Review: Nisekoi: False Love vol. 21-25

March 2, 2018

By Dustin Cabeal

When I received the 25th volume of Nisekoi: False Love this week, I instantly noticed that it was thicker than normal volumes. Flipping over to the back cover I read the words “Final Volume” and got excited. My problem with many of the middle volumes that I read of Nisekoi was that it had that stretched out feeling that comes with a lot of manga stories that become successful. Yet, much like the way that Raku and Chitoge’s false love turned to real love, I surprisingly fell in love with this story. Part of me hates admitting that, but I can’t deny that it’s a love story unlike any other I’ve read. In particular, because it’s a harem love story in which the boy makes a choice and picks one of the women interested in him.

Review: Nisekoi: False Love vol. 20

February 28, 2017

By Dustin Cabeal

Are you ready for the rollercoaster that is Nisekoi? Because this might be the best volume, I’ve read in the series, which is strange because the last volume was the worst I’ve read. At this point I’m in too deep on this series; I’ve read from volume thirteen, I’ve watched two seasons of the anime, and now I’m starting to like volumes. What happened to me?

Review: Nisekoi: False Love vol. 19

January 2, 2017

By Dustin Cabeal

That’s more like it. In my last review, I admitted to maybe, kinda sorta being in love with this series. The afterglow has faded, and the series has not only returned to its usual shenanigans but further shows that it has fallen into the trap of success. The trap being needlessly continuing the story when a clear solution is in sight.

Review: Niskeoi: False Love vol. 18

October 21, 2016

By Dustin Cabeal

Much like the main characters of this book, I think I might be falling in love… with the story; which is difficult to admit since it has wasted so many opportunities and picked the familiar path of the harem genre time and time again. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve kept reading it that I’ve become so invested or that I watched two seasons of the anime to see how it all started. Whatever it is, this volume got me. Now, that doesn’t mean it’ll keep me because this all hinges on what happens next.

Review: Nisekoi: False Love vol. 17

September 8, 2016

Since reading this volume, I started watching the anime version; which is weird because as I say on this week’s episode of Super S (listen here), I strangely like the anime. It’s almost as if it has all the personality that the manga is missing. Perhaps better put, everything that this manga is now missing. Because that’s one thing that’s become painfully clear to me, this story is going on for far too long and could likely continue to do so. And that’s a shame because it’s burning through its best material and then left to stretch out its weakest material. Not that the anime has done it perfectly, but it does manage to add that extra bit of personality that I’ve been waiting for this manga to show me. No surprise here, this volume doesn’t give me that injection of personality either.

This volume is busy as fuck. It finishes the segment with Raku and Onodera at the hot springs and, of course, everyone is working to get them together so much so that they share a room, share a bath and sleep on each other on the bus back. From there the story goes right into field day in which Raku and Chitoge share cute moments along with the typical embarrassing moments with Tsugumi. Then a pretty large segment dedicated to Yui which establishes another forced marriage upon Raku and changes how Yui responds to him. The last part is a school trip that finds Raku and Chitoge spending the night alone together unbeknownst to the rest of the characters.

Sadly, as good as this last scene was it points out one of the details I mentioned about weakest aspects being drawn out. Claude is mentioned. I had no idea who this character was until watching the anime as he’s the lynchpin that forces Raku and Chitoge to pretend to be in a relationship at school. Having read five volumes this is the first time he’s mentioned, but he’s suddenly an easy story device to throw Chitoge and Raku together. Which shows the short sidedness of using a particular character to force the story along and the lack of development that’s been put into Chitoge and Raku’s relationship. That and it felt like the creator said, "Oh yeah... we have this character still don't we?"

That and I find that the more I read, the more I’d rather this be a one-sided story in which Chitoge and Raku are just forced into a relationship only to find out that destiny played a hand. Also, the mafia element that I spoke about in my last review makes another convenient appearance here and again to force Chitoge and Raku together even though for five volumes it never once affected the story or seemed to be an issue. It’s almost as the creator is struggling to remember the core plot of the series. Which also happens to be one of the few things that made the story stand out.

The art continues to be the art. I did notice that there are crazy facial expressions used here and there, but it’s not nearly as thick and funny as it is in the anime. Perhaps the earlier volumes were thick with it, but much like the basic plot it was forgotten or replaced by fan service.

It isn’t a bad volume, but it just feels like a story that’s gone on for too long. Now it’s starting to recycle its old elements with new characters, and that spoils any charm the story had. I’ll keep reading at this point just to see if it will end or if it’ll just continue forever and have a safe ending in which fans can just pick their own girl for Raku to end up with when the eventual conclusion happens. If anything they should do what Archie did and create two timelines in which Archie ended up with both Betty and Veronica and appease both fanbases. Though here you would need to create seven or eight timelines. It’s not bad, but you can easily see how it could be better and at this point, I think the readers are here out of habit rather than joy.

[su_box title="Score: 3/5" style="glass" box_color="#8955ab" radius="6"]

Nisekoi: False Love vol. 17 Creator: Naoshi Komi Publisher: Viz Media Price: $9.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

[/su_box]

Review: Nisekoi: False Love vol. 16

August 29, 2016

I’m back for more it seems. After jumping into this series three volumes ago, I’ve kept up on Raku Ichijo’s love…hexagon? Harem rom-com's are usually my thing, but something is missing from this one. Personality.

Everything in Nisekoi is paint-by-numbers. The hook of the keys and a bunch of kids that can’t remember ten years ago is nice, but not long-lasting. The added mix of the Yakuza, Mafia and police could be interesting, but at the end of the day, it’s only vaguely mentioned and never has any real consequences on the story. Which is the worst thing about this book because it has all these components to really do something different and it doesn’t. I’m not suggesting that it would need to change genres to do this, just embrace the elements that are there and work them into the goofy formula that it uses.

In this volume, they add a Prince and the Pauper moment in which Chitoge meets her exact and I mean exact lookalike, who is a princess from either a made up land or one that I’m unfamiliar with and don’t care to look up. Taking pity on her situation of not having enough personal freedom they make the reckless choice of switching places so that Raku can show the princess a lovely time around Japan.

Gosh, I sure hope she doesn’t fall in love.

She does, but hopefully, won’t be added to the story after the main love triangle is revealed to her. The rest of the volume develops some sub-characters aka the friends of two main characters, and that was the part that I enjoyed the most. The character I dislike the most Tachibana (which is strangely a fan favorite) attempts to overcome her fear of animals. This part of the story just highlights Chitoge’s compatibility with Raku and builds up how nice of a guy he is. Nothing more.

Even though the keys are never mentioned in this volume, I still enjoyed it slightly more than the previous three I read. Mostly because it took a break from all that and instead chose to give all of the characters (there’s plenty of smaller stories I left out) a moment to shine and develop their love for Raku or each other. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t win me over or make me a fan of the series for the reasons I listed in the beginning.

The art is pleasant. It’s not bad, it’s better than average, but again has no personality. The characters mostly look the same, and this problem is illustrated in the character intro at the front of the volume. That’s right, the actual illustrations illustrate the problem, because without a name to the side I would just be numbering the characters and calling it a day. There’s no real storytelling done with the artwork; it’s just pictures accompanying dialog. Comics are comics regardless of who makes them, and this one’s biggest downfall is that it doesn’t use the gutters or the medium to the fullest. It’s just a classic example of cute art and average story.

I have another volume to read, but at that point, I’ll know if I should spend any more time with Nisekoi. Ultimately, this is a paint by number Harem that could be so much more but refuses to embrace the world that it’s created leaving it feeling hollow and generic. Maybe the next volume will win me over, but somehow I honestly doubt it.

[su_box title="Score: 3/5" style="glass" box_color="#8955ab" radius="6"]

Nisekoi: False Love vol. 16 Creator: Naoshi Komi Publisher: Viz Media Price: $9.99 Format: TPB; Print/Digital

[/su_box]