[Customer]

Nisekoi

Table of Contents:

• Sources/Links
  
• Synopsis
  
• Plot
  
• Characters
  
• Pros and Cons
  
• Overall Rating
  

-Sources/Links-
MAL: http://myanimelist.net/anime/18897/Nisekoi
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisekoi
Crunchroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/nisekoi

-Synopsis-
Raku Ichijou is an average high school student. He also happens to be the sole heir to the head of a Yakuza Family called the Shuei-gumi. Ten years ago, Raku made a promise... a secret promise with a girl he met. They promised one another that they will "get married when they reunite." Since then, Raku never let go of the pendant the girl gave him.

Then one day, a beautiful girl named Chitoge Kirisaki transfers into Raku's class. Their chemistry was more than off. There was not a moment where they were not fighting. But by a weird turn of events, Raku and Chitoge agree to become fake lovers. Although his heart is really interested in his classmate Kosaki Onodera, Raku must continue pretending to be Chitoge's boyfriend.
(source: MAL)

-Plot-
Nisekoi follows high school student Raku Ichijo, the son of a leader in the yakuza faction Shuei-Gumi, and Chitoge Kirisaki, the daughter of a boss in a rival gang known as Beehive. They unexpectedly meet when Chitoge hops a wall and knees Raku in the face. After she runs off, Raku realizes he has lost his locket which was given to him by his childhood sweetheart with whom he made a secret promise. After discovering Chitoge is a new transfer student in his class, he forces her to help him look for the locket. During the search, they begin to dislike each other.

Upon returning home, Raku learns that the Shuei-Gumi and Beehive gangs have agreed to settle their feud by pairing their leaders' children. Raku learns that his girlfriend-to-be is none other than Chitoge. For the next three years, they must pretend to be in a relationship to maintain peace between the gangs. This turns out to be quite a challenging task, not only because of their hatred for one another, but also because Raku has a crush on another schoolmate, Kosaki Onodera, whom he secretly wishes was the girl who bears the key to his locket. Various developments complicate the situation, including Chitoge's over-protective bodyguard, a female hitman, a girl who claims to be Raku's fiancée, and the existence of multiple keys.
(source: Wiki)

My take on the plot: As it is very unoriginal, the plot of this anime keeps throwing curveballs and has you on the edge of your seat. I can't say much, however even as unoriginal as this plot is, it's still an amazing anime to watch. Rating: 7.5/10

-Characters-

Spoiler:

Raku Ichijo

Spoiler:

(一条 楽 Ichijō Raku, Raku Ichijou)
Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (vomic), Kōki Uchiyama (drama CD, anime)
Raku is a high school student who aspires to pursue a normal career when he graduates, although he is the son of a Yakuza family leader.[ch. 1] When he is placed in a fake relationship with Chitoge Kirisaki, he hides his feelings for his crush, Kosaki Onodera. He wears a locket that symbolizes a promise of love he made to a girl ten years ago, and hopes he can reunite with the girl who bears the key to unlock it. Raku shows kindness and care even to people he is supposed to hate, as he helps Chitoge and others throughout the series. As the story progresses, he grows closer to Chitoge, although he has yet to figure out his true feelings.

Chitoge Kirisaki
(桐崎 千棘 Kirisaki Chitoge)
Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu (vomic), Nao Toyama (drama CD, anime)
Chitoge is a half-Japanese transfer student from America, and the daughter of the leader of the Beehive Gangsters. She is annoyed by Raku, who calls her a gorilla woman, but pretends to be in a relationship with him in order to prevent their family gangs from going to war. Ten years before, Chitoge makes a promise with a boy, but does not realize it could be Raku until she finds a key that could potentially unlock his locket. She develops feelings towards Raku, and becomes jealous when girls such as Marika show open affections towards him. Eventually, she realizes that she is truly in love with him, and changes her internal attitude.

Kosaki Onodera
(小野寺 小咲 Onodera Kosaki)
Voiced by: Hisako Kanemoto (vomic), Kana Hanazawa (drama CD, anime)
Kosaki Onodera is a kind and sweet classmate of Raku. She has a shoulder-length dark brown hair and chestnut brown eyes. Although Raku has a major crush on her, she does not reveal that she has a similar crush on him. She bears a key that could unlock Raku's locket but denies it when Raku asks, and acts extremely shy whenever they have a potential romantic situation. Her family owns a dessert shop where she fashions good-looking treats, but she makes terrible food when left to her own devices.

Shū Maiko

Spoiler:

(舞子 集 Maiko Shū)
Voiced by: Kōji Fujiyoshi (vomic), Yūki Kaji (drama CD, anime)
Shū is Raku's best friend. He enjoys doing anything for a laugh, and often makes perverted passes or comments without shame to his friends. He is perceptive of Raku's relationships, knowing immediately that Raku was not really dating Chitoge, that Raku and Onodera have secret crushes on each other, and that Tsugumi has developed romantic feelings for Raku. Academically, he places next to "glasses buddy" Ruri, much to the latter's chagrin. He has not expressed romantic interest in Raku's friends, but in one storyline, he has a crush on their homeroom teacher Kyoko.

Claude

Spoiler:

(クロード Kurōdo)
Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu (drama CD, anime)
Claude, one of the leaders of the Beehive gangsters, is one of the few characters who suspects the relationship between Raku and Chitoge is fake. He stalks Chitoge regularly to make sure Raku does not take advantage of her. Chitoge stated that when she was young, she was unable to make friends because of Claude's overprotectiveness and background checks. He raises Tsugumi as a hitman, disregarding her gender by giving her a boy's name Seishirou.

Ruri Miyamoto

Spoiler:

(宮本 るり Miyamoto Ruri)
Voiced by: Yumi Uchiyama (drama CD, anime)
Ruri is Kosaki's best friend. She often speaks what is on her mind, and actively pushes Kosaki to get closer to Raku. She regularly beats up Shu for his perverted comments, although sometimes Shu has pearls of wisdom that she can respect.

Seishirou Tsugumi

Spoiler:

(鶫 誠士郎 Tsugumi Seishirō, Seishiro Tsugumi)
Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu (drama CD, anime)
Tsugumi is a hitwoman who was raised and trained by Claude of the Beehive Gangsters. Tsugumi is originally introduced as a guy who transfers to Chitoge's class, and has orders to protect her from Raku, whom she thinks forced Chitoge into the relationship. She and Chitoge are childhood friends; she tries to keep a ten year old promise of becoming strong to protect Chitoge. However, after Raku treats her nicely, she begins to develop feelings for him, even though she is too stubborn and embarrassed to admit it. In America, her assassin code name is "Black Tiger", who had a rivalry with "White Fang" Paula McCoy. She does well academically, having ranked next to Chitoge on a yearly exam. Raku has occasionally confided with her as a good friend and also for romance advice.

Marika Tachibana
spoiler](橘 万里花 Tachibana Marika)
Voiced by: Kana Asumi (anime)
Marika transfers to Raku's class and is introduced as his fiancée; she bears a key that she thinks will unlock Raku's pendant, and is the most vocal about expressing her love to Raku. She is the daughter of the police chief, and has been in love with Raku for the past ten years. She does not get along with Chitoge; she states she hates girls with long hair despite the fact that she also has long hair. Although she has a reputation of being a fighter, she has a frail constitution; ten years prior, she was frequently visited by a young Raku, who brought her gifts and sparked a friendship with her. Because Raku mentions he likes a girly girl with long hair, she grows her hair out and tries to speak politely and feminine, only reverting to her crude Kyushu accent when flustered.

Paula McCoy

Spoiler:

(ポーラ・マッコイ Pōra Makkoi)
Paula is an assassin for the Beehive gangsters who has trained in America; her alias is "White Fang". She is a colleague of Tsugumi, whom she considers her rival as she has finished second to her in many missions. She is upset that Tsugumi has gotten soft after going to Japan. When she challenges Tsugumi to a match where the goal is to steal a kiss from Raku, she eventually loses and has to give up on Seishirou returning to America with her. She later returns to Japan as a student at Tsugumi's school. After seeing that Tsugumi acts shy and embarrassed when near Raku, she sets up romantic situations where the two are together. She eventually opens up to the possibility of being friends with people after talking with Haru Onodera.

Haru Onodera

Spoiler:

(小野寺 春 Onodera Haru)
Kosaki's sister who is a school year younger than Raku and the gang. On her way to school she is saved from some delinquents by a mysterious prince (actually Raku Ichijo) and ends up with his locket. Her first impression of Raku is negative as she believes that he is a womanizer who is trying to trick her sister, a dangerous yakuza, and a pervert for looking at her panties. She also refuses to return his locket until Raku convinces her that he is helping the prince. Unlike her sister, she is a good cook. She later reveals that she was helped by a guy in a mascot costume (also Raku) who treats her with vanilla ice cream. Later, Haru finally warms up to Raku and even states that she has fallen in love with him, but does not want to get in the way of her sister's love for Raku and decides that she will support her.

Yui Kanakura

Spoiler:

(奏倉 羽 Kanakura Yui)
Yui is Raku's childhood friend and the chair of the Char Siu mafia. She came back to Japan after spending several years in a foreign country. She also knows Chitoge, Kosaki and Marika, and like them, holds a key which could unlock Raku's locket. Shortly after her arrival in Japan, she becomes the gang's new homeroom teacher, having replaced Kyoko who retired because of marriage, and later moves in with Raku.

-Pros and Cons-
Pros: The characters, plot, and jujst basics make this anime not only heart wrenching at times, but hilarious at most. As I watched this, it occurs to me that this has been done more than milions of times by different anime, however it's still very watchable. In most anime, there are cliffhangers, but not very good ones. Other animes make you pissed off with their cliffhangers, however this one doesn't really piss you off. It just makes you look more forward to the next episode. I probably would've watched it all in 2 days has it not been still coming out when I was watching.

Cons: Even though the characters do fit in all very well places, some of them get repetitive very easily. While most of the twists do make you want more, there are some that do just make you angry with pointless interest spike attempts.

-Overall Rating-
I give this anime a 8/10 for the simple fact of how it's planned and how well it was made. I know that may sound cliche or generic, but to this such an overused anime plot could be so astounding makes this anime even brighter than before.

[MiS]

I absolutely loved the manga for the series when it first got released, and I'm a bit delayed in watching it since I stopped around episode four when I just took a break from anime in general. Despite people saying it was just another generic romcom, I just became infatuated with the characters themselves, and I consider Nisekoi to be one of my guilty pleasures.