Nisekoi


Nisekoi, released in English as Nisekoi: False Love, is a Japanese romantic comedy manga series written and illustrated by Naoshi Komi. Nisekoi was first published as a one-shot manga in Shueisha's seasonal Jump NEXT! magazine before being serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump in November 2011. Since November 26, 2012, Nisekoi has been published in English in Viz Media's digital magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump. As of October 2016, the series has been compiled in 25 tankōbon volumes in Japan, and is also being released in English in digital and print volumes by Viz Media. The manga has inspired a novel series, titled Nisekoi: Urabana, written by Hajime Tanaka and published by Shueisha. There have been two volumes published, on June 4 and December 28, 2013.
In May 2013, it was announced that an anime adaptation of Nisekoi had been greenlit. The anime is directed by Akiyuki Shinbo at Shaft, and aired from January 11 to May 24, 2014. Aniplex of America has licensed the series for streaming and home video distribution in North America. Daisuki, Crunchyroll, and Hulu have provided simulcast streams with English subtitles for audiences in the United States, Canada, South America and South Africa. A second season titled Nisekoi: aired from April to June 2015. A live-action film adaptation premiered in December 2018.

Plot

Nisekoi follows high school students [|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. Yui Kanakura, the newly appointed head of the Char Siu Mafia and Raku's childhood friend, also joins in as a fiancée with yet another key to the locket.
After numerous adventures with the girls, Raku realizes he has fallen for both Chitoge and Kosaki. When Chitoge learns that Raku and Kosaki have liked each other since they were in middle school, she tries to support their relationship by leaving Japan. This prompts Raku and the others to look for her. They discover more about the book that tells the story of the keys and recall more of what actually happened ten years ago.

Characters

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Media

Manga

Nisekoi is written and illustrated by Naoshi Komi and began as a one-shot manga, published in Shueisha's seasonal Jump NEXT! magazine on January 8, 2011, before beginning serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jumps 48th issue on November 7, 2011. A voice comic was also produced and its first episode was released on June 1, 2012. The manga finished on August 8, 2016. Nisekoi individual chapters have been compiled into 25 tankōbon volumes, which were published under Shueisha's Jump Comics imprint between May 2, 2012, and October 4, 2016. The ninth volume was released simultaneously with a special edition, bundled with a drama CD, on November 1, 2013.
In December 2011, Shueisha published the first chapter in English online. The manga has been licensed in English by Viz Media and published in their digital magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump since November 26, 2012, under the name Nisekoi: False Love. They also released the first volume in print on January 7, 2014, and plan to release a new one every two months.
A spin-off manga illustrated by Taishi Tsutsui titled Magical Pâtissier Kosaki-chan, which features the character Kosaki Onodera as a magical girl, began serialization on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ website on December 1, 2014, and has been compiled into four tankōbon volumes.

Anime

A 20-episode anime adaptation was produced by Aniplex, Shaft, Shueisha and Mainichi Broadcasting System and directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, with Shinbo and Shaft staff handling series composition, Nobuhiro Sugiyama designing the characters and Naoki "naotyu-" Chiba, Kakeru Ishihama and Tomoki Kikuya composing the music. The series aired from January 11 to May 24, 2014. The first opening theme is "Click" by ClariS. The first ending theme besides "Click" for episode 1 is "Heart Pattern" by Nao Toyama, starting from episode 2. The second ending theme is "Recover Decoration" by Kana Hanazawa, starting from episode 8.
The ending theme for episode 14 is "Step" by ClariS, while the same song is the second opening starting from episode 15. The third ending theme is "Trick Box" by Mikako Komatsu, starting from episode 15. The fourth ending theme is "Hanagonomi" by Kana Asumi, starting from episode 18. The ending for episode 20 is "Sōzō Diary" by Toyama as Chitoge Kirisaki, Hanazawa as Kosaki Onodera, Komatsu as Seishirou Tsugumi, and Asumi as Marika Tachibana. On the Japanese Blu-ray version, the fourth ending theme is "Order×Order" by Yumi Uchiyama.
A total of four OVAs were produced and packaged with manga volumes 14, 16, 17, and 21.
A second season aired between April 10 and June 26, 2015. The first opening theme is "Rally Go Round" by LiSA, and for episode 8, the opening theme is "Magical ☆ styling" by Kana Hanazawa. The ending theme for the first, third, and sixth episodes is "Aimai Hertz" by Toyama as Chitoge Kirisaki, Hanazawa as Kosaki Onodera, Komatsu as Seishirou Tsugumi, and Asumi as Marika Tachibana. The ending theme for the second episode is "TrIGgER" by Komatsu. The ending theme for the fourth episode is "Sleep Zzz" by Toyama. The ending theme for the fifth episode is "Matadō Rabu" by Asumi. The ending theme for the seventh episode is "marchen ticktack" by Ayane Sakura. The ending theme for the tenth episode is "Tooriame Drop" by Yumi Uchiyama.

Film

A live-action adaptation premiered in Japanese theaters on December 21, 2018. It was directed by Hayato Kawai and stars Kento Nakajima as Raku Ichijo and Ayami Nakajo as Chitoge Kirisaki, and was distributed by Toho.

Other media

A three-volume novel series, titled Nisekoi: Urabana, was published by Shueisha under their Jump j-Books imprint. The novels are written by Hajime Tanaka and illustrated by Naoshi Komi. The first volume was published on June 4, 2013. It has stories concerning the main characters such as Kosaki sprouting cat ears from a virus, and Marika as a hit-woman. The second volume was released on December 28, 2013 with stories about the play and side stories such as the gang working at a maid café. The third volume was released on April 3, 2015.
A vomic was released by Shonen Jump published in 3 videos covering chapter one. The first video was first released on September 6, 2013, and features Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Raku Ichijo, Haruka Tomatsu as Chitoge Kirisaki, Hisako Kanemoto as Kosaki Onodera, and Daichi Kanbara as Shuu Maiko.
A visual novel titled Nisekoi: Yomeiri!? was developed by Konami and released for the PlayStation Vita on November 27, 2014. Konami also released a game for Android and iOS named 2=ニセコイ マジコレ from January 2014 until its closure on December 26, 2015. Chitoge appears as a support character in the Bandai Namco Games' crossover fighting game, J-Stars Victory VS, released in Japan in March 2014 and in North America and Europe in June 2015. Two Super Mario Maker Event Courses designed by Komi, along with an unlockable Mystery Mushroom costume of Chitoge for the game, were released on February 18, 2016.

Reception


Volume
No.		Peak
rank		NotesRefs
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233 weeks
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542 weeks
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Volume
No.		Peak
rank		NotesRefs
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Manga

Nisekoi was listed at number 30 out of Oricon's top 30 manga series sold in 2013, with 1,542,417 copies sold. In 2014 it was ranked 16 out of top 30 manga series sold in 2014, with 3,816,372 which is more than twice the sale of 2013.. As of April 2018, the manga had 12 million copies in print.
Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network writes that the Nisekoi manga has a large lack of originality, such as "nearly every plot point can be traced back to another shounen series." Also "seasoned readers of shounen romance will recognize elements from at least three other series in there." However, she enjoyed the art and overall sense of fun.
Andy Hanley of UK Anime Network found Nisekoi: False Love to be "packed to the rafters with clichés" but light-hearted and fun to read. He said the character designs were traditional but the author knows when to detail backgrounds or keep things simple. The translations were decent and the dialogue smooth.

Anime

In reviewing the anime, Theron Martin of Anime News Network saw the "plot twist coming a mile away" but "the setup shows promise". Hope Chapman critiqued the show's pacing: "Telling a simple story in a complex way kills the pacing, in this case. Plot points and character moments that could be communicated in one minute take three in Shinbo-style, and it just doesn't add anything when the story is this small and straightforward". Carl Kimlinger found the "improbably romantic fantasy" done right, a story relatively enjoyable after having reviewed No-Rin.
In his UK Anime Network review of the first five episodes, Andy Hanley found the series an exercise in box ticking, if viewed cynically, but it "has simply taken old concepts and polished them until they're gleaming and immaculate - and it works". He felt that Shaft's animation style was a bit overbearing in the first episode, but settles well in accenting the important parts of the show. The voice cast captured the characters well, and the overall presentation was top notch.

Works cited