Kaguya-Sama S1E10: "Kaguya Won't Forgive"

There's a pre-intro blurb about the history of the word "carnage" that doesn't ring true to me, but it's probably talking about a Japanese word with questionable English analogues. Then, after the awesome-as-always OP, we see Kaguya and Miyuki locked in a steely-eyed glaring match and trying to browbeat each other into eating a slice of cake. Followed by a haunted-looking Otherguy wishing he hadn't started this situation by eating it himself.

Erm. Okay, then.

The narrator pipes in to inform us that understanding this latest predicament requires going over two previous ones. The first is last episode's, with Harkatha causing the appearance of rape to have happened for reasons that I don't think any psychologically healthy human could understand. Miyuki has given her his account since then, and they've both apologized to each other for how they behaved during and after her episode, but things have still been awkward since then. From Kaguya's side, she's not sure if she's afraid he might have touched her while she was in pedobait mode while she was unable to consent, or annoyed that she had him in her bed and didn't get to do anything. Miyuki, meanwhile, still resents her for how she acted after they woke up in the morning and she flipped out at him, even though she did apologize; it hurts him that she actually thinks he might have raped her.

The second thing is the Cake Incident. The principle gave the student council some cake, but the bastard didn't give them enough for everyone to have a slice; they're one short, and Miyuki, Kaguya, and Otherguy haven't gotten any cake yet. Otherguy - named now as Ishigami - is told by Miyuki to go ahead and take the second to last slice; Miyuki doesn't need any, so Ishigami and Kaguya can take the last two. Ishigami gratefully obliges, but Kaguya insists that Miyuki take the last one instead of her. Miyuki insists the opposite. Things get politely heated. Then less politely, as they push the plate against each others' hands hard enough to shake it and make it seem like they might just end up spilling the cake on the floor.

A full hour passes, with multiple color shifts and wild background effects to show how intense an hour it was. Ishigami, who has long since finished his own cake, sits quietly by and feels increasingly guilty about having eaten the second to last slight. Bringing us back to the "present" of the teaser. I hope Miyuki doesn't have work today.

Ishigami runs off to find Chika, since she has a proven track record of distracting those two from each other when they get like this. Though this is an extreme case even for them. Granted, I'm not really sure why Ishigami cares; seems like he has no reason to not just go home and let them figure their shit out or not.

Meanwhile, the two galaxybrains are furiously arguing about whether or not a cake can be sentient, and whether it would want one or the other of them to eat it if it was. That's...probably one of the more realistically "high school" exchanges I've seen in the show thus far, tbh. Then, finally, Miyuki goes low and alludes to a conversation they had when they first met, when both of them joined the student council. Miyuki had been complementing Kaguya on the emptiness of her soulless, corporate eyes and asking if there was anything a being like her would ever stoop to enjoying. She'd told him that she did enjoy some things, such as shortcake. OH SNAP.

Kaguya is put on the spot. But also intrigued that he'd remember personal details about her from so long ago.

You know, accepting the cake now would be making progress toward the goal, without actually confessing her feelings. That would be a good strategy. Unfortunately, it would also be a display of weakness - at least in the mind of a person raised by a clan of megacorp reptile men.

So, instead, she decides to play the reverse Uno card, and recalls another conversation that they had last Christmas. She asked what he would be doing for it (Christmas has become sort of a cultural holiday in Japan, despite it not having very many actual Christians. Mostly down to American influence, I think), and he simply said "working." His family never paid much attention to this bit of imported festivity, and he's never even been given a Christmas cake (a specifically Japanese tradition that happened somehow).

He tried to suppress it, but there was a definite wistful undertone in his voice as he spoke.

So, they can both accuse each other of secretly really wanting the cake with a fair amount of evidence. And they can both make the case for each other wanting it more than they themselves do. Both act furious with each other for having the gal to remember something that comfy and friendly about each other, let alone try to act on it.

...you know, if I didn't know that there were multiple seasons of this show, I'd be pretty sure we were about to hit the finale. With the tension escalated by the previous episode, this scene really feels like it's going to end with them rolling around the floor covered in frosting and strawberry jelly.

Well, finally, they manage to decide to split the slice between them. And, after some even more intense, over-dramatic bickering over who gets to take theirs first, they agree to feed each other a forkful of cake at the precise same moment. The music gets slow and sensitive as it looks like they might be about to have their first genuinely almost kinda sorta romantic moment.

Just watch now, Ishigami is going to come back with Chika right at this second.

...okay, I'm not sure if that was too predictable, or exactly predictable enough.

She just takes the cake that neither of them evidently wanted, releasing them from their hour plus deadlock. They both miserably, with acid in their eyes, thank Chika, who is just happy to have gotten an extra slice of cake herself.

...those last two screenshots basically encapsulate this entire show, don't they? Like, just those two, one after the next, tell the story of Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War. The essence of it.

The scoreboard announces that today's battle was a mutual loss for Miyuki and Kaguya. There's also a brief cut over to the principal who sent them the cake, with the following description:

This probably refers to his role in the caketastrophe. Given the type of place this school is, though, it's a fair bet that his father was an actual war criminal.

Jump ahead to either later that afternoon, or the next day. Kaguya approaches a friend of hers who has more experience with boys for advice on a situation she isn't sure how to deal with. Meanwhile, Miyuki is laying outside under a tree and consulting Ishigami on the same subject...even though Ishigami doesn't seem to have particularly more romantic experience, heh.

Kaguya's framing may be pretty transparent, but Miyuki is the one who really fucked up here. It turns out that Ishigami's credentials are even weaker than I thought. He's never dated, or kissed, or anything like that, but he can cite theoretical knowledge in the form of...well...

Does the Kaguya-Sama manga count as "romcom?" If so, this is a self-deprecating joke. I'm not sure if it does count, though. It is a comedy about something along the lines of a romance, but...I don't think that this series is a romcom in any conventional sense. Even in Japan.

Anyway, they each explain their sides of the story to their respective sounding boards. And, really, their accounts barely differ from each other's. Kaguya is aware that in her feverish brain damaged state it was very likely her who pulled Miyuki into her bed, acting on desires that she normally represses just like she represses everything that should theoretically make her human. Miyuki, likewise, is aware of how things must have seemed from her perspective if she really did wake up with him beside her and no memory of what happened. Their friends both need some extra explaining before they can see both perspectives as well, but even then they're not super sympathetic to their friends' opposite number. Kaguya's friend thinks that her nonspecific friend's nonspecific male acquaintance should have had the moral fortitude to resist her and leave the house then and there (notably, the psychotic maid's role in this whole thing hasn't been mentioned by either party. Hmm.). Ishigami, well...

He then proceeds to go on an extended incel rant about how women are snakes, and women like this nonspecific one he's hearing about now is a slutprudebitch just like this or that archetype in his mangas.

Miyuki still paying any attention to this guy's opinions is quite possibly the worst judgment he's displayed thus far. Though granted, at this point he's starting to realize that this was a mistake, and to get increasingly annoyed with Ishigami. Better late than never, I suppose!

Kaguya is having another issue, one of not being able to quite bring herself to tell the whole truth. Whether or not she actually does have any foggy memories of herself in feverdream mode, she on some level feels that it would have been nice if something could have happened when she was under no reasonable expectations to resist.

Ah yes, the other side of rape culture. "Why won't he rape me, I made it so easy for him, now how will I ever be able to hook up with him?"

This isn't as common an attitude as it once was, thank fucking god. But it still exists, and I can only imagine that in ultra-traditional ultra-repressive subcultures like hers it's still more prominent. If you've ever wondered if "toxic femininity" was a thing, then this is a great example of something I would readily call toxic femininity.

Anyway.

The two conversations end with both Miyuki and Kagura coming to the conclusion that there's nothing the other person can do that will let them resolve their feelings after the fever incident. And, with the awkwardness left over from it, they're just going to cake-fight each other to the point of complete nonfunctionality. So, they're going to need to do *something.*

Cut to the following afternoon, with artsily drawn dying sunlight streaming into a cloudy school hallway that could have flickered up from the nightmare depths of Shaft. Miyuki and Kaguya pass each other without looking at one another, but then both turn around to look over their shoulders. Miyuki speaks up, and tells her that there's something he needs to confess to her. Something that he feels has been poisoning the air between them since the incident, even after they apologized to one another. He wasn't completely honest when he assured her that he didn't lay a finger on her while they were in bed.

She raises her hackles at this, of course, but his next words are a bit disarming. He did put his finger to her lips as she slept. That's all.

There's a moment of heavy silence, as they stand back to back. Then, finally, Kaguya turns around, prompting Miyuki to do likewise. Then, she places her own finger against his lips, and playfully tells him that the debt has been paid.

The music gets soft. Earnestly romantic. When they walk away from each other after promising that things will be back to normal from now on, Miyuki has an awed expression, and Kaguya has a soft smile. For the first time in what I imagine is probably the entire show so far, the narrator announces a positive sum outcome.

It actually feels like progress. Just the precedent that no, really, they CAN both win. In fact, "winning" doesn't need to be an applicable concept here at all, and neither does "losing."

Now, if only they can realize what was done right here, and what can be learned from it going forward...lol there are still two seasons to go. Still. It's progress. The first hint of what may eventually be them figuring shit out.

Jump ahead a few days, and shift the tone completely, to Miyuki, Kaguya, and Chika getting the office together to be left for summer break. It's the last day of school, it seems, and...

Oh. Wait, apparently they're only second years in high school. I assumed that student council leaders would have to be seniors, or juniors at the very least, but no. So, these characters are all in the 15-16 range or so.

...

Okaaay, gonna have to ease back on the racy humor in this show. I really did assume that they were in their last year of high school, and thus a couple years older than they actually are. My bad.

On a brighter note, them being this young does make some of their more inane behavior make sliiiightly more sense. I have an easier time imagining a 15 year old falling for the "missing work will be a permanent black mark on your record" line than an 18 year old doing so. Then again, it's possible that that really IS true in this version of Japan, so...eh, forget I said anything.

...

Anyway, they start telling each other about their summer break plans. Miyuki wants to try and invite Kaguya to go somewhere or do something at some point in the summer, but he can't bring himself to do it. Not with the possibility of her replying with condescension and putting him in the inferior position still a strong one.

Okay, this is starting to get pretty repetitive ngl. It's still funny, but it's less funny than it was the first, second, or third times we did this.

Chika, naturally, has a thing she's going to, and wants to invite one or possibly both of them with her, but then has to change it a bunch of times. Miyuki keeps trying to get Chika to arrange a trip that would give all three of them time together and also allow alone time for him and Kaguya without tipping his hand, only for her to keep changing things at the last second. The narrator gives a dramatic overview of what happens if their summer gets off to a bad start and they end up just spending the rest of it doing boring stuff with their own gendered peer groups. Chika proposes some other whacky thing. Yadda yadda. Like I said, it's pretty repetitive, and while some of the jokes still got chuckles out of me most of them feel like I've seen versions of them at least once before too.

I guess the one thing that distinguishes this from the previous sequences like it is that this time, it's mostly just Miyuki doing the scheming. Kaguya starts to, but as soon as Chika gets involved she just shuts her brain off and zones out while they blather on. She's learned the pattern here.

That, and Miyuki reprising his horrible vision of Kaguya dismissing him while chuckling at how "cute" his advances are, are kind of the comedic highlights here. Beyond that, it's just kind of boring and dragging.

To make a long scene short, Chika eventually gets offended when other people refuse to change plans to accommodate her schedule, and gets called out for hypocrisy after all the scheduling hoops she's been trying to make them jump through. It's actually Ishigami who does the callout, since Kaguya is too zonked out and Miyuki too tunnel visioned to do so.

So, the episode ends with Chika throwing a tantrum and storming out of the room like she's gotten the five year old fever now. Everyone besides her agrees to meet up at a certain time and place to go to a summer festival (one that includes fireworks, much to Kaguya's excitement. Apparently that isn't JUST a symptom of five year old fever for her, even if that exacerbates it). The narrator calls this a victory for everyone besides Chika, who...at this point I'm not sure if Chika is just really immature, or if she's some kind of malevolent demon enraged at having been foiled.


There are two episodes left in this cour, and I don't know if they end up cementing the progress that Kaguya and Miyuki have made thus far or just resetting it to the status quo. Hopefully the former; I've only seen three episodes of this show so far, and already the main repeating gag is starting to wear out its charm for me. So, hopefully the status quo really does progress, even if it doesn't progress all the way to the point of them chilling the fuck out and dating (there are still a couple of seasons after this one).

I guess the show justified the misgivings I had after the pilot to some extent, but also defied them in others. There has been SOME actual progression, but not that much, and if I'd seen all ten episodes up to this point rather than just three of them...well, either I'd have a lot more good stuff to talk about, or I'd have just given up by now, depending on what was in them.

The thing with Harkatha was so WTF on so many levels that I'm not even sure how to dissect it, but I'm pretty sure that that's how the creators wanted me to feel, so good job on them I guess lol.

The framing of Kaguya's family as an anrtagonistic force was sort of indirectly implied in the pilot, but these two episodes make it a lot clearer how much they've gone out of their way to practically dehumanize her. To the point where, for all his own character flaws and spite, Miyuki is really the much easier of the two to relate to. I'm wondering if we'll eventually meet Kaguya's parents in person, and how much of a direct conflict there will be with them by the end of the series. They, along with the school administration, or sort of the just-offscreen villains of this entire story. Well, technically Principle Warcrimes has been onscreen now, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, when I continue "Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War" it will be for some season two episodes. Which means I'll both get to see what sort of progress has been made, and that I'll be able to stream it more easily; part of the reason this episode took me so long is due to the source.

• 33