Kaguya-Sama: Love is War Volume 9 manga review

Kaguya-sama Graphic Novel Volume 9 cover image

They are two high school students from eminent families and are both of good character.  Kaguya Shinomiya, a well-bred lady and an heir, is Student Council Vice-President at Shuchin Academy, a school for the children of the rich and famous and for future leaders.  Miyuki Shirogane is the strong, silent type who has a singular focus on his studies, and he is President of the Student Council.  Kaguya and Miyuki are two geniuses, each in love with the other.  But love is war, so which one will confess love to the other when the one who confesses his... or her love first loses.

As Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Vol. 9 (Chapters 81 to 91) opens, Kaguya is still freaking out from that almost-kiss that Miyuki almost gave her (as seen in Vol. 8).  Now, every time she is near Miyuki, Kaguya panics, so her assistant, Ai Hayasaka, suggests that she learn a calming ritual.  But what happens when the calming ritual threatens to make things worse.

Then, Student Council treasurer, Yu Ishigami, somehow ends up being in the “cheerleading squad.”  Membership requires that he go along with a few indignities, but when a former classmate and crush shows up, Ishigami is dragged back to the near-past.  Now, learn the origin of Ishigami's secret shame.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Kaguya-sama: Love is War manga is a bit romantic, but it is not a shojo manga (comics for teen girls).  It is a shonen manga (comics for teen boys), that mixes teen romance and raunchy innuendo and fanservice.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War Graphic Novel Volume 9 offers a good example of that.  Student Council secretary, Chika Fujiwara, wants to play a game where you can “pump pump as many times as you want.”  What she is actually proposing is only kind of silly and innocuous, but that is Kaguya-sama: Love is War – teasing and being coy.

However, Tomoko Kimura's translation and Annette Roman's English adaptation shine in the story of Yu Ishigami's grit and determination in standing for something.  It the kind of mini-story arc that shows that Kaguya-sama: Love is War is more than fanservice and giggles – character matters.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of sitcom-type manga will want to read the Shonen Jump title, Kaguya-sama: Love is War.

A
8 out of 10