane, but Chika also manages to be as hilarious and despicable as she’s been adorable, and minor character Hayasaka also shows that she has the audience’s best interest in mind.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
LG Electronics OLED65C7P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick
