Review of Nisekoi: False Love

Ahhhh Nisekoi. I first heard of Nisekoi via its popular and very long running manga (130 chapters so far), which when it heard it was being adapted and by Shaft no less (madoka and the monogatari series) I was very excited. Was I looking forward to the strong romance? The emotional situations? The satisfying ending? Nope. Because Nisekoi has none of this. Do not come here looking for a plot as this show has practically nothing to offer in that regard! Speaking of plot... Story-5 Giving the story of Nisekoi a score of 5 is probably a bit too generous. The show is practically the gold standard of whatwhat you should expect from a Harem Rom-Com. Lots of girls. One oblivious guy. Amusing situations ensue. Job done. The entire show is essentially filler with maybe... 5 events happening which have any relevance going forwards? Nothing happens. Be very aware of this when you go into this show and maybe just resign yourself to enjoying each episode as it comes.
In general the show is a reverse Romeo and Juliet with the there being two warring factions. The twist however comes that the two youngest children are forced to pretend they're in a relationship to stop the war hence "nise"-fake and "koi"-love. However the leads don't exactly get on well and keeping this pretense up in front of others makes things rather complicated quickly.

Art-9
Its shaft. I'm sorry I'm a Shaft fan boy and I like their art style a lot. See bakemonogatari.
Luckily for some its not quite as unusual as some of their works or as rushed. Character designs and movement are solid as you would expect. Comic moments are assisted by lots of chibis and art style changes and all the standard Shaftisms are such as the sholder look, unneeded twirls and camera pans and cuts seemingly at random. As an aside I loved how coughs had their spit inserted as a cardboard cut out on a lollipop stick, ticked my fancy and I love those little details.
If you don't like it suck it up as there's a lot of it.
Oh and serious congrats for making a rat tail cute.

Sound-10
No real complaints here. Both OP's and ED's were really solid. Both OP's were by ClariS one of the very few j-pop bands I can stand. They all came with fairly interesting animation with the second OP being my personal favorite. Background music was also fantastic and I found myself humming along to a number of them which i was impressed with.
VA was also solid. I can't speak a word of Japanese but I enjoyed most of the voices. Special props go to Kana Hanazawa (-every cute girl in every shaft show ever-), Kouki Uchiyama (Soul and Ichika from IS) and Nao Touyama (from absolutely nothing I've seen). In general no glaring flaws I could hear.

Character-7
Its a harem. Don't expect much. At base characters consist of -insert your own name here- protagonist, rich girl Tsudere, shy girl, even bigger tsudere and self insert girl just trying to get the protagonists d**k wet.
However I really quite enjoyed some of the support characters and the show spent quite a bit of time developing people's back-stories compared to most harems. Despite not much development happening to any of the characters I can't honestly say I dislike them or that there was much more room for it. Though I might be spoiled by having read the manga first.

Enjoyment-9
Yes.
Looking at this show objectively has made me realize just how bad elements of it are. The mad art style. The absurd ass pulls to ensure the plot did not progress. The blatant obviousness of how some episodes were going to go and how stereotypical so many of the events were. Its all so bad!
However it is really good fun. I look back on all this absurdity fondly as 20 weeks well spent waiting for the next episode of blandness. Nothing suprises me in this show and I didn't want it to.
The show is full of all the ridiculousness that I want from a Rom-Com harem but if you don't like that stuff then don't watch this.

Overall-8
The key to this show is that you will probably enjoy it. Its silly, unrealistic, has nothing to surprise you with and the romance goes nowhere.
However its fun and quirky and for those coming off the Monogatari series and wanting more of it this will probably do until they get around to Kizumonogatari. Or Hanamonogatari. Oh Shaft.
Hope it gets a second season!