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Review

by Theron Martin,

Nisekoi: False Love

Sub.Blu-Ray 3

Synopsis:
Nisekoi: False Love Sub.Blu-Ray 3
A surprise birthday party for Chitoge, which is being organized by Seishiro, leads to Raku and Kosaki going out together to buy gifts for Chitoge. That leads to Kosaki admitting, in response to Raku's question, that she is the girl from 10 years ago. . . or she would like to think that she is. Speaking with both Chitoge and (separately) her father firms up that Raku actually knew and played with both Chitoge and Kosaki as a threesome on that fateful summer a decade earlier – and, as he later learns, they weren't the only two girls he associated with (and may have made a promise to) that summer, either! The other is the fiancée he never knew he had, one Marika Tachibana, who is the daughter of the police commissioner and, of course, both a new transfer student into Raku's class and a girl who has grown up enthusiastically preparing herself to be Raku's bride. This creates all sorts of new complications, not the least of which is that she also has a key which may work in Raku's locket. Unfortunately for everyone, the locket is out of commission due to a certain person breaking a key off in it. . .
Review:

Anime romantic comedies commonly depend heavily on regular infusions of new characters to sustain and periodically revitalize themselves, and so far the first Nisekoi series has been pretty good about pacing itself on this. In its second quarter the addition of Seishiro shook up the status quo quite well; in this quarter, which covers episodes 11-15, the new love interest on the block is Marika Tachibana, and she more decidedly throws both the romantic and comedic balances for a loop.

Take Aoi Sakuraba (the heroine of the harem series Ai Yori Aoshi), make her aggressiveness more typically overt, and give her the Weak Constitution card, and you more or less have Marika Tachibana, one of the latest representatives of the “pined for a childhood playmate for years” school of harem anime archetypes. As much as their backgrounds may be similar, though, she is utterly different from Aoi in both behavior and temperament, and that makes a big difference in how charming she fails to be. Where Aoi ran away from her family and name in order to secure her man, Marika abuses them, and in an uncomfortable way; the common gag about the veritable army of foot soldiers at the beck and call of a young master/mistress takes on a more edgy than funny tenor when those “soldiers” are police fully-equipped in riot gear, and the notion that police officers would treat the daughter of their commissioner like a princess does not sit well. Whereas Aoi was a proper lady by nature, Marika uses it more as a tool, which makes her more lively but also more disingenuous; her occasional slips into her true nature (she had a decidedly heavy accent as a child, a flashback reveals) do offer some humor, but the games she is playing over what she does and does not reveal, and whether or not any of it can be trusted, makes her come off a bit more as a manipulative bitch than may have been intended. The Weak Constitution attachment also seems like a random addition, as so far the animated side of the franchise has yet to do much of consequence with it. (Note: This is being written between the airings of episodes 5 and 6 of the second series.) From a character perspective, her only mildly redeeming characteristic is that, as rich girls go, she is more smug that irritatingly haughty.

That being said, she does succeed at stirring things up. Prior to her arrival, neither Chitoge nor Kosaki had a clear and open romantic rival for Raku; now they do. That keeps all of the girls and Raku on their toes. Marika's antics, despite lacking much originality, can be funny when they involve her bouncing off of other characters, and the tension of Raku being the son of a yakuza boss and yet the fiancé of the daughter of a police boss keeps things interesting. Her arrival also brings up the revelation that Raku was apparently quite the playboy as a little kid and thus expands the picture about what happened ten years ago, though it hardly comes close to revealing everything.

Aside from Marika, the way Raku and Kosaki's relationship seems to be developing is a plus, although Marika's arrival brings that plot development direction to a screeching halt. Chitoge also gets some nice moments, and the ever-reliable Ruri and Shu continue to be comedy gold, especially when interacting with each other or when Shu is scheming. While not the funniest stretch of the series, these episodes generate enough laughs to be satisfying in a comedy respect.

Visual quality remains largely unchanged from what was described in review of previous quarters. It still features a plethora of neat exterior and interior designs (Chitoge's mansion, Raku's home) and some fabulous locales that have to be based on real-life sites (a clifftop observation patio and especially a hat-shaped picnic table cover are highlights), still has a habit of sometimes having its characters seem to pose, and still uses much too many still frames and slightly off-model renderings to be worthy of a good animation grade. Marika's design is not remarkable, either, although the red dress that Chitoge wears for her birthday party is sharp, if also not on the level of one she wears in the second series.

The musical score also continues to provide capable support, regardless of the scene's mood. The original opener remains throughout, while this span sees four different closers. The one used for episode 11 is the Ruri-focused version seen in the previous volume, while episodes 12 and 13 feature one Marika-focuses closer and episode 14 features a different one. Episode 15 instead has an opener featuring several of the main girls.

Like with previous volumes, this one has no English dub and only clean opener and closer (the first Marika version) for on-disk Extras. Physical Extras included this time are a trifold min-poster of Seishiro (the same artwork as on the box but with a different background), a set of end card illustrations for the five episodes in question, and an advertisement for the Weis Schwartz card game which includes a promo card for its Nisekoi edition. (The review copy had a Chitoge card, but I cannot vouch for whether or not this is the same in each copy.)

At this point Nisekoi is just merrily chugging along under its own steam. It is not doing anything spectacular but at least is still entertaining.

Grade:
Overall (sub) : B-
Story : B-
Animation : C+
Art : B
Music : B+

+ Does finally offer some relationship development, definitely has its funny moments.
Many aspects of Marika's character and attendant gimmicks are unoriginal and/or fall flat.

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Production Info:
Chief Director: Akiyuki Simbo
Director: Naoyuki Tatsuwa
Series Composition:
Akiyuki Simbo
Fuyashi Tou
Script:
Yukito Kizawa
Munemasa Nakamoto
Miku Ooshima
Storyboard:
Noriyuki Abe
Toshiyuki Fujisawa
Takayuki Inagaki
Takaomi Kanasaki
Takashi Kawabata
Hiroko Kazui
Eiichi Kuboyama
Hidetoshi Namura
Mitsutoshi Satō
Kazuya Shiotsuki
Takahiro Tada
Junichi Takaoka
Naoyuki Tatsuwa
Akitoshi Yokoyama
Unit Director:
Hitomi Ezoe
Kōsuke Hirota
Takashi Kawabata
Taro Kubo
Eiichi Kuboyama
Shūji Miyahara
Yukihiro Miyamoto
Kazuki Ohashi
Sumito Sasaki
Naoyuki Tatsuwa
Music:
Naoki Chiba
Kakeru Ishihama
Tomoki Kikuya
Satoru Kōsaki
Original creator: Naoshi Komi
Character Design: Nobuhiro Sugiyama
Art Director: Ken Naito
Chief Animation Director:
Kazuya Shiotsuki
Nobuhiro Sugiyama
Animation Director:
Hatsue Nakayama
Shosuke Shimizu
Kazuya Shiotsuki
Akihisa Takano
Daisuke Takemoto
Sound Director: Toshiki Kameyama
Director of Photography: Rei Egami
Producer:
Atsuhiro Iwakami
Hiroyuki Kiyono
Mitsutoshi Kubota
Hiroo Maruyama
Licensed by: Aniplex of America

Full encyclopedia details about
Nisekoi - False Love (TV)

Release information about
Nisekoi: False Love (Sub.Blu-ray 3)

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