Nisekoi

Raku Ichijou, a first-year student at Bonyari High School, is the sole heir to an intimidating yakuza family. Ten years ago, Raku made a promise to his childhood friend. Now, all he has to go on is a pendant with a lock, which can only be unlocked with the key which the girl took with her when they parted.

Now, years later, Raku has grown into a typical teenager, and all he wants is to remain as uninvolved in his yakuza background as possible while spending his school days alongside his middle school crush Kosaki Onodera. However, when the American Bee Hive Gang invades his family's turf, Raku's idyllic romantic dreams are sent for a toss as he is dragged into a frustrating conflict: Raku is to pretend that he is in a romantic relationship with Chitoge Kirisaki, the beautiful daughter of the Bee Hive's chief, so as to reduce the friction between the two groups. Unfortunately, reality could not be farther from this whopping lie—Raku and Chitoge fall in hate at first sight, as the girl is convinced he is a pathetic pushover, and in Raku's eyes, Chitoge is about as attractive as a savage gorilla.

Nisekoi follows the daily antics of this mismatched couple who have been forced to get along for the sake of maintaining the city's peace. With many more girls popping up his life, all involved with Raku's past somehow, his search for the girl who holds his heart and his promise leads him in more unexpected directions than he expects.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kirisaki, Chitoge Main

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Onodera, Kosaki Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Ichijou, Raku Main

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Tsugumi, Seishirou ing

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Tachibana, Marika ing

Asumi, Kana Japanese

Maiko, Shuu ing

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Miyamoto, Ruri ing

Uchiyama, Yumi Japanese

Sasaki, Ryuunosuke ing

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Onodera, Nanako ing

Ohara, Sayaka Japanese

Ringheart, Claude ing

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Iwakami, Atsuhiro Producer

Kubota, Mitsutoshi Producer

Maruyama, Hiroo Producer

Kananiwa, Kozue Assistant Producer

Reviews

Apr 3, 2025

ggol

Recommended

Brief overview: It's about two couples who are forced to be couples in order to keep peace in their neighbourhood.
Review will be based on the whole series, up to season 2
9/10 for the whole series

Introduction
Raku Ichijou has big dreams when he started high school. He wants to study hard, go to a prestigious University and establish his own corporate empire. However, after his first day of High school, he is suddenly forced to be in a relationship with a girl called Chitoge as both families are from a rival mafia family. If no peace is settled between the two of them, then chaos and ... war would occur between both factions. Therefore, both of them are forced to be in a pretentious relationship.

Story 9/10
The story is about Raku, who is having a peaceful life with big future, dreams, and is suddenly forced to be in a fake relationship with Chitoge. However, his heart is set towards Onodera, but due to the family circumstances of both Chitoge and Raku, they are forced to be in a pretentious relationship as both families are rivals Mafia groups, however, their parents, who are the leaders of the family, are good friends to each other. In order to keep peace, the Mafia group needs to know that both Chitoge and Raku are in a relationship, so both groups can have a peace of mind. Afterwards, the story is more of an additional content added in, and the whole style of the story hasn't changed that much, which is about Raku that keeps getting dragged into other girls' situations and is forced to play by their rules. It is a school-based harem drama that is heavily based on romance and comedy, which doesn't have that deep and serious type of relationship narratives like Fruit Basket, but more towards a fun and comedic side of romance narrative. So for anyone that just wants a light-hearted and not too much thinking anime, then this is for you.

Animation 9/10
If you have seen the style of Studio Shaft. They like to be very creative and dynamic with their animation, where most of the scenes they draw are always colorful, unique, and dynamic with their background. You can see it has heavy inspiration from the Monogatari, Madoka, and Arakawa, where they usually add a 1 second scene within some of their anime to keep the animation fun to watch. That one second scene you'll usually see a lot of fan service, such as boobs, underwear or for the most part artistic decoration on the characters visual. Overall, the animation is very beautiful and well drawn that anyone wouldn't have a problem watching it.

Characters 8/10
The characters are well written for the most part. As I have explained pretty much everything at the story section, the characters are pretty much that. They are made for fun and comedic entertainment, and have a well-written premise that slowly connects their past. One problem is that when more characters are introduced, it does feel overwhelming to know all the characters' stories, and the pacing of the story does feel a bit rushed, and not enough independent content is shown for the characters because most of the time we only saw the characters together, not independently.

TLDR
If you're looking for the dumb fun romantic type of story, then Nisekoi would be for you as it has good animation with a dynamic background and a decent amount of fan services to keep the harem alive. The characters are well-written for the most part, but a bit rushed towards the end as there is not enough screen time for some of them.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Nov 4, 2024

_shdw

Mixed Feelings

Well if your here your probably looking for a harem or romantic anime with some sort of interesting twist.
I'll get straight to the point with this one, the anime is interesting, there are some cool aspects about the storyline, but really
they went a little light on the "harem" and "romance" qualities. It does get better later in the season but if your just looking for something focused on those aspects I don't think this one is for you. BUT if your just looking for something with a dash of harem/romance then this is overall a solid anime with an interesting story and solid animation ... Imo. The plot is decent though pretty generic, character development is there though nothing special - it was an entertaining anime altogether.


Though let me warn you: the ending isn't animated. You will have to read the manga or just search up how the story ends after watching both seasons. That fact alone made me subtract a point.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Apr 22, 2025

Gokuburst644

Not Recommended

I don’t even know where to begin with this piece of dogshit excuse for an anime. Nisekoi is the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with mainstream rom‑com: endless, brain‑dead tropes stapled together with zero creativity, all wrapped in a Shaft paint job to distract you from the fact that it’s hollow inside. If this were my first introduction to anime, I wouldn't even be on this site.

First off, the premise is intriguing on paper: a fake relationship between the son and daughter of rival gangs. However, the execution is a monumental dumpster dive. Instead of exploring that setup, the show spends 20+ episodes recycling the ... same “misunderstanding → slap → blush → reset” loop until your will to live flatlines. They cram in love hexagons, accidental pervert scenes, tsundere abuse, and then treat it all like comedy gold. Not once did I laugh. Not once did I have a goddamn fucking chuckle. No "haha" no 'heh" no nothing.

Characters? Don’t get me started. 0/10.

Raku Ichijou: The world’s most pathetic doormat. Blushing, stuttering, lying to everyone, never making a decision. He wouldn’t choose a girl if you put a gun to his head. He's such a spineless bastard, and his stupidity only exists as a plot device to make the story longer because Naoshi Komi doesn't know how to fucking write a story. Is it that hard to confess to a girl? In what scenario would you quit a confession because some random force "interrupted" it? it's giving me a migraine just trying to process it. Seriously, not many MCs are as bad as this guy. And yet somehow, every girl in the story seems to fall for him like some sort of drug. What is the appeal of crap like this? Why write an obvious self-insert character then make it so that they aren't even smart enough to get the girls in the story? like, it's truly puzzling. At least make the story an actual harem if you're gonna make the MC your dumb self-insert.

Chitoge Kirisaki: What a loathsome piece of trash. She spends 90% of the show abusing Raku for things he didn’t do, then the remaining 10% acting like some "cutesy" girl to bait the fanbase into thinking she's "one of the best tsundere's" or "went through development" or "actually loves Raku". Her “violent but adorable” shtick is just toxic abuse accompanied with obnoxious animation, visual gags, sound effects, and EAR-GRATING voice acting (which when it happens every 5 minutes, it melts my brain faster than an ice cube would melt near the sun). There's a three minute compilation of Chitoge abusing Raku, and it was one of the most unbearable experiences I've ever had. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. I would genuinely nominate her as THE worst anime character of all time. Yes, I'm putting Shou Tucker over this subhuman.

Kosaki Onodera: Google "indecisiveness" and she is the first result. Sweet? Maybe. Interesting? Not even close. She's about as idiotic and dense as Raku, and I can't feel bad for her nor fanbase when she's so infuriatingly dumb. Grow a spine or get off the screen, you're wasting everyone's time. Aside from being "tHe nIcE gIrL", she has no other qualities except her being a coward that wasted years of her life obsessing over a guy she can't even interact with for more than 39 business seconds.

Marika Tachibana: The unhinged stalker who bursts in, claims Raku’s her fiancé, and...I actually don't even her character. She had no standout qualities (which puts her above most of the cast automatically).

Seishirou Tsugumi: “I’m not a girl… oh wait I am… no feelings!” Congratulations, you’re a one‑joke cypher who takes up way too much screentime for zero substance. We don't need another dumb, abusive, insecure, and emotionally challenged tsundere in the cast.

Ruri Miyamoto: Ruri is supposed to be the "cool and mature best friend" archetype, but instead she just comes off as cold, annoying, and wildly hypocritical. She constantly mocks Onodera for not confessing, while doing absolutely nothing productive herself. And her slapstick abuse with Shu is yet another shitstain on the unwashed underwear of Nisekoi.

Shū Maiko: Shu is the kind of character that makes you question if the author even knows what comedy is (he doesn't). Every time he’s on screen, he’s either making an unfunny pervert joke, harassing someone, or being an unbearable nuisance to Raku and the audience alike. His entire shtick boils down to “haha horny side character,” but with none of the charm or restraint needed to actually be funny. He feels like a low-effort clone of every annoying best friend trope ever, except he’s worse because the anime gives him so much screentime—and for what purpose? To ogle girls, throw out one-liners that don’t land, and never grow as a person?

Haru Onodera: You know how I said we don't need another Tsundere when we already have 2 terrible ones? Apparently the author ran out of ideas even WITH those two walking plot-devices and decided to add a 3rd one. Oh and you guessed it—she also has a crush on him! (despite also abusing him just like the other two tsundere's.) Another bottom 10 tsundere makes her way into the list.

Every single new arc introduces another girl with the same checklist of traits—quirky intro, forced crush, misunderstanding, physical abuse—then shoves her into the harem and drags out the “who’s the key-holder” mystery (which on its own was a hilariously bad concept. Seirously? a promise to marry someone from 10 years ago? and Raku can't even the girl? What a sped idiot) until you beg for mercy.

And the OVAs? They actually dare to make the anime worse.

Drunk Assault Incident™: The girls get wasted and literally rape Raku while he’s ed out—and it’s played for laughs. Unforgivable.

Blindfolded Bathroom Disaster: Raku wanders (blindfolded) into the girls’ bathroom (???), almost grabs Onodera, then Hana attacks him. Ridiculous. I mean, how mentally challenged does not Onodera have to be to stand there like a dunce for 30 seconds letting him get closer and closer to him? Why did Haru attack him? What type of genius even goes into the woman's bathroom blindfolded?

The final (and worst) OVA: The girls spy on Raku, the wall collapses, he turns around, and Chitoge is the one that gets upset and launches him to the moon. How does she even have fans? Am I missing something? Are people brainwashed by her?

And let’s talk fan service—the kind of desperate pandering that makes you want to stab your eyeballs with pencils. Chitoge’s cleavage, half‑naked girls in towels, an entire episode dedicated to Raku entering the girl's bathhouse, Tsugumi’s breasts being highlighted for the three‑millionth time…it’s not sexy or quirky, it’s just sad. Real sad. And don’t get me started on Shu: the useless “comic relief” who contributes nothing but dead air and cringe pervert lines.

"Oh but the abuse is just a trope!" I DO NOT CARE. SHUT UP. It's the most unfunny excuse of humor I've ever seen, and is the exact same recycled garbage every single time. Seriously, female-on-male slapstick violence, misunderstandings, accidental pervert scenario's, and perverted jokes in general have to be the anime equivalent of brain rot.

In summary: Nisekoi is a toxic, mind‑numbing slog through every rom‑com cliché ever invented, pandered out by useless filler. The characters aren’t people—they’re walking tropes who loop the same abused‑reset cycle until you want to gouge your eyes out. There is zero emotional payoff, zero meaningful growth, and the so‑called romance is more force‑fed harem bait than anything remotely heartfelt.

I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. It’s a dumpster fire disguised with decent animation at best. If I could give this a 0/10, I would. The good news is that I can live knowing I'd never be able to experience a show this bad ever again.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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