Warning: Contains spoilers for Love Agency chapter 1, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War, and Oshi no Ko.Weekly Young Jump has a brand-new hit manga in Love Agency, and what’s even better is how the manga is officially part of a shared universe. Love Agency is the latest manga by Kaguya-sama: Love is War and Oshi no Ko’s Aka Akasaka and its plot is centered around Mari Maria Winter-Nanase, a girl who, despite her popularity with girls, can barely hold a conversation with her crush, Masaya Seki. Mari decides to use the titular Love Agency app to try and reinvent herself to be more approachable to Seki, although she’s unaware that Seki is doing the same thing to try and hit it off with Mari.
Love Agency’s premise is a great one for a romcom, and what’s even more interesting is how it exists in a shared universe with Aka Akasaka’s other works. Chapter 1 has Mari reference a TV drama that starred Frill Shiranui, a character from Oshi no Ko, meaning that Love Agency takes place in the same universe as Oshi no Ko and, by extension, Kaguya-sama: Love is War. As was the case with Oshi no Ko and Kaguya-sama, this likely won’t affect Love Agency’s story, but having that sort of worldbuilding still does a lot to flesh out the setting, regardless.
When Do Kaguya-sama, Oshi no Ko, & Love Agency Take Place?
With Aka Akasaka’s most recent works taking place in the same universe, something that needs to be addressed is when they all take place in relation to each other. Thanks to an extra chapter of Oshi no Ko and a chapter of Kaguya-sama: Love is War that served as a flashforward when Ruby and Aqua are teenagers, about five years have gone by since the end of Kaguya-sama to make its cast young adults. As for Love Agency, with Frill Shiranui already established as an actress, it likely takes place after the beginning of Oshi no Ko, but an exact timeframe has yet to be given.
While Love Agency’s exact placement in Aka Akasaka’s shared universe isn’t known, it most likely takes place at the same time as Oshi no Ko’s current events. Nothing suggests that the series takes place sometime in the future or the recent past, so it would make sense to assume that Love Agency takes place in roughly modern times. Not only that, but if Akasaka truly is going to make a shared universe for his stories, then having them take place around the same time as each other does a lot to sell the synergy of a shared universe, so that would be the more likely direction to go in.
Can Kaguya-Sama & Oshi no Ko Characters Appear In Love Agency?
Another question to be addressed is whether or not Love Agency can, or should, feature any characters from Kaguya-sama: Love is War and Oshi no Ko. With the Kaguya-Sama cast all being working adults at this point, characters from Kaguya-sama could appear in Love Agency because of someone going to their place of business; an easy way of doing that could be Kaguya making another cameo as a photographer. As for Oshi no Ko, Mari and Masaya are both fans of a drama Frill Shiranui appeared in, so it would be easy enough for one of them to simply watch another in-universe program that one of the characters stars in.
There are plenty of ways to justify appearances of characters from Aka Akasaka’s other works, but that might not be the best idea. While it would make sense to try and capitalize off of a shared universe, all three of the stories are very different in tone and themes, so trying to make them work in a singular story could end up detracting from their overall strengths. As such, keeping things to small cameos from Oshi no Ko or Kaguya-sama that remind the audience that Love Agency takes place in a shared universe is probably the best idea, as it would easily allow for the quality and integrity of each series to be maintained.
