Anime Review: Nisekoi

I apologize for not updating my blog frequently. If you have been following me, you might have noticed that my university is trying its hardest to keep me busy. Because of that, I haven't been watching anime lately. But now my seriously-packed timetable is beginning to subside a little as finals is quick approaching - a calm before the storm. So I did what I do best: watching anime.

Pika pika Chitoge :3

Title: Nisekoi (Fake Love)

Genre: Romantic comedy

What is it about: Mainly about a guy forced to be in a relationship with a girl in order to stop a war from breaking out, though both of them hate each other. Then things became a little more complicated (and annoying).

My review: Nao Toyama is back once again as Karen Kujo- I mean Kirisaki Chitoge, a half-American half-Japanese blonde girl who speaks English with Japanese accent. Well, to be fair to her she did improve a lot since Kiniro Mosaic. I applaud her for even trying to speak in English. It's actually pretty entertaining. Also, the two amazing Kanas has return as well: Kana Hanazawa and Kana Asumi, alongside their kawaii-ness. To be honest, I haven't actually finished watching this anime. I currently stopped at episode 16 out of 20 and quite frankly I've pretty much lost most of my motivations to continue. I wouldn't even have made it this far if it wasn't for the fact that Nao Toyama and Kana Hanazawa is voicing two of the main characters in this anime.

Make no mistake however, I didn't necessarily hate this anime. I just thought it could be much better than it is. I will be addressing the problems with Nisekoi in a bit,  but first let me tell you why I liked this anime. In fact, I really love this anime after watching the first few episodes. Nisekoi has got the most awesome first episode ever, one that actually made me ROFLMAO. This anime opens by showing off the main character, Raku Ichijo's cooking skills which is very impressive and fun to watch but you'll never get to see it ever again. He is actually the son of a yakuza that for an organized criminal society is pretty non-threatening. Then we are introduced to Chitoge Kirisaki, daughter of a rival yakuza group who after an unfortunate misadventure, came to hate Raku. Finally at then ending of the same episode, both of them are forced to be couples. Their reaction to that are totally priceless!

This anime is funny and dramatic at the same time. I really liked where it is going and I kind of expected the anime to take a turn to become a tearjerker instead. I don't know why, but I think that would be cool. I always loved funny yet meaningful anime. However, to my disappointment, such is not the case and the anime is beginning to abandon its mission as one long major storyline, but instead focusing on small meaningless humour and a side story which doesn't make much sense. There's no more drama, just the anime's failing attempts to make you laugh which results in too much repetition of events and too much cliche. The main-character-in-deep-shit-in-the-hot-spring-after-some-idiot-swap-the-gender-sign cliche, I've seen that many times. There was a time in the beginning of the series where the two got so pissed off that they had a huge argument and Raku actually yelled at Chitoge. Well, those days are over and I really miss it. What we've got instead is the introduction of more and more characters that we don't give a damn so that Nisekoi can be a mindless harem anime.

The storyline is also became weird after the first few episodes. Instead of focusing on the yakuza brawl or the accidental couple, Nisekoi chose to focus on the small side story where the Raku made a promise to a girl 10 years ago to marry her. He couldn't remember who she was or how she looked like. All he know is he has a pendant with a lock and the girl he made the promise to holds the key to that lock. What's weirder is that the girl whom he made the promise to might actually be Raku's classmate and crush, Onodera because she had in possession of a key. Onodera also remembered only that she made a promise with a guy 10 years ago but don't know who he is and how he looked like. She only know she has a key. As if the storyline is not weird enough, more candidates of the mysterious Raku's promised girl are introduced including Chitoge. Same sh*t, Chitoge only remembered she made a promise 10 years ago but doesn't remember bla bla bla. She had another different-looking key. Oh, suddenly everybody knew everybody in this anime one way or another. To everybody's annoyance, yet another girl is introduced to potentially be the girl in question because she had yet another key. Damn, what's with this anime and keys?!

The main storyline which is interesting, dramatic, funny and fun to watch pretty much died at this point. What we get to see instead is the characters' stupidity in countless misunderstandings. Yes, I get it that Raku has a crush on Onodera. When they are together, they are excited. I get it. But this anime is really trying to over-exaggerate stuff by showing us scenes that are pretty much pointless and intended solely  to make you laugh. It worked at first, but after showing the same crap like a billion times, I'm getting real tired of it. Also, it is plainly obvious that Raku likes Onodera and Onodera likes Raku. Just bloody confess already! They had so many opportunities to do so, yet the anime is busy trying to show us how excited or nervous they are before some stupid stuff happen and they lost the chance to confess. And the cycle goes on and on. There is really nothing left to see anymore.

I don't know, but I'm feeling really sad watching this anime. It's an anime that I really liked, an anime that I actually recommended to my friend after watching a few episodes. Then it had to go and disappoint me. How very disappointing indeed. I hope the next few episodes would be a bit better at least. Hmm... Maybe I should watch Kiniro Mosaic to cheer myself up a bit. Karen Kujo anyone?

Rating: 6/10