Compared to the last couple episodes, this one was definitely a lot more fun to watch for me since there wasn’t anything TOO weird. And while I am still not a fan of Iino, she showed a bit more of her fun side as a character this episode. Especially since she has a very… unrealistic imagination. Seems like she wants to be the heroine in some sort of drama where she would bring justice to the strict and callous student council and ultimately the school. However, this is Kaguya-sama where everything is chaos. Sorry Iino, but we don’t do typical plot lines here.
But poor Ishigami not even making an appearance in her imagination because she doesn’t want to waste time thinking about him. Poor guy…
And while it was funny to see Iino believe she could be some sort of protagonist, it also felt a little presumptuous of her that she would be the “breath of fresh air” to change the student council. So she still has some sort of ego going on, but I guess all of the main characters have an ego one way or another. Despite Iino’s wild imaginations, I like how her friend is just like, alright, “Iino always jumps to conclusions” and realizes it’s probably a misunderstanding that the president is “lust incarnate.” I had thought that the friend would walk in on a misunderstand and then believe what Iino believed. But thankfully, it did not go in that direction. Nice to see this anime continue to twist my expectations. I appreciate that the friend realizes there was some sort of mistake and tries to talk sense into Iino. Though it just leads Iino from thinking Shirogane was the bad guy to Kaguya.
I’m not sure how Iino comes up with these wild delusions as it starts with Shirogane being “lust incarnate” and then goes to Kaguya being a dominatrix. IINO WHY?! So when she tries to be the “protagonist” and confront Kaguya on her “evil ways,” Kaguya gives her such a pure response that it just further confuses Iino. This is why you don’t assume Iino, you’ll just end up even more confused if you don’t gather concrete evidence beforehand. So in the end, it was unsurprisingly Iino’s loss.
The second story is yet another tsundere discussion with Hayasaka. Whenever Kaguya starts ranting about her feelings for Shirogane, I always feel bad for Hayasaka because the situation is just nonsense 90% of the time. Kaguya is still very shaken up about the near kiss with Shirogane in the previous episode and is desperate to figure out a way to act normal around him again. At this point, her feelings for him have only grown stronger so it’s become rather difficult to keep her feelings in check. Especially from what we’ve seen so far this season with her mind games kind of collapsing on itself and becomes bakaguya whenever she thinks about what has happened between herself and Shirogane. So Hayasaka proposes to find a habit that will help relax her when she gets too flustered around Shirogane.
A lot of people have been waiting to see if we’ll get another Chika dance ending, but instead, we get kind of a Kaguya dance. Which I daresay I prefer more due to Kaguya bias lol. And thus we get the calming ritual that was displayed in the opening with Kaguya holding the side of her face. Kaguya is able to associate the touch with relaxation in just a few days, but it also turned into a switch to turn her back to Ice Kaguya. So instead of relaxing her, it seems to just stunt her emotions in a way. Thinking she’s prepared can only end up in chaos because that is how Kaguya-sama goes. Which happens in glorious fashion when the scene between her and Shirogane turns into a fighting game (I’m sorry I am not cultured enough to get the reference). And while Shirogane is concerned, he really shouldn’t have cornered Kaguya like that considering it was preventing her from her calming ritual and ended up throwing him to the ground out of desperation to get away. This whole scene had me laughing really hard because of how everything played out. Poor Shirogane and poor Kaguya, both are such freaking love sick dummies.
And then there’s Ishigami in the last segment of the episode. He looks absolutely adorable with shorter hair. Protect him. Anyways, Ishigami ends up joining the cheer leading team for the sports event coming up and it’s pretty surprising. Especially since this is Ishigami, not someone you’d expect to be cheering loudly and enthusiastically. He even mentions his classmate is looking at him like “what is he even doing here.” It’s interesting how the people in the cheer leading squad are missing eyes. Typically, this show doesn’t miss details like that so I feel like it was intentional to show things from Ishigami’s point of view. The only one who had their eyes shown was his classmate, someone he knew. So I’m assuming it’s to show how Ishigami views people he doesn’t really know. However, I’m sure that girl with the purple-ish hair is going to be a recurring character. Her hair is way too defined and even has colored tips to not be an important character.
I always love Kaguya and Ishigami bonding moments. They almost have a sibling-like relationship with Kaguya taking care of Ishigami when he’s in need while also teasing him when she gets annoyed with him. Definitely something a sister would do to their little brother. I appreciate their bond so much since Kaguya is probably the first girl to stick up for him since his middle school days. And while Ishigami is still afraid of her, I hope he comes to realize that Kaguya is someone he can turn to. She even agrees to let him borrow her uniform in a cross dressing event the cheer leading squad is doing.
I am proud of Ishigami trying to move out of his comfort zone to do something. I also appreciate that he realizes how wrong of him was to look down on the cheer leading squad when he wasn’t really doing anything with his life. He wants to move forward and not stay in place all of his life and I hope that being on the cheer leading squad will help him grow. He’s already grown a lot from the first season so even more growth from this point wouldn’t do him bad. Especially since his past still affects and haunts him presently. I’m rooting for you, Ishigami!
This episode was a wild ride and is definitely leading up to something with Ishigami. Hopefully he’ll be alright. Also, can we just about how the animation was needlessly great in this episode? Especially during Kaguya’s little dance sequence. I love the details to the small movements, the motions, just everything seemed to be done with such care and precision. I find it hilarious where they choose to put really good animation. There was absolutely no need to have some of the movements be as polished as they were when Kaguya was talking to Hayasaka, but they went above and beyond. Just the little extra movements the characters did through out that scene just had me laughing because “why???” They honestly could have just gotten away with giving them minimal animation and it would have still gotten the same point across. And yet… either way, A1 be flexing with their animation this episode.
Also, they seemed to have put an abundance of American references through out this episode. It was surprising, but I appreciated them. As someone who has grown up with my mom who is an avid Charlie Brown fan, it was great to see a nod to it in this episode. Though really could have done without referencing Fifty Shades of Gray because that book doesn’t need more exposure but I digress.
