Kaguya-sama: Love is War - Volume 14 (Review)
By: EyeSpyeAlex
Missed my last review? Check it out here!
The Story
Despite the shocking moment Kaguya finds herself in at the end of Volume 13, Kaguya-sama: Love is War Volume 14 opens with Kaguya accepting Miyuki’s decision to attend Stanford. Hayasaka tries to talk sense into Kaguya, eventually settling on convincing the girl to confess to Miyuki today. Kaguya agrees, and as she prepares to set off on her quest, the students make a shocking discovery. Someone named Arsène has stolen Miyuki’s statue!
Of course, Kaguya suspects right away that this is Miyuki’s doing. She sets off to the clock tower, and as she guessed, finds Miyuki there waiting for here in a very silly costume. He applauds her success in finding him and grants Kaguya one wish.
In that moment, Kaguya is suddenly terrified of her mission. She’s scared that Miyuki will reject her love confession. She’s worried that if that happens, things won’t go back to normal. All she wants is for her to say he loves her…
And that’s when the sky fills with hundreds of heart balloons.
As it turns out, Miyuki has been planning this moment since he applied to Stanford. He carefully manipulated the other student council like pawns in chess to ensure they would be busy during his show of feelings for Kaguya. Everything goes according to plan...except now he can’t make a love confession either. Instead, he asks Kaguya to apply to Stanford and to be with him.
And finally, Kaguya gives her response.
After that show-stopping moment, the manga devolves into mostly silly, and slightly annoying, comedic moments. Kaguya learns the the “adult” (French) kiss she gave Miyuki was typically reserved for bedroom activities. There are also some cute, fourth wall breaking moments with “tiny Kaguya”.
In a state of bliss, Kaguya slowly slips into herself and ends up on trial for her handling of the loss with Miyuki. Different representations of Kaguya’s psyche argue for or against her actions, which quickly devolves into a mess.
Finally, the ice queen version of Kaguya speaks up, admitting that she is the one who loved Miyuki first. After a screaming match, icy Kaguya knocks out our Kaguya. The manga ends with Kaguya waking up as the ice queen version of herself.
The Review
They finally kissed!!! I just about squealed with joy when that moment happened. Fourteen volumes of buildup and it was totally worth it.
But let’s set my excitement aside for a moment. I have many concerns over how Miyuki’s and Kaguya’s relationship is going to progress if Kaguya has reverted back into a form that everyone dislikes. My theory is that this version of Kaguya may be the only one who can get through to her father. She may be the only one who can convince him that she’s capable. It’s just a mystery as to what cost that request might have.
There’s also the situation with Yu, Tsubame, and Miko to keep in mind. What quickly seemed like a budding friendship with Miko, and a relationship with Tsubame has quickly turned into a potential love triangle. Here’s hoping that everyone comes out of that situation unscathed.
My only complaint about this volume was the slightly cringy tiny Kaguya moments. I love jokes that break the fourth-wall, but this was a little too on the nose for me. This segment gave the impression that it was more or less there as filler material, and that’s the worst kind of “comedy” to have. We do get one genuine comedic moment out of it though, which is when Miko walks in on tiny Kaguya and Miyuki.
Similar to the moment mentioned above, there are a lot of genuine moments of comedy in Kaguya-sama: Love is War Volume 14. One such incident is when Yu finally realizes what giving someone a heart at a culture festival means.
Another good one is when Kaguya is practicing her confession with Hayasaka. The young maid doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to critiquing Kaguya’s style.
I highly recommend checking out volume 14 of Kaguya-sama: Love is War. The humor isn’t as good as other volumes, but the kiss! THE KISS!!!