Hello everyone! This review is going to be on that shounen romcom Nisekoi (Nisekoi: False Love) by manga author Naoshi Komi. Nisekoi is a story that revolves around Raku Ichijo, a sweet young man with romantic sensibilities and great cooking skills. Raku made a promise with a girl 10 years in his past that when they next met, the girl would unlock his locket with her key and they would get married. There’s only one problem, Raku is the son of a leader in the yakuza faction, making him the heir to the faction, and he’s not happy about it. It is ten years later and Raku has cherished his locket but finds himself in a sticky situation when new girl Chitoge Kirisaki arrives from America leaving a lasting bad impression. Along with her arrival comes a new gang who quickly engage in fights with the yakuza bringing violence to the area, however, Raku’s father has a plan, and that is to throw his son together with the opposing gang leaders daughter who just happens to be Chitoge. While hating each other’s guts, the two must pretend to be in love for the next three years! Other complications arise when Raku’s crush, Kosaki Onodera, may be the girl he made that promise with all those years ago.
Other complications arise but you’ll have to read the manga or watch the anime to find out more. The manga is ongoing and the anime has finished its first season with 20 episodes, but Seven at Seventhstyle says a second season has been announced to air in April of 2015. Seven also says that the first season deteriorated by the episode where “nothing was achieved and more girls were meaninglessly introduced to help further obscure the goal,” while adding their thoughts on the second season which they believe will continue its streak of unfulfilled promises. I have to agree that the series does seem to wander aimlessly forward and I do think that some of the girls were meaninglessly introduced, but I think their role is not to be considered as serious romantic interests for Raku but as characters that help the main romantic interests such as Chitoge and Kosaki to further stand out. In terms of the story there are lots of moments where we are learning more about the characters and even if this seems to be pointless I think it helps us to sympathise with the characters and also aids us in identifying the relationships in the series. Overall this romcom is a great little comedy that is still developing and for this reason I think its aimless march is fine as long as when it ends it is convincing and well done.
You can read the Nisekoi manga here or watch the anime here. Please buy Naoshi Komi’s work as he earns nothing from fan translations or video sites.
3 of 5 stars.
Tomoharu
Blogging Otaku 