The Spring anime season is here; and while love may be in the air, it's sharing the space with some napalm. While the Spring season has plenty of romance series awaiting fans, one that really sticks out from the crowd is the mental warfare of Kaguya-Sama: Love is War.
While most anime simply treat miscommunication and teenage awkwardness as an obstacle, academic elites Shirogane Miyuki and Kaguya Shinomiya use it as a weapon to win the game called love. As fans ready the scoreboard for another anime season, this list will help people get prepped with some trivia about the anime.
10 Directed By Mamoru Hatakeyama
The first season of the anime was directed by Shinichi Omata, aka in the industry as Mamoru Hatakeyama. While fans have assuredly enjoyed the sense of tension and hilarity that he gave Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, they might also be happy to know that this isn't his first project.
He's worked as an animator and episode director to plenty of other series, but his most notable works as a director include series like Rozen Maiden, Record of Grancrest War, and the ever-complex human drama, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju.
9 Rotoscoping
One of the most iconic scenes to have come out of Kaguya-Sama: Love is War is the beloved ending sequence after Episode 3. This little ending theme has Fujiwara Chika pull off a mesmerizing dance and song that has delighted fans everywhere. And, while Fujiwara's singing was pretty good on its own, what really grabbed mass attention was the unique animation.
This ending sequence actually used an animation technique known as "rotoscoping," in which animators trace over the movements of a live-action scene to give their drawings more realism and fluidity.
8 Ai's Chika Mask
In a rare instance of the manga stealing from the anime, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War has an interesting situation where the masks used in Episode 6 would see a comeback in the manga.
In Episode 6, there's an original scene where Kaguya is rehearsing one of her schemes with Ai, and she's prepped a couple of mannequins with the faces of the Student Council but has Ai in particular don a Chika Fujiwara mask. The masks would see a comeback in the manga where Ai uses a Miyuki mask to talk to Kaguya.
7 The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter
While Kaguya-Sama: Love is War is, to an extent, an original work, it does take some inspiration from the classic Japanese prose, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, aka The Tale of Princess Kaguya.
This story is also about a complex venture for love that involves the characters doing a variety of complicated tasks to prove themselves. Here, Kaguya Shinomiya takes heavy inspiration from the cold attitude of the Princess Kaguya. Miyuki, on the other hand, is based on Princess Kaguya's fourth suitor, Ootomo no Miyuki.
6 Fujiwara's Voice Actress Was In Pretty Cure
In an interesting instance of shared voice work, Chika Fujiwara's Japanese voice actress, Konomi Kohara, also played Lala Hagoromo, aka Cure Milky, from the Pretty Cure series.
The anime actually references this when Fujiwara assumes that Ishigami will just be spending his holiday break playing video games or watching Pretty Cure.
5 Miyuki's Voice Actor Has Quite The Punch
Continuing the trend of interesting voice actor moments, Miyuki's Japanese voice actor, Makoto Furukawa, has also played a variety of interesting voice roles.
He played Taiju Ooki, the original protagonist and strong man of Dr. Stone, Banri Tada, the amnesiac main character from Golden Time, and, perhaps the most iconic of all, Saitama from One-Punch Man. If it's going to take power to date Kaguya, Miyuki has it.
4 Aoi Koga Is In The Anime And Live-Action Film
Of course, Kaguya Shinomiya's voice actress shouldn't be left out of the conversation. While her Japanese voice actress, Aoi Koga, may have only been in the industry for a few years, she's been building plenty of credibility and making the most of her time.
Playing Kaguya Shinomiya has been one of her most prominent roles as of late, and she's grown quite attached in the series. So much so that she even makes a short cameo as a theater employee in the live-action movie.
3 It Was Going To Be Called "IQ"
While fans may know and love the series as "Kaguya-Sama: Love is War," it could've been known by a very different name. The original title for the series was "IQ."
IQ not only refers to the famous intelligence rating but, in Japanese, is a double entendre for "aikyuu," which means "love seeking" or "love longing." While IQ would've also been appropriate for the battle of loving wits between Miyuki and Kagua, "Love is War" certainly carries more panache.
2 There's A Yeti
This is a strange one that may never actually be explained in the series other than just being a neat sight gag. In Episode 3, Kaguya helps a little girl across the street who stated that she was originally walking with her friend "Yeti."
Seeing as how the girl's friend disappeared, Kaguya helps the girl instead; but as she does, an actual yeti appears at the side of the screen for a couple of seconds.
1 Fujiwara Has A "Rap Advisor"
While the series may focus on the misadventures of Kaguya and Miyuki, it certainly seems like Chika Fujiwara has stolen the show. Not only has the "Chika Dance" immortalized her on the internet, but she has plenty of hilarious scenes in this series that, on their own, have helped make Season 1 memorable, such as her detective's hat, her freaked out face, and, of course, her rapping.
What fans didn't know, however, is that Chika's rapping wasn't just some gift from the skies. According to the Episode 4 credits, she had a "Fujiwara Rap Advisor" named Shinobu Noshioka. Talent has to come from somewhere.