Student Council Vice President of Shuchiin Academy, Kaguya Shinomiya’s, got it all. She’s fabulously wealthy and comes from a proud lineage. Her family wields great power and is one of the biggest business conglomerates in Japan. The President of the Student Council, Miyuki Shirogane, is an academic genius. He’s not only number one at school, he ranks among the very top students in the entire country. They make a perfect power couple, so why aren’t they together? Pride. It’s not for lack of love, they’re both smitten with each other, but their pride won’t let them confess their feelings, each wants the other to do it first.

And neither one is backing down! They’ll try and manipulate every situation to achieve their goal of forcing the other one to admit their feelings, which leads to some very hilarious situations. Each chapter is dedicated to a battle between these two stubborn, but lovesick teenagers. And they’ll go to extraordinary lengths to make sure things are set up just right, to force the other to play a part in their schemes.  

Let the games begin! Something as simple as going to the movies together balloons into a giant fiasco because neither one is willing to just invite the other. But they both really want to go! And when they do go, figuring out how to sit together becomes another complicated game. And they're also ultra-competitive about everything else. A simple book of brain puzzles turns into an all-out war when Shirogane feels he's being outdone. When Shirogane brings a simple, but cute homemade lunch, Kaguya sees that as a challenge and another battle begins. Half the fun of the manga is watching these two go at it over the most trivial things. 

And in the middle of this is their clueless friend, Chika. She's often the unintentional catalyst that instigates the frequent contests of wills. And because she is totally unaware either one likes the other one, she accidentally stirs the pot making tense situations even tenser. But because she has no idea she's doing it (or does she?), it just makes the already funny scenarios that much more hilarious.

But Shirogane and Kaguya really do love each other, so as a reader it’s delightful to watch them overthink every situation than over-agonize when things fall apart because they just can’t come out and admit their feelings. Love is complicated, but when you’re a stubborn prideful teenager, it’s on a whole different level!

Kaguya-sama: Love is War by Aka Akasaka Vol. 1 is available here. 

And for a limited time, you can read the first ten chapters for free right here!

by Urian Brown