Still in the dark about who confessed first in Kaguya-sama: Love is War? Sit tight and grab your popcorn, as we’re about to bring you the news you’re aching for!
WARNING: This article contains spoilers. If you’re lagging behind the anime or haven’t caught up with the manga, proceed at your own risk.
What is Kaguya-sama: Love Is War all about?
In love, whoever confesses first loses – well, at least that’s how it is for the two geniuses, Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane. Both smart, attractive, and charismatic, Kaguya and Miyuki are pretty much the campus king and queen.
They are the most popular students in their school, with Miyuki serving as the President of the student council and Kaguya as the Vice-President. And expectedly, the student body can’t help but ship them together! But that’s also where the conflict begins … or more accurately, where the “love war” between them begins.
While both are considered the school’s ideal students, Kaguya and Miyuki share a common trait: they’re both stubbornly haughty! Although they are attracted to one another, they are too arrogant to admit their feelings. Instead of voicing out their emotions, the two ended up plotting out the same scheme: they will use their talent and ingenuity to make the opposite party confess first! And so begin their daily lives of mind games and crafty tricks to win the love war and become the last one standing.
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What Happened During the Hoshin Cultural Festival?
The entire three seasons of Love is War anime feature the intense battle of love and wits between Kaguya and Miyuki. But at long last, the showdown reached its turning point during the anime’s Hoshin Cultural Festival arc.
The school event is modeled after the legend of the devoted heart. In the said legend, giving someone anything that is heart-shaped is treated as a confession of love. While everyone is busy having a good time during the festival, the heart balloons that were prepared by the student council got stolen by an alleged phantom thief. This incident particularly caught the interest of Fujiwara, who took it upon her to find and catch the culprit. Meanwhile, Ishigami mindlessly gave Koyasu Tsubame a heart-shaped cookie in front of everyone, unknowingly making a confession to her.
While all of these were happening, Shirogane and Kaguya were confronted with a major issue: Shirogane has been admitted to Stanford University and will be needing to leave Shunciin to study abroad next year. The news particularly rocked Kaguya, who confided her problems to Hayasaka. In the end, Hayasaka was able to push Kaguya to finally admit her feelings to the President. She came up with a grand plan on how to make the confession possible and shared it with Kaguya, who approved the same.
The plan goes as follows: Kaguya will be shooting the flaming arrow to mark the start of the festival’s much-awaited bonfire. She and Hayasaka will ensure that Shirogane will stay as close as possible to Kaguya during this moment to “set his heart aflutter” as the flames of the arrow light up Kaguya’s profile. After the lighting of the bonfire, Kaguya and Miyuki will then stay on the rooftop and watch the student body as they dance around the fire. They will then toast to the success of the culture festival with warm coffee. And right there and then, Kaguya will confess her love for the President.
Well, at least that’s how they plan things to be. However, fate has a funny way of ruining their expectations. When the moment finally came for Kaguya to shoot an arrow of flames toward the bonfire, Shirogane was nowhere to be found! And to make it worse, a new letter from the phantom thief came with the message “I’ll be taking your culture festival.” It is also during this time that they noticed the sculpture which Shirogane worked on has gone missing from the rooftop.
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The latest developments further agitated Fujiwara, who ran off with the others to further investigate. Meanwhile, it finally dawned on Kaguya that everything was just part of the grander scheme organized by Miyuki to make her confess. She told Hayasaka that the letter from the phantom thief was actually meaningless and was just created to distract Fujiwara so she wouldn’t interfere with the confession like she always did in the past.
She then went around the campus searching for Shirogane to finally make her confession. After a few breakdowns over coffee and some heart-shaped necklace, she was finally able to locate Shirogane atop the clock tower.
From there, it was revealed that Shirogane actually planned out everything that has happened during the festival so far. He knowingly scheduled Tsubame’s play at a convenient time to distract Ishigami, and he also planned to set up plenty of food stalls on the campus to keep Iino preoccupied. He was also the one who stole the heart balloons and the sculpture to divert the attention of Fujiwara and keep her busy as she looks for the phantom thief. All of these were carefully planned out to attain a single goal: to prevent the others from interfering with his and Kaguya’s time together.
As they meet at the top of the tower beside the campfire, Kaguya realized that the scene is pretty much identical to Hayasaka’s plan. But before she was able to voice out her feelings, she was overcome by the fear of rejection. Shirogane noticed Kaguya’s expressions and decided to finally bring out his greatest surprise. He pulled out his mobile phone, clicked something, and tons of heart balloons came streaming out from below. The balloons soon engulf them as the warm updraft from the campfire keeps the balloons floating around the tower.
Although he did not directly confess, Shirogane’s excessive surprise was designed to show Kaguya how he really feels. The hundreds of hearts embody the words he cannot say. While both were circled by the balloons, Shirogane then made a request by asking Shinomiya to apply to Stanford and come to America with him. Kaguya accepted the request and said she’ll try to apply despite knowing that her family would never approve.
Still on cloud nine due to the grand surprise prepared for her, Kaguya then asked Shirogane if he would grant her a reward for capturing the thief (which is Shirogane himself). She then drew her face closer and kissed Shirogane on the lips.
Who Confessed First in Love Is War: Kaguya or Miyuki?
While the grand surprise of Shirogane during the Hoshin Cultural Festival was considered by many to be an act of confession, it is worth noting that neither Miyuki nor Kaguya actually said they like each other during that time. Of course, the event did mark a significant development in their relationship and they eventually became a couple. However, the words “I love you” or “Please, go out with me” were left unsaid.
Thankfully, Aka Akasaka, the writer of Kaguya Sama: Love is War manga series did not disappoint the fans. The love confession actually happened in Chapter 160 of the manga, which has not yet been adapted into anime. And here, fans were finally able to know who managed to confess his/her feelings first. And the answer is none other than: both. Shirogane and Kaguya actually said the lines they were both longing to hear at the same time.
During the said chapter, Kaguya and Miyuki decided to have their first date together. But trouble seems to follow them as other members of the student council (Fujiwara, Ishigami, and Iino) also decided to be in the same mall they are in. To top it all off, even the father of Shirogane was also spotted in the building.
Desperate to still keep their relationship in secret, the two spend their date running and hiding away from their friends and family. In the midst of all their efforts to stay hidden, their emotions just spontaneously spilled out of their mouths. Kaguya uttered the lines “Please be my boyfriend,” while Shirogane said, “I love you.”
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