The First Kiss That Never Ends was a film released in December, just in time for its Christmas timline, but I’m only now getting around to watching it, which I’m doing in four segments. In this first, Kaguya gradually realizes through both Ai and Nagisa that the kiss she gave Miyuki was far more advanced than she thought.
As a result of this horrifying realization and the ensuing sleep deprivation, upon returning to the student council room the next morning, she arrives having devolved into a super-deformed “Little Kaguya”, which Chika explains is an ultra-rare version of Kaguya and result of a perfect storm of circumstances.
While he admits this version of Kaguya is cute as hell, Miyuki dearly wanted to speak to a halfway sentient Kaguya about the previous night…and that kiss. Alas, all he’s able to do is stoop to her level, adopting a super-deformed “Lil’ Miyuki”.
I love how, like Hobbes in Calvin and Hobbes, the two look different depending on the POV of the person looking at them. In this case, Miko walks in to find the two dopily repeating one another’s names and looking like complete lobotomy patients.
We take a break from that ghoulish vapidity shift to the Miko-Yuu-Tsubame triangle, which was starting to get some serious legs at the end of last season. We even find Miko obliged to return Yuu’s obscene and contraband Mid Jump book to him, only for him to refuse and promise to bring more in.
This results in what a passing Tsubame calls a “classic school brawl. She asks Yuu if he’ll come to her house for Christmas and he immediately agrees. Miko protests, but Tsubame intended to invite her as well, as she’s having a party (not a threesome or an orgy, as Miko initially feared).
Later, when Chika invites Yuu to her Christmas party as a mere formality, assuming the loner has nothing else to do, Miko backs him up by confirming they both already have plans. When Yuu says she won’t be a thorn in his side, she agrees to join him at Tsubame’s party.
Unless Chika cancels her party or merges it with Tsubame’s it’s a certainty that the Student Council will be split on Christmas Eve. Beyond that, Tsubame knows she owes Yuu an answer to his confession in three months, which just happens to be how long items in the lost-and-found box are supposed to stay before being claimed. That’s where Miko puts the heart pendant.
Speaking of split, the balance of the episode takes place within the troubled mind of a sleeping Kaguya, where four distinct parts of her personality participate in yet another courtroom drama. After the SD (Stupid) Kaguya is sentenced to death by prosecutor (Cold-as-Ice) Kaguya with no objections by defener (Normal) Kaguya, presiding Judge (Child) Kaguya gets everyone back on track. Koga Aoi puts on a clinic voicing the four.
They end up resolving two of the issues rather amicably: on their relationship with the President (more than a friend, less than a lover) and on studying abroad with him (yes). But it’s the “grown-up kiss” issue that causes complete disorder in the court. Cold-as-Ice Kaguya has heard enough from the others, angrily declaring she is the one who fell for the President first and the only one seriously thinking about their future.
Cold-as-Ice castigates the other “Kaguya-come-latelys” for their arrogance and for taking all this so lightly and recklessly, and even beans SD Kaguya right in the face with the judge’s gavel. This causes a short-circuit and auto-shutdown of the entire trial…which can’t be good.
It isn’t, because the Kaguya that wakes up is no longer the combination of all those personalities, it’s just Cold-as-Ice Kaguya! To drive that point home, her cute hair ribbon comes undone and her hair flows straight down, and her eyes are narrow and devoid of the normal Kaguya’s glimmer.
Miyuki never had a chance to talk to the Kaguya who French kissed him, and now he’s faced with the version of Kaguya who decried that kiss and would have instead waited for him to kiss her, something that arguably might never have happened!
It’s a very solid first act: starting with the immediate aftermath of the previous season, laying out possible developments to come, then introducing the main conflict that must be battled and ultimately resolved in later acts, likely after no small amount of struggle…and fantastically artistic and creative visuals.
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