Oh Marika…
What They Say:
“Teach Me / Master Raku”
Marika asks Raku to help her study, since her grades are very low. Raku agrees to tutor her, but Chitoge wants to tag along! Also, now Raku is given a pet he needs to take care of!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There are scant minutes—MINUTES—with Onodera this episode, but it appears that Onodera imoutou has been introduced in the show proper, even if only for a few seconds. Raku and Onodera’s love for each other is kind of the pinnacle of young love and completely unlike the complete devotion of Marika, the embarrassed back-and-forth of Chitoge, and the embarrassed avoidance of Tsugumi. The love in the show, some indeed false but most real, covers a wide basis for these 15 year olds.
This episode, as the title so easily suggests, is about Marika and it goes back to the format from episode two of two separate, but related to the same character, halves. The first half deals with Marika’s own laziness to study, thus leading to her being pretty near rock bottom in grades. As with most students, if she applies herself, she’d get much better grades. It also shows her underhanded tactics just to spend a little more time with Raku, and the flawed logic in her methods. She intentionally gets less than 40 points on the test, the bare minimum she needs to not have to retake it, just so she can study more with Raku. The obvious point being that she could be spending the time she’s taking retaking the test to just spend time with Raku.
Marika is kind of a weird girl whose obsession with the one she loves is genuine, but off putting. Raku is too nice of a guy to say anything about it, but if she let off a little, Raku might actually fall for her instead of the direction it seemingly is going: Chitoge. But at the same time, characters like Marika are what keep Nisekoi fresh and interesting. She’s so weird that I can’t help but continue watching.
The second half proves the obsession point perfectly. She literally names a parrot Raku-sama and teaches it to say various embarrassing phrases to suit her own wants. It’s actually a master stroke to have Raku take care of it and force him to do various things like say, “Raku-sama, say ahhh” to feed the bird and “My sweet honey, Marika. I love you!” to call it back to him.
Nisekoi is ridiculous.
In Summary:
Eventually we’re going to round the bases to home and reach Onodera’s centric episode. It’ll likely be taken up at least in part by her sister because she has to be introduced properly, but I’ll be glad to be able to write about Onodera in a serious light instead of my joking WHERE IS SHE every episode light. Though it is super fun to write those opening paragraphs….But I digress!
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV, LG NB3530A Sound Bar
