Kaguya-sama: Love is War -Stairway to Adulthood- OVA

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this OVA. On the one hand, it's always nice to get more Kaguya, especially in animated form. This show has always delivered on its unique comedy, thanks to the voice acting, bizarre character choices, and creative directing. It's no surprise that the show became so popular when it first aired, and the season three finale felt like a major event that I was honored to write about. While I was aware there was more material after season three ended, that season ended on such a strong note that I honestly would've been fine if I hadn't gotten anything more. However, I did end up getting more, and while that is nice, it does make me wish that I had gotten A LOT more than what was shown.

Firstly, I love the framing device of this OVA. The show always had a bit of a sketch-style structure, with each episode featuring multiple gag scenes, but this OVA actually tries to explain how each sketch came about. The flash-forward to Kaguya and Shirogane already married, while Kaguya goes through a bunch of memories, was really cute. I genuinely have no idea who took most of these pictures or how they got some of the angles, but I feel like that's a bit of a narrative fourth-wall break I'm supposed to accept for the sake of seeing things play out. I'm not sure if the anime production staff knew they weren't going to be able to get another full season of the show, so they just selected specific scenes from the manga to showcase, but what they have here works perfectly fine, as I got glimpses into what the relationship between Kaguya and Shirogane looks like after the end of season three.

I like how the skits, for the most part, feed into each other, as I see the progression of the honeymoon phase of this innocent relationship all the way up until the two just straight up sleep together like the horny teenagers that they are. No one feels like they're not written the way that they were before. While our main duo has definitely lost much of the competitive, analytical edge they had throughout the series, I do like how these vignettes highlight that they were always a perfect match for each other. They are so over the top in the way that they see the world that it very much comes off as the two matching each other's freak. That scene with the necklace at the beginning I think is a perfect encapsulation of how these two operate.

I understand, keeping the main focus of the vignette on our main couple, but the show was always about more than just them. Probably one of the biggest drawbacks of this structure is that it pushes Iino and Ishigami aside. These two have their own separate and VERY emotional story in the original manga, but this kinda confirmed that I am not going to see the rest of that story in animated form. I don't like letting my opinion of the source material affect my thoughts on the adaptation too much, as I do think an adaptation should be able to stand on its own mostly, but when I saw Iino have that broken arm and that intense reaction to the joke of Ishigami dating Chika, it made me kind of depressed. There's also a huge arc revolving around Kaguya's family that acts as a final hurdle to the relationship, and there is none of that even hinted at here. There is a chance it will be referenced in the final chapter being worked on right now. Still, I don't see how they could address the situation between those two in a meaningful way, especially if it looks like the final chapter will be different from the original manga ending and will focus almost exclusively on them being older.

Again, when only looking at things from the perspective of an anime-only watcher, this is still really well done. Despite it being a while, these voice actors and the animation staff are still top-notch. The animation is fluid in some of the more subtle character acting, and I love Aoi Koga's performance as Kaguya, who continues to capture the nuances of her voice now that she's going through these other heightened emotions. There were still some really funny gags that had me laughing, especially when it came to Shirogane's family. Let me put it this way: this OVA was so funny that I genuinely laughed at a laugh track joke! However, I am worried about the future. This OVA almost feels like a bit of a monkey's paw, where I was given more of what I wanted, but not in the way that I wanted it, and with no real promise that I'll be getting more of what I wanted in the future.

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Kaguya-sama: Love is War -Stairway to Adulthood- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.