Every castle has its dungeon.
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Naoshi Komi
What They Say:
It’s hate at first sight… rather a knee-to-the-head at first sight when Raku meets Chitoge! Unfortunately, his gangster father arranges a false love match with their rival gang leader’s daughter, Chitoge! However, Raku’s searching for his childhood sweetheart, with a pendant around his neck as a memento, and is surprised to discover three candidates with keyes: Chitoge, Onodera (his current crush), and Tachibana (the police chief’s daughter)!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Nisekoi brought us to a fun place the last time around with Raku’s confrontation with Marika’s mother, though you could tell easily enough that the elder Tachibana was not going to change her mind. Where things seemed like it was going to get silly was with how Chitoge was still out there and ready to cause some trouble herself, which could lead to everyone on the same page and doing the best to help Marika. Instead, this chapter opens with everyone in various cells separate from each other and unable to stop the wedding that’s coming. Marika herself is in her own cage several floors up with Honda protecting her, so much so that she won’t even tell her what was really going on outside with all the commotion. More and more, the noose tightens around Marika and her life.
While we know that there will be a disturbance that will at least delay things, it’s the how of it that becomes curious. The book spends some time with Chitoge and Tsugumi together in their own particular cell where Chitoge is trying to assuage Tsugumi’s feelings, having lost to Honda. But the truth of the matter is that she knows that Marika truly has no room to move in all of this based on what Honda has said, and the “warrior’s spirit” between the two makes it clear that Honda was being supremely truthful. This puts Tsugumi in a moral quandary because she has this sense of futility but also realizes that she can’t tell Chitoge about it – even though she should. This group has gotten into and out of some weird situations before and there’s always a sliver of hope, though Tsugumi is not holding onto it at all.
Where the chapter held my attention more is with Raku, as he got sent off to a cell himself further down in the bowels of the castle. It’s here that he starts to figure out a way to deal with this, though he’s got nothing. The really neat aspect to his captivity is that Marika’s father is down there as well as he tried to deal with his wife about Marika as well and ended up in the same position. There’s a lot of familiar ground covered here about different generations, tradition and how people get caught up in it all for a number of reasons.Tachibana has some solid elder wisdom of sorts that he parcels out carefully here, especially in his reminder that Marika really is in the same position that Raku is with his own family. That serves to tamp down his goals to a degree, but he also realizes that because they are in the same positions that there are outs and escapes, or at least ways to ease the pressure and he intends to do that. It’s a good moment for Raku, though I think Tachibana is the one that really shines here.
In Summary:
With some naturally silly material that saves the day at the end with Shinohara showing that she has her own larger plan in motion, there’s some good forward momentum building once again after a chapter that largely focuses on introspection and discussion. It’s a welcome chapter because these things needed to be said and we need to get Raku in the right frame of mind to deal with Chika. I really liked what Marika’s father brought to the table here as well as a good look at what Tsugumi is struggling with. I also really enjoyed Komi’s artwork this time around as we get some really engaging camera angles to work with, particularly with Raku’s cell, but just in general. Combined with some better backgrounds here and a good flow from different character groupings it all comes together pretty well and has me leaning towards the screen more in hopes of what comes next.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media via Weekly Shonen Jump from ComiXology
Release Date: September 28th, 2015
MSRP: $0.99
I always enjoy Nisekoi’s art, but certain chapters can definitely be hit-or-miss. For me personally, the Marika chapters are usually my least favorite, even though her crazy antics are kind of funny. This has been a decent arc, but I’m already hitting that “OK, let’s move on” phase..