Kaguya-sama: Love is War -Ultra Romantic-

Episode 6

I sometimes forget that the adults in the show seem to strike that perfect balance between being insightful and completely insane. That is a balance that I strive for as I get older. Speaking of getting older, that idea of changing seasons and everyone prepping for the next stages of their life is looking to be the catalyst for some major developments along the way. A good chunk of the main cast is in their second year of high school after all, and this episode really does hammer in the fact that the time they have together in the student council room is getting more finite with each passing day. It's possible that this is foreshadowing how the season is going to end, and I would love for the show to continue leaning into that coming-of-age aspect that it's played with during the latter half of its run so far. Tying that into the core romantic component of the show seems like the next logical step.

That ticking time bomb being the incentive that finally gets Shirogane off his butt and just move forward with asking Kaguya out on a date was actually pretty surprising. His resolve to be the one to confess to her if nothing happens before the culture festival shows that there is a potential endgame in sight for the series. That said, this episode also left me feeling incredibly conflicted because I feel like the first two-thirds of this episode served as a wonderful buildup to something that ultimately amounted to “nope, not yet!” On one hand, I really wanted them to go on that date, especially after the constant teasing, but on the other, I can't deny that I laughed A LOT at the resolution basically imploding on itself because these two just couldn't take that extra pinky toe forward after already making so much progress to get to this point. I get that's part of the appeal and I genuinely think that the segment's brilliant, but please tell me I wasn't the only one that wanted to throw their drink at the wall? It's rare to come across a show that will make you feel frustrated and elated at the same time but I suppose that's a testament to the quality of Kaguya-sama's writing. In fact, I kind of wish that the episode ended on that skit; the ending skit of Shirogane trying to look at himself objectively seem better suited as an opener, as it might've contributed further to the buildup of the attempted date request, but that's just me. I'm very curious what the implications presented in this episode will mean for the rest of the series. Could we finally see a resolution for the main premise of the show? Guess we'll just have to wait and find out!

Edit: Corrected error about the school year of the main cast. Thanks to tywhoppity and FilthyCasual for pointing out the mistake

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Kaguya-sama: Love is War Ultra Romantic is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.