A new side arc commences!
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 has been delighting me a lot lately as it works to close up and clear out a lot of relationship material. While we’ve talked about the sense that the book is winding down by doing so, I’m kind of hopeful that it’s in service to showing how much more interesting it can be when choices are made and characters move forward. While the series has focused on the main characters and those directly in their lives, such as immediate family and servants and the like, this chapter begins a new short arc that shifts to some of the supporting cast. Cast, that at least from my limited anime experience, that are essentially background actors in the grand scheme of things.
That proves to be a nice place to work from, however, because preconceptions are lighter. I’m sure there’s some material mixed into the series that I haven’t read, but I like that I get to see my first true look at Shu and Ruri here. Ruri’s struggling with the fact that she’s having weird dreams of Shu these days, notably, the latest that involves the two of them getting married, and she’s taking it out on him physically more than normal. That’s something that Onodera notices and calls her out on it a bit while also side mentioning that they make a cute couple. It’s obvious how Ruri’s subconscious is operating here but she’s in flat out denial mode, made worse by Onodera now. But she also recognizes that these things possibly have some merit and they’re bubbling up more. However, she still remembers Shu’s apparent interest in one of their teachers and that squelches things for her.
Of course, the two have to have an encounter out in the world where they end up causing more trouble. While doing some materials run for college prep and all that, they run into each other at the bookstore and Ruri discovers that he’s going to the same school as she is. There’s a lot of material that flows from this and you can see her defensive nature coming out as she beats up on him a lot. Shu’s not exactly easy to get along with from her point of view because she’s more withdrawn and quieter compared to his outgoing and happy-looking self. But the more they interact, the more the subconscious material bubbles up and she realizes that there may be something more. And, amusingly, she asks a dangerous question without even realizing it. Luckily, she’s saved at the end, but that’s just for the moment.
In Summary:
How far will this arc go in actually providing some very secondary at best character material closure? If they expend some good time on it and actually bring it to someplace where things change then it’ll firm up even more that we’re in the end run here because there’s no reason to do it otherwise in this kind of work. I’m barely aware of Ruri and Shu prior to reading this chapter, coming from the first season of the anime only until reading the manga recently, but there’s a simple and easy charm to what we get here that makes me smile. It’s highly, highly, accessible and that’s not a bad thing since I hope those that have been reading for a while get more out of it. But I got a lot as well as it adds some welcome color to the bigger picture of relationships and has me curious to see where it’ll go. Komi once again does a solid job here in pacing and design, making me wish more of these series focused as much as they did on settings.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media via Weekly Shonen Jump from ComiXology
Release Date: February 29th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
