Well, last night, I finally got to view the latest segment of the anime adaptation of "Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai"（かぐや様は告らせたい...Kaguya-sama: Love is War） in the form of a movie that had come out in theatres in Japan just before Xmas last year and just after Season 3. Titled "First Kiss wa Owaranai"（ファーストキッスは終わらない...The First Kiss That Never Ends）, it was basically four extra episodes tied together into a little less than an hour and forty-five minutes and dealt with the consequences of that fateful fully-anticipated kiss between Kaguya and Miyuki. You might say that it was Season 3.33.
Last night for that Portable Rock article, I'd used that Data/Lore scene from "Star Trek: Picard" as a bit of an analogy for Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）. I think that it would be even more fitting for this article, too. There was an even more pitched battle in the mind of Kaguya with four different aspects going toe to toe with each other. To be honest, I hadn't been all that enthused about "First Kiss wa Owaranai" because Season 3 seemed a bit of a letdown. I'd always preferred it when Kaguya and Miyuki were overusing their intellects against each other to hilarious effect and it was getting pretty obvious that the status quo was evolving rapidly between these two. But of course for the fans of the franchise, I understand that this is indeed a romantic comedy instead of it just being a comedy.
However, I actually did enjoy "First Kiss" even though the comic elements, though still there, were more muted. After all, the thrust of this extended episode was how the two main characters struggled with not only what had happened on top of the clock tower but also their own deeply embedded psychological knots that needed to unravel if a romantic relationship could actually have a healthy chance of working. I think the the fact it all came out into the open rather than being teased a few times over the past few seasons made it more satisfying for me.
Knowing that "First Kiss" had come out around Xmas in Japan, I was wondering when it would show up here on this side of the Pacific. Well, I started seeing videos of the glorious opening credit sequence from around last week and so I figured that the movie was finally seeing the light of day on platforms such as Crunchyroll. Of course, this brings me to another reason that I enjoyed the movie which is the traditional Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）and friend's funky opening theme.
"Love is Show" is sung by Martin and Momoiro Clover Z's（ももいろクローバーZ）Reni Takagi（高城れに）and has the same fellows backing them up in songwriting, lyricist/composer Yoshiki Mizuno（水野良樹）and arranger Akimitsu Honma（本間昭光）. It still doesn't reach the sublime heights of "Love Dramatic" and "DADDY! DADDY! DO!" for the first two seasons of "Kaguya-sama" but I think that it does edge out Season 3's "GIRI GIRI" which took a while for me to warm up to.
Hearing the whole song and watching the barnstorming opening credits had me thinking that this was a new and happier beginning for the franchise. "Love is Show" seems lighter, bouncier and more hopeful with that good ol' disco intro, and after watching the movie, I was humming it in the shower. Good sign right there!
I saw through one of the comments that the opening credits for the theatrical version were very different from the one that has come out on streaming. Indeed, I did find this one video (which may not be up all that long) that has those early credits showing scenes from past seasons. As such, I prefer the ones for the small screen presentation but the theatrical credits aren't too bad either.
I heard that the original manga finally reached its end last November but another commenter mentioned rather ambitiously that the anime may have around three more seasons' worth of material. We shall see but my feeling is that the first big phase of "Kaguya-sama" has reached its ending, and maybe there will be some intense discussions among the producers about whether that's all she wrote for the anime wing.
