Of all the anime titles airing this year, one that many fans are particularly eagerly awaiting is "Kaguya-sama: Love is War." Set in the student council of a prestigious high school with one of the highest student scores in Japan, the series sees the protagonist, Shirogane Miyuki, and heroine, Shinomiya Kaguya, engage in a fierce battle of wits in love. The reason this series has enjoyed such enduring popularity is not only because of the entertaining tactics used by the two characters, but also because of the incredibly diverse cast of characters that appear in the series. So, today we'd like to introduce the characters, one of the series' charms, in a popularity ranking format!
1st Place: Hayasaka Ai
Like Kaguya and Shirogane, Hayasaka Ai attends Shuchiin Academy. However, her public face as a Shuchiin student is merely a public face. In reality, she serves as Kaguya's aide, taking care of her daily needs. Even Shirogane is unaware that she is Kaguya's aide, and throughout the story, she perfectly responds to Kaguya's unreasonable requests, demonstrating her high level of competence as an aide.
A Character That Everyone Likes
Because she hides her role as Kaguya's aide, she has many different characters within her and changes them whenever necessary. Because of her role, and because her personality isn't fixed, few readers seem to dislike her.
Kaguya's Best Friend
In the story, Hayasaka often plays a sister-like role, soothing the selfish Kaguya. She's also a particularly important character in the development of Kaguya and Shirogane's relationship. Perhaps her dependable demeanor is the biggest reason for her popularity?
2nd Place: Kaguya Shinomiya
She is the heroine of this work. As the title, "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War," suggests, the story revolves around Kaguya's struggles to convince her beloved, Miyuki Shirogane, to confess his feelings to her.
The Daughter of a Financially Powerful Family
As for why she can't confess her feelings, she is the daughter of one of Japan's leading financial families and comes from a very prestigious family. Therefore, she can't easily be humble with Shirogane, who is of commoner origin.
Sometimes she's a bit of a pain...
Although she's the heroine of this work, she was born into a prestigious family, and as such, she has a quirky personality, such as not knowing how to buy movie tickets and having extremely girly feelings. This has led to some readers preferring Hayasaka over Kaguya. However, I personally think that this annoyingness is what makes her so appealing...
3rd Place: Shirogane Kei
She is the younger sister of the protagonist, Shirogane Miyuki. She is a rare middle school student character in a series set in a high school, and is the youngest of the main characters.
Tsundere
As a junior high school student, she seems to be in the midst of her rebellious phase. However, when you look at her interactions with her brother in the story, it's clear that she doesn't truly dislike him, and there are even scenes where they have heartwarming exchanges. She truly is a tsundere character.
Interactions with Kaguya
Though Kei is somewhat cold towards her brother, she has many opportunities to interact with Kaguya throughout the story, and sometimes even behaves as if she admires her. Perhaps this difference in how she treats her brother, or perhaps the contrast between their ways, is what makes her so adorable.
4th Place: Miko Iino
This character first appeared in Season 2. She is one year younger than Shirogane and Kaguya, and was involved in a close battle with Shirogane's camp during the Chairman Election Arc.
Appears in Season 2
Since he only appeared in Season 2, his interactions with Shiragane and Kaguya are still relatively new. Because of this, he mistakenly believes Kaguya to be incredibly devious (though this may not be entirely wrong), and is the one who suffers the most from Kaguya and her friends' overly sophisticated psychological warfare.
And Ishigami...?
Iino Miko, who played the antagonist in Season 2, begins to become more aware of Ishigami around Season 3. As the subtitle of Season 3 is "Ultra Romantic," it seems like this is the season where various characters' love lives begin to unfold. So, be sure to keep an eye on Iino as well as Kaguya and Shirogane.
5th Place: Miyuki Shirogane
The protagonist of this work. He consistently achieves the top grades in his grade at Shuchiin Academy, a school boasting Japan's most intelligent students. His overwhelming academic ability and charisma have earned him the position of student council president, despite him being an external student at Shuchiin Academy, a school dominated by internal students.
Hardworker
It seems incredibly difficult to rise to the position of student council president at Shuchiin Academy, where discrimination against external entrants is strong. The difficulty is so great that in the school's long history, only three students have been student council presidents who were external entrants. The fact that Shirogane managed to reach the position despite such circumstances shows that he is an incredibly hard worker.
Struggling despite the popularity of female characters!
As you can see, Shiragane's upbringing is far less fortunate than the other characters, making him the kind of character any reader will find themselves rooting for. Perhaps this background explains why Shiragane ranks so highly in this series, where female characters are overwhelmingly more popular?
6th Place: Shirogane (Father)
He is Miyuki Shirogane's father. Fathers in romantic comedy manga aren't typically popular characters, but the character of Miyuki Shirogane's father far surpasses that of father characters in other romantic comedies.
A Dad with a Strong Eccentricity
That's because this dad has an incredibly strong eccentricity. Even though he's the reason Shirogane lives in poverty in this work, many readers were probably shocked by his attitude of never forgetting to have a sense of humor in his everyday life.
YouTuber Debut
Especially midway through the series, he made his YouTube debut through a series of unexpected events, and quickly established himself as a popular YouTuber. His portrayal of himself as a slightly unreliable, yet somehow amazing, father has also garnered him the support of many male readers.
7th Place: Ishigami Yu
Like Shinomiya and Shirogane, he's a first-year student who belongs to the student council. He's a self-proclaimed introvert who always sits quietly on the edge of class. He rarely shows up at the student council (though this gradually increases from the second season), making him a somewhat forgettable character.
He was the straight man until Season 2.
While the comedy of this series usually revolves around the negotiations between Kaguya and Shiragane, Ishigami was often used as the butt of jokes in between their negotiations, and sometimes as the straight man, adding pace to the story.
Will he change dramatically in Season 3?!
However, it seems that this role will only last until the second season. In the third season, Ishigami develops a crush on an older senior and begins to actively approach her. Ishigami's efforts and struggles in this area are carefully depicted in the original manga, so I'm sure they will be depicted in the anime as well. Perhaps we'll see a slightly different image of Ishigami in the third season compared to the second?
8th Place: Chika Fujiwara
A character in the same grade as Shirogane and Kaguya, she is also a member of the student council. Along with Ishigami and Iino, she is one of the main characters and frequently appears throughout the story. She has a slightly absent-minded personality, often behaving unpredictably and turning situations around, making her a troublemaker.
Kaguya's love rival?
She has almost no romantic feelings for Shirogane, but because of that lack of romantic feelings, she tends to be too close to him. Her conscious of Shirogane often instills unnecessary jealousy in Kaguya, who is able to get close to him as she pleases.
Shirogane's Master
However, Shirogane doesn't seem to mind being so close to him. In the story, he shows embarrassing scenes of himself that he wouldn't show to Kaguya, so it's clear he trusts him greatly.
Summary
Did you enjoy this article? This article introduces the characters that appear in "Kaguya-sama: Love is War." This series features many popular characters, both female and male. One of the greatest attractions of this work is the large number of characters with diverse characteristics, so I encourage everyone to research the characters that appear in this work in detail.
