Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: First Kiss wa Owaranai

After their first kiss, Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane are left unsure where their relationship stands. The troubling uncertainty of whether they could be considered an official couple unleashes newfound problems as both Kaguya and Shirogane struggle to sort out their feelings.

While the lovestruck student council officers fret, the Christmas season rolls around, and romance is in the air. In the face of widespread tenderness, Kaguya and Shirogane must endure their affectionate battle of wits once more. Should they reconcile their feelings for one another, they may find themselves within reach of what they have both been longing for so long: true love.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shinomiya, Kaguya Main

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Shirogane, Miyuki Main

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Ishigami, Yuu ing

Suzuki, Ryouta Japanese

Fujiwara, Chika ing

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Hayasaka, Ai ing

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Iino, Miko ing

Tomita, Miyu Japanese

Shirogane, Kei ing

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Shirogane, Father ing

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Narrator ing

Aoyama, Yutaka Japanese

Shijou, Maki ing

Ichinose, Kana Japanese

Hatakeyama, Mamoru Director, Storyboard

Aketagawa, Jin Sound Director

Kitamura, Shoutarou Episode Director, Storyboard

Obara, Masakazu Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Dec 20, 2022

Natsuki_SanJuan

Recommended

*spoilers in marked section*

Have you ever thought if Kaguya-sama is pure romance rather than so much comedy?

Behold! The most beautiful and romantic movie of the year. This is the greatest story of Kaguya-sama has been told. The epic conclusion to the geniuses' war of hearts and minds since the first season aired in 2019. Ending the war once and for all in this merry Christmas gift offering from A-1 Pictures, Kaguya-sama ~ First Kiss wa Owaranai ~!

After receiving a massive disappointment from the outrageous uLtrA RoMantiCC, I felt angry with this show because it left me with a bitter taste since I’m a fan of ... the series. I ended up picking the manga where it left off to find some answers but I'm really glad I picked it. It turns out, Kaguya-sama isn’t perfect. It has ups and downs but that is what makes it a manga, manga. An anime, anime. I witnessed the truly ultra-romantic in this story arc rather than in the previous season. I didn’t have expectations for the movie since the runtime is only 1 and a half hours, but this adaptation is the one that I wanted to see.

So the story picked up after the events from the previous season. If you saw the ending scene from the last episode, you should ignore that. There are two things that you can think about that scene, either a fanservice or an easter egg from the ending of the movie. But let’s not talk about that and move forward. The of the gang from the elite student council are back! But there’s one problem, Kaguya suffered from an identity crisis! I like the part when they thought about the kiss because it’s merely an unanswered question of mine. What is the meaning of that kiss? What were Kaguya’s intentions at that time? What will be their relationship from now on? The first act was cute when they adapted the chibi Kaguya while she still had THAT attitude to Ishigami.

The pacing was so fine like they reduced the comedic moments and focused on the romance between the two main characters. It made me feel the pure romantic vibe of the story, rather than being a satire from the previous season. They removed some unnecessary scenes from the manga but it doesn’t feel rushed when I watched it. Yes, there are still comedic moments from the other characters and Shirogane himself. His expressions are so funny when he overthinks things around him, especially to Kaguya. The other characters had some moments but I’ll focus on the main storyline about the two, and how did I like their other sides of the story so far.

- Spoilers –
This is the part that I love the most. How did they deal their themselves at this moment? After the meeting of Kaguya’s personas, it is revealed that the original, or the ice-cold one is the one who truly loves Shirogane the most. While Shirogane, the perfect one, conceals his true self to stand by her side. This is one of the most realistic approaches in many relationships. People know that to be liked by someone is to prove our worth. You must be a perfect person. You must conceal yourself and replace a self where that person can accept you. That’s the cruel part. We might end up having an identity crisis and find it difficult to find our true selves from the many selves that we made. I like the part when Kaguya’s original self enters the whole scene and shows her true self to her, while she’s scared because she might hurt Shirogane. She distanced herself from all the people around her because of her family name and nature. She isn’t really angry but the people around were angry at her. But the reason why she did that was that she didn’t want to end up hurting people. She also thought that when she was finally in love with Shirogane so she built an idiotic self and the current self from the previous seasons, in order not to hate her. So this time, she suppressed her other self because she just don’t want to be an idiot and be carried away, but she want to think about what will happen in the future. She wanted a normal life as a normal young girl. Same for Shirogane, to like and impress by Kaguya, he worked his ass off to become perfect. He poured almost his time to become perfect not just for her, but for other people. He only wanted to notice by Kaguya and the whole student body. But he realizes that it’s not his true self, but “a perfect self” that he made. Being nasty, spineless, a piece of trash, talentless, and a coward are his true self. He fears that everything is over the moment he shows any signs of weakness. He thought that there was no way that Kaguya is destined to be with him because she was just too perfect to reach.

In this part, they are scared of revealing who they are. They both had reasons for why they concealed themselves, and not showing all of it to each other. Their weaknesses and negative sides of themselves. But being who they are and showing who they are is one of the important key factors in having a romantic relationship. Accepting not only the good sides but also the flaws and imperfections that each other. And even, though everyone isn’t perfect you should embrace also your flaws and other selves to understand yourself.

The Christmas party in the last part is one of my favorite moments in the whole story. There are funny moments like the gift revealing that made me laugh. The Handmade Bombs gift is the weirdest and it’s funny because they executed it well. The bench part is the most romantic scene I’ve ever discovered. They confronted each other and revealed their true selves. Kaguya wants to know if Shirogane hates her true self, while Shirogane still hides it from the girl he loves. Kaguya being determined to show her true self marks her finest character development because she had nothing to fear, even though she carries her prideful family name. She gets his gift, and it was revealed that his gift was just a cheap toy. I didn’t expect that reaction from Shirogane when he was asked about his gift. In the end, she gratefully accepts it and his true self. They shared a romantic kiss under a half-moon. Not an ultra-romantic full moon, but still romantic.

There are many messages from this movie that I appreciated. It’s fine not to be perfect. Love doesn’t have to be perfect like making grand surprises, saying great lines, improving themselves just to be perfect, and even having a kiss in a romantic scene. There’s nothing more wonderful than sharing everything and completely understanding one another. Showing the plain normal self and people who are closest to us will embrace who we are. Having closure for these two characters made me feel romantic and somehow wanted to cheer them on their romantic journey.

The animation and music are amazing so far and the adaptation is well done. As expected from A-1 Pictures, they gave me reasons why this studio will remain my favorite. The theme Love is Show made it to my second favorite song from the whole Kaguya-sama. It is not catchy but it’s lively and lovely. The seiyuus did a very good job of voicing the characters. The background music from this movie skyrocketed my impressions and they were made a great job with it. Probably my favorite soundtrack so far.

Overall, this movie is a sweet treat for all Kaguya-sama fans. The movie gave justice to the manga, and it made one of my favorite romance movies. It made me believe again that romance stories are still a thing, after the disastrous adaptation/ending of 5-toubun no Hanayome. It is marked on my list as the pinnacle of romance from the whole Kaguya-sama story, and I hope that this marks the conclusion of the main storyline. The next stories from the manga felt flat actually but who knows? A-1 Pictures might start milking the cash cow.

Once again, it’s time to say farewell to the war that lasted a few years and moves forward to a new stage for the two main characters. As the happy couple emerges, a first kiss will never ends and will last for a lifetime <3

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you.

Story: 9.6/10
Animation: 8.7/10
Characters: 9.3/10
Sound: 9.1/10
Entertainment factor: 9.6/10
Enjoyment: 9.8/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 22, 2023

exviroan

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Until now the anime's production earned a reputation of making miracles come true. It was impressive how much of a well-done adaptation Season 3 was considering the various production hurdles. This 'movie' would look like an even harsher challenge, since the announcement frankly came out of nowhere and it was delivered so quickly after season 3. For the most part, this release looks like another miracle. However, this time there are parts of the adaption that have been lackluster and some that are pretty bad.

I won't go into specifics in order to avoid spoilers. But basically, the movie is mainly adapting an arc of the ... manga that's usually competing for the title of the best arc in the manga. And for the most part, the adaption of that material is quite good. In a previous review I used words like 'perfect' or great. But upon a second rewatch and trying to be more analytical about it. It's not really perfect.

There are things to consider. Although it was d as a movie. The animation quality is more like a continuation of what you'd seen in the later episodes of season 3. Not bad at all but not exactly what you'd expect in a silver screen release. This is more of a case of the advertising being confusing. As there are parts of the marketing material that really avoid saying the word 'movie'. The more accurate promotions describe it as a "special advance screening before the TV release".

Another aspect is the pace. These are some of the most content-dense chapters and 96 minutes is a rather tight limit. You could say that as such the number of scenes skipped or shortened is understandable. I don't agree with it. I don't think it needed to be released as a movie, and I certainly don't think it needed to be released as a 96-minute movie that also spends too much time teasing another arc between secondary characteres that was not actually going to be properly developed in the movie. There were many ways to adapt this arc differently and avoid these pacing issues.

But the source content is still incredible and there are still many situations where A1 went above and beyond in the adaption. The two main characters are facing their worst inner demons and have to help each other out in order to continue their romantic story. The previous paragraphs were mostly nitpicks, although really the intention is to fight the common claim that this part is 'perfect' and deserves the highest score.

As for the most troublesome part of this movie, after the main arc is finished, the animation production made the bizare decision of adapting a much-later chapter. The transition from the end of the movie's arc to the later chapter is really jarring. And in order to have some context it has to show scenes from skipped chapters as flashbacks or as short moments. All of this is done in less than 5 minutes. This was simply not the correct way to adapt this chapter. Specially because it is a really pivotal chapter in the manga. From what I could see out of anime-onlies, they either missed that there was a strong message there and would instead focus on the better part of the movie or got completely confused by this scene.

So, "mixed feelings". I think most Kaguya-sama fans will enjoy the way the main arc was adapted and will get their fee fees kicked into overdrive and I can recommend that part. As for the end, my recommendation is to not pay a lot of attention to it if you are anime-only and if you are a manga reader, you might like to leave the theater. We can hope that maybe this is a result of time availability issues and that this thing will be corrected as part of re-cutting this release for TV.

A different cut, either making use of a lot more screen time and giving all the arcs adapted justice or sticking to 96 minutes but avoiding wasting time in parts that don't belong to the main arc would have been truly worthy of 9/10. Add Movie-quality animation to that and we would have a good 11/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 17, 2023

Adnash

Not Recommended

Funny

After completing "Kaguya-sama: Love is War - Ultra Romantic", known also as Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3, I decided to drop the series. Not that I didn't like through and through. I thought it was okay. I just ceased to be interested in this show enough to continue watching. And yet, months later, after hearing so many times utterly positive opinions about that one arc featured in the movie this spoiler-free review is about, I decided to pick it up and see for myself. It wasn't a wise decision and I sincerely it I fell into the trap set up by extremely devoted fans ... overhyping their favourite manga's anime adaptation as if it was 8th Wonder of the World.

Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: First Kiss wa Owaranai fails so hard as a movie. That's the biggest con of it. It's more like a mix of several stories put together, with one or two themes receiving more attention than the others, but not as huge to leave an impression of this movie being actually a movie. Episodic version of this movie is somewhat bearable, even if it feels so much like a set of four special episodes, serving as an extension of the previous season. But hey, this version was created later, no? If I decide to review a movie, I need to treat it as such, because the show that's being reviewed was intended at first to be experienced in that particular format. As I said earlier, this movie fails in encapsulating pretty much most of the elements you'd expect to see while watching a movie.

As for production quality, it was decent. The previous anime adaptations presented already pleasant quality. The movie was no different in this aspect. One would point out that it should've received better animation, because movies, due to various reasons, tend to have animation representing a higher level than regular TV series. That's true, however, TV series already looked alright and all previous seasons were mostly carried by fancy direction and vibrant colours used in the art style. I think it'd be necessary for a movie to go a different route for the sake of being different and going somehow against technical tropes already enjoyed by the majority of Kaguya-sama anime fans.

With similar quality to the previous Kaguya-sama franchise's anime installments come as much positive, as negative things. This movie had everything I disliked about Season 1. Repetitive corny jokes; characters yelling and squeaking most of the time while talking with each other; narrator ruining the flow of this movie even during its objectively best scenes. Yes, I know these elements appear in Seasons 1-3 as well, but at least they present bigger variety and hmm... mature? I think it's a good way to word it. The same joke evolving over the time is alright, but devolution of it, in consequence, resulting in the decrease of overall comedy quality, is something I'm really not a fan of.

So, in conclusion, I did not enjoy watching this movie. It's sad to say, but "The First Kiss That Never Ends" can't be really perceived as a good movie by viewers like me. I'm not a manga reader and I didn't like the previous seasons that much. I expected to watch at least a decent, solid, proper movie. Too bad my expectations weren't met, and I think that as long as you are not a devoted fan of this series, your experience has rather a huge chance to be most likely similar. Maybe a little better, maybe a little worse, but still underwhelming by a huge margin. With having everything written earlier in mind, I just can't recommend it. Not for people who are not devoted fans of this franchise, or who simply wanted to see a cute movie sequel to a series they were once watching. That being said, if you are already a huge fan of this franchise, dear reader, which is of course fine, then I think there's a huge chance that you're gonna actually like it. No matter whether you will decide to watch it in the original, movie format, or in the episodic one. Sadly, I'm not a huge fan of Kaguya-sama series. Not a hater as well. I'm just a regular enjoyer of this series. And I just wanted to see a good movie.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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