DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyNisekoi
OVA ComedyNisekoi OVA
ANIME ComedyNisekoi:
ONA ComedyNisekoimonogatari

REVIEWS

• 

  OVERPOWERED99

  84/100
  For us in the sidelines, witnessing the daily life of false love is a hilarity. Heart beat rises, blushes reddening.

  

  It really is tough to maintain the facade of love. To act like you're in love with this partner who you hate, well, it'll definitely stir up some volatile scenarios that other people might get enjoyment out of. Nisekoi is an overblown version of this and despite its clichés, it did a pretty damn good job at doing just that.

  Starting off with two comically frightening families who want to strangle each other's neck, a truce is formed when the son and daughter from both families is forced into a pretend relationship. The boy has a mysterious pendant of childhood origin, has his own puppy crush on a quite timid girl, and is just about the most densest object in the entire universe. Very familiar qualities but I must say, they are what make this anime enjoyable. You see, the hateful relationship between these two teens opens up the chances to admire their stabilizing chemistry. Added with the suspicions and mishaps that arise between misunderstandings, it leads to many comedic greatness while having that sweet progression as they gradually realize the seeping warmth over time. That pendant with a lock is a key element for the girls present in his love life. All of them have a similarity in that they're in one way or another related to the childhood memories and promises of the boy. Each has a charming personality which is, yes, generic, but you don't have to be original if your show revolves around crazy antics. And it works here. The love perception in the eyes of the girls, who have events of falling in love in their own ways, develop an infatuating crush on the boy. They tried handling their feelings, but that only guides them towards a lot of entertaining gags in the levels of silly and stupid. There are so many times where I scream "Aho!" at them in my head but it's all good. Among this ruckus of hilarities, the inner monologuing delves into their true feelings which gives insights to them as characters. There's not much of a story other than the pendant giving backstories and some anticipating mystery but the progress is there and it's sincere. It is just halted numerous times by fun amusements.

  Everything I said will be blind if not for the distinct style produced by Shaft. While it is an interesting spin for a rom-com, it works remarkably well here. Having geometric designs in the background with cases of more detailed ones creates a mostly simplistic feel that emphasizes the characters. There are also the visual motifs, such as head tilts, acting as an extra medium. Combined with a strong animation, this becomes what I call the master of exaggerations. Particularly for the facial expressions in embarrassing scenes, the moe factor mix in with crazy faces so crazy is a solid source of laughter. Add all these styles together and the comedic scenarios are greatly executed. No doubt that the visual contributes immensely with the humor. They're both highly correlating with each other. Bright and vivid uses of colors splash the scenes with vigor, pulsating the atmosphere with energetic vibes. The girls have something in them that is especially endearing to me. A certain semblance. Take the tsundere for example, with her hateful appearance contradicting with her blossoming feelings. That facade only makes her even more cuter. They all have great character designs fitting for their archetype, portraying mannerisms through body language and luminescent blushes over love bubbles. In the midst of these beauties, great voice acting provides one other supplementary factor to go with their personality. Much of the background soundtracks blend in well with the scene so noticeability isn't a main factor for them. That said, I loved a couple of the humming melodies filled with all kinds of fun. Opening songs are catchy by the way, loved them too.

  Fakery is thin when it's bounded by the reality of love. It's a backfiring effect for people who have little experience with their fondness for that other person, generating tons of amusing behaviors along with some cute interactions. Which is good for us in the sidelines, as we can be indulged by it with Nisekoi being a prime example for this kind of entertainment.

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• 

  Vollerei

  85/100
  A classic romcom that hits all the usual bases, but focuses a bit more on the comedy aspect of things

  “You can't achieve anything if you don't make a move. Love is an all-out assault.” - Marika Tachibana

  Nisekoi. A story of promises and love, and the development of love and relationships. My first impressions of this anime were pretty good, especially with a talented vocal cast doing the magic behind some of the main characters. The storyline was interesting and mysterious, and we were quickly introduced to what we should expect moving forward. As the story progressed though, it was soon apparent to me that i wasn’t going to get much progression on the storyline in Season 1. Instead, more characters were introduced and we got a bit more character development with them. I also noticed that this anime leaned more towards its comedy side instead if its romance side, because it was definitely full of funny moments and interactions. Overall though, how did it do? Well, lets see!

  Art and Animation: 9.1/10

  Is this much of a surprise? With a studio like Shaft, its very hard to notice any slip-ups in quality. Character designs were well animated, and we had also gotten those signature camera angles we all love from Shaft. The color palette was neither overused or lacking, but was well balanced for each scenario to add to the immersion. There weren’t any stiff animation problems that were obvious to me either, which is always a huge plus. When it came down to facial expressions and body language, Shaft had done a beautiful job in conveying the characters emotions and attitude through their body language and facial expressions. This is where Nisekoi was most consistent in my opinion, as we were able to see Shaft work their magic.

  Storyline and Character Progression: 7.8/10

  This is where Nisekoi fell off the most for me. In the beginning, things looked like they were progressing quite smoothly with the progression of the characters as well as the occasional addition of other characters. Soon though, it felt like we were getting a bunch of fillers that were neither important to the plot nor the development of any of the characters. Even the original goal of the entire anime: the locket, seemed to be just forgotten and insignificant at some points. It went from being a top priority and something special to the main protagonist, to something that could be left on the backburner and handled whenever. This change in behavior so suddenly was very confusing to me, and i just couldn’t get why it would change in priority so drastically. Sure, i could understand him getting to the locket another time, but outright just having little interest in opening it all of a sudden when you CLEARLY have the tools to get to the truth? This didn’t fit the main protagonists personality at all to me, with this wishy washy attitude. Also, while this anime did have its moments, it was definitely a more Com anime instead of Rom. There were plenty of funny moments to spare, and cute moments here and there too. As for the romance aspect of things, this too was mostly put in a comedic light. So there wasn’t much romantic progression in the first season of this anime. So if you like your Romcom with a bit more drama or spice, this may not be the one for you necessarily. As far as Character Progression goes, we do get a bit of it here and there. But its more-so focused and devoted to whole episodes. So when we get a sort of “filler” episode, thats all that it is. But when we get an episode on a character, its sole focus is on developing them more. Like i said earlier though, there isn’t much ROMANTIC progression. As this anime mostly handles romantic situations in a comedic light. This ultimately is up to preference, but i personally would’ve preferred to have the romance part of this anime the be handled a bit more seriously to add more depth to the storyline and situations.

  Soundtrack and Audio: 8.6/10

  This was balanced with both an average soundtrack and really great quality voice acting. The soundtrack was straightforward enough, and was great quality in some parts thanks to the help of ClariS. Nothing really AMAZING stood out though to be both emotional or memorable for me to drive the point home. As i mentioned earlier, i have almost no complaints when it comes to the quality of the vocal cast. They had succeeded in expressing sincere emotion when playing their roles. This is always such an important part of an anime in order to maintain or further progress a viewers immersion, so im glad they did such a great job with this.

  Overall, Nisekoi had both its really strong points and obvious weak points. Despite all of this though, i believe this anime can be considered a classic in the Romcom genre because of how it executes all the usual tropes, cliches, and overall direction of storyline. Its still a good anime, but it just has some very apparent flaws that prevents me from fully investing myself into the storyline. If the storyline was handled a bit better in terms of priority and execution, im sure this anime could’ve been a truly memorable one. As for now though, this anime scores as right on the average line for me with an 8.5/10. It was by no means awful, but still had enough mistakes to be considered average to me. Thanks so much for reading this far, and i hope this helps paint a better picture of whether Nisekoi is your type of anime to watch. I’d definitely recommend it to someone in the romcom genre or just looking for a lighter romance storyline for sure. Until next time, see you in the next one!

  Streaming Platform: Crunchyroll
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• 

  Sarumon

  75/100
  A hilarious comedy but a mediocre romance.

  Spoiler Alert! This review may contain spoilers

  BACKGOUND
  The main character Raku Ichijou is the heir to a Yakuza empire besides that he is an entirely average high school student attempting to make his way through these hormone filled years. He holds onto a locket which a childhood sweethart gave to him, he treasures the locket even though he can't remember much about the promise he made with the girl.
  On his way to school one day he's greeted by a flying knee from an unkown assailant who turns out to be a transfer student, Chitoge Kirisaki, a girl who had just arrived from the US. By the cruel twists of fate they end up being classmates then even begin to fake date, due to some form of a peace treaty.

  CHARACTERS
  Raku Ichijou, the MC is a kind young boy who happens to be the heir to a yakuza empire, he has troubles with his love life from his locket to his crush on Kosaki Onodera and to make matters worse more he seems to be some sort of a chick magnet, attracting many girls that he had long forgotten or never even met to his side.

  Chitoge Kirisaki, the unknown assailant who kneed Raku in the face, is also the heir to a mafia group that her foreigner father runs. She's a very aggresive girl who also has trouble remembering her past as well as her complicated feelings towards Raku.

  

  Kosaki Onodera, one of the girls in Raku's class who has had a crush on him from many years yet still completely oblivious to the fact that Raku also had a crush on her. She's a very timid, shy girl and puts others needs before her own.

  Amongst the supporting characters the one's that stand out are Shuu Maiko and Ruri Miyamoto. Shuu is Raku's long time friend from kidergarten and our comic relief specialist, he's also just a tad bit perverted. Ruri on the other hand is Kosaki's old friend and somehow manages to keep Shuu in line.

  

  ART STYLE
  The art style in this anime is very simplistic the majority of the time, utilising a very pastel colour palet giving the anime a much more adolescent vibe, really emphasising the fact that this indeed is a high school romance not one of adults. The use of simplistic backgrounds to really accentuate the comical facial expressions made by the characters gives off a very comedic and almost childish effect, the use of the overexaggerated facial expressions and movements add onto the innocent environment given off by the characters. The use of bright vivid colours create a very energetic, bouncy atmosphere. At times the art style even becomes reminiscent of the monogatari series with very minimal yet well placed splashes of colour or sharply cut line with high amounts of contrast.

  

  Chitoge character design with her bright hair and ribbon reflects her personality as she is very outgoing and extremely extroverted, the vivid blushing whenever she gets nervous to the blown up fists when she gets mad, her design is very well done. Kosaki however is almost opposite to hers, her hair is a very dull dark hair and yet she still has certain mannerisms and features that pop out at certain times especially when she's near Raku. This conveys that even though she's very shy and timid she's willing to be another person when intoxicated by the love she has for Raku.

  SOUNDTRACK
  This is one of the best aspects of the anime, the Voice actors and actresses really nailed the voices in this one, from the hilarious yelps and squeals from Raku as he gets abused by Chitoge to the perverted giggling from Shuu and the boys as the peep on the girls changing. The OST's in this anime are nothing out of the world but they still aren't anyhing to scoff at, they are placed well and contribute to the ambience and mood of the situations that they are contained within. The Opening and Endings songs are also quite nice, with catchy lyrics that get stuck in your head and before you even realise it you're humming along to the melody.

  FINAL THOUGHTS
  Nisekoi Fake Love is a great comedy anime however, the romantic writing is not the greatest by any means. The plot feels quite basic and overused, the outcome seemed painfully obvious to me even with the addition of new characters you could still tell the direction that the romance was heading in. Even though a lot of the characters were written extremely well I feel as if they weren't utilised to their full potential especially Kosaki and Tsugumi (Chitoge's child-hood friend and bodyguard).

  

  However you can't expect too much from a highschool romance after all they haven't experienced a lot of this adults have especially when it comes to romance so in a way this is a good innocent rommance and much more realistic than most romance anime.

  If you're looking for a heart wrenching or heart thoribbing romance anime this isn't the one for you but if you're more interested in something light and innocent then this is the way to go and don't forget this season doesn't finalise anything! There's another season of Raku and his antics!

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