My review cannot do this movie justice but lets try. The First Kiss That Never Ends a romcom story title can never go any raw than that. This arc is widely believed to be the best and where KaguyaSama truly reached its peak and that is what I believe too. When I first read the manga I was genuinely in shock at how this manga could portray the theme of Persona. We all hide our true selves in front of our loved ones friends and even family members but a relationship with the love of our lives could never work if we never show our perfect side and also our weak vulnerable self and that is the main conflict for both Shirogane and Kaguya which takes place directly after the ultraromantic confession. This was the arc that made me truly in love with Kaguyasama and the way how A1 adapted previous seasons with gorgeous visuals symbolisms and the directing as a whole made me have high hopes for the movie. I dare say that this movie suppressed the manga for me and its crazy for me to admit that because of how I hold this manga in high esteem. Despite knowing that the staff would go all the way out for the Kaguya anime I still managed to gasp in awe in the second half of the movie. They elevated everything with breathtaking visuals ESPECIALLY the hospital scene. The comedic timing in the series has improved massively even though that was one of its strongest points. Now Kaguya and Shirogane. She is a victim of her surroundings and that leads to the creation of an airtight persona that protects her real self. One thing though she is not suffering from a disassociative personality disorder and that much is confirmed in the manga. But the fact remains that her mask is painfully dense that it can be fully seen as a different personality altogether. Her original self as we know in the series gets very carried away easily but Ice Kaguya is the one that thinks of the future and thinks things through properly and in a fight with her other personalities Ice Kaguya awakens. Shirogane on the other hand strives to be perfect in any way he can be after his traumatic childhood and work himself till death. If not no one would love him and he will be deemed worthless by himself. He has shown all his ugly flaws to Fujiwara especially in the previous seasons but Kaguya never sees any of that. In the end both of them are scared to reveal their true pathetic selves and both of them have the right and good reasoning to conceal them. Despite that both of them also know that their relationship wont work unless they lay bare naked of who they truly are. They know they have to be accepting of themselves and others but of course it is easier said than done. Comes as the final act of the movie arguably one of my favorite moments in the entire series where they finally confront what it means to reveal their true persona to each other and be an ordinary flawed highschool couple and I find that very romantic in a sense where it contrasts the finale of S3 and thats beautiful. To sum it up getting to watch Kaguya on the big screen was an opportunity I am grateful for. A perfect adaptation that went way beyond is what Id been expecting and they delivered. The tone atmosphere ost voice acting visuals directing and everything you can think of honestly Im no animation expert. The decision to make this arc a movie was the right choice because the week wait in a series would kill off the vibe that they are trying to go for. The character development is of course phenomenal and this is just the beginning. Perfect movie perfect adaptation would rewatch this countless times.
100 /100
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