In what is the best first half of Nisekoi ever, SHAFT, Akiyuki Shinbo, and Naoyuki Tatsuwa present: Kosaki Onodera!
What They Say:
“Magical Pâtissière Kosaki! / Work!”
Kosaki, Marika and Chitoge work together as magical girls to save the world from destruction. As Ichijo pitches in to help at the Onoderas’ shop, Kosaki hopes he and Haru can become good friends.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When the episode title has the best girl’s name in it, I know it’s going to be one of the better ones. Mixing Madoka Magica, magical girl tropes in general, and the four Nisekoi girls (thus far) into the show in a little omake has made for one of the better episodes in this second season.
I do say that in jest, partially, but the first half of the episode was actually very good. It struck right at Kosaki, Chitoge, and Marika’s very base characters. Kosaki stands as a leader type; going back to what I was saying last episode, she’s very much the base of the group. Kosaki is the one that keeps everyone sane while they’re off acting crazy. Chitoge is, more literally, the gorilla. She has her rough side, which shows more often than she’d want, but she’s a little shy inside. It’s shown just through Shu’s magic cancelling device that renders Chitoge and Marika nude. Marika, on the other hand, is completely open. She bares everything to everyone who will listen because that’s the kind of person she is. She’s the only one that’s able to profess her love so openly for Raku because of who she is and her magical girl persona reflects that…but it also reflects her bad nature. Because she’s so aggressive, it does seem more like Raku is being captured than wooed. Tune it down, Marika. But also never change.
Not only did the magical girl half strike at the characters’ cores, but it poked fun at a few magical girl tropes. Like the fact that the leader is the center of attention and that these girls (GIRLS) are naked for a brief period of time so they can transform. It’s the kind of tongue-in-cheek fun that Nisekoi is best at and I’m glad it was able to branch out to magical girl and have a little fun with more than just harem tropes.
The second half spells the return of both Haru (absent for only a half episode) and the Onoderas’ mom, who would be the best mom in any series but Nisekoi (Hana takes the cake, obviously). Haru’s contention for Raku continues while Raku tries to win her over. In typical Raku fashion, he kind of succeeds…It was always expected that Haru would end up falling head over heels for Raku, it was really a matter of how fast it would happen. Tsugumi now seemingly completely in the “LOVE RAKU” camp, it’s nice to bring another back to the “HATE RAKU” camp. Further, it’s kind of spectacular how they’ve now done the exact same “I hate Raku! …But I’ve grown to love him” storyline with two different characters and it feels completely fresh.
I love Nisekoi. Or Nisecolon as the kids might say. Nisekolon?
In Summary:
Nisekoi has been amidst a series of pretty plot heavy episodes, first with Hana and then introducing Haru. A break between them is a nice reprieve and a refreshing take on the same characters we’ve seen for 28 episodes now.
Grade: A+ / A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV, LG NB3530A Sound Bar
