The second season of the romantic comedy anime Kaguya-Sama: Love is War is off to a good start, and the two current episodes bring the love battle to new heights -- with Kaguya seeming to take the lead.
In this season's second episode, Miyuki Shirogane's 17th birthday is right around the corner, and Kaguya is convinced that this is her best opportunity yet to weave an elaborate plot and trap him once and for all. If she can give him a great birthday cake and present, she reasons, then Miyuki will have no choice but to confess his love to her, being so moved by her gesture of kindness. But she doesn't lean too heavily on her friend Ai Hayasaka; instead, Kaguya slips right into Miyuki's inner circle and goes on a seemingly innocent shopping trip with Miyuki's little sister, Kei. Chika and her own sister come along too, and the four of them visit the local mall that afternoon.
Kaguya runs into some roadblocks, though, and her supposed lead isn't being too cooperative. Kei is somewhat like her brother, being rather frugal and closed-off, as opposed to the bubbly and friendly Chika. On this shopping trip, Kaguya runs into a second problem too: she has no experience with clothes shopping. She's used to her family taking care of that, and she's totally lost in the department stores that the four girls visit. She could afford to buy everything in the store, but she's paralyzed and indecisive, and Kei simply hunts for bargains and moves on. But Kaguya isn't done yet: she devises a new plan, one that is sure to work.
Redoubling Her Efforts
Kaguya's shopping trip wasn't a waste of time though: far from it. After seeing Kei Shirogane's frugal ways and watching Kei help a little girl patch up her scraped knee, Kaguya correctly realized that Miyuki prefers sentimental and handmade gifts over expensive and flashy ones. She even baked an entire cake for him, and Ai thought it was a bit much. Better yet, Kaguya bought a fancy fan and painted some kanji on it with her finest calligraphy, and with these two love-war weapons, she was ready to launch the mission -- only to run into even more snags!
Kaguya froze up halfway through the student council meeting because half of her wanted to recklessly go forward with the plan while her other half was sure that this would backfire somehow. Kaguya even took the time to hold a court session in her own mind, but things got off the rails and she snapped back to the here and now. She also realized that the cake looked way too much like a full-blown wedding cake, so in a flustered rush, she hid it and served Miyuki a slice while his eyes were closed. At the same time, she handed over the fan, and Miyuki deemed it an excellent gift.
But there was one more fight to win later on. Chika was distraught that she wasn't informed of Miyuki's birthday, and she wanted to know why Kaguya alone was privy to that information. If Kaguya wasn't careful, she'd give away her schemes, and that couldn't be allowed. Kaguya and Miyuki started an indirect duel to see who could expose the other's plans first, and ultimately, Kaguya eked out a win and poor Chika fled the room in hysterics. But at the end of the day, Kaguya's birthday plan stuck the landing, and most likely, Chika will be back to her cheery self in the very next episode.