Kaguya-sama wa kokurasetai ~ Tensai tachi no ren'ai zunô sen ~

Wow, I haven't had this much fun since the excellent first season of "Switch Girl" ! Ah, the Japanese. I've not seen anyone do cuteness/charm quite like them & LIW is probably the classic demo for the style. Beginning life as a manga, it then became a well-regarded two season anime series. So rather than morphing into a live-action series ( a la the lovely "Jellyfish Princess" ), it's now a feature film which some on-liners accuse of missing too many things out. Since I come to it minus any baggage, all I can do is judge it as is, and.....I love it ! Set in a super-posh private school, the president of the student council is Shirogane ( Sho Hirano ) a handsome, gifted lad from a humble background. His vice-prez is Shinomiya ( Kanna Hashimoto ) an equally studious girl but from a mega-rich family. They have strong feelings for each other yet struggle to express them, though I think it's more to do with the excruciating stress of confessing to the other ( a universal problem for the ages ) than any power-struggle. There's clearly a cuteness formula for this sort of material to work, yet it somehow doesn't grate the way the K-Drama template does because there's a lot more scope for creativity. The animations here are great & certain sight-gags are superb; Everything looks gorgeous & even the council chamber evokes memories of the interior sets at King's Landing in Game Of Thrones. The cast are tip-top too, with a core of real emotion never drowned out by the visual pyrotechnics. I used the word "fun" in my opening sentence for good reason. So if you feel like smiling/laughing, you know what to do.