And here we are with another episode of Kaguya doing dumb things because she’s in love. And it’s great. It feels like there’s been less and less battle of the tsundere mind-games and more overdose of cuteness. Because this episode definitely gave me a lot of adorable Kaguya moments. From her trying to befriend Shirogane’s sister to get to know him more, to giving him a slice of cake and a fan for his birthday. I’ve always really liked Kaguya from the first season, but she continues to grow on me because of just how freaking cute she is. Especially since her dere side has been coming out a lot more.
Honestly, I feel like there are times where she straight up forgets her mission of having Shirogane confess first. Especially with how this season has been going. Not to mention that the last few eps of the first season showed them genuinely trying to lift each other up rather than engaging in mind games like they started. It just shows that the two are unconsciously getting closer together, affecting how they carry out their plans to get the other to confess.
However, reality actually strikes when Ice Queen Kaguya points out that despite her feelings… she and Shirogane might not actually be able to to be together due to their social standings and starts to pass it off as a fleeting love. But, from what we’ve seen of their relationship, it’s definitely not a passing crush. Over the course of season one, we’ve seen her fall more and more for him as he displayed his selflessness and kindness to her over and over. And I’m thankful that Kaguya at least admitted to herself that it’s not just some amusement to pass the time, but genuine attraction to his good traits.
I did spazz pretty hard when Kaguya came out with just a slice of cake and a fan she did calligraphy on. She was just so cute with how shy she was over the whole thing since she was baring her true feelings here without putting on a mask or making excuses. It was just purely Kaguya and it was adorable. And then I spit all over my screen when she said not to open the sealed door because the rest of the cake was still there XD. This freaking series makes me weak in so many different ways and I’m living for it. The birthday was a success as Shirogane gave me cute feels when he blushed so hard while screaming in his head at how happy he is. I lost it at when he looked up the meaning of the calligraphy and started yelling at how cool and awesome the message was. Man these two are so dumb… I love it.
Aaaaaand then we return to the battle of wits again. Cuteness has been put on halt when Shirogane starts wondering why Shinomiya celebrated his birthday alone with him. He even tries to craft ways to get Chika to be the instigator to back Kaguya into a corner. Shirogane, you should know better than to count on Chika’s reactions. She’s the most unpredictable person ever. But alas, he actually gave her some slack and decided not to exploit Kaguya’s good will towards him. Which earned him a bit of my respect. Since I’m sure he wouldn’t have hesitated on exploiting it in the beginning of season one. …But then it bites him in the butt when Chika ended up turning the tables on him and asked him if he was in love with Kaguya. WHELP WE’RE BACK TO THE BATTLE OF WITS FOR REAL THIS TIME LOL. And I called it… Chika is the more unpredictable entity and will do things completely out of comprehension. I CALLED IT.
But man, Kaguya…. that was such a low blow setting Shirogane up like that. He even went through all the effort not to rat you out! My respect for her may have gone down a little… but the moment was just too hilarious to not laugh at. The narrator was also killing it this episode and his little comments had me snorting a lot. Especially with the “The fact that it was partially true made it even worse!” when Chika backed Shirogane into a corner. I admit, I cackled a lot through this episode. (But that’s nothing new)
However, when she was plotting, her affection for him started leaking into her mind… and ended up completely forgetting what she was plotting. Like I said before, their closeness is starting to mess with how they’re competing with each other. With Kaguya getting distracted by her giddy thoughts, completely blanking on what she had been plotting and Shirogane even starting to put less pressure on her. The dynamic is changing and I’m glad to see some progression and difference from how they were in the first season.
And then Ishigami comes in and unintentionally saved Kaguya by knowing Shirogane’s birthday LOL. And yup… Ishigami has been greatly amusing me this season with his reactions. I absolutely lost it when he just went into shock and disappointment over Chika not knowing Shirogane’s birthday, completely spinning the flow of conversation back at her. Ishigami seems to have learned how to handle Chika nowadays and it’s great. I’m actually surprised how well Shirogane took his supposed loss of being unable to crack Kaguya. In the first season, he probably would have been a lot more upset but here, he looks more exasperated than anything and just let it go.
I quite enjoyed this episode and I think I had a sugar overload because the content was just way too cute this week. I like that you can see how their relationship is progressing, even if they’re not close to confessing quite yet. They’re starting to be softer towards one another, slowly becoming more open with their affection and it’s just great to see that this series isn’t depending solely on the fact these are two tsunderes being tsundere towards each other. They’re actually taking the time to show the progression and see how they’re slowly putting their emotional walls down. NOW THIS IS ROMANTIC PROGRESS. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless and keeps the characters consistent.
