Kaguya-sama: Love is War (2021)
[ใใใๆงใฏๅใใใใ ๏ฝๅคฉๆใใกใฎๆๆ้ ญ่ณๆฆ๏ฝ]
Volume 24
Author/Artist: Aka Akasaka
Publisher: Young Jump Comics
Synopsis:
Osaragi reflects on Iino and Ishigami's relationship.
Story/Characters:
When Osaragi said she didn't consider Iino to be her friend, I was pretty sure it wasn't so simple as that, even if that was how Iino took it. Turns out that it was more complicated than I imagined. Osaragi's feelings don't neatly fit in any one box and she's actually been nursing some resentment against Iino for a long time. Being caught in the middle of this drama, Shinomiya consults Shirogane for help all the while complaining about how much a pain it is to deal with girls' problems (while Shirogane diplomatically denies his fervent agreement with her on the subject). Shinomiya ends up confronting Iino on her black-and-white way of thinking, while Ishigami gives Osaragi a gentler nudge to work toward reconciliation. The two end up hashing things out and it looks like the seas have calmed for the time being.
We shift gears to lighten the mood with Fujiwara deciding that she doesn't want to be left out of the romance game any longer, but as she talks about her ideal kind of guy (once money is taken out of the equation), Shinomiya and Iino start to get nervous. It's pretty amusing. Next, Kei invites Shinomiya over and she starts to get jealous and possessive of her. I like her conclusion that her brother marrying Shinomiya would be a good thing, but he's not allowed to touch her. (Shirogane and Shinomiya both have other ideas, of course.) After that, we have Hayasaka trying to settle on her current identity (she's taken so many assumed identities that she's become something like Kirk Lazarus in Tropic Thunder) and we come to discover Shirogane actually has really bad eyesight and when he rejects the idea of wearing glasses, she tries to get him to put on some contacts. Hilarity ensues. I've said it before and I'll say it again that I really like their relationship, platonic but still prone to triggering Shinomiya's jealousy and insecurity for comedic effect.
It's that time of year when Shuuchi'in has its shindig with its French sister school. Ishigami doesn't have a partner to go with him, but after a little talk with Maki, he musters the nerve to ask out Iino. It is funny to see how much Ishigami and Maki have in common. We then have the return of Betsy Beltoise, who's in charge of organizing the event this time. She's still traumatized from her encounter with Shinomiya, but she does reveal that the reason for the previous year's incident was the principle testing Shirogane. Shirogane confronts the principal about this and learns that his motivations are more complex than we originally thought. (And if you want more, apparently you can find out in the spinoff novel The Seven Wonders of Shuuchi'in Academy.) At the party, encounters with Maki and Mikado hint at something big going down, which hits us at the end of the chapter. The Shinomiya Group gets caught up in a mess of legal trouble and our resident Shinomiya gets swept away. While the student council discuss matters, Ishigami brings up the very valid point that a bunch of high schoolers can't expect to do squat over the situation other than try to support Shinomiya as best they can. Then Unyou of all people shows up outside the school, looking for Hayasaka but settling on Shirogane for lack of any better options. As bad as the first impression we got of him was, he's surprisingly decent here (at least as decent as any non-Kaguya Shinomiya can be) and we get quite the cliffhanger with Shirogane being introduced to the big man himself.
Art:
The art continues to be solid. As with last time, it's really nice when we actually get to see Osaragi's eyes. The Shirogane-Hayasaka chapter has some fine visual comedy and Unyou continues to be a spider-eyed monster even when he's being fairly nice.
Conclusion:
We get to learn a lot more about Osaragi this volume and her tiff with Iino gets sorted out fairly nicely. We get a couple nice comedic interludes in the form of the Fujiwara boyfriend chapter and the Hayasaka contact chapter, and we set the stage for the next major conflict of the story. Given Akasaka's indications that the end is coming, this may well be the final arc for the story. Overall, we get a good balance of drama and comedy with a number of fine character moments this time around, adding up to a package that's worth having.
Rating:
Own It