In the past few years, I have been bothered by most of the male leads from romantic comedies since most of them lack a backbone. After watching the first episode of Nisekoi, I knew it was going to be different.
The story focuses on an ordinary high school student named Ichijou Raku who want to live a normal life, but can’t since he is an heir of a Yakuza. His day is turned upside down when Kirisaki Chitoge, a new transfer student in his class crashes into him, which causes him to lose a locket that his first love give to him ten years ago. Despite her aloof personality and endless arguing, she manages to find it. Eventually, the families of their perspective gangs forced the two to pretend to be a couple to prevent a gang war. Knowing that the alternative is bad, Raku and Chitoge decide to go along with it without realizing that their feelings for each other will eventually become genuine.
Although Raku is not your typical male lead for the fact that he is from a Yakusa family, I felt that he has some redeeming qualities despite being somewhat an idiot in denial due to not remembering what happened 10 years ago. Sure, he unintentionally says some mean things to Chitoge towards the end of the show that made her upset. On the other hand, he still gives me an impression that he cares for all the girls who has a crush on him as seen with some of the character-focused episodes and doesn’t ignore them. We see this not only with his ideal girl, Kosaki, but also Marika and Chitoge.
Out of the four girls, I felt that Chitoge improved the most not because she is the main girl, but rather how her feelings towards Raku change throughout the show. Sure, I enjoyed Marika because she looks pretty and has a fun personality. However, I don’t see her winning. The same can be said about Kosaki. She is way too indecisive when it comes to confessing her feelings for him. Sure, she came very close to doing so in the last episode, but luck was not on her side. Even so, I don’t find her character particularly interesting compared to the other girls.
This leaves us with Chitoge. At first, it seems that she was never going to get along with him since their chemistry does not match. This eventually changes, especially when she finds out that Raku might be the boy she fell in love with during her childhood. Although they still fight each other once in a while, I liked how she warms up to him. To me, these moments are not only adorable, but also heartwarming as well as seen with her being saved by Raku from being lost in the forest.
As a whole, Nisekoi is a very enjoyable romantic comedy thanks to the cast and their interactions, especially between Raku and Chitoge. Still, I have a feeling that something was missing. Although Tsugumi was a fun character, she barely received any character development. Not only that, the locket which plays an important part of determining which girl will win never gets mentioned again after Chitoge’s key got stuck in it. Because of that, this gives me a feeling that they will drag on the story until the author decides to finish it. If there is a second season, I seriously hope that Tsugumi will get more character development along with seeing Chitoge’s feelings for Raku progressing even further.
Overall Rating: 8.9/10, B+, Very Good
The thing about Raku and Chitoge is something you hit on, mainly that things are changing between them. Marika and Kosaki have consistent dreams about what their perfect relationship would be, but R & C are building something one argument, one stumble, one slip of the tongue, one gomen and one small smile at a time – a real relationship with all the pimples and blush one might expect as two people begin to get along. They have to hold on for three years, and I guess the mangaka is going to make us slog through it all. If we get a second season, I’m hoping they cut to the chase, and maybe we’ll see the manga end at the same time as the anime.
I kind of agree that the author will end up dragging it on since it’s already obvious from what we seen how close they got. Not to mention, nobody knows if Chitoge actually unlocked the locket and I suspect the author wants to finish it off in one shot, he/she can probably do so. But yep, I suppose they will wait until the very end for that to happen.