English Dub Season Review: Kaguya-Sama: Love is War Season One

Overview:

Welcome to Shuchiin Academy, a school that only the most elite attend. Miyuki Shirogane (Aaron Dismuke) is the student council president with Kaguya Shinomiya (Alexis Tipton) as his vice president. Everyone thinks Shirogane and Shinomiya should date and it seems they both have feelings for each other, that’s a good thing right? WRONG! Love is war and the first to confess loses, will be looked down on, and will be considered the lesser. These two geniuses will do everything within their power to make the other confess first.

Unfortunately for them, the harbinger of chaos Chika Fujiwara (Jad Saxton) is constantly (and unknowingly) foiling their best-laid plans. Whether it be how Chika is closer to Shirogane’s sister ruining Kaguya’s plan to get closer to him or interrupting Shirogane’s love advice with a fellow student. There’s also the loner otaku Yu Ishigami (Austin Tindle) who is afraid Kaguya wants to murder him, and after insulting her flat chest he might be right!

Our Take:

This show is a modern anime classic and I can’t recommend it enough. I watched it subbed when it premiered in Winter 2019, same with the second season in Spring of 2020. The dub for the series had a pretty odd release schedule, for the second season dub episodes started releasing weekly during the summer. Leaving those who had yet to watch season one out in the cold. Well, we finally got all of Kaguya-sama dubbed for you to enjoy!

If you are someone who only watches your anime dubbed I envy you because you get to experience this show for the first time. There are only a couple of nitpicky things I have about the dub but overall they did a great job. One of them is that the Narrator (Ian Sinclair) has a different tone than the sub, it’s not bad just takes some getting used to. The other thing is one of Kaguya’s iconic lines ” O kawaii koto” which translates to “How cute” is changed to “You really are quite cute”. It eventually grew on me, but as for major differences, those were the main ones.

This was one of the first subbed anime I watched simply because the hype for this show was so huge. So I was really intrigued to see what the dub would be like and let me tell you, it’s still great. If you read any of my other reviews you know I’m a big fan of Alexis Tipton. Her being cast as Kaguya is just about perfect. She nails the cold calculating Kaguya, and the dumb over the top Kaguya equally. Aaron Dismuke plays our boy Shirogane, while I love Aaron I was concerned for this one a bit. Luckily, he laid those concerns to rest in episode one. The first episode does such a good job of showing how smart but yet absolutely dumb these two can be.

Aaron really shined in episode three when Kaguya misunderstands a person’s first time to mean “kissing”. His mind is so blown he just begins reading and reciting prefectural zip codes. I have to mention Jad Saxton as Chika Fujiwara. Chika has become almost as iconic as Kaguya. Thanks in part to her dance at the end of episode three, seriously it’s an internet sensation. Just search “Chika dance” you can thank me later. Jad does a great job with the obliviousness and ditziness that is Chika Fujiwara. The final member of the student council is Yu Ishigami played by Austin Tindle. I love most of his roles and honestly, this one was a bit different for him. He made his voice a lot lower and more gruffer than I was used to. One of my favorite running gag’s is about Ishigami talking about going home to die and Shirogane always says “Okay, but please don’t die.” and he and Aaron play off each other well.

Now I want to briefly mention the OP and ED. The OP is “Love Dramatic” by Masayuki Suzuki, he also does the OP for season two. The imagery for the OP is amazing, I love how they lean into the “love is war” motif with not only the lyrics but all the weapons Shirogane and Kaguya wield throughout. The ED is a little more chill but yet somehow more bombastic visually. The song is “Sentimental Crisis” by Halca, the visuals give off a WW1 vibe with zeppelins, biplanes, and bolt action rifles. Kaguya eventually sprouts wings to escape the zeppelin, I really recommend you watch the OP and ED at least once. Also, make sure you watch episode three for the Chika dance ending. I was a little disappointed they didn’t dub this but I wasn’t too surprised they didn’t.

I’m going to spoil the score for this one a bit by saying this is an absolute must-watch. If you’re an anime fan, rom-com fan, or love comedy this show was made for you. The gags are hilarious, the facial expressions make you laugh almost as much as the jokes do. Then you have the amazing voice performances bringing life to it all. The show even brings in real-life psychology for a lot of traps the characters set for each other. Whether it be the use of the Barnum Effect or the Suspension Bridge Effect, they really let their genius shine. One of my favorites is when Kaguya wants to give Shirogane a ride because it is raining. However, while he is in the bathroom his phone gets a notification that the trains are running again! Kaguya has one minute to replace the battery in his phone with a dead one before he returns. The situation is so dramatized it’s hilarious, Kaguya uses a hairdryer to get the batter out, Why does she even have a spare battery for his phone? I’m telling you this show is so smart and funny it’s ridiculous.

Why are you even still reading this? Go! Watch Kaguya-sama: Love is War, this is a perfect time. Both seasons have now been dubbed, a third season has been confirmed, and an OVA is coming later this year. This show has become a must-watch for everyone I can tell that to. I plan on screaming it from the rooftops, I think this will go down as one of the best romcoms ever this side of “Toradora” (which you all should also watch by the way).