What’s this? I’ve fallen behind on Kaguya-sama again? Well then, I guess it’s time for another chapter ranking post (this time with seven entries instead of six). Behold the fruits of my procrastination!
#7: Miyuki Shirogane Wants to Sing (episode 5.3)
This is sure to be a controversial pick, as audiences love the dynamic of Chika as Shirogane’s instructor. That sort of role reversal appeals to me as well, but I enjoyed this chapter a lot less than its prequel, the volleyball chapter from season 1. When it comes to depicting the president’s incompetence, animation is more suited to physical comedy (slapping himself in the head when trying to serve a ball) than audio-based laughs. All the sludgy backgrounds and distorted singing faces in the world couldn’t make up for the limited animation on display here. The altered Rose of Versailles theme that played during Chika’s volleyball flashback was a nice Easter egg, though, marking the second reference to that classic anime in the same number of episodes.
#6: Miyuki Shirogane Wants Girls to Fall for Him (episode 5.1)
Whereas the previous chapter merely failed to find my funny bone, this one was a straight-up misfire. Why would Kaguya stop liking the president just because he got rid of the bags under his eyes? Sure, it’s been established that she finds his sleep-deprived glare attractive, but we also know that she likes his intellect, thoughtfulness, frugality, work ethic, etc. Instead of giving him the cold shoulder, it would make more sense for her to be outwardly unaffected by the change (and for Shirogane to be confused, rather than undergoing an existential crisis). At least that would have reduced the barely tolerable wackiness levels reached by this segment.
#5: Nagisa Kashiwagi Wants to Console (episode 5.2)
This mini-story sees Kaguya consulting Kashiwagi about her “friend,” whose interest in a crush is tied to his physical appearance. Eventually it comes full circle and she’s outed as kind of shallow, since her lust for the president reappears only after the bags under his eyes do. One thing rescues this scene for me, and that’s the difficulty Kashiwagi has in tolerating the student council’s eccentricities. Kaguya’s obsessiveness, Chika’s mocking tone, Ishigami’s ridiculous romantic advice – they all drive her nuts, pushing her “straight man” capabilities to the limit. After placing so many headcases in primary roles, it’s good to see Kaguya-sama acknowledging their strangeness via a foil character.
#4: Kaguya Wants to Kick Them Down (episode 5.4)
Everything before this point felt like killing time before the election arc, so it’s no surprise that the chapter that put us back on track is my favorite of episode 5. It’s got a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ start, with Kaguya blackmailing a candidate to clear the way for Shirogane’s victory. That scene lasts all of eight seconds, but I’m willing to bet it was longer in the manga, and its truncation hurts – but more on that in a bit. This is a great chapter for Iino, who quickly pegs Kaguya as a manipulative schemer and refuses to crumble under pressure, even when her past failures are brought into the conversation. In fact, she turns the tables on the older girl by accusing her of running interference for Shirogane, which turns out to be scarily accurate…
#3: Kaguya Isn’t Getting Called (episode 6.3)
This is where we learn about the extreme measures that Kaguya took ensure the president’s victory, including the installation of a puppet election committee. She privately admits all of this to Hayasaka, but a simple confession isn’t the same as seeing it unfold. Since the show neglected to give us a fuller blackmail scene in the previous episode, the question of whether Shirogane will pick her as VP again is answered with a simple “duh.” Things might have been different if, for instance, the president had learned of her dirty tactics, but as things stand, the stakes are pretty low. What I greatly appreciate about it, though, is that the series explores Kaguya’s insecurity regarding interpersonal relationships. She comes from a family where crushing your enemies is more important than expressing love, and the show never forgets that. Even if the resolution of this segment was weak, the roots of its conflict are powerful.
#2: I Don’t Want to Make Miko Iino Smile (episode 6.1)
One thing that I felt was unclear about this chapter was Ishigami’s motivation for asking Shirogane to beat Iino in a landslide. After Shirogane asked if there was something between them, we cut to a new scene, indicating that the show isn’t ready to divulge their full history. Later, Ishigami says that he has “plenty of reasons to resent her,” so why his sudden change of heart during her nervous implosion on stage? Perhaps the message here is that he’s got mixed feelings about her, but if that’s the case, his bored expression throughout the whole episode fails to communicate that ambivalence. Anyway, I mostly liked this part because it served as the groundwork for the excellent 6.2, including the ritual of writing “human” on one’s palm to calm the nerves. I’ve seen this superstition in other anime series, but it did much more for me here, as Osaragi related it to isolation and empathy in a way that would pay off big time down the line.
#1: I Want to Make Miko Iino Smile (episode 6.2)
Here we reach the heart of Iino’s ‘law and order’ fixation. As a judge and a doctor, her parents must have instilled those values in her from a very young age. Even more than that, she views the rulebreakers of the world as the cause of her parents’ absence from her life – if everyone would just obey the law, she reasons, they wouldn’t be so damn busy. Osaragi’s presence in this scene is vital, since her constant appearance at Iino’s side indicates that she’s her only friend. She’s a compassionate girl who can’t even eat an imaginary “human” character, preferring to give it a name instead. Given their close relationship, her tearful happiness at the result of the election is well-earned; Iino may not have won, but for the first time in her life, she was able to transmit her feelings on stage. Even after Shirogane extends an invitation for both girls to serve on the student council, Osaragi declines, and the decision makes perfect sense. She’s already received from the election process what she wanted all along – a chance for Iino to shine with confidence in front of her peers.
“Later, Ishigami says that he has “plenty of reasons to resent her,” so why his sudden change of heart during her nervous implosion on stage?”
I don’t think it was a change of heart though, he was always shown to be both annoyed (because she is his opposite in personality) and sympathetic towards her (he never thought she had a chance to win anyway, and always knew about other people’s resent towards her). His “Win by the landslide” very much looks like his attempt to crush Ino’s drive. Because if she loses her drive, she won’t try to fight anymore, and that way she won’t keep making enemies for herself.
Shirogane though found a better solution.
That’s something I considered after finishing the episode: that from the start, Ishigami wanted to grant her a merciful death. Still, the show purposefully withheld any good will he had towards Iino until the audience started snickering during her speech. I’d say you’re right about the whole scenario – still, I would have appreciated 10% more clarity on Ishigami’s part.
I almost entirely agree with your rankings this time (though I would place 5.3 over 5.1 and 5.2, for the same reasons you criticized those sections: it made Kaguya’s affection for Shirogane seem far more fragile and superficial than it should at this point in the story), but if I can have one minor complaint about Miko’s parts, it’s that the election should never have been that close. Even granting that her rules-based platform had some basis to it after all, her proposals were clearly not proportionate to the problem (forbidding love between students and forcing male students to shave their heads? really?), and it should have been easy for Shirogane to acknowledge the problem while proposing more reasonable solutions. Besides, she seemed to essentially run on a single-issue platform and have little experience or expertise in anything else, and the fact that she would make Fujiwara her VP and would have self-destructed if not for Shirogane’s intervention shows how poor her people and leadership skills are. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that she’s widely disliked in the school, which you can’t just undo in 30 minutes, while Kaguya and Shirogane are worshiped for their grace and effective leadership.
But oh well, at least all this sets her up for a nice character arc, where she learns to balance the importance of rules against other goods in life. And the lack of political realism aside, it was nice to get some more background on Miko, and it was satisfying to see her get some recognition for her efforts.
It’s true that the election being a nail-biter doesn’t make a lot of sense. Seems like the show massaged the results to contribute to its feel-good conclusion (and also for the sight gag of Shirogane sweating after the tally was revealed). It might have helped if Iino and Shirogane’s debate on stage hadn’t revolved around shaved heads, instead tackling broader ideas like conformity vs independence. You lose the bald jokes that way, but you would create an argument where teenagers could be persuaded to see Iino’s point of view.
Yes, that would have been a lot more believable (and more interesting too). Though even then it seems unlikely that students would vote to significantly curtail their freedoms in large numbers: knowing today’s students, a more realistic response would be that “boomers” and their holier than thou representatives can go to hell if they think worse of them for living the good live, and that they’re better off worrying about climate change. But maybe that’s just Europe. :p
By the way, I looked up the chapter where Kaguya blackmails one of the candidates into dropping out, but the manga also leaves it to the imagination how exactly she goes about doing so. So whatever faults the anime has in that respect are inherited from its source material.
Not going to lie, I disliked Kaguya after that. I liked her in S1 but S2 is not painting her in a great light.
Yeah, we had already been told that Kaguya has been raised to be ruthless towards her enemies, but this was probably the first time where we really saw her put that ruthlessness into practice / act on such dirty tactics, though she may well have employed similar tactics in the previous election. In general, though, Kaguya’s interactions with Shirogane and the others have clearly been pushing her away from that mindset, so despite the occasional relapse, I think she is slowly growing into a better, more conscientious person.