Kaguya-sama: Love Is War watch order
Student council president Miyuki Shirogane and vice-president Kaguya Shinomiya are in love, but each is too proud to confess first, so every day becomes a scheme to make the other one do it. A-1 Pictures adapts Aka Akasaka's manga, with Chika and Ishigami making everything worse.
First time? Watch Season 1, Season 2 (the one with the question mark),Ultra Romantic, then the film The First Kiss That Never Ends and the 2025 special Stairway to Adulthood. The OVA and the Ishigami short are optional extras. A final film is in the works.
Story order
The main story, which is also release order. The OVA's segments come from the Season 2 era and the Ishigami short from early in Season 3, so both fit where release order puts them.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (Season 1)
The student council's war of wits begins, ending with the fireworks episode. Adapts chapters 1–46, skipping a handful of chapters along the way.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War? (Season 2)
The student council election, Miko Iino joins, and the sports festival, ending with the group photo. Covers the manga up to about chapter 100, again skipping some chapters that the third season goes back for.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – Ultra Romantic (Season 3)
Starts back at chapter 94 to pick up chapters Season 2 skipped, then runs through the culture festival and the double-length finale, ending at chapter 137. The most acclaimed season.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – The First Kiss That Never Ends
A theatrical film (December 2022 in Japan, February 2023 elsewhere) that continues straight from Ultra Romantic through Christmas, adapting chapters 138–150. It was later split into four TV episodes, which is how Crunchyroll lists it.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – Stairway to Adulthood
A two-part TV special aired on 31 December 2025: a grown-up Kaguya looks back through a photo album at the early days of dating Shirogane. It skims highlights from volumes 17–27 rather than adapting them in full. Streams on Crunchyroll in some regions.
Release order
Everything in the order it came out, with the two optional extras between Seasons 2 and 3.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (Season 1)
The student council's war of wits begins, ending with the fireworks episode. Adapts chapters 1–46, skipping a handful of chapters along the way.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War? (Season 2)
The student council election, Miko Iino joins, and the sports festival, ending with the group photo. Covers the manga up to about chapter 100, again skipping some chapters that the third season goes back for.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War OVA (optional)
A 24-minute disc extra bundled with manga volume 22: two fan-service 'Kaguya-sama Darkness' bonus chapters and a fried-rice cook-off, all from the Season 2 era. Optional; nothing later depends on it.
- Yu Ishigami Wants to Chat (optional)
A ten-minute web short released as a teaser for the third season, adapting chapter 110: Ishigami and Shirogane talk about being fans of things. A nice bonus, but skippable.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – Ultra Romantic (Season 3)
Starts back at chapter 94 to pick up chapters Season 2 skipped, then runs through the culture festival and the double-length finale, ending at chapter 137. The most acclaimed season.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – The First Kiss That Never Ends
A theatrical film (December 2022 in Japan, February 2023 elsewhere) that continues straight from Ultra Romantic through Christmas, adapting chapters 138–150. It was later split into four TV episodes, which is how Crunchyroll lists it.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – Stairway to Adulthood
A two-part TV special aired on 31 December 2025: a grown-up Kaguya looks back through a photo album at the early days of dating Shirogane. It skims highlights from volumes 17–27 rather than adapting them in full. Streams on Crunchyroll in some regions.
Explained
Is the movie a sequel or a recap?
A sequel. The First Kiss That Never Ends picks up right after Ultra Romantic's confession and covers the Christmas chapters (138–150). It was shown in cinemas first and then re-cut into four TV episodes in April 2023, so you may see it listed either as a film or as episodes 1–4 of a short season. Either version is fine; they're the same material.
Is there filler, and do I need the OVA?
No filler: every segment adapts a manga chapter, and the show skips chapters rather than padding. The OVA adapts bonus chapters, two of them fan service, and nothing in the later seasons refers to it, so treat it as an extra.
Where does the anime leave off in the manga?
After the film you're at the end of chapter 150, so start volume 16 at chapter 151. Stairway to Adulthood jumps ahead and only samples volumes 17–27, so most of chapters 151–281 is still unadapted. The manga ended in November 2022 with 281 chapters in 28 volumes.
Will there be a Season 4?
Not as a TV season. On 31 December 2025, right after Stairway to Adulthood aired, a final anime film, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – The Final Chapter, was announced, with a new story drafted by Aka Akasaka rather than an adaptation of the remaining manga. As of October 2026 it had no release date.
What about the live-action films and the spin-off?
Two live-action films (2019 and 2021) retell the early story with a different cast; they're separate from the anime. The press-club spin-off manga We Want to Talk About Kaguya has never been animated, though its two leads cameo in the anime.