Review of Nisekoi: False Love
Nisekoi is a romantic-comedy anime adaptation of a Weekly Shonen Jump manga of the same name. I admit I was reluctant to watch this because I'm not usually into the romance genre, but I'm glad I watched this to the end. The story is pretty straightforward. The main character, Raku Ichijou, is a teenage student and is part of a Yakuza family. He carries around a lock, from a promise he made with a girl a decade ago, who holds a key to the lock. However, he's unsure (and doesn't remember) who exactly this girl was. He currently has a crush on a deredere, but thensuddenly a tsundere enters his life, and under some circumstance, he has to pretend to be in a relationship with her. The anime eventually becomes a harem, with more -deres entering Ichijou's life.
The pacing of the anime is fine, and it has no filler episodes. The humour is where the anime truly shines. It's amusing to watch Ichijou and Chitoge Kirisaki arguing with each other, and throwing insults. However, the anime does have its serious/dramatic moments, but nothing that'd make you depressed or anything. Even though the anime has some predictable twists, the story is overall executed well.
The ending doesn't wrap things up. Even though it doesn't end on a cliffhanger, the anime looks open to have a second season. The final episode, though unique, just felt like another episode of Nisekoi.
The anime was produced by SHAFT, so if you enjoyed other avant-garde anime produced by SHAFT, like Bakemonogatari and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, then you should enjoy the artstyle of Nisekoi's. Basically, studio SHAFT anime use bizarre artstyles with the anime they produce, and this anime is no exception.
SHAFT really brought the anime to life, and I cannot imagine how generic this anime would've looked if another studio had produced it. The quality of the animation stays consistent throughout. Because it's studio SHAFT, the backgrounds look like wallpaper, and other stuff looks like it had been cut out from sugar paper.
The characters have nice designs, and there's a lot of blushing from the main characters throughout the anime. I feel that the female leads' clothing look too similar to each others, but they're school uniforms and a lot of anime consists of characters wearing school uniforms, therefore having similar appearances.
The voice-acting is superb. Nao Touyama in particular gives an excellent performance as Kirisaki, and fits the role perfectly. The background music is minimal and isn't distracting, and suitable music is played at the right moments. A lot of usage of the accordion. The openings and endings are your typical upbeat J-pop. The first opening is quite memorable.
The male lead is shown to be caring and thoughtful, but tends to hold a grudge. I wouldn't call him a dumb harem protagonist. The female characters reinforce their -dere stereotypes. Typical for gag anime, there's a lot of shouting and silly-looking facial expressions from the characters, which I find funny. There is some character development here and there. The supporting cast appear when they need to. The tsundere (Chitoge Kirisaki) is the character I'd remember the most from Nisekoi in the future.
I think people who like harem anime will enjoy this the most, because of the cute girls in it and a particular episode that has sexual fanservice in it. I mostly enjoyed it because of the comedy. For people who have never watched an anime before, this works well as a gateway anime. But like most anime set in high school, it's more of an otaku anime, and will never be a mainstream one.
The series will be memorable because of Chitoge Kirisaki. The artstyle made it unique, and I had fun watching it.