Live-Action 'Kaguya-sama: Love Is War' Gets an A for Effort

So, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is the latest anime that got a live-action film adaptation.  The movie retells the most notable events of the first season of the anime series.  Moreover, it also borrows some plot points from the second season, but takes them toward an entirely different narrative direction.

Just like most live-action film adaptations of anime, it is significantly inferior to its source material.  But even though this fact was already expected, I still chose to see it.  It’s because I really love season 2 of Kaguya-sama – it’s even my favorite anime of the year so far – and the high I had from it spilled over to fuel whatever “push” was required for me to watch this movie.

When compared to the excellent anime, this live-action adaptation is lackluster.  However, here’s the thing: I think that if I hadn’t seen the anime, and thus, had nothing to compare this movie to, I would have probably liked it a lot.  It’s because there’s competence in how it delivers the source material’s fantastic premise.  But more importantly, although it ultimately falls short, it really does its darnest to capture the comedy and energy of the anime.  The casting and acting, particularly, is most admirable, as they bring about the best possible live-action depictions of these endearing, zany characters.  The effort put into the visual presentation and production design is worth praising as well.

Thus, I’m not gonna lie, the film put a smile on my face on a couple of occasions.  There are scenes that are genuinely appealing and fun.

Furthermore, it’s worth noting that it makes the eventual decision to deviate from the source material’s plotline and run something different with some of the story elements.  There’s some cleverness that came out of it, although it didn’t really work for me (I still prefer the things that unfolded in the anime).  Still, I can appreciate the attempt for some originality.

In the end, although it has its charms and chuckles and by no means bad, this live-action film adaptation is still ultimately underwhelming as a whole.  Its inferiority to its source material couldn’t be ignored.  The anime as benchmark is simply critically detrimental to it.