Review of Nisekoi: False Love

I'll say it from the get-go that Nisekoi was a highly enjoyable anime to watch and I would recommend it to any anime fans that like shounen comedies and tsundere characters. Nisekoi is about Raku Ichigyou, the son of the head of the Shue-gumi yakuza group, who at 6 years old, met and fell for a girl he now does not remember. The only thing he remembers is that they made a promise to marry each other when they met again, and would identify each other by the locket and key they exchanged. Raku has held onto this locket for 10 years in the hopeof reuniting with her. He currently has a crush on a girl named Onodera, a friend from middle school, and hopes she is the girl he is looking for. His life is turned upside down though when he encounters the pretty but aggressive Chitoge Kirisaki, and though they don't get along, through family circumstances they are forced to act as fake boyfriend and girlfriend. Nisekoi shows this hilarious fake couple as they develop their "relationship" in front of their friends and classmates.

Story: 8/10
Ridiculous, cliche, but utterly HILARIOUS. It is not really unique in any way but man the collaboration of the characters just makes it work so well. It's a "tale of 2 families" type story just like Romeo and Juliet (which they cleverly make a reference to) with a lot of twists, turns and love interests. It uses very common storylines; the beach episode, the school trip (and typical ridiculousness that usually happens), the school festival and so on but they are still funny to watch regardless. The story gets an 8/10 mostly because I was not satisfied with the ending but I think this is due to the fact that another season may be coming. If one does come, the score would definitely be bumped up to at least a 9 as there would be a chance for a true ending and resolution between characters.

Art: 10/10
Absolutely stunning. Such effective use of colour and movement in the animation. CodeProvider (on YouTube) pointed out that even the grass in this anime stood out as beautiful...like come on. You usually don`t hear someone say "man that`s some sick grass". The movements are just so fluid it brings a great sense of realism.

Sound: 7/10
The first opening theme is so catchy. It was a real stand out for me. The second opening is pretty nice as well, and ending themes are both alright. But besides that, to be honest I did not notice much in terms of music just because I was so into the story myself, but I guess that is not totally a bad thing.

Character: 10/10
The characters were what made the anime so enjoyable. They had such a great combination of personalities. Raku and Chitoge are absolutely hilarious together. Watching them bicker but watch each other's backs was just an enjoyable experience. Chitoge may tie with Taiga (from Toradora) as my favourite tsundere character, as she is both ruthless and adorable beyond belief. Onodera started off seeming shy and a little boring, but really turned out to be funny and at times pretty aggressive (in terms of love). What I really appreciated was that all Raku's love interests (4 in total...go Raku!!! :P) all had something likable about them, which I find usually isn't the case. My stand-out supporting characters are most definitely Ruri (Onodera's best friend) and Tsugumi (Chitoge's childhood companion) who are funny, smart and just have the best reactions to EVERYTHING. I am hoping for a second season to get further development with all these characters.

Enjoyment: 10/10
Overall: 9/10
You can already tell that I really enjoyed the series and so there is no need to explain the score given. It's a shounen comedy, so I think it has something for everyone; fan service for the guys, and cute but strong female characters for the independent women out there :P I would recommend if you do watch it, to prepare to read the manga as more than likely you will want to know what happens next. As far as I know, there have been no announcements for a second season but I am eagerly anticipating one.