Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2

Episode 10

With Shuchiin's annual sports festival on everyone's mind, this week's Kaguya-sama: Love is War delivers a more thematically unified string of segments than usual. The sole exception is episode 10's introductory story, which shines a spotlight on Kei, who's torn between offering comfort to her dejected brother and remaining beholden to her newly-awakened rebellious phase. However, when Miyuki, who's crestfallen by Kaguya's recent avoidance, receives depressingly impractical advice from their father, Kei overcomes her teenage angst to reassure her brother that everything is probably okay between him and his crush. When Kaguya utilizes her new calming ritual at school the following day and resumes regular interaction with him, Miyuki sees that he was ultimately worried over nothing.

In addition to offering up a number of amusing Kei moments, this segment provides us with our first extended look at Miyuki's home life. The manner in which Miyuki continually nags his sister—and Kei's reaction to said nagging—nicely illustrates how differently Miyuki's bullheaded personality and desire to be in control come across in a domestic setting than at school. Still, given that he and Kei have very little in the way of parental supervision, it's not surprising that he would take on such a role. The revelation that Miyuki and Kei's mother walked out on them and that Papa Shirogane is largely undependable also shine some light on how Miyuki developed his take-charge attitude and knack for hard work. While primarily used as a vehicle for comedy, Miyuki's depression over Kaguya's behavioral changes is certainly palpable. When someone you care about seemingly wants nothing to do with you, it can be difficult to consider reasons for this that don't involve them hating you—even though this might not be the case.

The second segment finds the perpetually rhythmless Miyuki struggling to learn the soran dance, which the second-years will be performing at the upcoming sports festival. In light of her struggles to tutor Miyuki in the past, Chika peaces out almost immediately, leaving Kaguya to step into the teacher role. However, upon seeing how quickly Miyuki moves on and how mechanical Kaguya's teaching technique is, Chika becomes jealous, inciting a fight between the two girls. Luckily, their conflict turns out to be a blessing in disguise, as breaking free from their combined grasp inadvertently helps Miyuki perfect the movements of the dance.

At the onset, this segment seems like it will be the usual “Chika struggles to teach Miyuki a basic skill” story, but by bringing Kaguya into the mix, the series does an entertaining job of shaking things up. While previous stories that followed this formula have been funny, the supply of jokes that can stem from Chika's exasperation at Miyuki's ineptitude seems to have been exhausted. Not only do we get a look at Chika's devious side in her criticisms of Kaguya's methods, we also see what is arguably the most direct conflict between Chika and Kaguya to date. Kaguya's beefs with Chika are usually one-sided and take place entirely in her mind, so seeing the two practically come to blows is an interesting change of pace. Furthermore, the differences in the girls' respective teaching techniques (Kaguya—whose motivation is really a desire to touch her crush—wants Miyuki to mechanically mimic the dance moves, whereas Chika wants him to appreciate the art behind the dance) serve as an adept microcosm of their personality gap. Hopefully, any future stories that involve Miyuki being tutored will follow a similarly chaotic path.

In this week's third segment, we're given some additional insight into Ishigami's largely unexplored past. While observing one of Miko's usual scuffles with Ishigami, Kobachi opines on how the latter was accused of stalking a girl and beating up her boyfriend in middle school and earning a lengthy suspension as a result. However, when Ishigami was in danger of not being able to enter Shuchiin's high school division in response to this incident, Miko went to bat for him and made his case to the headmaster. As we learn, Ishigami is still dealing with the fallout of all this and is widely reviled by his peers, and in spite of everything that's happened, he still refuses to share his side of the story. He's also covertly tried to stop the bullying of Miko over the years, leading Kobachi to conclude that the two have a lot in common.

While relatively short on laughs, this segment helps cast Ishigami in a new light. His lack of popularity was always assumed to stem from his extreme cynicism and edgelord demeanor, but learning that his status as a social pariah isn't comedic in nature adds a new layer of depth to his character. Despite constantly acting like he's above it all, Ishigami has been dealing with full-scale ostracization, and to some extent, it's possible that his usual abrasiveness serves as an emotional shield. Seeing both Miko and Kobachi stick up for Ishigami is touching, especially in light of all the bad blood between them, and it would nice (albeit not conducive to comedy) to see Ishigami and Miko become aware of the kindness they've shown one another at some point in the future. (It would also be a shame for the season to conclude before we're given the full story behind the purported stalking incident.)

The sports festival is in full-swing in this week's final segment. Thanks to a lack of steady employment, Papa Shirogane is able to attend—and begins embarrassing his son almost immediately. When Miyuki is able to get his father away from the festivities, the elder Shirogane encounters Kaguya, and after recognizing her as the girl he briefly spoke with on the phone the previous summer, needles her into revealing how she really feels about his son. After discovering the true identity of the man she's been talking to, Kaguya is predictably flustered, prompting a furious Miyuki to demand to know what his old man did to her. Meanwhile, encouraged by scores of cheering peers, Ishigami and Kazeno, the cheerleading squad's president, take first place in the two-legged race as a mysterious figure (presumably the girl from the stalking incident, who has since transferred schools) watches from a distance.

After learning more about his backstory, seeing Ishigami take first place and flash a genuine smile as he crosses the finish line feels incredibly gratifying. However, while the unanswered questions about Ishigami's past are still very much a point of interest, Papa Shirogane emerges as the final segment's MVP. When he tricks Kaguya into defending Miyuki, he reveals that his surface quirks belie a penchant for manipulation that rivals his son's. Although Kaguya's true feelings for Miyuki are no secret to the viewer, her reiteration that Miyuki—and by extension, Chika and Ishigami—essentially restored her faith in humanity is a touching reminder of the beating heart that lurks beneath all psychological warfare and constant one-upmanship.

With a figure from Ishigami's past potentially set to reemerge, Kaguya-sama: Love is War once again leaves the audience hungry for more. Whether laughs are on the horizon or the forthcoming events take on a more dramatic tone, Kaguya-sama is likely to have no trouble sticking the landing.

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Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 is currently streaming on Funimation.

Amy is an author who has loved anime for over two decades.