Characters / Kaguya-sama: Love Is War - Kaguya Shinomiya

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War Main Character Index
High School Student Council (Kaguya Shinomiya | Miyuki Shirogane | Chika Fujiwara | Yu Ishigami | Miko Iino)
Second-Years | Family Members

Character sub-page for Kaguya Shinomiya.

Kaguya Shinomiya

Voiced by: Aoi Koga (Japanese), Alexis Tipton (English), Jessica Angeles (Latin American Spanish), Marcella Almeida (Brazilian Portuguese)
Played by: Kanna Hashimoto (live-action movie)

Debut: Chapter 1 (Manga), Episode 1 (Anime)

^{Click here to adult Kaguya (SPOILERS)}

The titular character and vice-president of the Shuchi'in student council. Her family owns one of Japan's largest companies. As befitting her distinguished lineage, she excels in a large variety of subjects and is considered a "true genius." Engaged in a Battle of Wits with Shirogane to make the other confess their love.

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Tropes # - F

• Abusive Parents: Her father is the neglectful kind, he lives separately from her and she states he has never even said 'I love you' to her before. Her education also involved violence. Chapter 141 even states Kaguya is actually partly grateful for the distance, which doesn't spell good things about him.
• Academic Athlete: She consistently has the second highest grades in her class, has two black belts, and is a star member of the school's archery team.
• A-Cup Angst: Downplayed. The narrative does note that Kaguya is confident enough in her own body that her small breast size doesn't bother her in day-to-day life; however, it does annoy her when other characters point it out, or if she feels that other, more endowed characters (Fujiwara mostly) are upstaging her in that department (she wasn't pleased to find that Fujiwara's sisters also had a larger bust size - particularly Moeha, a Middle Schooler - and reacts poorly when she sees that their mother is completely flat). This gets taken to comedic extremes when Ishigami is revealed to have a larger chest than her, which she does not find amusing.
• Adaptational Badass: While Kaguya is both athletic and a trained martial artist in the manga, the movie's version of Capter 143 shows her pulling off parkour moves that her manga counterpart couldn't even dream of doing.
• Adaptational Jerkass: The anime skips quite a few scenes and chapters that go into detail about her relationship with Hayasaka, making her seem a lot less appreciative of all the work she does for her.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: On the other hand, Kaguya's first real act of kindness towards Ishigami (helping him study) happens much earlier in the anime. Her reason for doing so is also far more altruistic due to the events leading her to be in his debt have not taken place.
• Aggressive Submissive: Kaguya tends to be very controlling, but she clearly wants Shirogane to take the lead role in their relationship and views his harsh gazes as one of his most attractive features. Kaguya (Ice) -who is basically Brutal Honesty personified- even stated that being kissed was hotter than giving a kiss.
  • While watching the full moon with Shirogane, she makes several attempts to flirt with him so she can see him flustered... only to devolve into a squealing mess when he repeatedly initiates the intimacy himself (while too distracted by the moon to think about what he was doing).
  • In the ABCs of Men and Women Arc, Kaguya is much more anxious about potentially having Their First Time, and Shirogane backs down from foreplay when he realizes that she's forcing herself to go along with it before he leaves for Stanford. However, their back-and-forth kissing after agreeing to hold off sex soon turns her on, and she later implies to Hayasaka that she took the lead when it happened after all.
• Aloof Archer: Kaguya is the star member of the school's archery club and is characterized early on by her cold and calculating personality, tbough she does grow out of it as the series goes on.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Played With. Her black hair and elegant posture emphasize her aristocratic heritage, especially compared to the more sociable, lighter-haired people she hangs out with. However, while she has an elegant and calm disposition, it's shown that deep down she isn't as cold as she looks by any means.
• Always Second Best: Kaguya is the best in everything she does, except in exams, where she is only slightly worse than Shirogane, which frustrates her to no end.
• Always Someone Better: To Shirogane. The reason he goes all out to excel academically over Kaguya is motivated primarily because Kaguya is so good at everything she does, that beating her in exams is the only way he could ever stand with her as her equal.
• Animal Motifs: Cats, as befitting the Female Feline, Male Mutt dynamic she has with Shirogane. She used to be cold and look down on others, but she becomes very affectionate once a person has earned her approval, and her Character Development shows she's a reasonably nice person, even becoming somewhat needy for Shirogane's affection when alone.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Downplayed. Kaguya's relationship with Hayasaka is much like that of a younger sister who relies on her older sister for almost everything and causes her no end to stress. Of course, Hayasaka still loves her dearly and admits that she'd do anything for her.
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: She dragged Shirogane into bed in her cold-induced delirium, then assumes the worst of him when she woke up to the situation lucid. Even after learning that she caused the whole thing and that Shirogane didn't do anything uncouth, she finds herself somewhat bitter that he didn't make a move on her and might not find her attractive.
• Baby Factory: During the final arc, her oldest brother Oko planned on forcing her into an Arranged Marriage so her son can be one of his pawns. Fortunately, this never comes to pass thanks to the intervention of her friends.
• Badass Bookworm: In addition to being the second most accomplished student in Shuchi'in, Kaguya is far stronger she looks and is an expert in many martial arts like aikido, kyudo, naginata-jutsu, and judo.
• Batman Gambit: Many of her schemes rely heavily on Kaguya understanding how Shirogane will behave, and she will go to insane measures to ensure he will react to situations as she desires.
• The Beautiful Elite: While being part of one the most affluent families in Japan, to top it off, Kaguya is a gorgeous girl, and bar none other she is hands down the most beautiful student at Shuchi'in Academy, arguably only matched by the likes of Tsubame.
• Behavioral Conditioning: In Chapter 81, she conditioned herself to calm down any time she performs a Palm on Cheek Pose as a way of keeping her feelings for Shirogane in check by using the pose every time she's doing something relaxing.
• Beneath the Mask: Played with. Kaguya's public appearance is of a perfect, sophisticated young lady, but she is still susceptible to gushing at seeing Shirogane being cute, or becoming extremely frustrated when her plans go awry, though she will never show it. However, if one goes by what Fujiwara and Ishigami say, Kaguya has considerably less of a poker face than she thinks she does.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Despite initial appearances, Kaguya is actually a very sweet, kind, and approachable person. But if you manage to really piss her off (like hurting her friends), she won't hesitate to use her intellect and vast resources to destroy you, and you likely don't have the wits or willpower of Miyuki Shirogane to survive her attacks. For instance, she told every influential Shuchiin student that Ogino, the student responsible for Ishigami becoming a pariah, was a manipulative and dirty bastard, causing him to transfer schools and never contact the girl he cheated on again. She also does not stand for any slights against Shirogane, which tends to be the easiest way for anyone to make her mad.
• Big Sister Instinct: Kaguya is quite protective of Ishigami due to their Like Brother and Sister dynamic, and is quick to speak in defense of his character or punish those who have wronged him.
• Big Sister Mentor: She takes Ishigami under her wing and helps him improve with both academics and sports. In contrast to the mother/son feel that the Fujiwara/Shirogane training chapters have, she and Ishigami are treated much closer to being equals.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Discussed, as she isn't a mother yet. Her father is the very definition of neglectful, while Yume's fortune-telling during the culture festival (which was 100% accurate in every other respect) said that she would grow up to be "a good wife and a wise mother".
• Broken Ace: She excels in everything she does and is considered by many to be the most beautiful woman in school, but when she was younger she could not understand that not everyone is as smart as she is, which alienated everyone around her except Hayasaka and Fujiwara. After entering high school and meeting Shirogane, she warms up considerably and works on her social skills and self-loathing, becoming by far the most popular student in school.
• Broken Bird: Cracked, at least, but thanks to Shirogane she's mostly better. Her excellence and family name kept her from being able to make friends, culminating in one "friend" saying they couldn't stand to be near her anymore and had only gotten close because their mother had told them to. After that, Kaguya began acting extremely coldly and assumed everyone merely viewed their relationships with others in terms of profits and losses. Seeing Shirogane's altruism helped her mellow out and recognize people's good sides, but she's still very insecure and doesn't seem to have any close friends outside the student council.
• Byronic Heroine: Oh yes. She's attractive, highly intelligent, and (mostly at first) an aloof Broken Bird, who really suffers inner conflict because of her past and the cruel and petty environment she grew up in. She used to be rather haughty, manipulative, and arrogant, because of her unhealthy upbringing, but deep down she's a good person. This is due to the fact she genuinely wants to be one, as she wasn't raised to be a good person at all: her family just taught her to be a selfish jerk, concerned with other people only for personal gain and because it could fit her interests. Some traits of her upbringing are still there; she's rather cynical at times and can be somewhat manipulative and underhanded when it comes to getting the job done (though it's ultimately very much for others' sake), but she has genuinely evolved into a kind, selfless, and well-meaning person.
• Cannot Spit It Out: She pretends that she refuses to confess, but in truth, she's simply incapable of telling Shirogane that she likes him because she has low self-esteem.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: As would be expected from someone who struggles with improvisation in general, Kaguya isn't good at coming up with jokes on the spot. Her attempt to tell one in Chapter 205 just leaves everyone except Shirogane confused (and even he took a couple of seconds to understand it).
• Cargo Envy: During Chapter 56, she sulks because Shirogane is paying more attention to the night sky than to her.
• Catchphrase Insult: "How cute".^note "You really are quite cute" in the anime's English dub Although it's worth pointing out that this only applies to Shirogane's Imagine Spots. Every time she actually says it she's being sincere with the exception of Chapter 142.
• Cerebus Retcon: A lot of her more dorky moments (like her interest in fireworks) take on a much darker context once we start to get a picture of what her family life is like.
  • Kaguya's reaction to Shirogane saying he "hates" that she tends to be mean to Ishigami is suffering an emotional breakdown before Shirogane clears it up. This becomes a lot darker when we learn that Kaguya secretly hates herself for her past as Ice Kaguya, fearing that once Shirogane gets to know the real her, he would hate her. Fortunately, this never comes to pass.
• Character Development:
  • With time, Kaguya learns not to be so bitter about her peers unwittingly foiling her plans with Shirogane, as she understands that they don't proceed with malice. However, she still displays the same level of utter dismay and helplessness she feels every time they foil her.
  • Because of her friends' kindness and understanding, Kaguya becomes less strict and relaxed around them. As such, she became more of a big sister figure to Ishigami, willingly pulling pranks, and becoming more open about her feelings for Shirogane.
  • Between her and Shirogane, she's the one who finally admits to loving Shirogane and confesses her feelings first.
• Character Tics: In the later stages of the manga, she develops one specifically for the purpose of calming herself down and staying cool around Shirogane. Whenever she's overwhelmed, she puts her right hand on her left cheek, instantly calming her nerves. This backfires on her when her hand is impeded, making her go bananas in her mind.
• Childhood Friends: With Hayasaka, having known each other since infancy (though they were separated when they were two and didn't see each other for another five years). It's shown that she considers Hayasaka more of a family to herself than her own.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • She loathes any girl who tries to get close to Shirogane, even Fujiwara, her friend. It's to the point she freaks out if he even gets friends that are girls. Ironically, when she finally meets someone else who does have a crush on him (Moeha), the two of them get along great as they both gush about what they like about him. Played for Laughs with Hayasaka, who is really just friends with Shirogane, but loves teasing her mistress that friends can become lovers eventually. Kaguya still sometimes suspects Hayasaka to pine for Shirogane, mostly as revenge for her ridiculous demands and taking her for granted, but it's never something serious.
  • Even becoming his girlfriend doesn't lower her jealousy. Unlike Kashiwagi, Kaguya has full faith in Shirogane remaining faithful to her, but she still hates the idea of another girl trying to get close to her boyfriend.
  • Her lack of reaction towards Iino teasing Shirogane in Chapter 276 (assuming that it was a real Flash Forward, and not just Hayasaka's dream) shows that she grows out of this mindset by the time she and Shirogane are married.
• Cloudcuckoolander: While it may not seem like that at first glance, given her composed demeanor, Kaguya has a rather wild imagination, largely due to her lack of practical and common sense (due to her sheltered upbringing).
• Complexity Addiction: The entire foundation of her relationship with Shirogane starts with both of them refusing to just outright tell the other person that they love them, and they feel they have to use convoluted plans to force each other to confess first. Their plans are masterful and thinking skills second to none, but people like Fujiwara frequently prove that all it takes is one tiny piece of interference to utterly foil their schemes.
• Composite Character: In the first live-action movie, she ends up taking Iino's role as Shirogane's opponent in its adaptation of the Student Council Election arc, as Iino doesn't make an official appearance until the sequel movie.
• The Confidant: Many students come to Kaguya to ask for advice, especially in matters of love.
  • Kashiwagi typically comes to Kaguya when she has relationship issues with her boyfriend. Kaguya in turn trusts Kashiwagi with her own secrets, like her french-kissing Shirogane and later confessing to him.
  • Kaguya supports Ishigami in his love life with Tsubame and usually criticizes him for his extremely creepy expressions of love.
  • In Chapter 130, Tsubame asks Kaguya how to handle Ishigami's confession, as she has never looked at Ishigami that way and has Commitment Issues.
• Cool Big Sis: She initially wanted to be this for Kei, though in a hilarious case of irony, it's Ishigami that she ends up filling this role for. She helps him study for exams, supports him in his romantic pursuit of Tsubame, and generally makes a point of nurturing and doting on him. Moreover, this is mutual with Kei, who wants to be close to Kaguya just as badly.
• Coordinated Clothes: After becoming a couple with Shirogane, he gifts her a special crescent moon necklace that they both wear, something she still wears as shown by Chapter 261.
• Cosmic Motifs: While far more subtle than her relationship to cats, Kaguya has been compared to the moon on several occasions. Aside from the obvious name connection to the moon princess, Papa Shirogane gifted his son the same model of watch that was worn by the Apollo astronauts, saying that it should be worn by someone who's reaching for the moon and Shirogane's birthday present to her after they started dating was a crescent moon necklace). The credits sequence for the second season (which featured symbols representing the most important accessories of the main cast) had her represented by the full moon instead her hair ribbon. The waxing and waning of the moon fit in well with her being a Mood-Swinger. And finally, the two most important people in her life each have a stellar motif, as the moon is almost always accompanied in the night sky by stars.
• Covert Pervert: When imagining Shirogane joining her club, he was noticeably showing off his chest. In Chapter 70, she tries to learn what kind of underwear he is wearing, and all scenarios she comes up with make her look like a pervert. Not to mention her strong desires towards Exhausted Eye Bags and eyes in general, at least, towards Shirogane. After Chapter 220, it's hinted that Kaguya has often visited Shirogane's house when his family isn't around.
• Crazy-Prepared
  • According to Chapter 7, Kaguya has at least 42 volumes of manuals to counter what Shirogane will say. To help Shirogane win the election, she coerced one of the candidates into quitting, forced clubs to vote for him, and even bribed the election committee! However, it's fair to point out that she loses traction rather easily when things don't go the way she wants them to. On a more serious note, she also had Hayasaka hack into her brothers' computers to presumably acquire compromising data in order to blackmail her family if the circumstances ever call for it.
  • In Chapter 33, Kaguya replaces Shirogane's phone battery with a dead one. The dead battery similar to Shirogane's is revealed as #1 of the seven anti-Shirogane tools.
  • In Chapter 240, Kaguya and Hayasaka bring extra outfits for both genders in case someone comes to the dance underdressed. Iino appreciates the forethought, as Ishigami (her date) had arrived in his school uniform.
• Cultured Badass: She is a master in most art-related subjects, be it martial arts, theater, music, ikebana, dancing, painting, traditional tea-brewing, and many other things.
• The Cynic: Kaguya has a very pessimistic view of the world and doesn't engage in society much. Her social circle is thus very small. The Cynicism Catalyst for this was an incident back in middle school when a classmate admitted that her parents told her to befriend Kaguya and later revealed she was sick of her Innocently Insensitive nature. Kaguya then grew scared of everyone around her and distrusted them before she met Shirogane, with Fujiwara being the exception due to her sheer persistence to become friends with Kaguya. Fortunately, Shirogane's genuine altruism and Onodera's ability to keep secrets quickly help her change her ways and thoughts.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The flashback she had in Chapter 35 when she was sick strongly implies that she was raised without any familial love.
• Daughter of a Whore: It's revealed in Chapter 242 that Nayotake was a prostitute working in Gion's red-light district. This is the major reason why Kaguya is treated as such an outsider by the rest of the Shinomiya family.
• Deadpan Snarker: She comments on a lot of things with a very sarcastic tone, especially regarding Fujiwara. However, she usually keeps her thoughts to herself.
• Death Glare: When pissed she gives a good one. Usually towards Fujiwara and Ishigami.
• Death of Personality: In Chapter 141 as a result of her mental conflict from the French kiss as shown by a courtroom where Kaguya's ice side argues with her dumb side while her kid side acts as the judge. The ice side takes back total control of Kaguya's personality as shown by the ice side knocking the dumb side out. Downplayed as it's still Kaguya, just now a different aspect of her personality is dominant.
• Debt Detester: Her family is one that doesn't like owing people favors. She uses this excuse in order to tutor Ishigami and help get his grades back up after he's in danger of repeating the first year, due to him accidentally helping her out when Shirogane backed her into a corner.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Invoked. Back in middle school, Fujiwara challenged her to to a board game on the condition that she'd have to become her friend if she lost.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Her current state. Extras state that being with Shirogane actually defrosted her in two months' time, though Kaguya seems to think there is still more work to be done. She was apparently even more of an ice queen in middle school, to the point where Fujiwara notes that she was called "Kaguya the Ice Princess".
• Delicate and Sickly: Subverted and Parodied. Kaguya collapses in Chapter 79, seemingly because she suffers from the same heart disease her late mother had. Turns out she recently went through a lot of stress because being close to Shirogane makes her lovesick. She's otherwise completely healthy and fine.
• Despair Event Horizon: Played for Laughs in Chapter 57; when Shirogane and Fujiwara are married in the game, Kaguya actually cries and is visibly depressed. It's made even worse when Kaguya is overwhelmingly successful in her ventures while remaining single, while Shirogane and Fujiwara keep popping babies out, and adding insult to injury, they divorce late in the game, but Kaguya had been unable to marry Shirogane in the game, leaving her to win, crying alone on a pile of money.
• Didn't Think This Through: She agrees to let Oko gain all of the inheritance under the condition that he calls off the marriage and lets her reconcile things with the Shijo family. Unfortunately, she lays out these terms within earshot of Unyo, who is understandably peeved that he gets nothing out of this arrangement.
• Dislikes the New Guy: When Mikado gets transferred to her class in the third year, Kaguya is unaccepting of his presence, going as far as to chastise him for calling her "princess", (a nickname she received back in a family banquet) and rejected Maki's opinion that he and Shirogane are similar.
• The Drag-Along: For her family, Kaguya is basically an expensive piece of furniture that they can make use of, a carrier of the family name, and nothing more. She's to comply with their every whim so that her existence is justified, but has no say in what she wants for herself. It takes a team effort from her friends to get her out of this position.
• The Dreaded: Kaguya comes from a very powerful family and is fully capable of being intimidating on her own if the situation calls for it. Both Betsy and Hayato have ended up traumatized because they had the misfortune of getting on her bad side.
• Dreams of Flying: The ending for the anime has her dreaming of sprouting wings while the rest of the student council flies alongside her in WWI-era planes. It's a fantasy version of Chapter 45.
• Driven by Envy: Kaguya desires to have a lot of aspects from Fujiwara in terms of happiness, personability, friendships, and carefree attitude, to the point that she sometimes speculates that Fujiwara is the way she is just to personally spite her. Her relationship with Fujiwara starts turning better when she realizes that those speculations are unfounded, as Fujiwara tends to go out of her way to please her, and that the venom she expresses towards Fujiwara only serves to hurt herself. Also, Fujiwara denies her nothing, so Kaguya's only barrier is actually being too proud to ask.
• Dude Magnet: She gets confessed to once a month, though her typical personality means that none of them ever get accepted (except Shirogane's, for obvious reasons).
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Her Ice persona is marked by eyes lacking light to show her coldness toward everyone (as well as untied hair). She also gains them during her Heroic BSoD over losing her flip phone and all her photos with the council, with the light returning the moment the council's LINE chat gives her back all the photos on her new smartphone.
• Easily Forgiven: Fujiwara states in Chapter 77 that she is aware of Kaguya's coldness towards her, but that she loves her regardless. This implies that Kaguya is nowhere near as cunning or deadpan as she thinks she is.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: According to Oshi no Ko and Chapter 276, in the near future, Kaguya would not only become a photographer like she always wanted, but marry Shirogane based on their wedding rings and adopt his last name.
• Embarrassing Nickname:
  • As revealed in Chapter 98, Maki calls her "auntie" since she's Kaguya's second cousin twice removed. While Kaguya heavily dislikes her doing so, she grows to be more accepting of it after a number of bonding experiences between the two.
  • Chapter 117 has the whole student council refer to her as the "Muscle Queen" or "Muscle-Hime" after coming out on top in an arm wrestling contest against Shirogane. She was not happy at all with it despite winning.
• Emotion Suppression: When Kaguya feels anxious or stressed, she can enter into (Ice) Kaguya-mode, who suppresses most emotions. She also trains herself to suppress any emotion when she touches her left cheek with her right hand.
• Empty Eyes: Flashbacks to a year ago always show her with these. She also sports these whenever she starts scheming.
• Epic Fail: Massages are the sole exception to her usual competence. Apparently massages given by Kaguya are quite painful.
• Epiphanic Prison: She is in one created by her family, supported by the weight of the family name and the role she's supposed to fulfill for them. She was conditioned to be an accessory to their family plans, and this left Kaguya as an Ice Queen, perfect, immovable, and uncaring. It's later that she realizes that her love for Shirogane is a way out of the prison.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Betrayal is the one thing that Kaguya absolutely cannot stand. She values secret keepers above all, as she was already betrayed by classmates in elementary school who revealed that she is an illegitimate child. During the class trip in Kyoto, Kaguya's brother, Unyo, intends to break Kaguya by revealing that Hayasaka is The Mole for her eldest brother, Oko. However, while Kaguya is definitely upset, she is willing to hear Hayasaka out, shows empathy for how much Hayasaka had to go through, and quickly forgives her, catching Unyo by total surprise.
• Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: Heavily downplayed: while actually a good person, Kaguya views most of her family with contempt, yet a flashback to her childhood has her expressing anger on her late mother's behalf when her classmates show pity over her being an illegitimate child and her mother's death making her position in the family precarious at best.
  Kaguya: They can say what they want about me, but how dare they talk about my mother like that! I'll never forgive them!
• Even the Girls Want Her: She garners this attention from both Erika and Fujiwara, as at one point in We Want to Talk About Kaguya, these two rejected the notion of Kaguya cooking for someone else in her mind unless it was them. At least for Fujiwara, however, she disapproves of Kaguya's relationship with Shirogane, wanting her best friend all to herself before changing her mind.
• Exact Eavesdropping: The Four Bases of Lovers arc has her overhearing Shirogane's admission to his friends that he wants to have sex with her, leaving her anxious about when he's going to start making sexual advances.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Occurred pre-series. "Ice" Kaguya's hair is down, present-day Kaguya ties most of it up. Chapter 141 has Kaguya going back to that hairstyle to show that "Ice" Kaguya is back in control. Likewise, when she uses the cloth from Shirogane's present to tie her hair back up in Chapter 150 it's a sign that "Normal" Kaguya has returned.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: After she develops her "ritual," she becomes able to face Shirogane, who asks why she's been avoiding him. But then he grabs her by the wrist to prevent her from running away, distressing her. Unfortunately, he grabs the hand that she uses to keep her composure, something she only realizes after mentally overlooking her situation.
  Kaguya: Once I activate my ritual, I'll be unstoppable! Just gotta touch my left cheek with my right hand. The same hand... he's holding.
• Expressive Hair: Her tied-up hair droops down far more than normal during her depressed state in Chapter 101.
• Extreme Doormat: Towards her family. When it comes to her future plans, she has a dead-eyed gaze when responding that she'll do whatever her family tells her to do. When confirming her and Shirogane's feelings together, she initially plans to leave the family since they will never accept her being in a relationship with him or going to Stanford. However, when the adrenaline runs out she's scared to go through with it. With the help of her friends, Kaguya manages to stand up against her family and state what she wants to do.
• Failed a Spot Check: Subverted. It seems at first as though Kaguya's ignorance of sexuality means she hasn't caught on to Kashiwagi and Tsubasa clearly having had sex, but it's actually just that she had no reason to talk to her about it. When she calls up Kashiwagi to ask about it and her panicked friend tries to deny it, Kaguya just say has this to say:
  Kaguya: How stupid do you think I am? Now answer the question.
• Family of Choice: Kaguya has long ago written off the self-centered Jerkasses that make up her biological family as a lost cause and instead looks towards the family of her crush Shirogane as a potential source of familial love. This becomes especially apparent when she talks with Kashiwagi shortly after she and Shirogane start dating, and she says that she wants to be accepted as a member of their family as soon as possible. The feeling is clearly mutual, with both Papa Shirogane and especially Kei being very supportive of Miyuki dating Kaguya.
• Family Theme Naming: Her mother's name was Nayotake. When you put the two in age order, you get the full title of the princess from The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Nayotake no Kaguya-Hime.
• Fetish: Exhausted Eye Bags. At first, it only seemed like she likes it because of how stern it makes Shirogane look and how that adds to his gap moe, but Chapter 64 reveals that the more tired he is, the more excited she gets (to the point that she looked dangerously close to squirting herself when she saw Shirogane with the biggest eye bags he ever sported at the time). Ironically, back when she was still "Kaguya (Ice)", she used to hate them. In Chapter 237, it's revealed Kaguya gained a strong interest in eyes after hearing about "eye licking." It's strongly implied that the reason she's attracted to them is that they are the obvious physical sign of him constantly pushing himself to improve.
• Flowers of Romance: In the final chapter, she prepares a surprise for Shirogane by arranging for the entire school to celebrate him "graduating" ^note He had to drop out halfway through the senior year so he could attend Stanford with the rest of their graduating class throwing the flowers on their lapels in the air as a recreation of his Grand Romantic Gesture to her back during the culture festival.
• Foil:
  • To Maki. While both are generally related, Kaguya has a very unhealthy relationship with her biological family, though she has a very secure love life with Shirogane. Maki, on the other hand, has a healthy family relationship but is unable to find a romantic partner.
  • As time goes by, she is also one to Iino. Kaguya was an outwardly ruthless person who learned to use her inner goodness and relied on subtle manipulation, while Iino is an outwardly good person who learns to use her inner ruthlessness and relies on bold power plays. There's also how they react to Fujiwara talking about their love interests; Kaguya simply gave her a Death Glare when she starts describing Shirogane, whereas Iino actively drags her out of the room when she describes Ishigami.
• Forehead of Doom: She has a very pronounced forehead, though Art Evolution makes it less noticeable as the series goes on.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Fujiwara notes that Kaguya has a bad habit of forgetting her first interactions with people because she often didn't view them as being important enough to remember. This comes to be something she regrets as time goes on.
  • She and Shirogane actually met very early on in their freshman year, but she has absolutely no memory of it because his personality at the time made so little of an impression on her. When she's informed that he fell in love with her around that time, she outright states that's impossible due to the fact that they hadn't met yet.
  • Chapter 208 heavily implies that she also met Kei sometime in the past and that she was the one who indirectly encouraged her to leave her overbearing mother so she can return to her more loving father and brother, though Kaguya doesn't seem to remember it either. This puts all of Kei's interactions and deep admiration for Kaguya up until that point in a new light.
  • When Mikado attempts to establish contact with her on his first day at Shuchi'in (Chapter 212), she appears to have forgotten ever interacting with him as a child. Chapter 240 reveals she may remember it too well, with her referring to a broken promise.
  • She first met Fujiwara while the latter was practicing piano alone, and outright told her to quit. While Fujiwara initially found it harsh, that was actually what she needed to hear at the time, as she had already started to suffer massive burnout from playing the piano nonstop and having no time for anything else.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Quite the cynic, as her worldview is easily the most pessimistic among the Council members.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic: hard-working, with a rather pessimistic worldview, ar first with a tendency to be distrustful towards others and thinking everyone only cares for personal gain and an aloof exterior - which, needless to say, hides her genuine kindness. And even after her Character Development, she tends to be the most overthinking Council member.
• Friendship Favoritism: During the trip to Kyoto, Hayasaka's friends at school notice that Kaguya is actually very close to Hayasaka. One of them openly argues with Kaguya to see who is her Best Friend and knows Hayasaka better.

Tropes G - L

• Geeky Turn-On: Shirogane's first birthday gift to her after they start dating is a crescent moon necklace that has a 24.8 cm chain. Kaguya starts squeeing over it since that particular length means that it would take approximately one second for it to swing if used as a pendulum (and she correctly assumes that he is wearing an identical one at the same time) so it can be interpreted as "time is ours to share."
• Genius Sweet Tooth: Downplayed. A flashback in Chapter 37 reveals that one of the few things she actually liked in her pre-defrosting days was shortcake. She's tremendously flattered at the fact that Shirogane remembers, though she makes an effort for him not to notice her Crush Blush.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • One of Kaguya's plans involved tricking Shirogane into using tips from "Textbook of Love" from a girls' magazine so she'd have plausible cause to claim that he read it to get her to fall for him. All three steps end up working on her perfectly (she even ends up having a Heroic BSoD when he gets to the "say you hate them" step) despite the fact that she knew he was faking it.
  • Again when she tries to use cosplay to get Shirogane to admit he's attracted to her. As he's decided to be honest with his feelings for her, he's quite open with the fact that she looks great, making Kaguya far too flustered to go through with asking him if he likes her.
• Grade Skipper: Subverted. Shirogane's initial plan was for her to come with him to Stanford part way through senior year (since Japan and America's school years start at different times), but circumstances with her family force her to withdraw her initial application and put off attending until after graduation.
• Happily Married: Kaguya and Shirogane get married at some point in the future with what's shown in Chapter 276's Flash Forward, with Oshi no Ko confirming she took up the Shirogane family name. And what's shown so far is that the two are happy together.
• Happy Dance: Kaguya knows many formal dances, but the way she dances when she's successful is unashamedly gleeful.
• Hates Being Alone: Kaguya treasures her friends greatly and being left alone leaves her sad and crying, with the only thing keeping her sane in Chapter 44 being a frantic Madness Mantra. She also reacts very upset when she learns that Hayasaka intends to quit her job, and is seen very clingily sticking close to her during the Kyoto trip.
• Heel Realization: She realizes a few days after committing election fraud that it was wrong.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": Exaggerated. The mere mention of the word "wiener" will send her into an uncontrollable laughing fit. Fujiwara immediately exploits this once she finds out, though thankfully the implications mean that Shirogane immediately rejects her attempts to get him to say it.
• Heir Club for Men: Implied Trope. It's hinted that Kaguya has considerably less say in her family matters than her siblings because, simply, she's the only girl, although she's also the youngest sibling. It's further implied that her brothers have more influence in the family and are in line to inherit the whole empire because in her family's dynamics, Men Are Better Than Women. However, it's precisely this isolation that has given Kaguya the courage to seek a better life far from her family, finding friends and people who love her along the way. In reality, her lack of clout in the family is because she's actually an illegitimate child.
• He Is Not My Boyfriend: Almost never blatantly stated (except perhaps to herself), but Kaguya has several times brushed off suggestions that she likes Shirogane, no matter how obvious the fact is. When Hayasaka's friends ask her, she denies it (despite being in a Secret Relationship already), stating that platonic relationships exist too, only to immediately retract it and openly show her jealousy when she sees Hayasaka being intimate with Shirogane.
  Kaguya: There is no such thing as "Just Friends" between a man and a woman! I know it for a fact!
• Hellish Pupils: When she gets really mad, she gets these. Having blood-red eyes helps too.
• Help Mistaken for Attack: When Kaguya tries to help Ishigami study so he won't be held back a year, he comes to the conclusion that she's trying to torture him, even when she gives him some leftover cake as a reward for his hard work.
• Heroic Bastard: Kaguya's mother was actually a prostitute that Gan'an got pregnant, explaining why she doesn't have as much of a say in the family business as her older brothers.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • After she gets Shirogane to say out a tsundere line, Kaguya immediately goes into one of these despite actively knowing he was faking it. This is the only time one of these instances from her is Played for Laughs, with the other instances being played incredibly straight.
  • Suffers one when she is forced to stay at home and can't watch the fireworks with her friends. Shirogane and her friends coming to her rescue manage to break her out of it.
  • Suffers one when her flip phone breaks and the data can't be saved. The photos on the phone gave her a feeling of normalcy and that she is living the ordinary life of a high school girl. She recovers when her friends invite her to their newly created LINE group and share their own photos with her, giving Kaguya her precious mementos back and signaling to her, that they were precious to them as well.
  • Suffers one after she finally kisses Shirogane, and later realizes the ramifications of it. Her IQ shrinks to near zero and she turns into a chibi version of herself, albeit only in the eyes of the reader.
  • She suffers one during the whole Kyoto trip. The thought of losing Hayasaka, after Kaguya learns that she is quitting her job, depresses her greatly and leads to several stages of grief. After learning the truth of how miserable Hayasaka feels about working and betraying Kaguya, Kaguya finally accepts and lets her go. However, she is very happy to see that Hayasaka has not abandoned her and they can now be completely genuine friends now.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Despite her usual arrogance, she falls into a Heroic BSoD in Chapter 32 when Shirogane says he hates her. She states she knows that she can be cruel and wants to fix that. A more throughout one happens in Chapter 146 because Kaguya (Ice)'s cold attitude worried Shirogane into collapsing. She breaks down, seeing this as proof that no one can love her.
• Her Own Worst Enemy: Kaguya's "losses" in her games with Shirogane are generally due to her own conceit, or by thinking that she has more control of the situation than she actually does. Hell, even the majority of her "wins" have nothing to do with what she had planned.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Hayasaka. While their relationship is technically that of a mistress and a servant, Word of God says that they're more like very close sisters and Chapter 75 suggests that Hayasaka is the only person in the world more important to her than Shirogane.
• Here We Go Again!: Even after graduating high school and going to college together, the new love is war game is with Kaguya wanting Shirogane to propose to her as soon as possible, and with Shirogane wishing to be a success in the eyes of her family before he could propose (but he would not mind if she proposed first).
• Hidden Depths:
  • Chapter 259 reveals that her dream job is to become a photographer, much to the surprise of everyone present.
  • Chapter 226 revealed that despite everything being done for her, she’s able to cook up decent-looking Bento food.
• High Hopes, Zero Talent: For someone who is otherwise an Instant Expert, she ironically struggles when it comes to photography despite it being her desired career path. Her cameo appearance in Oshi no Ko shows that she does eventually get the hang of it.
• High-School Sweethearts: Based on Oshi no Ko and Chapter 276, Kaguya stayed by Shirogane's side even after high school and college, and at some point, got married.
• Hope Is Scary: When she's forbidden from going to the Fireworks Festival in Chapter 44, she regrets ever having happy moments with the student council because now she knows the pain of not being able to see them. Fortunately, the other council members are quick to remedy this.
• Hopeless with Tech:
  • Chapter 42 shows that she has very limited knowledge about technology, even thinking that she broke the internet while trying to make a Twitter account. She also starts off the series with a flip phone when everyone else uses smartphones.
  • In an interesting Subversion, Kaguya is really fast at typing.
• Humble Heroine: Subverted. Despite being a master archer with Improbable Aiming Skills, Kaguya stopped participating in tournaments after high school. The Mass Media Club duo assumes that Kaguya humbly stepped down, so others don't feel overwhelmed by her talent and become jealous. The actual reason why she doesn't participate? The tournaments are around Christmas and Kaguya would rather spend that time with Shirogane. She nonetheless goes along with what Karen and Erika say, shamelessly giving a very mature response.
• Hypocrite:
  • Kaguya believes that Shirogane is being ridiculously stubborn when he prevents her from celebrating his birthday, but she is equally quick to shoot down any perceived pity.
  • Kaguya is extremely disturbed when Yume Atenbo, brings up not-publicly available facts like Shirogane's weight at birth during her fortune-telling. Never mind that she herself also obtained that information somehow.
  • Chapter 97 has Kaguya and the other student council girls chide Tsubasa's necklace gift to Kashiwagi as a tacky option. In Chapter 162, she's as gleeful as Kashiwagi was when Shirogane's gift for her is a crescent moon necklace (granted, that he managed to sneak in a subtle message in said gift).
• Hypocritical Humor: It's a Running Gag of hers to mentally accuse someone else (usually Fujiwara or Kashiwagi) of some negative trait, only to reveal just a few seconds later that she's guilty of the same thing. Of course, this all flies over her head.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Even after resolving to confess to Shirogane, Kaguya still can't bring herself to do so because if he turned her down it would destroy the relationship that they already have.
  Kaguya: If you were to reject my confession, there's no doubt that our friendship would be ruined. That's why I want to be confessed to. Because if I were to confess, I might fail. However, if you were to confess to me, your chance of success is 100%!
• I Gave My Word: If she swears on her honor as a Shinomiya that Ishigami will pass his remedial exams, then she is going to make sure he passes, whether he wants her help or not.
• I Hate Past Me: She is deeply ashamed of her past as an Ice Queen, referring to herself as having been "a terrible woman with a twisted, disfigured heart." It also puts her square in Insecure Love Interest territory, as it makes her feel unworthy of being loved by a Nice Guy like Shirogane.
• I Have This Friend: Attempts to use this when confiding her love woes to Kashiwagi. Needless to say, she doesn't fall for it at all. In Chapter 144, Ice Kaguya drops the pretenses and just openly asks Kashiwagi for advice regarding her love life with Shirogane.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Kaguya has been treated as little more than a pawn by her family her entire life. As a result, she desperately wants to be able to cut ties with them and choose her own path. She even admits to Shirogane in Chapter 218 that her ideal self would be someone who rules the entire planet just so that nobody could tell her what to do.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Kaguya was starved of affection her entire life due to her family's Social Darwinist philosophy and emotional neglect from her father, so the things that motivate her the most are a desire for both romantic and familial love. Unfortunately, her desire for the former is hampered by her inability to confess to the boy she likes due to conditioning from the environment she grew up in. Chapter 146 implies Kaguya (Ice)'s desire to be kissed by Shirogane is proof that he loves every part of her, even the parts that she dislikes.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Kaguya was raised to be a Social Darwinist because of her family's beliefs and was basically robbed of having a proper childhood due to her father's neglect. As such, she relishes any chance she can get to act like a normal girl.
  • In Chapter 100, her flip phone breaks, and since all the photos she took with it were saved in the internal storage, the data is lost forever, leaving her heartbroken. Kaguya treasured these photos because they captured special moments of an ordinary high school girl's life. After Kaguya gets a smartphone and joins Shirogane's newly created LINE group, she regains her smile when her friends upload their own photos to serve as a replacement.
  • This even extends to her views on romance, as she comments that Kashiwagi and Tsubasa having their first kiss in front of a convenience store must have been wonderful despite her own first kiss with Shirogane having been a thousand times more romantic.
  • In the same chapter, she notes that Kashiwagi refers to her as "Kaguya-chan" as if she considers Kaguya an ordinary friend. When Kashiwagi apologizes and says she won't do it anymore, Kaguya looks a little sad and says she is fine with it, showing that as well as an ordinary love affair, she also wants ordinary schoolmates who treat her like one of them.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Before she joined the student council, Kaguya was, for lack of a better description, a hypercompetent empty husk. Flashbacks show how in the past she tried to bond with Hayasaka and Maki, but due to familial circumstances, both kept a certain distance from her. Her friends gave meaning to her life as more than just the fourth child of a family that doesn't care about her.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Hayasaka is actually surprised that she had no intention of interfering with Shirogane's plans to leave for Stanford, as she knows just how important of an opportunity it is for him. Fortunately, it's ultimately a moot point, as Shirogane had already made arrangements for her to be able to come with him (and even after she's forced to withdraw her application to graduate early, they're still able to maintain a Long-Distance Relationship until she can join him at the start of the following school year).
• Ice Queen: Played With. Kaguya, before the start of the story, used to be extremely cold and pragmatic, both as a result of her upbringing and because very few people could accept her for who she was without resenting her, and only seemed to get close to her because of her family. Shirogane's genuine altruism helped her see the good side of everyone around her. However, she freezes back up again after kissing Shirogane... partially. She goes back to her cold demeanor, but actually drops a lot of her tsuntsun attitude, leaving Shirogane unable to understand what she's trying to communicate.
• Identical Stranger: The light novel spin-off reveals that a girl who attended the school 40 years prior looked nearly identical to her (as shown via a painting that a boy who had a crush on her had made). While it's possible that they might be related, they definitely aren't her direct ancestor considering the fact that they committed suicide.
• Ignored Epiphany: When she's trying to get a peek at Shirogane's underpants, she realizes that should he catch her, she could give him no legitimate reason for what she was doing. But this merely convinces her to change tactics, instead of acknowledging that maybe her goal sounds perverted because it is.
• Important Hair Accessory: Kaguya ties up her hair with a red ribbon, which she started doing after initially falling in love with Shirogane. It's removed during The First Kiss Never Ends arc when Kaguya (Ice) takes control and gets replaced with a white cloth from Shirogane's Christmas present at the end of the arc after she and Shirogane confess their feelings before going back to the regular ribbon.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: She can easily catch a fly using chopsticks. She's also a top-ranked competitive archer.
• In Vino Veritas: Effectively, given that minors aren't allowed to drink alcohol. In a chapter where gets a cold, she behaves just like she's drunk, at which point Shirogane learns for the first time that she has crappy self-esteem, doesn't know how to handle basic interactions with people, and is worried that he hates her.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Openly proud of her pedigree, but just below the surface she's highly insecure and outright hates her own personality sometimes.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • As a child, she would regularly tell her classmates to get serious, with good intentions because they weren't as fast as she was, which would regularly hurt their feelings.
  • After she and Shirogane become a couple, she starts sharing the details of their relationship with Hayasaka, not realizing that she's essentially bragging about how awesome it is having a boyfriend to someone who's still single (and may or may not have some feelings for Shirogane herself). She honestly thinks Hayasaka wants to hear all of this because she knows she's curious about romance and thinks Hayasaka would appreciate hearing a first-hand account of an actual relationship and doesn't understand why she's started running away whenever Kaguya starts talking. Once they clear it all up, Hayasaka is far more comfortable about hearing Kaguya talk about her relationship with Shirogane.
• Insecure Love Interest: Kaguya, for all her riches, intelligence, looks, and popularity feels that her past as an Ice Queen makes her unworthy of being in love with the kindhearted Shirogane. As such, hearing that he loves every part of her personality makes her even more lovestruck for him.
• Instant Expert: She tends to learn how to do things on her first try, such as immediately becoming a better rapper than Shirogane or Fujiwara. She even feels this way herself, dismissing her own exceptional archery skills by saying that she hit a lucky bullseye once, and every shot she's taken ever since is just imitating what she did that time. Ironically, she struggles when it comes to photography, despite it being the one thing that she actually has passion for.
• Instant Fan Club: Karen and Erika refer to themselves as the "Kaguya-sama Fan Club", though they admit that it's just something that they like to call themselves. Kaguya is oblivious to their worship and probably doesn't even know who they are beyond being members of the mass media club.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: When Kaguya jokes about making Hayasaka walk home in the rain, Hayasaka threatens her with divine retribution. Kaguya scoffs that she doesn't believe in those superst- cue a gust of wind in her face blowing up her umbrella.
• Insult Backfire: Miko says that she's just like Shirogane (a cruel bully who will go to any length to get what they want). She takes it as a sign that they're perfect for each other.
• Insult of Endearment: Maki continues to call her "auntie" even after they're on good terms, presumably a result of habit more than anything else.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: Kaguya knows this trope and states that she generally only uses 60 percent of her abilities to avoid this.
• Internal Reformist: Once it becomes clear that she'll never truly be able to have her own life so long as her family remains as it is (via an indirect threat from her eldest brother), she withdraws her application to Stanford so she can focus on changing the Shinomiyas for the better and thus be free to live out her dream of staying with Shirogane's family. Fortunately, she is overwhelmingly successful and gets her dream.
• Internalized Categorism: Kaguya is not really comfortable with her sexuality, because of her old-fashioned and repressive upbringing. She can never just say that she wants physical affection, it has to be initiated by someone else or rationalized for their benefit.
  (when Shirogane deflects her attempt to cuddle with him) What is wrong with him?! He's treating me like a nuisance! Of course I know that his work is important...that's precisely why I'm trying to help him relax.
  Narration: Kaguya had an excuse ready to go.
• Irony: The Shinomiya family has an ironclad policy of banning any photographs of its members from going public. In spite of this, Kaguya herself enjoys taking pictures. Upon deciding to pursue photography as a career, Kaguya finds that her passion is one of the few skills in which she lacks natural talent.
• It's All About Me: Downplayed, but that bad habit Kaguya herself acknowledges she has due to her upbringing as a Shinomiya can still manifest to a little extent. While she subverted her tendency to factor how likable a person is based on their current value in furthering her own goals, on the other hand, for example, for the sake of impressing Shirogane, Kaguya is perfectly willing to exploit a school fundraiser to make herself look good, even if she has to undermine her fellow council members and render their donation invalid.
  • In Chapter 180, when Kaguya asks why Hayasaka didn't bring up the matter of quitting her job to Kaguya earlier, Hayasaka notes that whenever Kaguya calls her to her room to talk in the night, all they talk about is her. Kaguya never wanted to talk about or listen to Hayasaka's own share of problems. This deeply upsets Kaguya upon hearing this, and she wastes no time in making efforts to patch things up with Hayasaka.
• Jerkass Ball: While she is a reasonably Nice Girl and a good person at heart, Kaguya still does have some minor moments of arrogance, with a tendency to slightly look down on others, especially when they interfere in her relationship with Shirogane in some way - see It's All About Me above for some examples.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • When Fujiwara got a fortune in Chapter 51 which stated she is incredibly kind, Kaguya thought that it was a lie and she was actually pretty selfish. Kaguya's thoughts were proven right when Ishigami revealed he shared Fujiwara's birthday and Fujiwara had a hissy fit about sharing the date.
  • Kaguya is rather ruthless during the election, including forcing a rival candidate to drop out and trying to bribe Iino (Shirogane's other rival) to do the same and for the arguably selfish motivation of wanting to continue working with Shirogane on the Student Council. However, she's understandably annoyed when Shirogane almost snatches defeat from the jaws of victory by snapping Iino out of her Heroic BSoD, causing Iino to eloquently debate her points and almost win the election despite having been at an overwhelming disadvantage before. Shirogane ends up apologizing to Kaguya for wasting her hard work, though the stunt only made Kaguya's love for him grow.
  • Kaguya's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Iino in which she asserts that if Iino can't make an effort to understand, much less forgive, Osaragi, she'll never make a good Student Council President is quite harsh, but she has valid points about Iino's naivete and inability to compromise not endearing her to her schoolmates. Iino gets the point, as she makes up with Osaragi and with her help wins a future election by a landslide.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Subverted, as she doesn't want to be a jerk at all but was raised to be one. Kaguya is capable of rare acts of kindness early on (something which becomes much more common as the series progresses). Due to being born into an uncaring high-class family, the manner Kaguya was raised caused her to be prideful, cold, and calculating; but underneath her personality traits, she is really an innocent, kind, and fair-minded teenage girl at heart. Aside from a few occasional unkind moments, Kaguya quickly grows out of the "jerk" part and lets her heart shine out for all to see.
• Kindness Button:
  • Having her relationship with Shirogane validated, however indirectly, by someone else.
  • Kaguya greatly values trustworthiness. Proving they can keep a secret is an absolute must for her to consider someone a friend.
• The Lancer: To Shirogane, in her role as vice president. Where Shirogane is a charismatic Determinator who leads through example, Kaguya is much more ruthless and underhanded.
• Last-Name Basis: Kaguya almost exclusively refers to everyone by their last name no matter how close to them with the exception of those that you'd expect by social convention (family members and children). It wouldn't be until Chapter 187 that she'd willingly call someone by their first name (in this case, Hayasaka), and she doesn't even try to start calling Shirogane by his first name until they've been dating for roughly half a year.
• Lecherous Licking: She learns about eyeball licking from Hayasaka in Chapter 237, which she shows obvious interest in given her glare fetish. It's not specifically stated if she actually did it to Shirogane at the end of the chapter, but the narration notes that he lost his fear of wearing contacts afterwards.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Inverted. Removing her ribbon and letting her hair hang down is the telltale sign that (Ice) is in control.
• Like Brother and Sister: By the time the culture festival rolls around, Kaguya has come to view Ishigami as her precious little brother and appears to have a far better relationship with him than any of her actual brothers. Quite a few chapters have her either doting on him or doing something to help him improve his self-confidence. She also hopes to have this kind of relationship with Shirogane's sister Kei, a feeling which is very much mutual between the two.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Shirogane's courtship of her started nearly identically to how his parents got together (the boy clawing his way to the top of his class to catch the girl's attention). His father is quick to pick up on this the first time they meet and gives her a Secret Test of Character to make sure that she doesn't have sinister intentions like his Gold Digger estranged wife.
• Lonely Rich Kid: She lives in a Big Fancy House separate from the rest of her family due to being an illegitimate child, and is isolated from most of her peers with only two real friends to speak of at the beginning of the series.
• Long-Distance Relationship: Being unable to join Shirogane due to her family forcing her to drop the plan until next year, Kaguya and Shirogane settled on a long-distance relationship as they chat online. Kaguya even used her wealth to regularly visit him on the weekends.
• Longing Look: Lampshaded in Chapter 45, when her internal monologue points out her inability to look away from Shirogane despite the fireworks she so desperately wanted to see appearing just outside the window of the taxi they were in. Though it would take another 75 chapters before she would admit to herself that she actually had feelings for him.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: It says a lot that her fellow students and friends greatly helped her grow into a better person.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Downplayed. Kaguya isn't bitchy by nature, but still has a slightly haughty demeanor at times, and effectively is at the very top of Shuchi'in's Popularity Food Chain. That said, Kaguya refuses to judge others based on rumors and hearsay. This is best shown with her relationship with Ishigami, who she develops a close Senpai-Kohai bond with despite him having supposedly stalked a girl back in middle school, and goes so far as to scare off several girls with a Death Glare when they try to dissuade her from associating with him. She'd already investigated the rumors on her own with Shirogane since she found them suspicious.
• Love Epiphany: She finally admits to herself (and Hayasaka) that she's in love with Shirogane in Chapter 120.
• Love Makes You Dumb:
  • In preparation for Shirogane's birthday, Kaguya orders a huge cake that would be more suitable for a wedding. Hayasaka recognizes the overkill immediately, and it's only right before she gives it that Kaguya remembers that Fujiwara's birthday cake was much smaller—and much less embarrassing. While she mulls over what to do, Kaguya imagines a dialogue between her "cold side" and her "dumb side," evoking a Good Angel, Bad Angel conflict. Her dumb side advocates fiercely to give Shirogane the cake, being open, honest, and insistent about Kaguya's love for him.
  Hayasaka: You didn't use to be such a moron...
  • Played for laughs. When Shirogane tells her to come with him to Stanford, she French-kisses him so hard that they're both left in a state of stupefaction.
  • Inverted once she and Shirogane actually start dating. Since she's no longer wasting any brainpower on trying to outsmart him, she ends up running circles around the entire council with little effort.
• Love Redeems: Kaguya used to be a borderline empty shell, whose only view of others was based on how she could take advantage of them. Falling in love with Shirogane caused her to realize how toxic her worldview was and (slowly) become a nicer person.
• Loving Details: When Shirogane claims that she probably doesn't even remember his birthday since he only ever told her once, she mentally lists off his birthday, horoscope sign, blood type, and birth weight (with a caption noting that he never told her the last two things).
• Luminescent Blush: She is prone to these whenever she has romantic thoughts about or intimate interactions with Shirogane.

Tropes M - R

• Mafia Princess: Played with. Her father is a Corrupt Corporate Executive rather than a crime boss, though it's treated as the same thing (just on a much larger scale). Of course, Kaguya herself has very little power within the family compared to her older brothers due to some combination of her age, gender, and illegitimate birth.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Gan'an admits in Chapter 248 that he's never been sure if Kaguya was his biological child or not given that Nayotake was a prostitute. While he could very easily do a DNA test (and considered doing so countless times), he didn't because he was afraid.
• Mandatory Line: Kaguya appears in every single chapter in the main series up until the New Game arc, though Chapters 43 and 65 only have her show up at the very last panel to deliver a single line (highlighting her loneliness in the former, and wondering where everyone is in the latter).
• Manipulative Bastard: An effective strategy she uses very often on Fujiwara is to redirect her attention or manipulate her emotions to control her either to her advantage or out of the way if she is interfering.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Kaguya embodies this trope during the post-culture festival arc, with constant contradictory actions every time she interacts with Shirogane. This is exacerbated by the fact that Shirogane is so used to their mind games that he can't see when she's trying to be direct with him, and he's too off-balance to notice her advances.
• Meaningful Name: She tries to avert it because the original Kaguya ended her life lonely and heartbroken.
• Missing Mom: Her mother Nayotake died from heart disease shortly after she was born.
• Moe Couplet: Her interactions with Ishigami in later chapters really help to bring her nurturing side to the surface as well as highlight her Character Development.
• Mood-Swinger: Lampshaded by Fujiwara of all people in Chapter 139. Kaguya's emotions can change at the drop of the hat going from cold and calculated, happy and love-struck, scared and nervous, or angry and hate-filled based on her surroundings. These various moods are represented by several distinct pseudopersonalities that engage in mental court cases (it's specified at multiple points that they are not Split Personalities, just caricatures).
• Murder the Hypotenuse:
  • She considers doing this to Moeha after discovering that she has a crush on Shirogane, but it quickly turns into a bonding moment between the two when it's revealed that all of Moeha's reasons for liking him match up with her own.
    The joy that comes from sharing the things you like about your first love is a miracle that eclipses all contempt for one's rival in love.
  • This comes up again when she discovers how close Shirogane and Iino are (albeit in a strictly platonic sense), though Iino quickly defuses the situation by revealing to Kaguya that she knows about and supports her Secret Relationship with Shirogane.
• Muscle Angst: Being crowned the "Muscle Queen" after accidentally winning the student council arm wrestling tournament didn't sit well with her, especially after Shirogane starts referring to her as such. She packs some muscle due to the fact that she's a competition-level archer.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Her delicate-looking svelt and slender body does a very good job at hiding her arm strength, which Shirogane and Ishigami quickly discover while arm-wrestling with her. This is a result of her practicing archery, though the same reason means that her left arm is the stronger of the two.
• My God, What Have I Done?: She reacts this way in Chapter 130, when she accidentally tried to sabotage Ishigami's chances with Tsubame, mistakenly believing that Ishigami's love rival (and not Ishigami himself) just confessed to Tsubame (which she encouraged him to do). The moment Kaguya realizes she screwed up, she immediately takes back everything she just said to Tsubame. A volume bonus also reveals that she tasks Hayasaka to set up a mixer for Ishigami to recompense.
• My New Gift Is Lame: Inverted. While she does laugh at how dumb and out of place Shirogane's Christmas gift of a kendama is, she's actually happy because she wants the two of them to be able to share their flaws with each other.
• Naginatas Are Feminine: Karen mentions that she's skilled at naginata-jutsu, though she's never shown wielding one.
• Never Be Hurt Again: The reason for Kaguya being an Ice Queen in middle school is because she realized a lot of her classmates approached her due to her family and thus she shut them out because of her fear of being hurt. Both ways.
• Never Had a Birthday Party: As one of the many signs of her father's neglect, It's casually mentioned in Chapter 53 that she's never celebrated her birthday. The closest she's ever gotten is the family's New Year's gathering, and even then the only person who actually wishes her a Happy Birthday is her unseen sister-in-law.
• Nice Girl: Although Kaguya used to be an Ice Queen, her development as a person shows that the kindness she's progressively more and more capable of is genuine, and unlike Fujiwara (who, because of her selfish tendencies, Took a Level in Jerkass) she's consistently selfless and supportive. Sometimes she's still a little cocky, though.
• Nice to the Waiter: While Kaguya can occasionally be needy and a bit haughty, she values her bond with Hayasaka above all others (even her relationship with Shirogane) and views her as a sister in all but name.
• Nightmare Face: She's a master of making different varieties of this expression whenever she either schemes, smirks, or is glaring at someone (usually Fujiwara), especially in the earlier chapters. This is so poignant that Ishigami thinks that both he and Fujiwara are in mortal danger every time Kaguya glares at them like that.
• No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: She is disconcerted in the moon-viewing chapter because in it Shirogane gives her everything she wants and yet simultaneously pays no real attention to her.
• No Hero to His Valet: Kaguya is looked up to in school, both as the second highest scoring student and as the daughter of a prestigious family. The only exceptions to this rule are Hayasaka and Maki, the former for being her childhood friend and confidant, and the latter for being her intellectual equal and cousin.
• No Infantile Amnesia: A bonus yonkoma released in the fifth Season 2 Blu-Ray reveals that she vaguely remembers being cuddled by her mother despite the fact that Nayotake died less than a month after her birth. Chapter 258 has her ruminating over her photographic memory, which includes a flashback of her watching her parents while lying in a crib.
• Not a Morning Person: Inverted. It's shown at multiple points in the series that Kaguya has trouble staying up any later than 11 pm before getting incredibly drowsy and eventually passing out.
• Not So Above It All:
  • She does a Spit Take every time Fujiwara mentions the word "Chinchin" ^ExplanationShe was referring to a dog trick, but it can also translate to "penis". The manga and fansubs translate it to "wiener". during a casual conversation. Once the latter figures out it's making her laugh, she relentlessly continues saying it. Kaguya meanwhile, tries her hardest to get her to stop and foils Fujiwara's repeated attempts to get Shirogane to say it. He later runs out thinking the two girls wanted to do perverted things to him.
  • Chapter 42 shows that she also has imagine spots of Shirogane saying "How Cute".
  • Chapter 91 has her acting all high-and-mighty that a nearly exploding balloon doesn't scare her (while actually using her hand-on-cheek trick to calm herself). When Fujiwara points out that Kaguya can't pump the balloon with one hand, she immediately loses her composure and starts to panic, and even resorts to several drastic measures to make the balloon burst while standing far enough away from it.
  • Chapter 141 is this for her ice side from Chapter 59. Despite her dismissive attitude towards Shirogane in that chapter, she's also shown as chibi with blush stickers holding one of the heart balloons as she tries to mock the dumb side. She's angry that her dumb side kissed Shirogane because she wanted him to kiss her. She then snaps when Kaguya and her dumb side yell that she doesn't love Shirogane, exploding that she fell for him first before the dumb side ever existed.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: She has attempted to act stupider to appeal to Shirogane.
• Odd Couple: What started as a simple gag of Kaguya scaring Ishigami away by her presence alone evolved into quite an interesting friendship as the series progresses. Kaguya becomes supportive of Ishigami's growth out of his shell, hoping he achieves his objectives. At the same time, Ishigami sees Kaguya as someone he can confide in, give the support he needs to become a better person, and someone he fully trusts.
• Odd Friendship: Her friendship with Fujiwara is something of an enigma, given that they are almost complete opposites (she used to be cold and calculating, while Fujiwara is cheery and random). Despite this, she considers their friendship to be of equal value to her crush on Shirogane... most of the time anyways.
• Official Couple: While the exact moment of their Relationship Upgrade is somewhat hazy (there are arguments to be made for Chapters 136, 151, and 160), she and Shirogane are firmly a couple by the time they get back from winter break in their junior year.
• Oh, Crap!: When she realizes that she's too happy about Shirogane using her gift to scheme properly in Chapter 54.
• Ojou: Her family owns one of Japan's largest companies and displays mastery over a variety of artistic and intellectual subjects. However, as hard as she tries to behave as one, she often displays lapses in behavior that are unbefitting of a proper one many times.
• Only Friend: Since Hayasaka's friends in school largely serve to give her information and she is putting on a fake persona, Kaguya has been her only real friend who knows what she is really like, at least until Hayasaka and Shirogane eventually become friends.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • When Kaguya gets her flip phone destroyed, she's too depressed to make any banter with Hayasaka and too focused on it to notice her opportunity to get Shirogane to make a "battle" of him giving his LINE number, outright giving him hers without much of a fuss.
  • When she calls Shirogane by his full name and confesses she truly likes him, it completely shocks Hayasaka. This is a very big deal since the reason she asked him to run for reelection was because she couldn't say his name without feeling embarrassed.
  • Hayasaka's status as her valet is supposed to be kept a secret and as a result, they never interact with each other if there's a chance of someone else seeing. If Kaguya does actively seek out Hayasaka during school hours (let alone in full view of their classmates), it's a clear sign that something is really bothering her.
• Palm on Cheek Pose: This is actually a plot point in Chapter 81, where Kaguya conditions herself, Pavlovian style, to calm down whenever she places her right hand on her left cheek. Any time she's seen doing so afterward is a sign to the reader that she's trying to keep her feelings for Shirogane in check. A bonus yonkoma released with the fifth Season 2 Blu-ray reveals that she chose this pose because it subconsciously reminds her of being cuddled by her late mother.
• The Paranoiac: Kaguya was starved of familial affection, raised to view others as tools or obstacles to be overcome, and had a very personal secret leaked by her classmates when she was young. As such, she tends to treat everyone around her with suspicion unless they've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're trustworthy (and sometimes not even then). Shirogane's influence as well as those of her friends quickly made her grow out of it.
• Parental Neglect: Her powerful family is distant but also controlling, leaving Kaguya with little to no familial love to speak of. Because of this, she greatly appreciates the care and respect she gets from Shirogane's father.
• Perennially Overshadowed Birthday: Since she was born on New Year's Day, Kaguya spends every year at the family home in Kyoto and has Never Had a Birthday Party. When she turns 17 roughly halfway through the series, she notes that the only family member who actually wished her a happy birthday was her ever unseen sister-in-law, though Shirogane did get her a necklace as a birthday present to commemorate their recent Relationship Upgrade.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: In one of the series' rare cases of physical violence, she bites Shirogane's hand in Chapter 15 after he accidentally gropes her.
• Pet the Dog: In Chapter 54, she sincerely thanks Ishigami for his inadvertent help in deflecting Shirogane's mental assault. The next chapter has her helping Ishigami study to pass his exams (and intimidating people who try to bully him).
• Photographic Memory: Kaguya is established very early on to have an excellent memory. While she herself admits that it isn't perfect (as her suffering from a Forgotten First Meeting no less than three times over the course of the series can attest), she's still capable of memorizing relevant information at a glance and even has vague memories of her mother (who died less than a month after her birth).
• Poor Communication Kills: Kaguya and Shirogane are just as lost about love as the other; the fact that they employ resourcefulness and scheming in order to one-up each other, in spite of the aforementioned ignorance, is what provides most of the humor in the manga.
• Power Perversion Potential: Discussed In-Universe. Since Kaguya is a gifted Instant Expert that learns how to do difficult things on her first try, the Mass Media Club duo hypothesizes that she will make herself into a Sex Goddess very soon after becoming sexually active. Even more eyebrow-raising, this theory is hinted to be correct later on in Chapter 138 when Kaguya shows she learned how to French kiss from witnessing Kashiwagi and her boyfriend kissing once and a few romantic movies.
• Practically Different Generations
  • Her three brothers are significantly older than her, and one of them has a young son. The fact that she's an illegitimate child with a different mother may have something to do with it.
  • This age gap also plays in reverse: Kaguya's valet (same age as her) is the daughter of Kaguya's youngest brother's valet. Maki was born the very same day as Kaguya but calls her "auntie" due to Kaguya being two generations over her (Kaguya asks her not to).
• The Prankster: It's significantly downplayed, but Kaguya develops a love of pulling pranks on her friends in later chapters. This also ties into her role as a Defrosting Ice Queen, as the very idea of pulling a prank on someone was unthinkable to her in the first volume.
• Precious Photo: Not so much a particular photo, but Kaguya cherished all the pictures she had on her cell phone due to them representing the fact that she actually had things that she wanted to remember. She took it pretty hard when the phone was destroyed due to it being an old model that stored everything on its internal memory and didn't recover until the rest of the student council uploaded similar photos to a shared album after she got a smartphone.
  Kaguya: What am I doing, crying over a couple of photographs?
• Psychological Projection: The undisputed master of this, and often played for laughs.
• Race for Your Love: Double Subverted. She gets so worked up at the thought that Shirogane might propose to her as he leaves for Stanford that she oversleeps and misses her chance to see him off. Fortunately, she's rich enough that taking a private jet to California for the sole purpose of saying goodbye is a viable option.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Kaguya is noticeably paler than every other character in the series which her hair and eyes accentuate, and is considered very beautiful by others.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Iino in Chapter 233, when the latter not only refuses to forgive Osaragi but also refuses to see things from the latter's perspective.
  Kaguya: Honestly... that's what makes you so immature. You're always so quick to sort everything into "right" and "wrong" but you never try to see beyond that. What a childish sense of justice. Some time ago, I told you that if you took a year to learn more about the student council, I'd be willing to endorse your campaign for the presidency next year. Back when I said that, I really meant it. But to be honest, after seeing your reaction just now, I'm beginning to have my doubts. I'm not denying the fact that there's a lot wrong at Shuchiin, but in order to fix those wrongs, you'll need a systematic approach. If you blindly charge in and denounce every problem as soon as you see it, you'll just end up creating more problems than you solve. What makes your convictions so deeply rooted? Why do you tend to misunderstand people so easily? It's because all of your judgments are based solely on your own point of view. As long as you refuse to engage in meaningful dialogue with those around you, you'll never discover the right way to go about correcting what's wrong.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Kaguya's bright red eyes hint at her scheming nature, though this applies less and less as she defrosts. Unless someone makes her mad, that is.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: With quite a few.
  • Befitting their eye colors, she's the red to Shirogane's blue; Kaguya tends to be more proactive and aggressive in their love of war, and despite her best efforts her poker face notably has several small holes. Shirogane, however, is more passive and tends to react in the war of love, and although his poker face isn't perfect either he can still hold up a much more effective facade. Shirogane is also much more accepting and tolerant of others' opinions, whereas Kaguya's Mood-Swinger tendencies make her more likely to overreact to even the smallest slights.
  • Again the red, though this time to Hayasaka; Kaguya is high-sprung, tends to overreact, and can make a fuss under enough stress. This is a stark contrast to Hayasaka, whose deadpan demeanor and more passive attitude means that she is much better at maintaining composure than her charge.
  • With Maki, however, she is the blue; for all her tendencies to make a fuss, Kaguya is routinely able to keep her cool and maintain silence in public, whereas Maki regularly explodes out in the open.
  • With Fujiwara, Iino, Ishigami, Osaragi, Tsubame, and Kashiwagi, she flips between the two;
    • With Ishigami, she is typically the red to his blue; Kaguya is regularly studious and tends to obsess over Shirogane, being fearful of being rejected. Ishigami, however, constantly slacks off in his academics, and while not happy can maintain his cool after a heartbreak. On the flip side, however, while Kaguya is insecure about her ability to show empathy, Ishigami is fully supportive and confident about it.
    • Again the red to Kashiwagi's blue; Kaguya is easily flustered and can overreact in regards to sexual activities, while Kashiwagi wouldn't flinch in similar situations. However, when it comes to potential infidelity, this dynamic is flipped, as Kaguya is nowhere near as paranoid as Kashiwagi about her partner cheating on her.
    • With Iino, however, she is the blue to her red; Kaguya is mainly quiet and soft-spoken in public, with her council work often being done when nobody's looking. Iino, on the other hand, is regularly loud and outspoken while doing almost every one of her duties in plain view of the public. However, Kaguya is much more open about her interest in sexual activities, while Iino regularly hides them from everyone she meets.
    • She's regularly the aggressively studious red to Fujiwara's bubbly and carefree blue, but is also the quiet and caring blue to her loud and selfish red.
    • Red to Tsubame's blue; Kaguya is aggressively unwavering in her desires for love, whereas Tsubame doesn't place it high on her list of priorities and is much more approachable as a result. This dynamic is flipped in their personalities, however, as Tsubame is the outgoing red to Kaguya's sheltered and quiet blue.
    • Kaguya is mainly the more outspoken red to Osaragi's demure and introverted blue, but their relationship with other students turns this on its head; Kaguya is flexible and supportive of changing love interests, leading to more people gravitating towards her, whereas Osaragi is so stubbornly aggressive to her original shipping plans that her unpleasant responses repel others.
• Refreshingly Normal Life-Choice: Even if she was never in the running to inherit her father's business empire, Kaguya's natural intelligence and connections mean that she could have probably thrived in whatever job she wanted. So, what does she ultimately choose to do with her life? Settle down with Shirogane and pursue a career as a photographer. And she does in fact succeed.
• Removing the Rival: During Shirogane's reelection, she gets Hayato to drop out of the race with a Breaking Speech. She tries to do so with Miko as well, suggesting that she give up her current campaign in exchange for Kaguya helping her get elected the next year but a well-timed Insult Backfire on Miko's part causes her momentum to fall apart. As a result, she's not happy when Shirogane manages to help Miko overcome her stage fright and nearly close the gap between her and Shirogane, though this act of kindness did intensify her love for him.
• Renaissance Man: Given she's also a Byronic Heroine, it's to be expected. Kaguya is said to excel in music, theater, martial arts, and countless other subjects. As the series goes it, she's shown to be rather physically skilled too.
• The Resenter:
  • In earlier chapters, she is quick to take offense and ire every time her plans with Shirogane are spoiled by either Fujiwara or Ishigami, so much so that there's only venom in her mind; however, she's just as quick to calm down when kindness is dispensed upon her, and as the story progresses, she starts gradually appealing to her better nature, and admitting that such rage is caustic and unhealthy not only to them as people she considers her dear friends, but to herself too.
  • Kaguya regards Fujiwara as her best friend. And also as her biggest rival for Shirogane's affection. Chapter 40 shows it goes deeper than that. Kaguya is jealous that Fujiwara has a cheerful personality, a loving family, and a chest.
• Reused Character Design: Kaguya appears to have been based off of Yume Furusuna from ib: Instant Bullet.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: As stated above, Kaguya's family owns a large company and she herself is the definition of a sheltered princess. Fortunately, she managed to wise up enough that she was able to make much better decisions even after Hayasaka retired as her valet.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: At the start of the story, Kaguya constantly assumed that Fujiwara would become a threat to her relationship with Shirogane in the future, fearing that the guy she liked would fall in love with her best friend. Come Chapter 223, Fujiwara indeed started to become a threat to Shirogane and Kaguya's relationship, because she felt that Kaguya is hers alone and rejected the notion that her best friend is dating someone else.
• Romantic Wingman: She appoints herself to this role after finding out about Ishigami's crush on Tsubame, as she hopes that his winning her affection would be good for his self-confidence. Given that this is Kaguya, her help involves forcing him to study more and encouraging Tsubame to turn down any other potential boyfriends as harshly as possible.
• Running Away to Cry: Kaguya was raised to never express her emotions unless it was so she could manipulate others. As such, she has the tendency to hide under a staircase whenever she's sad in order to cry away from view. It's implied that her habit of doing this is how Shirogane knew where to find her during the fireworks arc.

Tropes S - Z

• Sarcastic Confession: Chapter 163 has Kaguya admit to the rest of the student council that she and Shirogane started dating over winter break before claiming that it was a prank (as the rest of the chapter had been about Fujiwara trying to come up with a way to prank her as a lead in for a surprise birthday party).^note More specifically, she just holds up the "It's just a prank" sign that Fujiwara made. She never says that it was a lie. She tells Shirogane afterwards that she wanted a chance to show off their relationship while still keeping it a secret, and this proved to be the perfect opportunity.
• Schemer: Kaguya is the more proactive of the two when it comes to getting the other to confess. A lot of chapters are kicked off by her using her massive wealth to set up a plan.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Kaguya tends to use her money to try and get Shirogane to confess his feelings.
  • How did Kaguya get around to not seeing Shirogane often due to him going to Stanford? Hire a private jet to take her on Friday night and visit him on the weekend. Something she and Shirogane forget she can do until she misses his departure.
  • Kaguya uses her wealth further by buying a large flat screen TV so Shirogane could video chat them at the Student Council office.
• School Idol: Kaguya is stated to be one of the three most popular girls in school, and unlike Tsubame or Koromo, other students (specifically, Karen and Erika) are actually shown to worship her.
• Secret-Keeper: Like all elder council members, she is aware of Ishigami's past. However, Chapter 90 reveals that she did tell every influential Shuchi'in person about what really happened between Ogino and Ishigami, and was this close to telling Otomo as well. In Chapter 189, Kaguya confesses to Osaragi that if the latter hadn't given Ishigami's file to Tsubame, she would have eventually.
• Secret Test of Character: Chapter 172 reveals that she used to test other girls like this: Kaguya would tell them a juicy secret, then later Hayasaka would talk to that girl's friends to see if she'd gossiped about it or not. If the girl had spilled the beans, it "proved" to Kaguya that she wasn't trustworthy and therefore didn't deserve to be her friend. The narration explicitly calls this a bad habit is borne from the Shinomiya family's lack of trust in "outsiders", and suggests that if Kaguya could trust people without having to test them first, she might have had more friends than just Fujiwara, which was proven true when Onodera kept her relationship with Shirogane a secret despite Kaguya not actively testing her. Of course, the obvious issue with this form of testing is that she was never able to gauge Hayasaka's trustworthiness.
• Sensory Overload: Kaguya is very sensitive to strong stimuli, particularly loud noises and foul smells. It's apparently genetic, given that Maki also can't deal with loud noises.
• Sexy Santa Dress: A Santa dress is the first of several cosplay outfits she wears in chapter 112 in an attempt to catch Shirogane off guard (though it's more cute than sexy due to the series shying away from gratuitous fanservice). It fails to get the desired reaction (well, from the right person at least) because he had decided in the previous chapter to start being honest with his feelings for her, ironically making Kaguya more flustered than Shirogane.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: When Kaguya sleeps over at Shirogane's in chapter 219, she requests one of his shirts to sleep in before she gets in the bath (the visit was unplanned, so she didn't have a change of clothes). It's clearly an attempt to set the mood since both of them want to have Their First Time but feel too awkward to just say it out loud.
• Shed the Family Name: A bonus chapter of Oshi no Ko confirms that she took Shirogane's surname when they married, almost certainly because she wanted to distance herself from the Shinomiya family as much as possible (normally, the husband would be expected to take the wife's name in these sort of circumstances).
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Kaguya has been raised with a very sheltered upbringing. She has no idea how movie theaters work, is unfamiliar with popular fictional figures, and has no idea what the phrase "first time" means. Even after 'extensive' self-education, she's only managed to reach an elementary school student's level of understanding of dirty jokes.
• Shipper with an Agenda:
  • She started shipping Ishigami with Tsubame after finding out about his crush since she feels that him winning her affection would improve his self-confidence.
  • In chapter 235 the only person she would approve of Fujiwara dating was Hayasaka, some of the reason is because Hayasaka is the only single person she trusts offhand without vetting, but a big part of it is because she fears that the perfect boyfriend candidate for Fujiwara is Shirogane and she wanted to get Fujiwara a partner as soon as possible.
• Shipping Torpedo: When Fujiwara is thinking about getting a boyfriend in Chapter 235 and Shirogane and Ishigami suggest Mikado as a possible beau, Kaguya immediately puts her foot down on the idea, saying he can't be trusted.
• Shrinking Violet: Deep down, she's just too shy to admit that she likes Shirogane and too scared to admit to telling him herself. She finds this shameful and thus pretends she refuses to confess because of crazy power dynamics, hence the plot.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: At the end of the Class Trip arc, Kaguya's brother, Unyo, intends to make Hayasaka join him and break both of them by revealing the truth about the latter's role as The Mole to her. Expecting Kaguya to abandon Hayasaka (so he can take her for himself), he instead gets a Bitch Slap and a reprimand from Kaguya for interrupting Hayasaka.
  Kaguya: Excuse me!! Hayasaka was trying to explain herself!
• Siblings Wanted: She always wanted a younger sister so she tries to be a Cool Big Sis for Kei. This happens to be mutual, but she and Kei seldom have the opportunity to meet. They are, however, currently on a first-name basis.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Downplayed with Hayasaka. Kaguya is dark-haired and has red eyes, while Hayasaka is fair-haired and has blue eyes, and while, unlike Hayasaka, Kaguya is a bit stunted when it comes to technology, they are similarly intelligent and have similar personalities.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Downplayed, but as the two begin to go out, Kaguya could not help but squee and be ecstatic over dating the man she loves. While she can manage herself in public, when alone, Kaguya pretty much acts lovey-dovey to Shirogane despite being a bit nervous.
  • It becomes more apparent during the final arc, where even Fujiwara points out that Kaguya becomes very open over her affection for Shirogane. Especially after saving her from her arranged marriage and family situation. Even being in America doesn't stop her from visiting him every other weekend and live web chatting with him during Student Council time.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: In Chapter 12, she mentally mocks Fujiwara for taking her words at face value.
• Single-Target Sexuality: She only has eyes for the president. In fact, the only person to come close to getting the same type of affection is Kei because of how much she resembles her brother. The various AUs of the Official Doujin reveal that her feelings for Shirogane are a universal constant. It doesn't matter if he's a girl, her Kindergarten teacher, or even the big bad wolf; she'll still fall in love with him. When Mikado gives her a Love Confession and offers to get her away from the Shinomiya family, she turns him down because she loves Shirogane and only Shirogane.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Played for Drama. Kaguya fell in love with Shirogane because he showed her that there is such a thing as a truly altruistic person, and she is an Insecure Love Interest due to feeling that her past as an Ice Queen makes her unworthy of loving somebody as kind as him. It's also the source of the series' premise, as the entire reason she wants him to confess to her rather than the other way around is that she's afraid that all the signs of him liking her are just her misinterpreting his natural kindness towards everyone.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Averted. Papa Shirogane presumably knows that it was her family that stole his company, but he doesn't hold it against her.
• Skewed Priorities: She considers the possibility of having sex with Shirogane to be a more pressing matter than the ongoing Shinomiya/Shijo war that could determine her entire future. Maki is quick to lampshade this.
• Slasher Smile: She has a tendency to give this out a lot when one of her plans is working.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Zigzagged as while Kaguya is in love with Shirogane, she manages to control herself in public. But when she’s alone, Kaguya goes in awe and glee over her love life. This becomes more apparent when she begins dating Shirogane, wanting to flirt more with him. But knowing that their relationship has to be a secret, she's willing to control herself.
• Smug Smiler: She is very smug earlier on in the series, especially when she has the upper hand against Shirogane.
• The Social Darwinist: She mentally judges people as either "superior" or "inferior", and goes to obsessive lengths to establish that she's the former. Later in the series, she laments the fact that she has been conditioned to think of people as tools for her use.
• So Proud of You:
  • She is proud of Shirogane for loving her, as this allowed her to start loving herself from the low point where she thought that her life was bitter and pointless. This is so prevalent that everything he does fills her with joy.
  • She's on the verge of tears when Ishigami manages to place in the top 50 during finals.
• Sore Loser: While she doesn't mind losing casual games, her inability to surpass Shirogane academically frustrates her to no end, only refraining from throwing a tantrum in public (and she openly does so in front of Ishigami while blaming him for missing out on study time).
• Southpaw Advantage: While she has trained herself to use her right hand for everyday tasks, Kaguya is naturally left-handed. Her left arm is also far stronger than her right due to it being the one she uses to pull the bowstring when she practices archery.
• Spare to the Throne: In spite of belonging to the Shinomiya family, Kaguya is not particularly held in high regard by them; as an illegitimate child, she's considered a mere accessory to the family's wishes. This further implies that Kaguya is not among the siblings that would immediately inherit part of the empire but would have to fulfill the conditions to do so.
• Spoiled Sweet: Kaguya's curious enthusiasm about the more mundane aspects of life directly collides with her superficial knowledge about them. For instance, while she knows that vending machines take money, she's unaware that these don't accept the highest denomination of Yen bills. Early in the manga, she brings the most ostentatious and succulent bento box she can put together for Shirogane to try, but Shirogane takes this as an insult to his own bento, which was cooked by himself.
• Stepford Smiler: Kaguya is fully aware of how unhealthy her family life is and all the damage it has done to her, but she feels that she has no right to complain since she is blessed with extraordinary wealth and talent that most people can only dream of.
• Stern Teacher: Kaguya's own tutors used Corporal Punishment when teaching her as a child, and she is shown to employ similar methods in her study sessions with Ishigami (to the point that he initially thought she was trying to torture him). However, she does have his best interests at heart and makes sure to reward him whenever his hard work pays off. This wears down as part of her Character Development, as she starts using a teaching approach that is much gentler than what she would've used at the start of the story.
  Kaguya: I can train you, but I only know how to be strict. Surely you can handle that, right?
• Stronger Than They Look: Despite her delicate-looking body and possible heart problems, her years of practicing archery have resulted in her having a great deal of arm strength. Ishigami wasn't able to so much as make her budge when they arm wrestled in Chapter 117, and she sent Unyo tumbling to the ground with a single punch in Chapter 185 despite him being more than twice her age.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Assuming that the girl from Dr. Tanuma's flashback in Chapter 79 was Kaguya's mother, Nayotake, then Kaguya is her spitting image. Gan'an even ends up mistaking her for Nayotake in his weakened state while on his deathbed.
• Stylistic Suck: Invoked example in Chapter 62; After Kaguya realizes that she drew her picture of Shirogane too pretty, which would reveal her feelings for him, she then makes her picture as ugly as possible while keeping the physical traits that she likes about him to counterbalance it. It backfires on her every time, as even after making Shirogane look like he went through a garbage compactor, she still finds him attractive.
• Subordinate Excuse: This is the primary reason why she asks Shirogane to run for a second term. Being on the council was the only excuse they had to spend time together that wouldn't involve admitting their feelings for each other. The reason why she asked him to run rather than do so herself was that she didn't feel comfortable calling him anything other than "president".
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Can switch easily between scaring Ishigami to death with her glare and acting like an angel.
• Super-Deformed: She turns into a chibi version of herself whenever she feels extreme happiness and has a lack of sleep, which Fujiwara labels as the rare "Kaguya-chan" which she had seen only three times. The narration points out that this is merely artistic license; in-universe she looks the same as always.
• Supreme Chef: Even though she's sheltered, Kaguya knows how to cook for herself and others. This was primarily to get Shirogane's attention. When Fujiwara and Iino try them, they are both impressed by the quality. Iino only gave her a low score in the fried rice cooking contest because it tasted too much like oysters but otherwise could taste the love behind it.
• Sweet Tooth: For cake especially. It was one of the few things Iceguya was willing to talk about.
• Talking in Your Sleep: She ends up mumbling to herself while taking an afternoon nap in Chapter 172, accidentally revealing her status as Shirogane's girlfriend to Onodera (who happened to be passing by at the time).
• Tearful Smile:
  • When her cell phone breaks, she starts smiling since she now has an excuse to upgrade to a smartphone. It's only once the fact that all the photos stored on it were lost (since the phone was old enough that it had neither cloud storage nor an SD card) sinks in that she starts crying.
  • This happens again when she's giving a practice confession to Hayasaka regarding all the things she loves about Shirogane, while admitting she could never keep him from going to Stanford.
• Tears of Joy: She's on the verge of crying in Chapter 198 when Ishigami's hard work is rewarded and he places 36th in the final exams.
• Teasing from Behind the Language Barrier: She says... something to Shirogane in the extended version of Chapter 20, leading him into thinking it was in French and smirking as she watches him try and look it up in a French-to-Japanese dictionary. The audience never finds out what she said.
• Technician vs. Performer: She's the Technician to Shirogane's Performer. Kaguya is a meticulous planner, while Shirogane is better at on-the-spot improvisation. They're both easily defeated by random Spanners In The Works, though.
  • Also the Technician to Fujiwara's Performer when it comes to teaching Shirogane how to dance. Kaguya focuses on coldly memorizing the steps and movement, while Fujiwara emphasizes capturing the feeling of the dance.
• Teen Genius: Unlike Shirogane, her intelligence is a result of natural talent, and she excels in a wide variety of fields.
• Tender Tears: She breaks down when she misses the summer festival that she had planned with the student council, but Shirogane finds her and together with the council members, hurriedly try to get her to another festival so that she doesn't miss out, making Kaguya realize that in spite of her own family's dismissal of her, her friends love her and want her to be happy.
• That Wasn't a Request: Before tutoring Ishigami, she asks him to follow her to a private place. Ishigami says no. Kaguya does not respond well.
  Kaguya: "No"? What do you mean, "no"?! Come with me! (bodily drags him off)
• Through His Stomach: Kaguya tries on multiple occasions to give Shirogane food as part of some plan to get him to confess, but circumstances always conspire to keep him from actually eating it (barring a single slice of birthday cake). It isn't until Chapter 226 that she actually manages to give him a proper meal, by which point they've already been dating for several months. On the other hand, she has much better luck when it comes to serving him tea, with one of the Ramen Emperors noting how she seems to have refined it to his preferences.
• Too Important to Remember You: This was a recurring problem for Kaguya back during her Ice Queen days, since -despite having an excellent memory- she never bothered to remember people if she didn't view them as being important. It led to her suffering from no less than three different cases of Forgotten First Meetings. This even gets Played for Drama with Shirogane, as the fact that she doesn't remember any of their earlier interactions left him convinced that she only loved the confident academic he built himself up as rather than his true self. Kaguya takes the revelations very poorly and is quick to make amends however possible.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Allowing herself to open up more to people and falling in love/dating Shirogane fully defrosts her icy personality and she becomes a lot more cheerful compared to the earlier part of the series. She even becomes more lovey-dovey to Shirogane, sometimes in front of others, without being ashamed of herself.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Kaguya always has been kind deep down, but after falling in love with Shirogane, opening herself up to her friends and slowly breaking away from her family control, Kaguya allows herself to be more sociable. She even begins to treat Ishigami more like a little brother to look after, something the latter appreciates over her scary persona. Kaguya also started to treat Hayasaka better, after realizing she's been taking her for granted and desires to be a better friend to her.
• Too Much Alike: Aside from the conflict between the main and branch families, this is the reason Maki and Kaguya can't get along very well. Even when Maki wants to thank Kaguya for spending time with her, she makes it seem like she just wants to insult and show off her skills to her "auntie".
• Too Much Information: Downplayed. She's not as bad as Kashiwagi with her being able to keep her relationship with Shirogane a secret and didn't reveal much info on their first time. Kaguya, however, did over-explain how her first kiss went before being stopped by Kashiwagi. Kaguya also over-explains what she does with Shirogane at night to Maki, but it was more of a brag to make her feel down due to calling Shirogane a "commoner." She was, however, mortified when she found out her friends heard it all.
• Trophy Child: Her father treats her like some fancy doll to be put on display at parties and has never once displayed the slightest hint of parental affection for her.
• Tsundere: Despite her initial depiction, this is the trait Kaguya displays most prominently. Her cold demeanor may make her seem like a stereotypical Yandere at first, but her genuine, selfless feelings, (mentally) combative dynamic with Shirogane, frequent slips into maiden-in-love mode when nobody's looking, and saying "It's not like I like him or something!" more than once is pretty good evidence she's a very well hidden tsundere. She was officially diagnosed as such by one of the best doctors in the world in Chapter 79. After the kiss with Shirogane she takes a different, colder tsundere stance and yet is more open at the same time.
• Unable to Cry: After Kaguya's father dies at the end of Chapter 268, Kaguya notes she is unable to shed any tears over the event, even though she thinks that she should. This doesn't mean that she wasn't emotionally affected, though; she's clearly quite sad when she wishes she could have taken Gan'an's picture.
• Unbroken Vigil: When Shirogane ends up collapsing from a combination of overworking and stress (the latter of which is brought about by her regressing to her (Ice) persona), she spends the next several hours by his bedside at the hospital, not leaving until he regains consciousness so the doctor can perform their examination.
• Unkempt Beauty: Shirogane comments on her beauty while she's soaking wet, covered in mud, and scratched up after she saved the Mass Media Club president from drowning in a garbage-filled swamp. In fact, it was the very moment he first fell in love with her.
• Unknowingly in Love: Knows that other people have affections they consider "love", but as a child of the exalted and ruthless Shinomiya clan, she was raised to believe that love was a delusion and beneath people of her standing. She still tries to seduce Shirogane (for pragmatic reasons, of course!) and is surprised when her ploys to do so embarrass her instead. Eventually (after she admits to herself that she wouldn't discard Shirogane even if an objectively better boy showed up) she is able to vocalize to Hayasaka that she loves him, which is a sign of great Character Development and foreshadows an actual confession to Shirogane several chapters later.
• Uptown Girl: Played with. Kaguya is an affluent and pedigree girl who is mutually in love with Shirogane, an overachieving lower-class boy. However, the issue of their class difference is seldom touched upon, as they consider each other worthy equals (though it is a major factor in their decision to keep their relationship a secret when they start dating).
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Do not even think about insulting Shirogane if she's in earshot. She won't need her two black belts to make you wish you'd never been born, as both Betsy and Hayato can attest.
  • Played for Laughs, in a later chapter, as Kaguya becomes severely upset when Maki calls her boyfriend, Shirogane, a commoner.
• Vitriolic Best Friends: One-sided example with Fujiwara. While she does consider Fujiwara her best friend, she regularly mentally insults her intelligence. And Fujiwara knows this all too well, going by Chapter 77.
• Warts and All: For Kaguya, a couple being able to share and accept each other's flaws is what romance is all about. This ends up leading to the final hurdle she and Shirogane have to overcome before their Relationship Upgrade, as he believes that one should only display their ideal self to their significant other and has no idea why she's suddenly acting cold to him. After learning about his situation, Kaguya exclaims that she loves Shirogane either as his ideal responsible leader or the messy kind man who fails but keeps trying. This ends up freeing Shirogane from his study-time hellhole and places him in a much better mood for much of the story.
• We Were Your Team: It's lampshaded by Iino in Chapter 246 that the entire current student council (save for herself) is only there because of Kaguya either directly (Shirogane and Fujiwara) or indirectly (Ishigami), meaning that she'd effectively be all alone when she runs for Student Council President the following term. This was also foreshadowed in the final Official Doujin chapter when Kaguya was Retgoned and nobody could figure out why Fujiwara had joined the council.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Shirogane compares them to moist rubies.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In Chapter 188, she calls out Ishigami for giving Iino the cold shoulder when she tried to ask how his date with Tsubame went. As they are fellow student council members, it was only natural for her to be curious. Ishigami heeds her words and apologizes.
• White Sheep: Discounting her unseen sister-in-law, Kaguya appears to be the only member of the Shinomiya main branch who is capable of empathy.
• Wingding Eyes: When Shirogane goes out of his way to help Iino in Chapter 68, she has hearts appear on her eyes. This is far from the only time it happens, however.
• With Friends Like These...: She can go from considering Fujiwara to be her best friend to being a blight on society and then back again at the drop of a hat. Made even more hilarious by the fact that it's genetic, as she's displayed the same views towards Fujiwara's father and little sister as well.
• Women Prefer Strong Men: In a way, Kaguya is very attracted to Shirogane's glare and when he loses it, she complains that he looks weak. She also gushes about how proactive and assertive he is. Flashbacks show that she didn't even acknowledge his existence until he challenged her to a contest to see who could get high scores on the end-of-semester exams.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: While it's true that Kaguya has comparatively little power in her family in contrast to her brothers, the "Kaguya-sama Wants to be Confessed to" chapter implies that she gave herself up to her family in part to have Shirogane save her, backed up by Hayasaka and Miko admitting that every girl's dream is to be saved by her knight.
• Worf Had the Flu: Shirogane has narrowly beaten her in test scores five times in a row after reforming himself into an ace student in order to impress her. However, at least two of the five times involved had a reasonable excuse that may have lowered her scores: In the first test she was only giving 60% effort and for the fifth, she was helping Ishigami in his studies. Thus, it's actually unclear as to whether he could still beat her if she went 100% and undistracted.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Chapter 261 implies that the only reason why the final arc went as smoothly as it did was that Kaguya ensured that Shirogane would come through for her. She had to take into account her brothers' personalities, the possibility that Gan'an would willingly give up his will, and the ability of all of her friends to obstruct them, just to finally escape.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Subverted. Kaguya definitely resembles the archetype in terms of looks (straight black hair and pale skin) and upbringing (noted to excel in traditional arts such as archery and tea ceremony), but her more competitive, assertive, and even slightly aggressive personality means she just falls short of actually qualifying. Nonetheless, she is dressed by her class as a Taisho-era waitress due to their cosplay cafe for the Devoted Hearts festival. None of them could pull off this look as well as she could.
• Yandere: Played for Laughs mostly, but she has shown minor shades of this, such as when she thinks Fujiwara is getting too close to Shirogane, or has an Imagine Spot where they're lovers. She also didn't seem very happy when she first met Kei, his younger sister, and found out that Kei and Fujiwara already knew each other. Though brief, Kaguya could be seen with her (Ice) self's eyes while uttering some murderous intent during those brief moments before it gets defused. Though some may argue that this is merely an expression of extreme tsun-ness instead of psychosis, and she is really harmless.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Kaguya has been given this by two people; Shirogane and Ishigami.
  • Shirogane for loving all parts of her personality, including her cold persona that she hates. As he believes that the fact she still gives out kindness without being nice makes her amazing to him.
  • Ishigami telling her that her inability to cry for her father's death doesn't make her a cold person and that she is making him smile, whether intentional or not, makes her a good person in his eyes.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Kaguya seems physically incapable of calling Shirogane anything other than "president", to the point that it's the entire reason she asked him to run for reelection. This becomes more significant when she admits to Hayasaka that she's in love with him, as unlike every other time from before, she addresses him by his full name.
• You Keep Telling Yourself That: In spite of her snooty attitude, inner Machiavellian working, and overblown pride, Kaguya is shown to always proceed out of sincerity and kindness regardless of her inner workings, and she expresses considerable dismay if there's even a hint of unbecoming behavior from herself for someone of her stature (or at least, when she notices). She is a better, kinder, and more grounded person than she thinks she is. During (Ice) Kaguya's rant in Chapter 146 about how unlovable she is, she reveals, while lonely, Kaguya actually preferred being isolated in middle school because she didn't have to worry about always unintentionally hurting others' feelings. The only thing breaking her out of this is words of encouragement from her friends.

Kaguya (Ice), Kaguya (Moron), and Kaguya (Child)

Ice (left) and Moron (right)

A trio of pseudo-personalities, representing various aspects of Kaguya's psyche.

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• All Periods Are PMS: Downplayed. (Ice) becomes the dominant personality during times when Kaguya is under a great deal of stress, and her character page in volume 15 specifically lists Kaguya's period showing up outside of its normal cycle as one of the triggers.
• All Take and No Give: Kaguya (Ice) grew up in a household that touted self-serving behavior, and displays it in her relationship with Shirogane. She feels disgust at herself for initiating the First Kiss, and wants to be on the receiving end for the next one. However, she can't be honest with her feelings toward him, while expecting him to keep one-sidedly making moves on her despite her mixed messages.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Kaguya (Ice) is this big time, representing the part of Kaguya that avoids others out of fear of hurting them and being hurt in turn.
• Anguished Outburst: In Chapter 141, regular Kaguya and (Moron) make the mistake of claiming that (Ice) doesn't love Shirogane, prompting a full-blown rant about how she's the one who fell in love with him first that ends with her knocking (Moron) out with (Child)'s gavel and taking control.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: What Kaguya (Moron)'s approach to love amounts to. No thinky, yes kissy.
• Birds of a Feather: Kaguya (Ice) is noted in her character profile to be very similar to Ishigami (both are isolated from their peers and have a habit of speaking their minds without thinking of the consequences), and the reason why she is significantly kinder to him than everyone else is because she views him as a kindred spirit and wants to guide him down the right path.
• Black Bead Eyes: After her Super-Deformed character redesign, Kaguya (Moron) is depicted with sketchy vertical slits for the eyes. Before that, she just had normal Tareme Eyes.
• Brutal Honesty: In Chapter 53, (Ice) is at least willing to admit she's attracted to Shirogane and states, "she has an insatiable craving for his ..." before regular Kaguya cut her off. This seems to also apply to her interactions with anyone other than Shirogane, as unlike her usual self her cold side is incredibly blunt while asking Kashiwagi for advice, outright admitting that she is in love with Shirogane, that she wants to be kissed by him, and that if he wanted to she would probably let him have sex with her. Unfortunately, she is unable to be honest when she is actually faced with him, something she is fully aware of.
• The Comically Serious: Barring the odd emotional outburst or when she's doting on Ishigami, (Ice) is cold and brutally honest regardless of what comes out of her mouth, to the point that its comedy gold.
• Divergent Character Evolution: Kaguya (Ice) and Kaguya (Moron) originally looked near identical, save for the fact that they wore different seasonal uniforms, had different hairstyles, had different eyes, and (Moron) had a flower growing out of her head. Starting with Chapter 141, (Moron) started being depicted in a Super-Deformed style, while (Ice) remained more or less the same (save for her hair becoming more detailed).
• Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: (Ice) and (Moron) had this dynamic during their first two appearances. (Ice) represents Kaguya's cold, unfeeling past, so she wears the winter uniform. Meanwhile, (Moron) represents the warmer parts of their personality and wears the summer uniform. This was dropped following (Moron)'s Super-Deformed redesign.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: During her first two appearances, Kaguya (Moron) looked just like regular Kaguya, just with much rounder eyes and a flower growing out of her head. From her third appearance onward, she is instead rendered in a Super-Deformed style to better contrast her with the more normal-looking Kaguya (Ice).
• Freudian Trio: Kaguya (Ice) is the Superego, Kaguya (Moron) is the Id, and Kaguya (Child) is the Ego who serves as the judge. Interestingly, all three of them directly interact with Kaguya herself and acknowledge that they're simply parts of her as a whole person.
• Ghost in the Machine: The three of them play the role of Kaguya's Id, Ego, and Superego, while acting out mental court cases with her when she's at a complete loss for what to do. Unlike most examples, the three of them explicitly do not exist within the context of the story and are merely an artistic representation of her being a Mood-Swinger.
  Kaguya (Child): We're all you. You're the one who has to make the decision. So? What do "we" want to do?
• I Am a Monster: A variation. The (Ice) persona is well aware of being an embodiment of the Shinomiya family's upbringing and seeing Shirogane fainted gets her to the conclusion that she is undeserved of his affections.
• I Am Not Pretty: As seen in the quote below, (Ice) loathes herself a lot more since she represents all of Kaguya's negative aspects and assumed that Shirogane would never fall for someone as "disgusting" as her.
• Insecure Love Interest: Kaguya (Ice) exaggerates this compared to regular Kaguya, given the fact that she's the representation of everything that Kaguya hates about herself. The only reason her complete lack of self-esteem isn't obvious at first glance is because she's an Ice Queen.
  Kaguya (Ice): The President said himself that he hates unkind people who hurt others. I'm selfish and aggressive! Jealous and deceitful! A coward who fears other people! I always hurt people, and there's not a kind bone in my body! I have to conceal this part of me! Who could fall in love with such a disgusting person?!
• Last-Name Basis: Unlike every other aspect of Kaguya's personality (including Kaguya herself), Kaguya (Ice) is the only one who addresses Shirogane by name instead of calling him "President" (presumably because the others didn't actually exist until after he was elected).
• Le Parkour: (Ice) is capable of doing so while she tries to run away from Shirogane.
• Love Makes You Dumb: The ethos for (Moron), as she represents Kaguya's unconscious base desire for Shirogane.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Chapter 145 has (Ice) react in horror as Shirogane faints from overwork and his stresses of trying to retain a perfect image in front of Kaguya. (Ice) took this as a sign that her Innocently Insensitive personality makes her undeserving of Shirogane's affection and almost backing down from trying to win his heart.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Post-redesign, (Moron) is the only character who is rendered in a Super-Deformed chibi style with Black Bead Eyes.
• Painting the Medium: Kaguya (Ice) has white-on-black speech bubbles to emphasize just how different she is from the rest of Kaguya's personalities barring the time when she takes control during the post-culture festival arc.
• Split Personality: Subverted. (Ice), (Moron), and (Child) all appear to be split personalities, but they are all explicitly an artistic representation of Kaguya being a Mood-Swinger rather than distinct entities unto themselves.
• Split-Personality Makeover: Downplayed, as all the changes in appearance when the various aspects of Kaguya's personality come to the forefront are outright stated to be artistic license barring when Kaguya (Ice) removes her hair ribbon. This even gets played for laughs in Chapter 141 when Kaguya (Moron) takes control. To the audience, she appears to be Super-Deformed, but when shown from the perspective of the other characters we see that she looks the same as always (if somewhat drowsy due to a lack of sleep).
• What the Hell, Hero?: Played for laughs when (Moron) was accused of doing the "Grown-Up Kiss" (or performing a French kiss) on Shirogane during the Cultural Festival. According to (Ice), the idiotic defendant is sentenced to "death penalty" for the offensive without any objections from the lawyer regular Kaguya, much to her panic.