3ET: Nisekoi

I see you Shaft. I see you.

Studio: Shaft

Director: Shinbou Akiyuki (Hidamari Sketch, Sayonara Zettsubou Sensei)

Writer: Shinbou Akiyuki, Tou Fuyashi (Bakemonogatari)

Main Cast:

Uchimiya Kouki as Ichijou Raku

Touyama Nao as Kirisaki Chitoge

Hanazawa Kana as Onodera Kosaki

Character Design: Sugiyama Nobuhiro (ef – a Tale of Memories, Arakawa Under the Bridge)

Music: Ishihama Kakeru (“Oregairu”), Chiba Naoki

It didn't take long for me to know what I was getting into with Nisekoi. It's a love triangle about the son of a yakuza boss (Raku), his childhood best friend (Kosaki), and a horrible bitch (Chitoge) he ends up being forced to date because she's the daughter of a rival gang. And that relationship is the only thing that will keep the peace. And so, I braced myself for the usual onslaught of tropes I've seen a million times before. Chitoge is the typical emotionally dishonest girl who can only express herself through violence. Raku is the perfect house husband with his great cooking skills and his big heart and infinite patience. And Kosaki has a crush on Raku, but she'll never say anything about it. If only that were the end of the tropes.

No, beyond the stock characters, it's the stock storytelling devices that really had this show under my skin. There is literally a scene where Chitoge is running down the street with toast in her mouth. There are so many over-the-top anime reaction shots they stop being effective. And I don't even care about the resulting mob war that could result if Chitoge and Raku's relationship was found to be a fake. Even a great director like Shinbou has difficulty making this show palatable. He helps, as well as Shaft spending money to make this show look good. But, for most of the running time, I didn't care.

Bitch.

And then, in literally the last five minutes of episode three, things clicked into place. Raku and Chitoge didn't have some big love confession to make their fake relationship a real one. They don't even become friends. They find they have a common experience as children of mob bosses, and that Raku can help Chitoge in making friends. This is the first real bond that forms between the two of them, and it doesn't come from some stale scenario. And to my utter shock, I wanted to see where it went when the episode was over. 

That leaves me in a weird position when it comes to Nisekoi. I know this turns into a harem show, what with Raku having some lock pendant and Kosaki having a key. And there are supposedly other keys. Which seems stupid. But, I can't deny that for a brief moment, I could see a reasonable path where this becomes a good show. So, what do I do? I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it's just a quirk that the best part of the show came at the end of episode three. Maybe it's the start of something better. Maybe I'm going to get screwed. Maybe I'm just going with a "In Shaft We Trust" mindset. But, I'm going to pass Nisekoi.