Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2018)

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Volume 12

Kaguya-sama: Love is War - Volume 12 (2018)

Author/Artist: Aka Akasaka
Publisher: Young Jump Comics

Synopsis:
With his plans to study overseas, Shirogane realizes his time is running out and decides that unless Shinomiya confesses to him first, he will confess to her by the end of the culture festival.

Story/Characters:
Our first chapter has Shinomiya showing off some cosplay for Shirogane, thinking she can fluster him, but with him taking the more direct approach, it throws a bit of a monkey wrench in her plans. Next, Shirogane tries to ask Shinomiya out to another school's culture festival. It's amusing how it turns out. After that, Shirogane tries to get some feedback from the girls of the student council, inviting amusing misunderstandings. We then have Iino try to arrange for the bonfire for the finale of the culture festival. It's interesting seeing her with the glee club, particularly contrasting her with how Ishigami is integrated with them now. After that, we have the mass media club doing interviews. We then have an arm wrestling contest in the student council. I like the detail that because she's an archer, Shinomiya actually has rather good upper body strength (regardless of her slight frame). Next we have balloon animals, which teases Mama Chika, but Shirogane wants to do things himself. After that, Shirogane is wanting to check out the Shuuchi'in middle school's culture festival, but Kei has to step in to avert a fashion disaster. (I could definitely see my little sister acting exactly like Kei.) Next Tsubame-sempai tells Shinomiya about the romantic traditions of the culture festival, leading her to thinking up her own plans for the big event (so now have both sides coming at each other). This leads us into a flashback from when Shirogane first enrolled. As an outsider at an elite school like Shuuchi'in, we see that he had a hard time of it at first, but the previous student council president took an interest in him and helped him along. We also see where Shirogane first fell for Shinomiya.

Art:
Shinomiya's cosplay is cute, particularly the one that seals the deal. Baby Iino is adorable. Tsubame-sempai is incredibly bendy. Shirogane's civvies are hilariously lame. Shinomiya's hero shot in the flashback is nice.

Other:
We get an agenda for the upcoming events in the stinger of Chapter 112, letting us know what we've got to look forward to. Chapter 116 acts as sort of a promo for the spinoff with the mass media club and the stinger more explicitly points you to said spinoff. Chapter 117 has a muscle point chart, giving the average rating for males and females and how the student council stacks up.

Conclusion:
We're building up to big things with the culture festival, but we also get some breather moments like the arm wrestling contest. I particularly like the flashback as it shows a completely different side of Shirogane. There's plenty of good stuff to be had here. Definitely add it to your collection.

Rating:
Own It