Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 - Episode 10 [Review]

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Arte - Episode 11 [Review]

Of all of the things Arte has had to think about since her arrival in Venice, the hardest has been herself. That's not what she had expected – especially after meeting Katarina, Arte (and some of the viewers) thought that the biggest challenge she'd face was getting the little girl into shape, with painting Signora Sofia's portrait as a pleasant distraction from that task. But the more she got to know Katarina, the more Arte began to really think about her own position from an angle she hadn't considered before: that truly, in the context of other women of her social standing, she's been incredibly fortunate.

As I discussed last week, Arte's caring father (and to a lesser degree her worried/frustrated mother) gave her the chance to indulge herself in what she loves and is good at. Yes, she had to give up her more pampered lifestyle as a noblewoman, but the tradeoff was that she got to paint and study fine arts. That's not an opportunity Katarina had and, as Matei pointed out this week, not one that most women, noble or otherwise, ever get. (Insert rant about butchering Darcia's storyline here. It would have made a major difference to how this element of the Venice arc played out.) It was one thing for Arte to learn Katarina's story, because Katarina does have her uncle Yuri; it's entirely another to listen to Matei because what he notices isn't that Arte is lucky “for a woman,” it's that Arte's social status and gender are actually helping her to get work because she stands out as an anomaly in the art world. Matei, who is clearly older than Arte and has likely been an apprentice much longer than she has, remains essentially trapped in his master's workshop because he hasn't stood out sufficiently in his skill or by other means and hasn't caught a patron's eye. Arte, by virtue of her differences, has been hired six months-to-a-year after starting her apprenticeship, and by a major family of Venice to boot. Where all Arte saw were her struggles, Matei sees her good fortune, and that's less of a wakeup call and more of a physical blow to her.

Not that she thinks Matei is being cruel, which is how Katarina interprets his words. Instead Arte takes his statements and uses them as a lens through which to view her Venetian life…and what she sees isn't something that makes her proud as an artist. It's hard to deny that things have been much cushier in the Falier palazzo than they were for quite some time, and given her family's lesser-noble status, it's entirely possible that she's never lived like she is at Chez Falier. Unlike her time at Leo's she doesn't have errands to run or cleaning to do because there are servants for that sort of thing, darling, and her only actual artistic tasks are painting Sofia's and Katarina's portraits. We've seen her sort of wander into the odd church to sketch, but it's obviously been nowhere near the level of artistic practice that she was engaged in at Leo's workshop. Seeing Matei's hard work come to basically nothing – and looking at his battered and calloused hands – forces Arte to wake up and realize what she started to be more aware of last week: her privilege.

To us in the 21st century it doesn't necessarily look like that, but in Renaissance Italy, Arte really is pretty fortunate – she could conceivably be married to someone like Leo's gruff patron back in Florence, only much more abusive. Instead she's able to work at what she loves, and after her talk with Matei, she doubles down on that, racing to finish the portraits of the Falier women. Although she doesn't ever say it, there's a definite feeling that she might be doing this not just because she's moderately ashamed of her good fortune compared to many other apprentices, but because what she truly wants to do is go home – home to Florence, yes, but also home to Leo. Even if we assume that she's largely over her crush (please, please be largely over your crush), he's still her family in that he has become her main support in life, where in Venice she's had to be Katarina's. That Leo, Angelo, and everyone else in Florence miss her too is sweet, and almost certainly a sign that she'll decide with her heart rather than her head to go back next week (the episode title “apprentice” seeming to signal that that's how she sees herself). That feels like it would be a fitting end, and we'll find out if it's true next week.

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Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 - Episode 10 [Review]

With Shuchiin's annual sports festival on everyone's mind, this week's Kaguya-sama: Love is War delivers a more thematically unified string of segments than usual. The sole exception is episode 10's introductory story, which shines a spotlight on Kei, who's torn between offering comfort to her dejected brother and remaining beholden to her newly-awakened rebellious phase. However, when Miyuki, who's crestfallen by Kaguya's recent avoidance, receives depressingly impractical advice from their father, Kei overcomes her teenage angst to reassure her brother that everything is probably okay between him and his crush. When Kaguya utilizes her new calming ritual at school the following day and resumes regular interaction with him, Miyuki sees that he was ultimately worried over nothing.

In addition to offering up a number of amusing Kei moments, this segment provides us with our first extended look at Miyuki's home life. The manner in which Miyuki continually nags his sister—and Kei's reaction to said nagging—nicely illustrates how differently Miyuki's bullheaded personality and desire to be in control come across in a domestic setting than at school. Still, given that he and Kei have very little in the way of parental supervision, it's not surprising that he would take on such a role. The revelation that Miyuki and Kei's mother walked out on them and that Papa Shirogane is largely undependable also shine some light on how Miyuki developed his take-charge attitude and knack for hard work. While primarily used as a vehicle for comedy, Miyuki's depression over Kaguya's behavioral changes is certainly palpable. When someone you care about seemingly wants nothing to do with you, it can be difficult to consider reasons for this that don't involve them hating you—even though this might not be the case.

The second segment finds the perpetually rhythmless Miyuki struggling to learn the soran dance, which the second-years will be performing at the upcoming sports festival. In light of her struggles to tutor Miyuki in the past, Chika peaces out almost immediately, leaving Kaguya to step into the teacher role. However, upon seeing how quickly Miyuki moves on and how mechanical Kaguya's teaching technique is, Chika becomes jealous, inciting a fight between the two girls. Luckily, their conflict turns out to be a blessing in disguise, as breaking free from their combined grasp inadvertently helps Miyuki perfect the movements of the dance.

At the onset, this segment seems like it will be the usual “Chika struggles to teach Miyuki a basic skill” story, but by bringing Kaguya into the mix, the series does an entertaining job of shaking things up. While previous stories that followed this formula have been funny, the supply of jokes that can stem from Chika's exasperation at Miyuki's ineptitude seems to have been exhausted. Not only do we get a look at Chika's devious side in her criticisms of Kaguya's methods, we also see what is arguably the most direct conflict between Chika and Kaguya to date. Kaguya's beefs with Chika are usually one-sided and take place entirely in her mind, so seeing the two practically come to blows is an interesting change of pace. Furthermore, the differences in the girls' respective teaching techniques (Kaguya—whose motivation is really a desire to touch her crush—wants Miyuki to mechanically mimic the dance moves, whereas Chika wants him to appreciate the art behind the dance) serve as an adept microcosm of their personality gap. Hopefully, any future stories that involve Miyuki being tutored will follow a similarly chaotic path.

In this week's third segment, we're given some additional insight into Ishigami's largely unexplored past. While observing one of Miko's usual scuffles with Ishigami, Kobachi opines on how the latter was accused of stalking a girl and beating up her boyfriend in middle school and earning a lengthy suspension as a result. However, when Ishigami was in danger of not being able to enter Shuchiin's high school division in response to this incident, Miko went to bat for him and made his case to the headmaster. As we learn, Ishigami is still dealing with the fallout of all this and is widely reviled by his peers, and in spite of everything that's happened, he still refuses to share his side of the story. He's also covertly tried to stop the bullying of Miko over the years, leading Kobachi to conclude that the two have a lot in common.

While relatively short on laughs, this segment helps cast Ishigami in a new light. His lack of popularity was always assumed to stem from his extreme cynicism and edgelord demeanor, but learning that his status as a social pariah isn't comedic in nature adds a new layer of depth to his character. Despite constantly acting like he's above it all, Ishigami has been dealing with full-scale ostracization, and to some extent, it's possible that his usual abrasiveness serves as an emotional shield. Seeing both Miko and Kobachi stick up for Ishigami is touching, especially in light of all the bad blood between them, and it would nice (albeit not conducive to comedy) to see Ishigami and Miko become aware of the kindness they've shown one another at some point in the future. (It would also be a shame for the season to conclude before we're given the full story behind the purported stalking incident.)

The sports festival is in full-swing in this week's final segment. Thanks to a lack of steady employment, Papa Shirogane is able to attend—and begins embarrassing his son almost immediately. When Miyuki is able to get his father away from the festivities, the elder Shirogane encounters Kaguya, and after recognizing her as the girl he briefly spoke with on the phone the previous summer, needles her into revealing how she really feels about his son. After discovering the true identity of the man she's been talking to, Kaguya is predictably flustered, prompting a furious Miyuki to demand to know what his old man did to her. Meanwhile, encouraged by scores of cheering peers, Ishigami and Kazeno, the cheerleading squad's president, take first place in the two-legged race as a mysterious figure (presumably the girl from the stalking incident, who has since transferred schools) watches from a distance.

After learning more about his backstory, seeing Ishigami take first place and flash a genuine smile as he crosses the finish line feels incredibly gratifying. However, while the unanswered questions about Ishigami's past are still very much a point of interest, Papa Shirogane emerges as the final segment's MVP. When he tricks Kaguya into defending Miyuki, he reveals that his surface quirks belie a penchant for manipulation that rivals his son's. Although Kaguya's true feelings for Miyuki are no secret to the viewer, her reiteration that Miyuki—and by extension, Chika and Ishigami—essentially restored her faith in humanity is a touching reminder of the beating heart that lurks beneath all psychological warfare and constant one-upmanship.

With a figure from Ishigami's past potentially set to reemerge, Kaguya-sama: Love is War once again leaves the audience hungry for more. Whether laughs are on the horizon or the forthcoming events take on a more dramatic tone, Kaguya-sama is likely to have no trouble sticking the landing.

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Princess Connect! Re:Dive - Episode 11 [Review]

“In which we learn Pecorine's biggest strength is, in fact, a double-edged sword.”

This episode begins lazily enough with Karyl attempting to sleep in even as the others call her to breakfast. What she doesn't expect is that by not responding, she sends Pecorine into panic mode.

As someone who lives to eat, the only reason Pecorine can imagine that someone wouldn't come down to breakfast is that there is something physically stopping them from doing so. Thus, she runs outside and breaks into Karyl's room through the window to “save” her from this non-existent threat—damaging Karyl's favorite stuffed animal in the process.

While a bit of a silly scene and little more than the impetus to get our heroes into the city for the rest of the episode on the surface, it's also a stark reminder of the big issue with Percorine. Karyl tries to sum it up by saying that Pecorine has no sense of personal privacy—but that's just a side-effect of the real problem. Pecorine is unable to see the world from any viewpoint other than her own. Hell, it's more than that: she is completely unable to understand that people as a whole do not share her worldview.

It is her greatest strength and also her greatest weakness. Time and again we've seen her basically bully reality into fitting her ideal—be it Karyl's aversion of her or the two thugs stealing her sword. Most of the time, due to her sheer force of will and her pure spirit, it works out for the better. But as we see in this episode, sometimes it does not. This time the result is just the destruction of a window and a stuffed animal, but what happens next time?

The majority of the episode, on the other hand, deals with Yuuki's encounters with his pre-amnesia companions Shizune and Rino. With the shadow monsters from the woods now attacking people in the city, Shizune and Rino have been sent to make sure that Yuuki remains safe.

What's odd is that the pair are not aware of the identities of Yuuki's new companions. Rino, for one, looks at Kokkoro as a rival in love—unaware that she has received a message from God to act as Yuuki's guide and servant. This in turn begs the question of how much of what's going on are they actually aware of. They know about Yuuki's amnesia and the shadow monsters but are unaware of the specifics of Yuuki's new life. It'll be interesting to discover why this is, as well as why they're supposed to protect him without interacting with him.

The rest of the episode is setup for what is to come. Karyl's master has created a super shadow monster that drains life force from anything in its proximity and sends it out into the city. At the same time, ominous forces with unclear goals are coalescing on the city—and seemingly at cross purposes to each other.

All in all, this episode is a collection of tantalizing hints with very few solid answers—be they about Yuuki's backstory or setting the stage for the final two episodes. At the same time, it manages to introduce four new characters and explore the problematic aspect of one of our main heroines. Solid stuff.

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