Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai is a satirical romantic comedy with a razor sharp wit. It follows the story of the student counsel at a rich high school, and the budding relationship between its president and vice president, which is impeded by their pride and stubornness. The story takes mundane scenarios from typical highschool romance and turn them on their heads, with the main charcters going to hilarious lengths to win the upper hand in an ultimately futile competition. The characters are genre savy, but are in many ways too savy for their own good. They often end up thwarting their own plans by being too clever or obscure. The writing makes great use of the contradictions between what characters say and what they are thinking or feel. The art supports this brilliantly by bringing the characters' extreme emotions out even behind their reserved expressions such as the titular character's signature death glare.

The manga avoids an extensive supporting cast, instead choosing to extensively develop a small core of five (to date) characters with a few others that show up occasionally. This has allowed the author to move past just presenting standard rom-com cliches. Kaguya is particularly dynamic: sometimes she is a rich tsundere, other times a xanatos gambler, occasionally a murderess and sometimes just a sensitive girl in love.

For combining hip-busting gags with satirical wit, Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai is easily one of the best romantic comedies I've read, and deserves a 10/10.

I've read some reviews of people criticizing the fact that the premise of the manga kinda got lost after a while. While there's a bit of truth in that, it's for good reasons; this manga plays well with keeping the status quo without making it stagnating. The characters develop in an organic way, so it's just natural that their interactions change as well; but it doesn't happen all of a sudden, it's a slow and believable process. While the characters change, they never contradict who they are, and the comedy keeps being on point, just changing range from time to time. This way the manga has managed to stay fresh, when keeping the same formula all along would have killed it in the long run.

really like it. not often do u see both characters desire each other the same amount. usually in romance mangas the male character does nothing but chase the female character. this is like as close to 50/50 you can get in terms of give and take.

It's more a comedy than romance but it's one of the funniest and most refreshing takes on a tired genre. The author has an excellent grasp on comedic timing which he uses to full effect. The limited use of a narrator also makes things even funnier. I'd say even Josei readers will find it appealing. Although the only thing is that the manga is monthly and we get short 18-20 page chapters. Other than that, it is a must read!

Edit:
As of chapter 10, the series is going on a short hiatus and will be back as a weekly series!

... Last updated on January 22nd, 2016, 8:30am

Much can be and is already said about this series, how it is an era defining work and elevated the genre to new heights. The first half of the series certainly lives up to and deserves all praise and Kaguya will continue to be referenced as an exemplary series in the coming years.

Alas, two flaws start to manifest in the second half. The author couldn't help but excessively focus on his self-insert character instead of developing the main characters' relationship. As the story wrapped up, the author clearly lost interest in the series, quite likely due to events in his personal life (see Vol 22 Extras).

The last chapter was good, the last few chapters before were definitely not.

The very start of this series wasn't doing it for me, and I immediately started thinking it must not be for me or something. I really spoke too soon, because with chapter 4 and everything after it I quickly turned around, regularly laughing at all I was seeing. The key was fleshing out the two main characters a little more; that got me to start really liking them. This is indeed a really funny manga, the hype wasn't a lie. Wrote a full review on the series going over things in more detail.

Full review:
https://terrenceswiff.wordpress.com/2016/09/16/kaguya-wants-to-be-confessed-to/

... Last updated on October 29th, 2016, 11:07am

What a brilliant idea for a romcom manga. Namely, it's a battle of wits over something as pathetic as forcing the other party to confess their love first. The result is something like a bizarre romantic comedy version of Akagi or Liar Game, and this works remarkably well.

EDIT: Oh, and I only just now realize that this mangaka is also responsible for the amazing manga ib - Instant Bullet. Talk about someone multi-talented.

... Last updated on November 8th, 2016, 11:33pm

while the main cast have gone near their respective goals (as ch 137), the others chara is explored and paired, like ishigami
others chara is still left as side kick like chika or the maid of shinomiya

i enjoy the read, until now it's still rosy highschool love comedy, hope won't go to others direction

the author good at keeping paces, so you won't get bored
plot somehow easy to predict, but also leaves many possibility... so bettet let it be... don't think too hard abou it

fair enough screentime for each main and supporting characters. every characters are lovable... even for the most negative character

so fresh and funny and pretty clever and very cute. this manga would make a great anime, with the right studio of course. It shouldnt be like a filler series either, the story and concept is just to good to be just a mere filler series.