Aka Akasaka’s Kaguya-sama: Love is War is one of the most intriguing storylines in the romance-comedy genre. The series holds a special place in the hearts of anime fanatics who prefer the themes of love, romance, and humor depicted around a slice-of-life theme. And although the combination of romance and comedy is not new to the anime and manga community, it certainly is depicted best by Kaguya-sama: Love is War.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War follows the journey of Miyuki Shirogane, the president of the student council at Shuchiin Academy, and Kaguya Shinomiya, her vice president. While Kaguya belongs to a wealthy family, Miyuki is the “star” of the school, as he is not only smart but popular too. Their weird interactions and the development of their relationship are the central narrative of the story.
While the story has a lot of themes, it majorly embeds the perfect balance of comedy and romance. The creator of the series once revealed why he chose to combine two different genres and create a balance between them. He pointed out that if he had focused on a singular theme, the series would never have worked.
Aka Akasaka’s Reason For Choosing Two Different Genres
In 2021, Livedoor News conducted a special interview with the creator of Kaguya-sama: Love is War where he talked about the various aspects of the series and the success that it earned throughout the years. During the interview, Akasaka was asked about the combined themes of romance and comedy in the series and how he planned it.
The mangaka stated:
Kaguya-sama’s mission is less about showing how amusing the characters are when they talk, and more about making people laugh while providing them with something exciting. Also, if I had to draw manga that didn’t make any progress and only contained gags for the rest of my life, I would probably go insane.
Akasaka’s intention with Kaguya-sama: Love is War has always been to deliver an exciting story that is not limited to a single specific theme or genre, making it unidirectional.
He also pointed out that he couldn’t have worked on a single genre for the rest of the story as he would have gone insane. Thus, he had to blend romance and comedy, and the result was automatically loved by fans.
The Balance Between Comedy And Romance
Further explaining the importance of using two different genres together, Akasaka revealed that the combination only worked because he maintained a balance between the two themes. He made sure that comedy did not get much mixed with romance, and romance had the seriousness and intensity that it deserved.
Akasaka stated:
“I Can’t Hear the Fireworks” was the first chapter that had multiple parts, and it was surprisingly well received. It felt like the readers gave me permission to write a long story arc once in a while.
On the other hand, while the chapters about Ishigami’s past gave rise to some diehard Ishigami fans, there were also people who didn’t want that sort of heavy content in Kaguya-sama. I’d still like to write those kinds of stories going forward though, finding ways to keep a better balance between the funny and the serious.
He pointed out that he initially experimented with a single chapter of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, where he combined many different aspects and it was well received by the fans and readers.
This gave Akasaka the courage to move forward with it and use it for the entirety of the manga. Ultimately, it led to the massive success of Kaguya-sama: Love is War in both romance and comedy genres.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
