Trivia / Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

• Casting Gag: Aoi Koga, Kaguya's voice actor, appears in the live-action film as a theatre employee.
  • Also, this isn't the first time Jad Saxton had to voice a character that's named "Chika". She's just as ditzy, except she's a school idol and has orange hair.
  • This also isn't the first time Alexis Tipton voices a stunningly beautiful character with Raven Hair, Ivory Skin. Though while Kaguya's got some issues to work out, at least she isn't an Ax-Crazy Time Master who takes rather sadistic pleasure in killing people, even if they deserved it. Oh, and both her eyes are red, instead of one being a golden clock.
• Channel Hop: The series was originally published monthly in Miracle Jump, and switched over to a weekly release in Young Jump after 10 chapters. Because of this, chapters printed in Young Jump were renumbered starting over from chapter 1 (e.g. the fireworks chapters were listed as 34 and 35 instead of 44 and 45), though fan translations and the volume releases ignore this and simply continue the numbering where Miracle Jump left off.
• Creator's Favorite: According to an interview, Aka says that it's Shirogane.
• Creator's Oddball: Compared to other series written by Akasaka such as ib: Instant Bullet and much later Oshi no Ko, Kaguya-sama is the Lighter and Softer series appealing to the mainstream audiences. Even so, Kaguya-sama is still pretty dark compared to other Romantic Comedy contemporaries in manga and anime verse.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: The Portuguese dub is mainly recorded in São Paulo, but also unusually brings voice actors from Curitiba and Porto Alegre recording from their hometowns.
• The Danza: Somewhat in the Latin American Spanish dub, as Betsy Beltoise is voiced by Betzabé Jara.
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • The English dub of season 1 is co-directed by Aaron Dismuke (Shirogane) and Austin Tindle (Ishigami)
  • The Latin American Spanish dub is directed by Leyla Rangel, who voiced Ai Hayasaka, while the one from the movie is directed by Jessica Angeles, who voiced Kaguya Shinomiya.
• Distanced from Current Events : The official English subtitles for Season 2's fifth episode originally rendered one of Fujiwara's lines as "What's with the social distancing?" Once Aniplex realized how similar the phrasing was to a key topic in the coronavirus pandemic, the line's translation was changed and they apologized.
• Fandom Nod: Kaguya's comment in Chapter 219 about Hayasaka giving her a "lucky charm" in the form of a condom is lifted directly from the hentai doujin "Kaguya-sama's Matchmaking Charm".
• Inspiration for the Work: According to an interview with Aka Akasaka, the writing of this manga is inspired by School Rumble.
• Meaningful Release Date:
  • Iino was formally introduced in Episode 4 of Season 2, which aired on May 2, 2020 (just 3 days before her birthday).
  • The following episode (which featured the second adaptation of a "Fujiwara acts motherly to Shirogane" chapter) aired on May 9, 2020, the day before Mother's Day.
  • Episode 10 of Season 2 adapted Chapter 85 (Osaragi's first Day in the Limelight chapter) and came out less than a week before Chapter 192, another Osaragi focus chapter. There's also a major link between those two chapters since the former is filled with foreshadowing towards the reveal in the latter that she's in love with Ishigami.
  • While it's technically a Christmas Episode, The First Kiss Never Ends had a brief international release in theaters on Valentine's Day.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • The announcement for the anime came out the same week as Chapter 100^note Well, Chapter 110. The first 10 chapters were published in a different magazine from the rest and the numbering started over when it changed.
  • The live action movie was released the day after Chapter 150 (see above note), which also featured Kaguya saying three little words for the first time.
• No Export for You: Neither of the two spin-off manga have received any form of official translation, though all the advertisements for We Want to Talk About Kaguya in the main series are kept intact (complete with an editor's note in Volume 19 mentioning how it's only available in Japan).
• One for the Money; One for the Art: Akasaka Aka has intended for Kaguya-sama: Love is War to reach the mainstream audience and earn fortune from the start, so the publisher would have more faith in his writing and give him more creative freedom instead of axing him after only a couple of volumes (like what befell ib: Instant Bullet in the past). This is also why the series is a Creator's Oddball; Akasaka Aka prefers to write stories with dark content than light-hearted stories.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Due to Aaron Dismuke's vocal break which lasts 4-6 weeks, Clifford Chapin voiced Miyuki Shirogane instead, although he's still credited as Miyuki.
  • Travis Millenux replaced Clifford Chapin as Go Kazamatsuri in Season 3.
• Out of Holiday Episode: None of the manga's various holiday chapters were released even remotely close to their in-universe date. The only time that it did line up was with the movie coming out in late December (and even then, only in the original Japanese, as the international release was on Valentine's Day).
• Out of Order: The English dub of Season 2 was simulcast before Season 1's dub.
• Playing Against Type: Ko Ogino in the live-action is played by Fumiya Takahashi; aka Aruto Hiden/Kamen Rider Zero-One.
• Promoted Fanboy: The author for the ero spin-off, Sakayama Shinta, actually drew two hentai doujins based on the series.
• Real-Life Relative: In the English dub, Ogino and Otomo are voiced by real life husband and wife Matt Shipman and Brittany Lauda.
• The Red Stapler: Shirogane's "Soran Bushi" dance had gotten quite a few people searching for videos on Youtube for the real life dance routine.
• Role Reprise: Haruka Fukuhara portrays Tsubame in both the anime and the second live-action movie.
• Sequel First: The English dub of the anime started with the second season. Season 1 was put on hold for several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Sleeper Hit: It's one of the most popular romance manga in the world, having sold over 3.5 million copies before the anime even aired, despite lacking the fanservice and harem elements that most of its contemporaries have.
• Star-Making Role: Aoi Koga (who had a few bit roles before) really broke into the spotlight as Kaguya.
• Tribute to Fido: The Abe family's pet cat is named after Aka's own cat.
• Vacation, Dear Boy: Aka Akasaka took a two-week long trip to India to study for Chapter 161. It's even referred to as the greatest "research" expense in the series' history.
• What Could Have Been: In a Comic Natalie interview involving both him and Rikito Nakamura (author of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You), Aka mentions that he originally planned to end this series at Volume 16.
• Word of God:
  • Kaguya's cold personality is based on Aka Akasaka's interpretation of how Kaguya-hime charged her many suitors with impossible tasks.
  • Even though Ishigami is based on himself, Aka believes that he's like Shirogane if he worked harder.
  • The original plot for Kaguya-sama was a fantasy genre with a game of death, but Aka's editor wanted something more mainstream. With Young Jump currently not having a casual romcom series, Kaguya-sama became Aka's first romcom manga.
  • Never experiencing high school romance, Akasaka set the series in high school, wanting to reclaim some of his emotions of his youth in a fantasy. Akasaka claim he came up with the idea while smoking food.
  • Akasaka believed that "two tsunderes who like each other having battles of the mind" was a common concept until his readers told him otherwise.
  • The battle of the mind were going to be inspired by Death Note, but later changed into a battle of emotions, using School Rumble as the inspiration.
  • Kaguya was named after the moon princess from Taketori Monogatari because it was a story Akasaka likes, and he has long liked stories featuring princesses for quite a long time.
• Working Title: The series was originally going to be published as "IQ" (愛求 Aikyuu lit. Love Seeking / Love Longing) in Japan.
• Write Who You Know: Aka Akasaka states that he relates to Ishigami the most as he based the character on himself, especially his love of video games.