#kobachi osaragi

[a-titty-ninja]

[ghostlyte-doodles]

[theyre-the-same-picture]

[pekosdraws]

i think Osaragi deserves to be princess-carried by her crush. as a treat

[ultimate-polyship-tourney]

Ultimate Polyship Tournament:Round 67|Side B

[cryoverkiltmilk]

my girl

[lilium-dragomir]

[choujinx]

KAGUYA-SAMA WA KOKURASETAI: TENSAITACHI NO RENAI ZUNOUSEN (2015-2022) by akasaka aka

[dullahandyke]

Nothing better than a character who's a spectator. Wielders of unimaginable power who don't use to it to affect anything, who only watch. Characters that take up the role of narrator, thus sacrificing the possibility of being involved in their own story. Ascended background characters that see the whole show hidden. Characters that are forced only to watch and who buck and bray against it but can't succeed. Watchers that do succeed in breaking free and become terrifying for the near-supernatural amount of knowledge they possess. Characters in a play that enter from the audience.

[ferrets-are-noodle-cats]

IDK how far along the Anime is so potential manga spoilers ahead

This is all mostly correct but I'd argue Ishigami is more of a deconstruction of bland harem protags. He's a nerdy, introverted otaku that most people ignore, who suddenly ends up getting a lot of female attention. However, Ishigami works in subverting the wish-fufilly self-insert harem stereotype by having to actually grow as a person into the type of guy women actually want to be with.

In the early chapters, he is very much a kind of creepy loser. A well meaning and misunderstood creepy loser, but a creep nontheless. You can honestly see WHY people accept the rumors about him as true. But his problems are fixed not by just meeting some hot girls that love him no matter what, no, instead he works to actively better himself and try to form connections with other people, that's the point of the Cheer Squad arc.

Had he actually been the protag of one of these generic Harem animes, he wouldn't have this type of development or self-awareness, because then the audience would find it harder to project onto him. But the develpment can occur, because Ishigami isn't the protag of the story, he's just a side character. By the time he's introduced, the audience is already able to project on Shirogane and Kaguya, so Ishigami doesn't have to be a relatable blank slate like the characters he deconstructs. He can feel like a real person with flaws he needs to work through, and it's only after working through those flaws is he able to become the type of guy that women would actually WANT to be with.

Hell, the deconstruction goes further. Playing with the whole "Sexually-oblivious protag that never actually bones the women who want him", by giving him actual reason to turn down Tsubame's offer of Sex. And speaking of Tsubame, even though she is a love interest for him, someone he's been chasing after for so long, SHE TURNS HIM DOWN during his confession to her. Explicitly saying that she won't date him, once again doing something that would have been unheard of for a regular harem anime where it needs to sell the idea to lonely people that these women want to be with a protag like them no matter what. (Not saying all harem anime is like this, but broad strokes paint the fence).

BUT IT CAN GO EVEN DEEPER. Part of the deconstruction or subversion can be found in how... well, some parts just flat out aren't subverted. Ishigami DOES have admirers in people like Iino and Osaragi, as well as chemistry with characters like Maki. Hell, his relationship with Kaguya could also be part of deconstructing the fantasy. The wealthy tsundere archetype is in love with another man who seems to not like her back, being the first person we see to try and reach out to the lonely perv with a heart of gold. In any standard harem with Ishigami as the protag, this would be the grounds for Kaguya to start crushing on him and such.

There's probably more that I haven't touched upon, but I think that this is enough to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. I think the idea of him being a deconstruction of characters like Edgeworth and Sasuke is that from the start he's portrayed less like a mysterious emo boy with wisdom and more just like... a really depressed awkward nerd who always messes things up.

If we’re treating “Kaguya-Sama: Love is War” as a deconstruction of the romcom manga genre:

1) Kaguya is a deconstruction of the “ice queen tsundere” character. She has all the typical traits but because she’s paired up with another tsundere, there’s no one there to point out her problematic behavior. She has to learn how to become a better person on her own, which means confronting her insecurities and how she treats the people around her. Hence the “Ice Kaguya” arc, where Kaguya comes to the realization that being icy all the time is hurting herself and others. 

2) Miyuki is a deconstruction of the “handsome prince tsundere” character. He’s good-looking, top of his class, and looks down on everyone around him. Typically, this character would be paired up with a girl on the low-end of popularity (someone like Miko Iino, for example). But because he’s paired up with rich girl Kaguya, it’s Miyuki who feels the pressure of having to measure up to his partner. 

3) Miko is a deconstruction of the traditional shoujo manga heroine. When you think about it, Miko has all the traits of a protagonist; she’s the most “normal” of the group, she’s a hopeless romantic with an idealized view of love, she’s neglected at home, she falls for the brooding bad boy, and she’s naive and clumsy. Aside from not being the protagonist, Miko also differs from the tropes since she’s intentionally written to be a difficult character. Usually, shoujo manga heroines are easy to like and optimistic about life. 

4) Ishigami is a deconstruction of the “brooding, bad boy” character. This is the character who you think would be loved by everyone since he’s so “mysterious”, “handsome”, and says something profound every now and then. Think characters along the lines of Sasuke Uchiha, Miles Edgeworth, or Shouto Todoroki. Instead, Ishigami is written as the least-liked student in the school and is regularly bullied, even by his friends. There was even a chapter where Ishigami gave Kaguya actually good advice on the meaning of true love and Kashiwagi called him a creep for that. 

[7kahart]

[deni-means-flor]

⚠️Warning: SPOILERS for Kaguya-sama: Love is War⚠️

Ok so, I'm watching s2ep6 and I'm sorry, but I have THOUGHTS™ about Miko Iino and not all them are positive.

1) I understand that they're trying to make her empathetic to the audience with the "there's a lot of bad people in the world [...] if only people followed the rules my mom and dad would love me" but that's genuinely how some people get radicalized to the far right/pro-fascism ideas.

Like, if we boil it down to the most reductionist reading about it, a LOT of young people nowadays fall into cults/religions, far-right discourses, etc precisely because they are looking for somewhere they feel a sense of belonging so they go online (particularly young men, through the imposition of masculinity) and they find communities that are ✨super welcoming✨ and feel like home, but they slowly start with the insidious comments about law, order, discipline, and the whole bunch of conservatism that slowly starts trickling down into larger awful ideas against "bad people", the ones they deem as undesirables, the ones they deem as "perverted" or evil, and that's how you end up with young people who are going full fash.

And 2) I'm sorry, I just think it would be a really cute thing to see her end up with her best friend (Osaragi Kobachi) but as far as I have watched, it's most likely that she's going to end up being paired with Ishigami because anime is heteronormative as hell ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[saiyef]

All Volume Covers (1-28) of Kaguya-sama: Love is War [ordered left to right]

[redoxchai]

Kaguya-sama: Love is War S3E02 basically

I slipped and fell into the ishimiko hole in record time and am trying to crawl out through making content but my efforts are futile and now I have all these sketches to post 😔

[exopolodion717]

[songweaver]