Kaguya-sama: Love is War: Miyuki Shirogane (INTJ)

Miyuki Shirogane from Kaguya-sama: Love is War is frequently typed as an ENTJ. However, after analyzing his character, Shirogane seems to fit INTJ, which is further supported by his dynamic with Kaguya and even Fujiwara. An ENTJ would have likely been far more direct with Kaguya, which would have resulted in the premise of the show failing shortly after it began. Of course, that’s not the crux of our argument. Continue on down the page to see why Shirogane is an INTJ!

Ni:

“That’s what you get when you act before you think.”

“Cute? It’s an analogy of how you affect your surroundings. It’s like cat ears are time, and Shinomiya is how much you’ve wasted.”

“That’s the conclusion I came to based on the fragments of intel we could gather.”

“If I had been in his shoes, I never would have let Kaguya go. I would have gone to the moon and stolen her back. No question. I don’t care how many centuries it took, I would have done it. If that story had been our story, I would have read between the lines, and it would have had a very different ending.”

Shirogani appears to be a Ni dominant. He lacks the directness of a Te dominant, which is partly what makes the plot viable. He won’t directly ask Kaguya out, which is what he wants. Instead, he reads into her behavior, and overanalyzes her actions, in an almost paranoid way. He fixates on a single response that he’s afraid she’ll give him (“How cute”), and plays it out in his head whenever he envisions something going wrong.

Shirogane is imaginative, which is partially why he gets so concerned with Kaguya’s behavior. He reads into things, and pictures outcomes, whether ideal or otherwise. When planning a council member’s trip, he envisions a romantic and dramatic scene in the mountains, and fights for that location. In another example, he gets invested in the tale of Kaguya, the moon goddess, and speculates as to what he would have done if in her lover’s shoes.

Shirogane emphasizes thinking before acting, which occasionally leads him to inaction. This suggests leading with an introverted function. He’s good at piecing information together and drawing conclusions, which is how he determines Ishigami’s innocence. However, he does have a tendency to read into things way too far, like when giving love advice to a fellow student, during which he interprets the girl’s actions all wrong.

Lastly, Shirogane is naturally more abstract and theoretical. A good example of Shirogane’s Ni can be seen when Chika puts cat ears on Kaguya. When he sees it, Shirogane shares an analogy rather than making a concrete observation. He does this while extremely nervous about how to react, which points to his default abstract nature. He ends up having to theoretically teach Chika how to rap, in order for her to physically teach him how to rap.

Te:

“Unintentionally or not, your silence and stubbornness were effective. Let’s not debate the righteousness of your actions. You definitely could have been smarter about it. There’s no doubt. That said, you managed to achieve your goal.”

“We make the most efficient team.”

“I’m not late. I’ve never been tardy a day in my life.”

“What was the cause of the problem?! What would make you faint?! Tell me!!”

Shirogane is extremely disciplined and portrayed as a workaholic. He splits himself between school, the student council, and his part-time job, working nonstop to keep up with everything. He’s ambitious, hard-working and driven. As a result, he’s good at time management, and is rarely ever late. He believes that other council members should always be on time as well. He works hard to strengthen his weaknesses, so he can be a more effective person and leader.

Shirogane values efficiency, which is clear in his dealing with others. When internally rationalizing why he and Kaguya should go on the required shopping trip together, he tells himself that they make “the most efficient team.” In addition, he speaks in terms of efficiency when tutoring Kaguya’s personal assistant, Hayakaka. Similarly, when first introducing himself to Ishigami, Shirogane praises him for the effectiveness of his actions, and his success in achieving his goal.

Shirogane focuses on providing concrete solutions to people’s problems. When giving dating advice to someone who was insecure about his sweaty hands, Shirogane gives a number of steps to complete that would ultimately, physically solve his problem. The longterm nature of his solution (getting a job, to earn money, to eventually get surgery, etc.) points to his Te being in service to Ni. In addition, he failed to focus on the emotional aspect of the problem, which points to him being a thinker. Similarly, when Kaguya returns from the hospital after fainting, Shirogane demands that she tell him the cause of the problem.

Fi:

“Try it again, allowing honesty to fuel your words.”

“I refuse to be seen as a dork by anybody.”

“This isn’t just a game. It’s a test of my principles… Staying true to my convictions takes priority.”

Shirogane has a clear value system, that he often prioritizes to a degree that suggests tertiary Fi. For instance, at one point, Shirogane, Kaguya, and Chika are playing a game that involves social manipulation. The losers of the game will have to go on a school shopping trip together. Shirogane’s goal is to ensure that him and Kaguya lose, so that they’ll be the ones to go. However, Chika puts on an emotional display, about feeling alone and left out, that Shirogane fears is partially real, even though he recognizes the nature of the game. When that happens, he quickly loses sight of his goal, and turns the game into a test of his principles.

This empathetic nature of his actually surfaces quite few times, and even puts his goals at risk. Another prominent example can be seen he steps in to help the opposing presidential candidate, because she was struggling and not being allowed a fair change to explain her position.

As a low Fi user, Shirogane struggles with showings signs of weakness. He works hard to account for those weaknesses, or at least, hide them from others. He also values authenticity, which is what draws him to rapping. It prevents him from overthinking his feelings, but he feels connected in with them enough to express them in that format. He uses this medium to then encourage Hayasake to be true to herself, and to be emotionally honest with Kaguya.

Se:

“Things any ordinary person is capable of constantly stump me, and I panic when weakness starts showing because I can’t even admit to myself how incompetent I am. It’s all so meaningless.”

“It’s not as though everything you taught me somehow got reset, so calm down. You see, I lose the rhythm if I focus too much on pitch, and I can’t stay on pitch once I get into a rhythm. Thus, it’s a deadlock. I end up achieving neither.”

Shirogane appears to have inferior Se. He’s extremely insecure about his physical abilities, which is why he works so hard to overcome them. In spite of his best efforts, he views himself as somewhat incompetent, often being stumped by things that ordinary people are capable of. As a result, he on multiple occasions turns to Chika for help, so that he can prepare for whatever is going to force him to use a skill that he’s weak at. He often has a good conceptual understanding of something, but needs Chika to help him apply it physically.

When attempting to learn to rap, Shirogane specifically struggles to take two independent skills and combine them. He either loses track of the rhythm or can’t stay on pitch. This struggle to split his focus and combine two skills that he already knew could suggest inferior extraverted perceiving, which is Se in his case.