English Dub Review: Kaguya-sama: Love is War “Kaguya Wants to Undress Him / Kaguya Wants to Make Him Let Go / Miyuki Shirogane Wants to Make Her Read / Kaguya <3 Aquarium"

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Ishigami has a bias against guys that wear boxers, so she freaks out when she sees Yu’s on accident. Kaguya decides to smoothly find out what kind of underwear the president likes, but things get muddled when he misunderstands and calls out into the hallway after her — but Iino is the one who overhears.

Later on, Kei recommends a manga to her brother that turns out to be a real tearjerker. After reading it, he’s ready to fall in love, and so decides to offer it to Kaguya so she can read it and ask him out. But in the end his plan backfires when Yu and Ishigami end up getting in a discussion about and spoil the ending for Kaguya.

Our Take:

The seventh episode of the show’s second season is a bit of a return to normalcy after the student council elections arc. The serious political drama is in the rearview mirror as the student council members speed toward dumb gags and romance. While I was a big fan of the more grounded storyline, it’s nice to see the show return to form, too.

The episode starts off with a plotline that lets us know the election is over: underwear. Kaguya overhears Ishigami prattling on about how boys who wear boxers are “man whores,” so she decides to double check to make sure the president is a respectable fellow. But the way she asks the question makes him suspicious, thinking that she’s going to start wearing whatever kind he answers with. Then Miko Iino, who joined the council after her election loss, gets drawn in and gets some very wrong ideas about the nature of Kaguya and Miyuki’s relationship. It’s a little overblown and melodramatic, but perhaps just the thing to distance the show from the last arc.

The other main storyline follows Miyuki as he picks up a new manga series called Go Sweet on his little sister’s recommendation. It’s fun to see him mildly take interest in it at first, only to end up bawling his eyes out in the tub later after finishing the series. It’s just the kind of thing that makes people want to try out love for themselves, so I was hopeful for some forward progress on the Kaguya front. But alas, she’s no manga reader — especially once the ending gets spoiled.

What follows the early end credits is a spoof of a shoujo romance anime but with the characters of the student council filling the main roles. It’s a funny gag that wears a bit as it goes on, repeating tropes like the sensitive guy and the macho guy who like to give out pudding cups, but it’s a unique way to differentiate the bit.

Kaguya-sama comes down from the election arc high with a step back into the safe zone of the show. This is what it’s comfortable doing, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing — I just hope that we continue to get actual storylines along with the jokes. Miko Iino joining is a bit of a kick in the pants, and I could see her getting involved to tip things in the favor of Kaguya and Shirogane in the future.