Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3 release date confirmed for Spring 2022

Kaguya-sama Characters
The main characters of the Kaguya-sama Love is War anime series. Pic credit: Aka Akasaka

The Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3 release date is confirmed for April 8, 2022, the Spring 2022 anime season.

The official English title for Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai?: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen Season 3 will be Kaguya-sama: Love is War – Ultra Romantic -.

The exact Kaguya-sama Season 3 release date was announced at midnight (10 AM EST on March 10, 2022). A tweet teased the pending announcement by showing a 0:00 earlier in the day. At that time, a new Kaguya-sama Season 3 trailer was released.

In addition, it’s been confirmed that the “world premiere decision” for Kaguya-sama Season 3 will be announced during a world premiere special event on March 18, 2022. Since the earlier announcement specificed the weekly sequential schedule, does this mean there will be a different date for international streaming platforms?

Featured guests to the pre-screening and special talk include Aoi Koga, Makoto Furukawa, Konomi Kohara, Ryota Suzuki, and Miyu Tomita. How appropriate that this was announced during Valentine’s Day 2022.

The anime TV series will also receive its very first exhibition in four Japanese cities where they’ll show off original drawings, storyboards, and other animation-related items. On April 29, 2022, the exhibition will be held in Osaka Nanko ATC Gallery and then at a later dates in Fukuoka, Tokyo, and Nagoya.

On October 20, 2021, a Kaguya-sama Season 3 trailer was released as well as a new anime key visual. The teaser preview is 10 minutes long and adapts the entirety of manga Chapter 110.

It was also confirmed in October 2021 that Kaguya-sama manga’s ending is coming up since the story is now in its final arc. (Please see the manga section below for more details.)

Kaguya-sama Season 3 will continue the war of rom-com misunderstandings between Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya, although this time there may be a confession.

On October 25, 2020, the Kaguya-sama Season 3 anime was officially confirmed to be in production at a special event called “Kaguya-sama Wants To Tell You On Stage”. (Please see the release date section below for more details.)

What’s more, three Kaguya-sama: Love is War OVA episodes were announced at the event! The Kaguya-sama OVA episode release date is scheduled for May 19, 2021. The OVA episodes will be bundled with a limited edition of manga Volume 22.

The three OVA episodes will be named Kaguya-sama Darkness Volume 1, Kaguya-sama Darkness Volume 2, and Kaguya-sama Wants Him to Eat. The first two episodes are probably based on bonus manga chapters since they revolve around swimsuits and a certain book. The third episode will be a food battle that adapts the story of manga Chapter 96.

Kaguya-sama Season 3 is not changing studios, which means the anime will be produced by studio A-1 Pictures, which is best known for recent anime such as Sword Art Online and The Seven Deadly Sins (which switched to Studio DEEN starting with Season 3).

Director Shinichi Omata is once again helming the project under the pseudonym Mamoru Hatakeyama. In the past, he’s directed popular anime such as Record of Grancrest War and was an episode director for Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Writer Yasuhiro Nakanishi (Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun) is creating the series composition. Artist Yuuko Yahiro (Haikyuu!!) created the character designs and is the Chief Animation Director. Also on the project are sound director Jin Aketagawa and music composer Kei Haneoka.

The Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3 OP (opening) theme song music “GIRI GIRI” will be performed by Masayuki Suzuki while featuring Suu. The ending (ED) “Heart wa Oteage” will be performed by Airi Suzuki.

The second season premiered on April 11, 2020. The anime project did not suffer from any delays caused by the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic since most of the work was done by mid-April.

The finale, Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 Episode 12, streamed exclusively on FUNimation on June 27, 2020.

  • Updated March 22, 2022: Added OP/ED info.
  • Updated March 10, 2021: Exact Kaguya-sama Season 3 release date confirmed!
  • Updated October 20, 2021: Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3 release date confirmed for April 2022. Added trailer and key visual.
  • Updated October 9, 2021: Kaguya-sama manga final arc announced.
  • Updated May 8, 2021: Added Kaguya-sama OVA trailer.
  • Updated April 14, 2021: Added Kaguya-sama Volume 22 release date.
  • Updated January 28, 2021: Kaguya-sama: Love is War OVA release date confirmed!
  • Updated November 17, 2020: Added original author’s income from anime in manga comparison section.
  • Updated October 25, 2020: Kaguya-sams Season 3 anime production confirmed! OVA confirmed!
  • Updated October 1, 2020: Added “Kaguya-sama Wants To Tell You On Stage” event details.
  • Updated September 21, 2020: Added Kaguya-sama Volume 20 release date.
  • Updated July 29, 2020: Added FUNimation’s Kaguya-sama English dub cast.
  • Updated June 28, 2020: Added final analysis, revised spoilers, and the secret message.

This article provides everything that is known about Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3 (Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai?: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen Season 3) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3
The key visual for Kaguya-sama Season 3 released in October 2021. Pic credit: Studio A-1 Pictures

Kaguya-sama Season 3 was originaly teased by a secret message

The third season has been teased for quite a long while. When Episode 12 released, the official Twitter account also released a message showing a phone with a broken screen and Japanese text that says, “The 68th student council.”

But what caught everyone’s attention was the secret message to the right that says, “Continue? > Yes > No”

Kaguya-sama Season 3 Teaser
A secret message hidden in this image seems to be teasing Kaguya-sama Season 3. The top version is the original while the bottom version highlights the message. However, note that “no” is currently selected! Pic credit: Studio A-1 Pictures

Within hours of the secret message’s release, the official Twitter accounts also began advertising a fall 2020 special event that is featuring both the cast and the theme song artists.

On October 1, 2020, the official title for the event was announced as “Kaguya-sama Wants To Tell You On Stage“. This name was definitely a cheeky message since the official Kaguya-sama Season 3 anime announcement was made on stage.

Kaguya-sama Wants To Tell You On Stage
Special art released for the Kaguya-sama: Love is War! stage event. Pic credit: Kaguya-sama: Love Is War! Anime Production Committee

Besides this teasing, there were good reasons to think the third season would be announced. The anime series has been well-reviewed by both critics and audiences.  FUNimation even paid extra money to make the second season an exclusive, a change from the first season, which streamed on competitor platforms like Crunchyroll and Hulu.

Although the Kaguya-sama Season 3 was officially greenlit for production back in 2020, anime fans ended up waiting another year for the third season, especially since the entire anime industry was set back by COVID-19. Many studios have transitioned to working remotely, which has come at the cost of efficiency.

Considering that the OVA episode was in 2021, it’s not surprising that the Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3 release date is in Spring 2022.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 English dub release date

The release date for the Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 English dub occurred on Saturday, July 25, 2020. FUNimation announced the voice actors for the second season.

  • Alexis Tipton as Kaguya Shinomiya
  • Aaron Dismuke as Miyuki Shirogane
  • Jad Saxton as Chika Fujiwara
  • Austin Tindle as Yu Ishigami
  • Amanda Lee as Hayasaka
  • Bryn Apprill as Nagisa
  • Brandon McInnis as Kashiwagi’s Boyfriend
  • Ian Sinclair as Narrator

Oddly enough, the first season’s English dub will be released after the second season. In late March 2020, FUNimation announced that they “will also dub both seasons of the series and will release them at a later date.”

Many English dubbing houses have experienced delays since voice actors often travel to the recording studio. In order to protect voice actors from the impact of the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus pandemic, FUNimation has “temporarily paused SimulDub production for the remainder of the current and upcoming seasons.”

In general, many anime studios’ schedules have suffered due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Many anime studios are located within the Tokyo area, which struggled to contain the viral spread.

Fortunately, Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 was one of the few anime which was not delayed, along with other projects including the Tower Of God animeMy Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, and Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 2/Part 2.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War manga ending soon? Final arc began in October 2021

The anime series is based on the Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai?: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen manga series by creator Aka Akasaka. When the Japanese title for the Kaguya-sama manga is translated into English it literally means “Kaguya Wants To Be Confessed To: The Geniuses’ War Of Hearts And Minds”

Serialized in Shuesha’s Weekly Young Jump magazine since May 2015, the manga series was up to Kaguya-sama Volume 23 as of August 2021. The Kaguya-sama: Love is War Volume 24 release date is scheduled for December 17, 2021.

Historically, four or five new volumes come out per year. Volume 24 will contain up through Chapter 241.

As of April 2021, the manga series had 15 million copies in circulation.

In early October 2021, Weekly Young Jump Issue 45, 2021 announced that the Kaguya-sama manga’s ending is coming up since the series is entering its final arc. Creator Akasaka had taken a hiatus back in May 2021 in order to plan out the manga’s final act. In October, Akasaka took another break for Issue 46 and then the final story arc began in Issue 47 on October 21, 2021.

In 2018 the Kaguya-sama manga received two spin-offs. The first is a Dojin Edition by Shinta Sakayama. The second, by G3 Ida, is called We Want To Talk About Kaguya (Kaguya-sama o Kataritai). That story follows girls in a newspaper club who idolize the student council but don’t really know what’s going on behind its closed doors.

North American publisher VIZ Media is publishing the official Kaguya-sama manga’s English translation. As of September 1, 2020, it is up to Volume 16 and Volume 175 is scheduled for release on November 3, 2020.

In mid-November 2020, Akasaka revealed during a live stream that he has been paid 100,000 yen in royalties per anime episode. Based on the current exchange rates, that means the original creator only makes about $11,550 USD per anime season.

Kaguya-sama Love is War Volume 10
The Kaguya-sama Season 3 anime will likely pick up the story again with the events of manga Volume 10. Pic credit: Aka Akasaka

Kaguya-sama: Love is War manga compared to the anime’s second season

The Kaguya-sama anime series is arguably one of the most well-executed adaptations of a rom-com manga series in recent years. But, like similar manga series, the chapters were adapted out of order and the story was condensed.

Notably, earlier manga chapters tended to have self-contained stories while later manga volumes began to develop short story arcs. In those cases, the anime adapted the related chapters in consecutive order.

The Kaguya-sama manga’s timeline isn’t necessarily based on the chapter order, either. Sometimes, later volumes provided big flashbacks back to the time before rumors about Kaguya and Miyuki dating began to spread.

The titles of each anime episode corresponded to the title of the chapters that the episode adapted. The following is a guide to skipped chapters and the order in which the anime episodes adapted the manga:

  • Episode 1: Chapters 1, 12, 5
  • Episode 2: Chapters 11, 7, 6
  • Episode 3: Chapters 14, 8, 9
  • Episode 4: Chapters 17, 18, 19, 20
  • Episode 5: Chapters 16, 23, 21
  • Episode 6: Chapters 24, 28, 25
  • Episode 7: Chapters 26, 29, 27
  • Episode 8: Chapters 39, 31, 55
  • Episode 9: Chapters 33, 34, 35
  • Episode 10: Chapters 37, 38, 40
  • Episode 11: Chapters 42, 43, 41, 44
  • Episode 12: Chapters 44, 45, 46
  • Skipped Chapters: 2, 3, 4, 10, 13, 15, 22, 23, 30 (Season 2), 32, 36 (Season 2)

The first season of the anime ended on a high emotional note with the fireworks festival in Volume 5: Chapter 45, only to reset the relationship based on misunderstandings and the prideful desire to force the other to confess their love first.

Chapter 46 started the second school year in that same manner, so it made sense for the anime’s first season to end that way as well.

  • Season 2 Episode 1: Chapters 30, 48, 57, 51
  • Season 2 Episode 2: Chapters 52, 53, 54
  • Season 2 Episode 3: Chapters 56, 59, 60
  • Season 2 Episode 4: Chapters 58, 61, 65
  • Season 2 Episode 5: Chapters 63, 64, 36, 66
  • Season 2 Episode 6: Chapters 67, 68, 69
  • Season 2 Episode 7: Chapters 70, 71, 73, 74
  • Season 2 Episode 8: Chapters 72, 78, 79
  • Season 2 Episode 9: Chapters 80, 81, 82
  • Season 2 Episode 10: Chapters 83, 84, 85, 86, 87
  • Season 2 Episode 11: Chapters 87, 88, 89, 90
  • Season 2 Episode 12: Chapters 100, 101, 91
  • Skipped Chapters: 47, 49, 50, 62, 75, 76, 77

All in all, it was originally predicted in this article that the second season would end in a manner dramatically similar to the first season. As such, the best stopping point would have been to first finish the sports festival story arc of Volume 9: Chapters 86 through 90, adapt skipped chapters or the cell phone arc, and then end with Volume 10: Chapter 92 since it has Miyuki trying to determine Kaguya’s feelings for him.

Instead, the anime ended with the balloon-busting game in Chapter 91, but it did adapt the two chapters where Kaguya’s phone breaks and she has to learn to use a new one while everyone tries to cheer her up. So, at least we got that one moment with Kaguya’s smile.

Kaguya-sama Love is War
This moment from the Kaguya-sama: Love is War manga series would be a great ending to the second season. Pic credit: Aka Akasaka

Such an ending means that the anime has adapted less than half the available manga chapters, so there’s plenty of source material for making Kaguya-sama Season 3. Better yet, English-only manga readers who wish to read ahead of the anime series can jump straight to Volume 10.

What’s uncertain is how Kaguya-sama: Love Is War Season 3 will end. If it’s a single-cour season again it’ll likely finish with Chapter 137/138, but if the third season is two cours it could end with Chapter 163.

Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 3 spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)

Note: Based on the way Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 Episode 12 ended, spoilers for Kaguya-sama Season 3 assume that the third season will begin by adapting Volume 10: Chapter 92.

Romance is beginning to bloom on multiple levels if certain members of the student council will just allow it to blossom. As might expected, nothing happens in a straight-forward fashion.

Since the last time we watched our odd couple, Miyuki is seriously trying to assess whether Kaguya has feelings for him. He suspects that she likes him, but he’s uncertain whether she “like like” him so he’s trying to determine whether it’s real love or not.

Miyuki is invited to a karaoke mixer by the guys but Ai Hayasaka is tasked to prevent Miyuki from talking to girls. The situation is awkward for Miyuki since he’d previously declined Ai’s “confession” earlier in Season 2. Now, she was leveraging her role as the girl he rejected to make him feel as guilty as possible so he’d go home!

But as they talk, Ai develops an ulterior motive, deciding that she will force a confession out of Miyuki rather than sticking to Kaguya’s plan. Harkening back to their earlier bet from Season 2 Episode 4, Ai still wants to prove that to Kaguya that she’s capable of “hooking” the President. Ai and Miyuki end up going to a private karaoke room, causing Kaguya to freak out, thinking that Ai was planning something lecherous!

One of the things that come out during the karaoke mixer is that Miyuki likes to rap… horribly. Chika also decides she wants to learn to rap and the resulting rap battle against Ai and Kaguya causes everyone to lash out with their feelings.

Speaking of feelings, Miyuki is trying to be direct, but that only leaves Kaguya feeling confused. Fortunately, romance is in the air since a romantic tale is attached to the upcoming school cultural event called the Devoted Hearts Festival. The romantic tension finally builds up to the point where both Kaguya and Miyuki decide in their minds to confess to each other!

Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Kaguya-sama Season 3 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!

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