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’s shift to the highlands where so much happened in the past has been interesting but more so for seeing some of the things shaking out among the cast. Tsugumi’s stand was nicely done with Claude and I rather liked that Marika finally revealed that she’s known the truth the whole time but held out hope that she could sway Raku with who she is now. Raku, for his part, has figured out his own heart but he has to get everything else cleared up as well so he can just be honest with what it is he’s feeling. So much of this has gone on since the start with diversions and additions along the way that I’ll easily admit that aspects of the past can get confusing with who did what when with who, but in the end it keeps coming back to promises made as kids.
Raku’s presence is certainly felt here, though not in the present at the moment. Where it wants to focus is on the past and on Kosaki and Chitoge specifically. Each of them are separate and going to different places but are coming to the same conclusions overall. For Chitoge, she’s found the rock that Raku had talked about where he made the promise all those years ago and things are starting to bubble up to the surface for her. What her discovery there is remains to be seen until the next time, but I like the more laid back nature of what she’s experience here, a casual and almost cautious exploration of what will possibly change her life. And she’s doing this while realizing that Raku and the others are likely here, having heard the noise and other goings-on around the area since Claude isn’t exactly your quiet and subtle type.
Most of the chapter focuses on Kosaki, however, as she ends up in the rundown and abandoned mansion where they were all together as kids. This is actually a good bit of fun as she goes through the memories while walking through with all the little kid versions of them running about while their fathers were off-panel finalizing all kinds of agreements. It’s an amusing way of bringing them together, which we essentially knew before, and seeing them at this stage of adorableness is a whole lot of fun. This also brings us the missing page from the book at long last which is a nice reinforcement of how they were all making promises in this period – and how Chitoge’s idea how to solve the problem of who would marry Raku comes about. I’m still holding out for that to be the solution when all is said and done.
In Summary:
Nisekoi brings us closer to the end of things as it’s more and more clear that it’s closer than we think it might be. While the focus is more on Kosaki this time around, Chitoge has some good moments here as well as she begins to remember more of what went on in the past. Nothing here is truly a surprise but it’s all coming together in the right way so that we’ll have a solid resolution once all the encounters happen and the emotions come pouring out. There’s still potential for some twists to hit and some fun commentary from others as it plays out, so I’m looking forward to it – and hoping we get it adapted into anime as well.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media via Weekly Shonen Jump from ComiXology
Release Date: June 6th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99