“Kaguya-Sama: Love is War” becomes a lot more interesting if you consider the two main love stories as a meta-critique of the shoujo romance genre
Let me explain. So there are two typical storylines in this genre:
1) Naive, clumsy girl goes to rich high school and crosses paths with the handsome, popular boy. The girl is sweet and kind while the boy is cold and aloof. The two clash at first but slowly, the girl’s sense of justice and good nature start to warm the cold boy’s heart.
2) Ice queen tsundere is one of the hardest working girls in the school. She scares everyone around her…except the loser boy who just wants to have fun and enjoy his school life. The two are paired up one day. Even though the loser boy annoys the shit out of the ice queen, he slowly but surely warms her frozen heart with his good nature and lovable personality.
In comparison to “Kaguya-Sama”, four of our main characters fit the roles in the above storylines. Miko Iino is the naive, clumsy girl. Miyuki Shirogane is the handsome, popular boy. Kaguya Shinomiya is the ice queen tsundere. Yu Ishigami is the loser boy who just wants to have fun. The thing is, Aka Akasaka didn’t pair them up with their typical counterpart. Miko is paired with Ishigami while Kaguya is paired with Miyuki.
So how does this intentional mismatching affect the story? Well, the two couples clash in ways that are unique to the series and it’s mainly because they’re trying to do the typical romance storyline but can’t because the roles are all wrong:
1) The romance between the handsome, popular boy and the ice queen tsundere is literally stalled because they’re both waiting for the other to make the first move. They’re the ones whose icy hearts have to be thawed, but since they’re BOTH icy, neither of them knows what to do.
2) The romance between the naive, clumsy girl and the loser boy who just wants to have fun starts off on the wrong foot since they’re both the moral authority. They end up annoying each other because they’re both trying to “help” the other “change”, but at the same time, believe they’re both in the right.
Basically, if romance was a fire, Kaguya and Miyuki would be the fuel while Miko and Ishigami are the sparks. Kaguya and Miyuki have no spark to ignite their romance while Miko and Ishigami have no fuel to spark in the first place. But both couples are trying to change this so that something can start. For example, Miko learned how to be a gamer so that she could have something in common with Ishigami (she’s creating “fuel” for their romance) and Kaguya hand delivered a cake to Miyuki on his birthday (she’s trying to “spark” their romance).