Foreshadowing / Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

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Manga

• Kaguya is introduced as being a daughter of the Shinomiya family, but it's expressly not said that she's set to inherit the conglomerate. It's later explained that Kaguya's brothers have more involvement in the business and are implied to be the heirs, and as such, that her own importance in the family is more tenuous and dependent on her compliance to their whims than it appears. Similarly, Kaguya's mentioning how her "first time" (i.e. kissing) was with her young nephew hints at a sibling who is old enough to have children, and thus ahead of Kaguya in the succession order.
• In Chapter 6, during Shirogane's internal monologue regarding his wish to go to the mountains, he shows a preference to stargazing, as well as an Imagine Spot while Kaguya confesses to him while engrossed in it. Later in Chapter 56, during one of Kaguya's plans to make him confess while stargazing, it nearly goes exactly as Shirogane imagined, with him unknowingly turning the tables and getting very close to getting a confession out of a flustered Kaguya.
• When Kashiwagi and Tsubasa first hook up, Maki is depressed and Karen is looking at her with a "this won't end well" expression. About three years later real world time, Karen's spin-off reveals that she was responsible for the events leading to Tsubasa asking out Kashiwagi... while trying to get him to ask out Maki.
• When Mikiti starts crying in Chapter 9 about not wanting to be alone, Kaguya is shown to be covering her ears. It's established much later in the series that Kaguya is misophonic.
• Chapter 12:
  • When Fujiwara prevents Kaguya from going to meet with her anonymous admirer, she says that she doesn't want to lose her to anyone else. Guess what happens when she finally learns that Kaguya and Shirogane are dating.
  • At the end of the chapter, Hayasaka asks Kaguya if she would bother with the whole Duel of Seduction if she were to truly find herself in love with someone, to which Kaguya stammers that she would confess instead. She swaps over to trying to confess within a day of admitting out loud that she loves Shirogane (and is ultimately the first to say "I love you").
• In Chapter 14, Kaguya mentioned that her first kiss was with her infant nephew, and the accompanying photo in The Stinger shows that she was already at least middle school age. This is the first clue that she suffers from Parental Neglect, since one would have expected her to say that her first kiss came from her mother or father if she meant it in a platonic sense.
• Chapter 16 sees Fujiwara discuss the Green-Eyed Epiphany with Kaguya and Kashiwagi, claiming that if the thought of a prospective partner getting together with someone else upsets you, that means you're jealous and that you like them. Much later in the manga, Ishigami and Iino both have one of these moments concerning the other.
• Chapter 23 introduces Shirogane's utterly disastrous physical dexterity, taking an entire week of training just to be able to serve a volleyball. Later chapters would further establish his extreme difficulty with assorted tasks, though as a later chapter would show, things such as juggling or spinning tops are no problem. Given that he's later revealed to be nearsighted, he probably would have trouble with tasks that require him to focus on specific objects.
• When taking a psychological test where the amount of flowers you say you'll take correlates with how much you love your crush in chapter 28, Kaguya only takes a bouquet while Shirogane says that even an entire truck full wouldn't be enough. It's later revealed that Shirogane had already been in love with Kaguya for at least a year at this point, while Kaguya's crush wouldn't develop into outright love until the fireworks arc.
• Chapter 35 shows that Hayasaka has experience wearing contact lenses when she wears some as a disguise to fool Shirogane, hinting at her having bad eyesight. Sure enough, Chapter 237 reveals that she has myopia.
• When Ishigami is giving Shirogane advice in Chapter 47, he tells him something to the effect of "there's no need for a man to apologize if he's done nothing to make him guilty." During the Sports Festival arc, it's revealed that he was suspended for months back in middle school because he refused to write an apology letter for attacking Ogino.
• Chapter 49 mentions how Fujiwara is the kind of girl who can't say no when people are counting on her. 173 chapters later, we learn that this type of attitude nearly drove her to a Despair Event Horizon when everyone around her kept on pushing her to play the piano despite her no longer getting any enjoyment out of it.
• Chapter 50 has Shirogane and Kaguya quarreling which pet design would suit for Kashiwagi's poster. Shirogane listed the good aspects of cats such as how they are actually timid while Kashiwagi interpreted it as him complimenting Kaguya by default. This was brought up again in 100 chapters later when he admits that he never hated her icy side and in fact sees her just being timid around everyone else.
• In Chapter 52, Kei mentions to Kaguya that her brother merely puts up a front of being a perfect Student Council President at school but is troublesome at home, something that Kaguya has a hard time believing. This is a major plot point in "The First Kiss Never Ends" arc.
• Kaguya becomes uncharacteristically defensive of Ishigami in Chapter 55 when the subject of his middle school fiasco comes up, stating to two girls who were badmouthing him that she judges people based on what she's personally seen rather than rumors. 34 chapters later, it's revealed that she already knew the full details of what happened to him in middle school (with the most important detail being that he was innocent) before he even joined the student council, and was the one who had the rest of the council look into the story in the first place.
• When Shirogane talks about his interpretation of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, he mentions how princess Kaguya gave the emperor the elixir of immortality as a message that she would one day return to him and that if he was in the emperor's position he would never stop trying to get Kaguya back from the moon. Just swap elixir with a billion yen and moon with the Shinomiya estate and you have the final arc in a nutshell.
• When playing the Tabletop Club's Sugoroku game in Chapter 57, Ishigami dies on his very first turn, during what's stated to be the "child phase." Almost precisely 100 chapters later, he very nearly does die, and is only saved because of Iino, who hadn't been introduced yet when that game was played.
• In Chapter 58, Shirogane is shown buying "The official guide to the TOEFL test". Though it's later shown that he's been trying his hand at languages, in Chapter 111, it's revealed that he's planning on attending Stanford.
• Chapter 68:
  • Iino mentions during her and Shirogane's debate how the school would traditionally have a bonfire until the neighborhood association stopped allowing it three years ago. This discussion is what would first give Shirogane the idea for his Grand Romantic Gesture.
  • After the results of the election are posted, several people come over to congratulate Iino, talking about how she's probably guaranteed to win next year. Sure enough, when she runs again in Chapter 275 it's a complete landslide in her favor.
• At the beginning of Shirogane's second term at the end of Chapter 69, he lists off how they're all going to be kept busy, singling out the upcoming sports festival, culture festival, and school trip. All three of them end up being major story arcs.
• Fujiwara describes the weird face Kaguya makes in Chapter 72 as the second cutest she's ever done. The cutest altogether was most likely Kaguya-chan.
• When discussing Ishigami's potential romantic partners in Chapter 73, the first person Shirogane brings up is Iino, which Ishigami dismisses as unrealistic. Cue Iino developing a crush on him at the end of the Culture Festival arc.
• In Chapter 74, Fujiwara cuts into Kaguya, Shirogane, and Ishigami's romantically charged shojo delusions by talking about a sumo match she recently watched. It's revealed in Chapter 279 that she was actually on topic, as a sumo wrestler is her ideal husband.
• In Chapter 76, Tsubasa tries to figure out why his girlfriend Kashiwagi would not allow him into her home while she was sick. Shirogane guesses that the sickness is a cover for her being pregnant, which Tsubasa brushes off as impossible because they play it safe with the intimacy. In chapter 118, Fujiwara snidely calls Kashiwagi the most likely to get knocked up. These seeming quips are brought into focus when Dr. Tanuma (Tsubasa's grandfather) reveals that he and his son impregnated their respective girlfriends during their high school years, casting Tsubasa and Kashiwagi's behavior in a riskier light. Sure enough, the final viewpoint chapter for Tsubasa sees him follow the family tradition by getting Kashiwagi pregnant before they graduate high school.
• When Kaguya gets taken to see Dr. Tanuma in Chapter 79 after collapsing in school, the hospital is identical to the one that Tsubasa's father was shown to run in Chapter 29. Chapter 147 would reveal that Dr. Tanuma is Tsubasa's grandfather.
• Chapter 87:
  • As Fujiwara's father appeared and gets to know Shirogane and his father, he thanked Papa Shirogane for raising his children to be polite, but the latter brushes off said compliment and stated that he did nothing. At first it may sounded like he was just being humble to other people, but later chapters established that he really meant it literally. Despite Kei's politeness and friendliness to the Fujiwara sisters, she is rebellious at home and Papa Shirogane is terrified of her. The only thing he mentored to Shirogane was to become a man who help others at the time of need (as seen in his childhood flashback), but chapter 208 has his admitted that he sees himself as a failure for not being able to provide moral support to his son.
  • Papa Shirogane pretending to be an outsider and condemned his own son to Kaguya in order to see how his son looked like from her perspective, eventually apologizing for his rudeness earlier and from that point on becomes a Shipper on Deck to his son and Kaguya's relationship. Chapter 208 revealed that like his son, Papa Shirogane was a man who pushed himself to the limits to win over his wife, only to lose her when he can no longer live up to her expectation. He probably saw his wife in Kaguya, but eventually softens to her after getting the confirmation that she likes Shirogane for his natural kindness instead of his academic performances.
• Papa Shirogane's initial hostility to Kaguya during the Sports Festival is due to the fact that the Shinomiya conglomerate was basically the reason his company went bankrupt, his wife left him and tried to take his daughter away from him, and his son over-stresses himself from work to support his family. He softens up to her seeing how she's not like rest of her selfish family.
• Chapter 84 of We Want to Talk About Kaguya has Karen coming into the right conclusion that Kaguya puts her love in her friend rice, which Erika and Fujiwara protested since they rejected the idea of Kaguya having feelings for someone else that's not them. Especially for Fujiwara, she wasn't kidding about wanting Kaguya to her alone as of Chapter 223.
• In Chapter 95, Ishigami tries to distract Fujiwara from Iino's phone by mentioning that he wants to talk about something involving Tsubame, though we aren't given any details at the time. As we would learn 9 chapters later, he was going to say that he had a crush on her. The anime would further the hints by having Fujiwara briefly flash her love detective hat and suddenly showing a great deal of interest in what he has to say.
• In Chapter 98, Maki introduces herself as Kaguya's cousin, but Ishigami points out they're so distant it doesn't count. So no one would raise an eyebrow if Maki's brother was to marry Kaguya. Also, Ishigami is shown to have put a lot of thought into how difficult being a Second Love would be since at this point he's under the impression that Tsubame and Kazeno are dating.
• Chapter 99:
  • During the first round of the 10 Yen game, three people are confirmed to be in love. The first two are Kaguya and Shirogane, while the third is Ishigami, in yet another clue towards his crush on Tsubame.
  • At the end of the chapter, Shirogane states that his eyesight's not that good and that he can't read the numbers on the yen coins from a distance. In Chapter 237, he gets contact lenses.
• Chapters 100-101 are all about how Kaguya cherishes the photos she's collected on it over the years, with the narration musing about how photography makes her feel like an ordinary girl. This is likely what began her interest in pursuing it as a career.
• Chapter 103:
  • When Iino is talking to Osaragi about all the things she's done for Ishigami, the term she uses in the original Japanese alludes to broken bones. She would end up breaking her arm while trying to keep him from falling down the stairs after the Christmas party.
  • When Shirogane proposes ear-cleaning as an exercise to help Ishigami and Iino get along, Iino refuses to do the cleaning, citing that she'd never let Ishigami rest his head on her lap. Come Chapter 227, she invites him to do exactly that.
• In Chapter 104, Ishigami uses the "laser death beam", which he claims has the ability to break up any couple struck by it. All three of the people he uses it on either temporarily break up (Kashiwagi and Tsubasa) or fail to get together with their crush (himself) later in the series.
• In Chapter 106, Kaguya imagines herself, Shirogane, and Kei, Fujiwara, and Moeha playing a board game during a sleepover. This eventually comes to pass in Chapter 149, with the only difference being that Kaguya and Shirogane have swapped places where they're sitting.
• In Chapter 111, when all the second-year students are meeting with guidance counselors to discuss their plans after graduation, Hayasaka tells them "I want to change jobs", hinting at her retiring from her position as Kaguya's valet during the class trip arc.
• Upon meeting him for the first time in Chapter 111, Hayasaka's mother mentions how she'd pay money to see Papa Shirogane perform. Turns out she wasn't the only one since 80 chapters later he's managed to become a successful YouTube streamer.
• Chapter 115:
  • Shirogane tells Iino and Ishigami that the Culture Festival committee requested help from that student council, but Onodera expresses mild confusion as to why they're there because it's all a lie that Shirogane came up with as part of his plan to keep them distracted.
  • The extra page has Ishigami note that the handwriting for the person who requested a bonfire for the Culture Festival seemed familiar. That's because it was written by Shirogane, who was laying the groundwork for his Grand Romantic Gesture.
• The very first chapter of We Want to Talk About Kaguya sets up the events of Chapters 135-136 with Karen and Erika discussing how Kaguya and Shirogane would confess to one another.
  Karen: [Shirogane] most certainly would have confessed in a magnificent fashion!
  Erika: [Kaguya] would surely convey her passionate feelings directly with those dazzling eyes of hers!
• When Kaguya sees Shirogane in Chapter 120, she notes that he looks even more tired than usual due to how much extra work he's been putting in to make sure that everything for the culture festival is ready in time. This comes back to bite him hard a couple days later when all that extra stress causes him to collapse and have to be briefly hospitalized.
• After finding out about Osaragi dating Kazeno in Chapter 122, Miko's initial reaction before the shock sets in is commenting that she didn't think she was into sweaty jocks. When Miko asks her why they eventually broke up in Chapter 166, she says it's because she found his workout to be gross.
• The Phantom Thief that stole the balloons during the Culture Festival left a calling card with the name Arsene on it. The name Arsene can be translated to "like a man", the same thing that Shirogane said when the Mass Media Club interviewed him, making it the first clue that he was the one responsible.
• The gifts that Ishigami gives during the culture festival are a symbolic representation of how the Love Triangle between him, Tsubame, and Iino will ultimately play out. Tsubame gets a cookie that, while large and sweet, is something that crumbles easily and is only meant to last a short amount of time. Iino on the other hand gets a locket that may be small (since he doesn't really have any feelings for her at the time) but is made of far more durable and long lasting metal.
• When Tsubame invites Ishigami to come to her house for a Christmas party in Chapter 140, Iino thinks that she's inviting him to her room for sex and accuses her of being a predator. While Ishigami never actually goes inside her room, Tsubame does offer to have sex with him once the party's over as consolation for turning down his Love Confession (though he ultimately doesn't go through with it).
• In Chapter 142, Shirogane is shown having trouble understanding the mixed signals that Kaguya is sending him and wrongly comes to the conclusion that she's being forced into an arranged marriage, and he swears to stop it no matter what. All of this eventually comes to pass in the final arc. For bonus points, this chapter also features the first on-screen appearance of her eventual fiancé Mikado.
• Tsubame's willingness to give a Pity Sex to Ishigami in Chapter 155 as a consolation to rejecting his confession. Although it was Atembo's idea in Chapter 189 to settle it with sex, Tsubame's non-existent hesitation with going along with the so-called advice is the first hint of this not being her first sexual encounter. As revealed in the bonus pages of her character profile in Volume 21, Tsubame has a history of being, stalked, molested and even entered an abusive relationship. To Tsubame, she at first regarded that Ishigami only attracted to her for her looks, just like all of the other boys who woo over her before.
• In Chapter 163, when Kaguya announced a Sarcastic Confession that she and Shirogane are dating, Fujiwara was the only one to react out of shock then express relief after Kaguya told her it was fake, while Iino and Ishigami had more subdued reactions. In Chapter 223, the two then-first years admitted to have already know about Kaguya and Shirogane's relationship, wishing them good luck while Fujiwara is fully against it under the belief that her best friend is hers alone.
• The extra page for Chapter 172 has a list of Kaguya's friends, with each being labeled on whether or not they're trustworthy. Hayasaka is listed as "untested".
• In Chapter 189, Osaragi directly compares Tsubame to Otomo, the girl Ishigami sacrificed his reputation for back in middle school. Two chapters later, Otomo appears again.

Chapter 192 (Major Spoilers)

The chapter reveals a part of Osaragi's past and that she is in love with Ishigami, which is why she ships him with Tsubame, as this is the girl Ishigami likes. Many actions that she had taken can retrospectively be interpreted in a completely different way. While not explicitly romantic, Osaragi has shown that she pays a lot of attention to and cares about him. Thus, there are many Rewatch Bonuses in her chapters.

• Chapter 80:
  • Iino complains to Osaragi that the student council is just a place where the boys are hitting on the girls. Osaragi, rather than condemning this, as you would expect from a member of the disciplinary committee, is rather intrigued and thinks it's a "pretty hot situation", especially because her crush is part of the council.
  • In the same chapter, Osaragi notes that Iino is unfairly leaving out Ishigami in her imagination of how she imagined her life in the student council would look like.
  • The anime adds another possibly subtle reference, by making a Peanuts reference with Iino and Osaragi representing Peppermint Patty and Marcie, who both have an unrequited crush on Ishigami/Charlie, who is crushing on someone else.
• Chapter 85 is a whole can of hints, as the chapter is narrated by Osaragi herself:
  • Osaragi is strangely very knowledgeable about how and why a mob in school picks out and bullies a loner. This is not just because she saw it happen with Ishigami, she speaks from personal experience, as she was a bullying victim as well.
  • Osaragi goes out of her way to tell Tsubame and Kazeno that Ishigami is not a bad person and is taking the Cheer Team seriously. As they assure her that they are aware, she is seen smiling while watching Ishigami. Also, Ishigami is being displayed with a Crush Filter while she's looking at him.
  • Almost every member of the Cheer Team appears to be The Faceless, just like in Chapter 82 or 87-90. For Ishigami, they appear like this because he averted his eyes from the world, due to his cynical view, but this chapter is actually told from Osaragi's point-of-view. Osaragi only has eyes for Ishigami.
• Chapter 122:
  • Osaragi wishes Ishigami good luck in Chapter 122, with it implied that she's talking about him confessing to Tsubame.
  • She also also reveals to Iino and Ishigami that she is dating Kazeno, with Iino acting very surprised about this reveal, as he doesn't seem to be Osaragi's type at all. This fact assures Ishigami that there is nothing going on between Kazeno and Tsubame, giving him more courage to approach Tsubame.
• In Chapter 166, Osaragi reveals that she broke up with Kazeno, presumably for a very minor reason. After the reveal in Chapter 192, this now sounds more like an excuse, as she accomplished her goal to remove Kazeno as a potential love rival, especially if one keeps in mind how she looked at Ishigami training with the Cheer Team in Chapter 85.
• In Chapter 176, Ishigami asks Tsubame out on a date. Unlike Iino, who looks almost upset, Osaragi is smiling.

• Chapter 211's ending text announces the beginning of the story's endgame, and integrates Mikado Shijo into the main cast as he transfers to Shuchiin. Right off the bat, he's established as the only guy Shirogane hates; the only one to beat his score on countrywide exams. Once again, this manga loves Right for the Wrong Reasons: the boys become fast friends once they sit down and have a proper chat, but the Shinomiya family arranges for Kaguya to marry Mikado. Shirogane's greatest rival in academics becomes his greatest rival in love.
• During the tea party in Chapter 216, Maki mentions how the war between the Shinomiya and Shijo has already begun and will probably be in the news cycle by the summer. Sure enough, come Chapter 240...
• During Chapter 235, Kaguya vocally disapproves of Mikado as boyfriend material for Fujiwara. What could be attributed to the bad blood between the Shinomiya and Shijo families is framed in a new light when Chapter 240 reveals Kaguya's lack of trust in Mikado is rooted in a broken promise in their past.
• Chapter 240 has an internal one. Kaguya reminds Ishigami and Iino that, as the Student Council, they need to be positive role models for the school once she and Shirogane are gone. A seeming reference to their upcoming graduation, but ominous in hindsight when Kaguya disappears the next day.
• In Chapter 241, there's talk about how expensive riding a private jet is and how trivial such things are to the ultra wealthy like the Shinomiya family. When Shirogane finally leaves for Stanford, Kaguya deals with the distance by regularly taking a private jet to visit him over the weekends.
• In Chapter 252, Shirogane immediately defaults to riding his bike instead of taking a taxi despite having just gotten a billion yen from Seiryu, which hints that his frugal nature will keep him from spending any significant amount of his newfound fortune in his plan to rescue Kaguya.

Anime-exclusive

• The explosion of hearts during the anime's opening foreshadowed Shirogane's Grand Romantic Gesture in the manga, something that was still 2 weeks away the time the first episode aired.
• Also in the opening, the newspaper Shirogane is reading has pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, hinting at him and Kaguya going to America.
• When Hayasaka is listening to some music while relaxing in the bath in Episode 11, the song she plays is the same one that she would later sing during the mixer in episode 26.
• When Dr. Tanuma is having a flashback to when he first fell in love in the anime, both he and the girl are in high school uniforms. Only later on is it revealed that the doctor got his lover pregnant before they graduated high school, and that his son and eventually his grandson Tsubasa did the same thing.
• A Peanuts reference in Episode 21 foreshadows reveals in Chapter 192. Iino and Osaragi represent Peppermint Patty and Marcie, who both have an unrequited crush on Ishigami/Charlie, who is crushing on someone else.
• In Episode 21, Osaragi's theme can be heard for the first time. Viewers who pay attention to it will notice the similarities to Ishigami's theme, foreshadowing the reveal of how similar the two of them really are.
• Episode 22 (covering Chapter 85-87) added an extra shot of Osaragi and Tsubame cheering for Ishigami during the 3-legged race. One week later, Chapter 192 would reveal Osaragi's crush on Ishigami.
• Osaragi's final line in Episode 24 is "I'm watching", referencing the big reveal in Chapter 192.
• A yonkoma extra released with the final volume of the second season has Fujiwara telling Shirogane about all the different types of balloons there are, like ones that are heart shaped or big enough to fit others inside of them...
• Episode 25 has Fujiwara falsely claim that Ishigami broke her arm when they arm wrestled. In just a few weeks time, he'll break a girl's arm for real (if by accident).
• Episode 30 has Iino has an Imagine Spot with her hypothetical prince love interest and several other characters in the cast all drawn in the style of The Rose of Versailles. In the specific image that it was parodying◊, the main character's Love Interest just so happens to be in the same spot as Ishigami.
• When Karen and Erika are spreading the articles about the stolen heart balloons in Episode 35, Momo is shown yawning because she was up all night helping Shirogane gather them.
• Episode 37 has a brief shot of Ishigami taking a video with a tablet when all the students are reacting to the balloons from Shirogane's Grand Romantic Gesture. He shows the video to Iino shortly afterwards, which serve as the trigger for her falling in love with him.