Anime: Nisekoi

Review
Studio Shaft is one of the most traditional makers of harem and ecchis out there. Although they explored new psychodelical grounds with Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica and tried something more refined at some points, most of the portfolio still shines due to the stunningly beautiful, cute, and sexy girls they can animate, as well as clever usage of basic ecchi elements in their tales. This is the studio behind Popotan, Mahoromatic, Negima!?, and PaniPoni Dash!, so Nisekoi comes as a natural sucessor to their works. Can they deliver a fun experience once again?

Nisekoi is your average harem centered on Raku, a high-school boy whose father is the lead of a Yakuza branch. His life takes a turn when he is forced to fake a relationship with the daughter of a gangster leader and learns that one of the girls around him may be the one with whom he made a love promise ten years ago.

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1. The slow-building harem
   Perhaps an interesting point in Nisekoi's formula is its patience to present all the girls that will fill Raku's life. The tale starts with Kosaki and Chitoge, and as episodes progresses you are presented to Seshirou and finally to Marika, who surprisingly shows up only in the last third of the show. This interesting formula helps in making you know each of the gals better, but is sadly overwhelmed by the fact that every entrance comes alongside with the "transfer student" excuse and many other typical coincidences of the industry.
   
   Man, these are some charming girls
   As expected from Shaft, the girls from Nisekoi are stunningly beautiful, perhaps the best work of the studio in this department so far. There are tons of close ups on their sharp, colorful, cute faces, as well as expected fanservices with pantsu shots, bikinis, yukatas, and every mandatory harem element. Their personalities are also nice and varied, but, unfortunately, only Chitoge gets a deal of development as she is the only one who is not instantly in insane love with Raku.
   
   An awesome slide presentation
   Somewhere along the road I explained Shaft's work to a friend as "the most awesome and psycholedical powerpoint presentation you'll ever see". This still applies in Nisekoi. What we have here is stunning artwork from girls blended in layered backgrounds and enhanced by bizarre sparkles, sudden color changes, floating objects, and many other weird stuff. All of that with a sharp and consistent work and a colorful and detailed presentation. Sadly, as from other Shaft works, this also means you have little use of animation, as most scenes are close up of still images or sliding motionless characters. This doesn't harm the overall experience, especially because these scenes are all backed by tons of dialogue and cartoonish faces, but is still a weak point for the studio.
   
   It succeeds as a comedy
   Nisekoi manages to get your attention in the first set of episodes due to its inherent comical value. The situations can be quite basic at many points, like falling over the girl, accidentaly touching her, coming closer to her, etc, but the execution does a good job in making those childish scenes funny.
   
   But fails as a romance
   There is an interesting mystery in Nisekoi as far as the three main girls are concerned. Raku is certain he is in love with Kosaki, but many of his actions tell you otherwise. There are many episodes where you think you know who the winning girl will be, and many where you don't. Unfortunately, whenever the romance is about to move on, the childish scenes and coincidences, added to some absurdly infantile reactions, assure you that nothing will progress and you'll only get frustrated, ashamed of watching this, and ultimately angry with the cast and the show.
   
   Ah.. and there's no conclusion
   The middle of the show manages to explore Chitoge in ways no other characters are explored. This lead to interesting later events where you think romance will finally be settled, but once again Nisekoi frustrates by suddenly changing personalities, making the protagonist be even dumber than before and now a dick as well, and still doesn't solve any kind of problem started by the plot. These twenty episodes come and go, and while you can have fun in its first two parts, in the end you may feel as if everything that happened was only a large piece of filler. Instead of showing progression, Nisekoi decides to basically reset the show by the end. A shame, because a conclusion here could consolidate this as a interesting recent harem.
   

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Comments
Nisekoi felt nostalgic. After so many attempts by Shaft in making presentations with overwhelming amount of text dump and psychodelical artwork, seeing a standard harem fare with cute girls brought me back to when I first watched Mahoromatic nearly fifteen years ago.

Sadly, though, Nisekoi is too afraid to move outside the pre-established lines of harem shows. From the start, there are two terrible messages that come from the show that left me almost dazed. First, as far as Nisekoi goes, those who never made a love promise with some random boy/girl when they were five will most likely never find their soulmate. Second, you will only meet worthwhile people to be in love with if they are transfer students. Seriously, after twenty years of animation, using these two excuses to move the plot forward is very disappointing. This message puts hardwork, caring, a good heart, and many other qualities to the sidelines, making most romances as this superficial and kinda of boring at most.

Anyway, don't expect this to be good as a romance though. Nisekoi shines because it's funny and has a overwhelming presentation. Its love part is barely typical, if not terribly cliche'd. As I typically state, a great romance is about things that happen AFTER the couple commits, which sadly never happens in Nisekoi.

Nisekoi at first is exactly what the title says. It's a series about a fake, forced relationship between a fairly loud-mouthed protagonist (think Toradora) and a very loud-mouthed and tsundere half-American girl. But in reality, that's a fake cover for what is truly a very traditional comedy-based harem with moments of ecchi. Our protagonist often has dreams about a girl who has a key to the locket that he's worn since he was a little kid; they promised to marry when they reunite. Only problem is, he encounters numerous girls with keys, and all of them seem to have some form of amnesia about what happened when they were little.

While the gangster/yakuza aspect sort of reminds me of Seto no Hanayome, this is definitely a Shaft work with stylistic touches similar to the Bakemonogatari franchise. The discovery of one's past theme is definitely nothing new, having been used in plenty of other harems such as Nakaimo and even Kanon. But the combination of a traditional harem plot progression, forced relationship with gorilla girl, and the underlying mystery of everyone's past actually combine to form a very competent package. Add in the cute, innocent nature of everyone's relationship and you have a compelling watch candidate. Some of the plot elements do start to grow old given the length of the show but overall Nisekoi is one of the more rewarding current harems out there.

Animation:
Nisekoi is drawn in a bright, saturated color palette that gives it a slightly light-hearted mood. As is the trend with Shaft, expect backgrounds to be on the more plain side and some an above-average rate of camera shifts. It's not as distracting as Bakemonogatari with all the white and red frames, but it still is noticeable. The drawing style is a bit different at first but you get used to it after a few episodes. Character design is good overall with distinctive characters and personalities. Emotions aren't PA Works level but definitely above average.

There are a few action scenes that have Ichijou literally running for his life but this is clearly not the focus of the series. There are also some ecchi moments including numerous bathing suit scenes, onsen scenes, and general camera positioning. This also isn't the prime focus of the show so don't expect overt ecchi as seen in Sora no Otoshimono.

Sound:
The series has two OPS and a lot of EDs. The first half of the show has a very clean sound, similar to Oreimo since it's by the same artist. The second OP is sung by none other than the VA for Kirisaki. It's a nice melody that fits the show. The BGM is above average with some nice vocal additions when the mood is right. This is also helped by good, well-timed sound effects.

Though I hadn't heard much of Nao Touyama, she does a convincing job as Kirisaki in addition to the nice OP. The show does have a lot of top talent veterans though. Kana Hanazawa, for one, is at her absolute cutest as Onodera. You also have Kana Asumi and Mikako Komatsu rounding out the supporting female cast and the instantly-recognizable Takehito Koyasu supporting on the male side. The show is driven quite a bit by the characters and the VA cast does a very respectable job.

Story:
Our protagonist's family leads a yakuza group, which suddenly is on the brink of outright war with an American gang that for some reason is now in Japan. The only way to avert the destruction of the city is, apparently, to get the protagonist to date the American gang's female heir, Kirisaki. Having started on completely bad terms, the two have no choice but to submit to their parents' wishes. Humorously, both gangs are suspicious of their relationship, forcing them to go all out in their acting. How long will they be able to act close despite hating each other's guts?

The slightly contrived but nonetheless interesting premise unfortunately erodes as the series progresses. The show starts becoming arch based as girls are introduced in succession, though Onodera and Kirisaki remain important throughout the show. Intensity greatly increases towards the end of the show as Kirisaki starts to have a change of heart, only to be met by Ichijou's aloof responses. Though this builds to a climax in the form of a rather radical interpretation of Romeo and Juliet, the conclusion is unfortunately very harem-like in not really concluding anything; this ends the show on a negative note as it undermines the entire locket and key aspect of the plot that dominated the early part of the show.

Character:
Nisekoi has a lot of likeable characters. Whether you like the coy, slightly-understated type or the manly tomboy stuck in a model's body, this show has you covered. Characters have a reasonable amount of background and lots of development. All the characters grow through their interactions though at very different rates. The only thing that really irks me is the fact that both Ichijou and Onodera are so ridiculously slow to realize their crush on each other despite innumerable instances where it is obviously clear.

Value:
The character interactions and unique original concept stand out as the strong points in this harem. If you are looking for a relatively light harem with likeable characters and a good dosage of humor, by all means pick this up. The show follows a tried and true plot formula, which while not terribly innovative is quite well executed. This series is no fake, it's a real, well played harem. Had they given it a more proper conclusion, this would have been a strong recommendation.