Today, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – The First Kiss That Never Ends (かぐや様は告らせたい-ファーストキッスは終わらない-) started screening in Japan, and there was a live broadcast of the stage greeting (being held in Tokyo) at theatres nationwide. I really like the Kaguya-sama: Love Is War series and so I got myself a ticket.
They were handing out this illustration at the theatres.
The plot follows from season 3 (Ultra Romantic) of the anime series, and I think it is more or less close to the story in the original manga. Taking place after the school festival, it features the few days leading up to Christmas and beyond. I shall not put any spoiler here. Let's just say that the movie maintains the witty fun of the series, and I had a big smile on my face (hidden by my face mask) for much of the first part of the movie. However, it also had very touching elements too, on the inner struggles faced by Kaguya and Shirogane, and portraying how Kaguya has grown throughout the series.
After the movie, there was a stage greeting event that featured the five main voice actors of the student council (Koga Aoi aka Kaguya, Furukawa Makoto aka Shirogane, Kohara Konomi aka Fujiwara, Suzuki Ryota aka Ishigami, Tomita Miyu aka Ino) as well as the singers for the theme song (Suzuki Masayuki and Takagi Reni). They talked about their recommended parts of the movie and how they would be spending Christmas (which is a main theme of the movie). Suzuki Ryota brought up that they kept being told by the production staff that this movie is not actually a movie. It is a special edition. My thoughts on this later. The voice actors really have strong synergy, having worked together on this series since 2019, even shooting a Christmas special last year during which they celebrate Suzuki Ryota's birthday.
There is an archive of the event here (in Japanese).
First, about this movie being a special edition instead of a movie. I think this is because, in Japan, there is an expectation that anime movies have higher quality (visual and audio) compared to the TV series. This time, though, the movie was more like an extension of season 3. Kind of like, "We can't fit the entire story we want to tell into one season, but we don't have enough to make Ultra Romantic span two seasons, so let's make it one season + one movie."
This does not mean the quality is poorer than other anime movies. It is the same high-quality anime. It could also have been turned into a 4-episode mini-season. But being able to watch this arc in its entirety at one go makes it all the more impactful. For the second half of the movie, I had tears in my eyes almost all the way.
I find that the portrayal of the inner struggle when you love someone romantically, that bittersweet first love, to be very touching. Because you love someone, there are things you want to show, but also things you want to hide. There is that uncertainty of "will he love me if he sees my flaws?" At the same time, there is also "I want to be honest with him, to let him see me for who I am and not who I pretend to be." There is also the "I want him to be honest with me, I want to see the true him, not who he pretends to be." In some ways, all these kind of contradict each other, but humans are full of contradictions, and being in love usually makes this contradiction even more severe. 😅
What does it mean to be in love? What does it mean to be happy? Beyond the witty fun of seeing how the rest of the student council treats airhead Kaguya-chan, and tsundere Kaguya, airhead Fujiwara (aka Chika), otome Ino (with all her dirty thoughts), the hardworking Shirogane, and cool(?) Ishigami as their usual selves, this deep dive into the meaning of romantic love really struck at my heart.
(By the way, some fans in the United States were actually treated to a preview of the movie during Anime NYC in November 2022. The movie is also slated to show in the United State in February 2023.)
Remember, this is not a movie (劇場版). It is a special edition (特別編). 😉
(It basically adapts Volume 14 Chapter 7 to Volume 15 Chapter 10 of the original manga, with some minor changes and an original portion(?) after that as the movie's ending.)
No comments:
Post a Comment