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Edens Zero Review

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As everyone who reads works created by Mashima knows…the best ship is friendship. Friendship is something that will take you very far. When you think you’re at the end of your rope or that you are going to get absolutely dominated once more, just remember to reach out to your friends. Eden Zero is filled with lots of great and positive messages the whole time. I really appreciate this the whole time. That being said…., the series is held back massively by the crazy amounts of fanservice contained within. Trust me, it’s an absolutely absurd amount of fanservice the whole time. It will chill you to the bone. This could have easily been a 9/10 series but it just couldn’t overcome all of this.

The series starts with a V Tuber named Rebecca deciding to head to a robot amusement park planet. On it, she meets a boy named Shiki who was raised by robots. He doesn’t even know how to have a basic interaction with another human which is a little strange. The guy seems to really be behind the times but the robots ask her to take Shiki with her since they will be dying soon. This leads to some tearful goodbyes but she takes Shiki along with her on the V Tuber journey. Shiki gets to make a lot of other friends as he journeys with her but there won’t be time for too much fun. The entire multiverse is at risk because of various opponents who want to destroy everything. Can Shiki stop them?

First thing’s first, the art is absolutely spectacular as you would expect. This guy is super experienced from the days of Fairy Tail so this isn’t really much of a surprise. It’s still got some of the best looking fights and character designs that you will see in manga. It’s really spectacular and the paneling is on a completely different level. It’s the kind of series you could easily binge from start to finish as a result because it’s just so easy to read through. The artist has real skills here.

Unfortunately it is a double edged sword as the series is very quick to jump into fanservice the whole time. You can barely go two pages without something crazy happening on screen. I dare say that it may even match Fairy Tail in that regard. Fairy Tail may still have the edge in frequency but this one has the edge in how extreme the fanservice elements get. Lets just say that things get real disturbing here and the series also gets really granular about the fanservice as well. It tries to hit every possible niche which isn’t always a good thing. Wait…it’s never a good thing. Yeah this series was cooked from the start. It’s one of those titles that is a 9/10 in terms of hype but ultimately sinks to a 1/10.

It’s just not a series that you could easily read in public or ever recommend to anyone so automatically that means that it is a bad series. You really can’t come back from that. The series can also get a little overly dark as well. Usually it goes hand in hand with the fanservice but quite a few villains like to focus on humiliation. You can see how that gets rough real quick. Others have to become slaves for a while and others are thrown to the wolves. Quite a few characters meet very grisly fates throughout the series which is unfortunate.

I would say that this is to keep pace with the themes that the series has by the end. The heroes are fighting to achieve a perfect world where everyone finally gets their happy ending. To do that, they hop between different timelines and pasts. Well, this isn’t their goal for most of the series but by the end this happens. So after seeing how everyone had such a tragic end, we can be happy that they have peace the next time around. It’s a good concept but you probably could have toned down the bad endings a little bit.

Also while the series is fairly long, the ending still ends up being super rushed which is almost impressive but in a sad way. There was definitely more time to continue so I’m not sure why the series ended so abruptly. This was definitely the time to get in some more massive fight scenes. Rushed nature aside though, I can’t be upset with how it finished though. This is the kind of really happy ending that I could get behind. It was satisfying that after such a long and dangerous journey, the characters were allowed to actually thrive and have a good time. I definitely can’t fault that.

Now lets talk about the characters here. I’ll just say right now that every story arc is bogged down by the fanservice. I’ll get this out of the way now so I don’t have to be super repetitive. It’s not like Fairy Tail where it took a while for that to show up. Nah, in this title they went hard from the jump and put in every possible effort to stop any of the arcs from being as high tier as they should have been. Naturally I won’t be going into every character but I’ll tackle a bunch of the big ones.

Amira is one of the big missed opportunities of the series because she seemed like an interesting character with a lot of mystery. She’s a secret agent of sorts who is a master of disguise and usually seems to be one step ahead of the other characters. She gets a whole lot of respect but doesn’t end up doing much with it. I remember always being intrigued when she would show up…and then she would just vanish as quickly as she had appeared. It felt like an odd decision.

Brigandine is a solid villain who had a good honor code. He came in at a rough point narratively so the guy was not a threat but he was technically powerful. I tend to like the strong types who stick to fighting within the combat rules and don’t take hostages or anything like that. He’s the kind of villain who will be memorable based on how much you enjoyed his battle or not. If you weren’t a big fan then that would be the end of that.

God Acnoella has such a cool name so you would expect her to be one of the very best right? Well, unfortunately she still has quite a few limitations on screen time. Make no mistake, she gets a ton of hype constantly but it never amounts to much. I really thought she should have had more of a grand final fight so we could actually see what she could do. Another missed opportunity and you’ve seen me say that a few times. It’s just that there’s a lot more you could have done with some of these characters.

Happy works well as the main mascot here. I like that he is effectively just like the Happy from Fairy Tail. It’s technically a different one but has a similar personality and everything. He definitely has a real intense backstory so you feel bad for him too but he messes around less than the FT version. This is one that you can actually count on to have your back.

Hermit is one of the main characters and she is a super genius. She may not be able to fight on quite the same high level as the other generals but you can’t underestimate her IQ. She absolutely holds her own there and saves the group on many occasions thanks to that. She can hack into any system and ends up making it look easy. I liked when we would have the cyber fights because it was a great excuse to get her into the action as opposed to having her just be on the sidelines. It was a great decision all the way around and she adds a lot to the dynamic with her cheerful disposition.

Jaguar was a fun villain. You sort of knew that he was doomed from the start but I thought he actually put up a much better fight than expected and even held his own. The guy was strong and fast which is a good combination. Considering that he wasn’t the main villain of his arc, the author gave him a good amount of hype. I definitely enjoyed him even if he may not have been the most powerful villain out there. He was still strong enough to make a difference.

Justice is a fun character although a big part of why he’s fun is his banter with Elsie. The author had a good time making them very similar to two of the characters from Fairy Tail and it works well. The guy has incredible physical abilities and is one of the stronger characters in the series for a while but gets written out along with Elsie later on. He had a good design and a solid skillset which automatically made him a really fierce member. Meanwhile I also liked Elsie a lot. She was always ready for a fight and stayed prepared the whole time. You weren’t about to catch her lacking which is important. She has a whole lot of battle experience at her disposal after all.

Joker is a super powerful villain but one of those figures that the series may have made a little bit too powerful. With the ability to stop time for fairly long periods and a very solid energy source, it’s just hard to see how this being could be defeated. I wasn’t entirely convinced with the method that the series brought up. It’s why time stop abilities are always so overpowered. It’s just really hard to stop them. Still, Joker had a great design and really showed up out of nowhere near the end so that was a lot of fun.

Kleene is one of those characters who had a really tragic origin story. Easily one of the toughest ones to live through here although Edens Zero sometimes works as a trauma contest. So I can tell you there are tons of competitors for this position. Poor Rebecca has to be up there as well along with Homura’s mother. The list goes on and on, the dark nature of the series could be rather exhausting a lot of the time to be honest. Kleene is definitely the definition of a character who started out as an intimidating boss and quickly became super weak once she turned heroic though. She still had a few battles here and there but never got that intimidating aura back.

Meanwhile her brother Jinn got to keep on fighting though. He was a really solid figure who was just looking out for his sister the whole time so I definitely appreciated that. His wind abilities were real good. He may have ended up getting power creeped as the series went on but he always had a cool personality. Then you had Laguana who sort of took over his role as protector of the group in the later stages. He was protective of the younger fighters and really had a big change of heart compared to his early days of being a villain as well. His ability to turn you into water if you start crying was super unique and also very deadly. Once you’re water, there’s really nothing you can do except accept defeat. You may think that not crying would be easy but in a series about friendship and loss that happens quite often.

Labilia starts off as a super petty bully but actually gets a ton of character development. Her backstory feels a bit retroactive when it shows up to be honest but all in all I thought she was a really fun character. Sometimes you need a petty villain to shake things up a little aside from the super cruel end of the world type threats. Ultimately it’s not like she can fight so she tends to vanish from the spotlight most of the time. Couchpo is another V Tuber that gets a fairly big role. She likes to eat a lot which is always cool. It helps her stand out among the pack.

Lyra is one of those villains who was really just created as an excuse to throw more fanservice into the mix. She wants to humiliate Rebecca in a rigged game and that is basically the whole point of her existence. It’s definitely annoying and doesn’t make her an endearing character at all. You’ll forget about her right away even if you don’t forget the events. Then you have Mother who is a cosmic being with limitless powers but she ends up not doing much either. One of those characters who plans things out and says a lot of grand stuff but when the chips are down she seems to just not care about anything. She certainly doesn’t go out of her way to help Shiki and pals even when she is literally dying.

Noah is someone who can somehow see into different timelines and knows when the universe has been reset. We never actually go too far into this but he works well as a plot device who gets to give the info dumps and keep everyone on track. I’d like it more if he could fight or do something in addition to that though. It makes him come across as a bit of a flat character at times. Meanwhile Holy is a lot more fun as a government officer who does whatever she wants. She isn’t above using blackmail and has characters on all sides afraid of what she will do next. Her abilities are really solid but the main thing is that she has confidence. She knows that no matter what she does, all eyes will be on hers. It takes a lot of guts to be getting involved with such fierce fighters.

Then from the main characters we have Rebecca who is a super solid main heroine. She can fight really well with the rest of the characters and I like her unwavering confidence. She is the kind of character who is always pro actively looking for some way to help the rest of the fighters and I appreciate that. She gets a ton of character development and screentime of course and only gets better with each appearance. Definitely a character who gets a lot of credit for the series being as solid as it was. Well…that may sound like an insult since the score is low so a better way to phrase this is that she added a lot to the dynamic and was really fun.

Next up is Homura and her gimmick is that she always says exactly what she is thinking. No matter how inappropriate or out of place it may be. She will just speak her mind and it gets her into a lot of jams. Fortunately she is also super good with a sword and makes up for this by really protecting the team when they need a defender the most. I definitely enjoyed her character and she is very well meaning. It really goes to show how the main cast of Edens Zero was really solid. I actually enjoyed all of the super core characters even if the supporting characters start to fade out after that.

For example Connor is one of these guys. He tries to present himself as a capable captain but has way too many slip ups for me to take him seriously. He’s not the guy you want to have by the wheel because he gets distracted too easily. Even his wholesome plot twists are not enough to save him because they ring hollow by then. Nah this was a character who had too many flaws and never ended up being all that good.

Now Void was a superb character even if he was introduced super late into the game. He has a very solid backstory that may be a bit convoluted but it works well in context. He is one of the strongest characters in the series without a doubt and can hold his own with any of the other fighters. He has a top tier design and top tier abilities so you can’t ask for much more out of him than that right? Then there is Ziggy who looks really similar and there are a lot of comparisons that you can make across the two characters.

Ziggy’s motivations and everything get a little complicated as well. Needless to say, he’s definitely a really fun villain to have around though. He would always shake things up quite a lot and helped Shiki to really evolve as a fighter. Poseidon was another villain who really made things tough on the heroes. His abilities were the real deal and despite being older, his abilities really didn’t falter. He has the power of luck on his side which is really strong but of course if you are simply stronger than fate then it won’t work. Such is the big limitation of hax type abilities like that so it made for a very satisfying fight.

Shura was the real threat in the Poseidon arc though. Now here is a super demented villain who just likes to inflict pain all of the time. He was definitely way too sadistic for me to really like him as a villain but he definitely had a real intimidating aura about him. The guy was someone you absolutely did not want to cross because if you did then that would be curtains forever. His gravity abilities were some of the best in the series too. Most of the strongest fighters actually had gravity now that I think about it. It makes sense though, that has always been one of the most powerful elements for good reason.

Back to the heroes, Sister was surprisingly a sadistic character as well. It’s played for laughs but she always enjoys torturing Rebecca as one of her past times. She messes with different characters like this and so you’re reminded that you probably wouldn’t want to be living on the Edens Zero. It would be fairly unforgettable but not a very pleasant spot to be in.

Witch gets the smallest role from the shining generals if you ask me. She never got as much of an origin story and her supporting characters didn’t get as personal as the others. She is a good member of the crew and probably the most mature to be honest but she doesn’t end up standing out quite as much as she could have. Then you have Valkyrie who steals the show as soon as she shows up. She actually gets even less screentime than some of the other characters and yet it doesn’t matter because of how overwhelming her presence is. When she shows up, the characters have to take notice. Her fighting skills are absolutely top tier.

Xenolith is a mentor type figure who shows up for a bit and then becomes one of the antagonists. His role isn’t as big as you would expect from this character type. I like that he put some of the characters in their place who were trying to be a bit iffy. I wouldn’t say that he’s a high tier character or anything like that though. Then you have Xiaomei who knows a whole lot and constantly breaks the 4th wall. It’s always interesting to have a character like this but she doesn’t really add a lot to the story so she could have been cut out here.

Throughout the story there are scenes that take place millions of years in the future and they eventually tie into the story but it sure takes a long while. The series isn’t afraid to jump into time travel and loops which is admirable but you could do that without Xiaomei giving us spoilers and foreshadowing. If anything I think that would even benefit the mystery so it could tell its own story right there.

Now for some of the villains. One that is really memorable is Clown but more because he is a very twisted villain than because he is a good one. It’s a fine line between being a good villain and one who is creepy just to be creepy. I didn’t end up liking this guy. I can acknowledge that he is super powerful but yeah he’s not going to be near the top. Then you have Cure who ends up being a super big boss. Another guy with an intimidating design and a ton of raw power but I wouldn’t call him a good villain. He gets a little too twisted and dark with how he deals with the Holy and the other fighters. Edens Zero definitely had a problem about getting too dark sometimes.

This naturally goes to Drakken Joe as well. This guy is a true Kingpin type figure among the underworld and so he gets mixed up in a lot of twisted stuff. The series does not miss with the incredible designs as he is another one you could throw ono the list. This is definitely a world where you rarely feel bad for the villains by the end because they really do not hold back at all.

Eraser is sort of a villain. He works for the government but the guy just follows orders no matter what so he’s basically a villain. It’s a shame that he never got to fight much but I think it’s because his ability is broken. As his name suggests, he can erase things, including large pockets of space. He takes down large parts of a whole army and it’s super impressive. In theory he could destroy almost any character in the series without any real effort.

Back to the heroes, Pino is a nice little robot that is always helping the heroes. It’s always nice to see her around. She’s not particularly tough or anything but is always around to spread kindness and cheer. Then you have Weisz who is a super engineer. He would have been known as the resident genius but Hermit has that covered. I like his mech suit and in general he’s handy. I feel like he didn’t fully keep up with the power creep later on in the series but he’s always a central figure at all times.

Finally, we have Shiki. As the main character he is naturally a huge character and he’s a lot of fun to root for. He’s one of the biggest advocators for friendship that I have ever seen. Now admittedly he can take this a little too far at times. There are some things that you can’t forgive nearly as easily as he does. It’s just not going to work. That being said, the idea behind the character is a good one. He gets a solid amount of rage modes throughout as well. I would say I enjoyed him a lot more than Natsu from the author’s other series. Shiki is a high tier lead who could hold his own in any series.

As you can tell from all of the images, the series does absolutely go all out on the friendship themes and it is really endearing. I like that the series isn’t embarrassed about this or going half heartedly about it. We get to really explore what it means to be friends in a whole lot of different circumstances. Not just how to get friends but to handle them. You support each other and meddle in affairs as needed. Like I said, it can be a bit unrealistic but I’ve never seen another title be this unrelenting about it which works really well. Yet another part of the series that could have made the whole title elite if it didn’t have other issues slowing it down the whole time.

That’s about it for the characters. Of course there are dozens and dozens of other characters scattered within the series but you will need to read the title to see them all. It’s still not a title that I can really recommend though. Yes, it brought tons of hype and I had a really good time for a lot of the fights. However, the negatives still outweigh the positives with all of the dark elements and fanservice. It just gets really over the top here. Man, why did it have to happen to a title with such dynamite art and time travel elements?

Overall, Eden Zero is one of those series that I will always look at a little fondly in spite of its negatives. It’s certainly a series I could never recommend and one that I would spend a lot of time skipping massive chunks of if I ever gave it a re read. However, the peak moments of the series are super good. You really get invested in the characters and the writing is really good. It’s always a shame when there’s just so much fanservice that it takes away from the story. I really wanted to read this one for the plot but the other elements made that close to impossible. It’s a shame but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Overall 1/10

Sakura Wars: New York Review

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This Sakura Wars OVA definitely feels a lot different from the previous ones. On one hand it easily has a lot more action than any of the others to come before it as well as an ongoing plot instead of being episodic. On the other hand it decides to engage in more harem antics as everyone fights over the main character. It basically evens out so this ends up being on par with the other OVAs but it could have otherwise had potential to be the very best. I suppose that just wasn’t in the cards this time around. I will say the posters for this OVA are easily the best ones I’ve seen compared to the others though.

The story starts off with Shinjiro in high spirits after taking out the Samurai Warriors villain, Nobunaga. When he goes into work he is in for a shock though as it turns out that the troupe is starting a new play for Cleopatra. The worst part is that they want him to be the main heroine in it. Shinjiro never performs in the plays and to be placed into this role is not something he’s looking forward to. Unfortunately the group won’t hear any objections. Meanwhile, a mysterious pair of individuals have appeared. They are targeting various landmarks in New York and seem to want to resurrect Cleopatra or do something with the Egyptian artifacts. Can the New York team of fighters stop them?

First off, I do have to say that the actual premise of the OVA is quite forced. Bare in mind that the Star Division is completely made up of young women with the exception of Shinjiro. So naturally one of them should be playing the main female part right? Instead they play the male roles and you’re left shaking your head. Clearly the whole point of this story is to put Shinjiro in a tricky spot. Then to market the play (Because you do that apparently) he has to run around in his Cleopatra outfit for the entire OVA.

Fortunately for Shinjiro he is oblivious to basically everything but even so, you know that the characters are intentionally messing with him for no real reason. Each episode tends to follow a formula where he hangs out with one of the girls who teases him a lot and then they team up to stop the villains. Sometimes they succeed in protecting the artifact and sometimes they fail. Shinjiro’s costume is also so realistic that the villain actually mistakes him for Cleopatra as well so there’s also that.

On the positive side, as I mentioned we do get some real fights. This is due in part to the fact that these villains have actual powers. The main villain can use his energies to summon monsters and his sidekick can fly. We get a solid hand to hand fight with Subaru even if you could tell that the budget wasn’t entirely ready at that moment. On the whole I would say the animation is good though. The final fight looks really solid for sure and on the whole the character models are on point. That fight just felt like there was less going on despite it being a close quarters encounter. The soundtrack is more on the bland side but we do get the intro song near the end so that was fun. Adding a lyrical song at the end is always a good move.

In true harem style each episode focuses on a different character. Shinjiro gets to hang out with almost everyone although at 6 episodes there isn’t quite enough time for everyone with the plot also taking time to shine as well as Shinjiro’s mother showing up. The episode with his mother was definitely pretty fun. It was definitely nice to see her clowning on the team. It makes sense that she would be quite powerful since she’s related to Ogami. Clearly even though she is not on the front lines her fighting ability hasn’t decreased.

For the rest of the characters, Gemini is still the best heroine of the group like in the games. Admittedly she doesn’t get a huge role here but she does always try to support Shinjiro and doesn’t mess with him the way that some of the others do. She’s also always up for a fight which I think is important. When all of the characters brought Shinjiro various meals to cheer him up, her idea of steak had to be one of the best options. I’ll take that over the other meals which were pancakes, chicken n rice, fish, and some more that I’m probably not remembering.

Shinjiro Sagitta helps get Shinjiro out of a jam when he’s being peppered with questions from his Mom but otherwise doesn’t get quite as big a role as the other heroines here. Then you have Diana who is still the worst member of the group. She never has Shinjiro’s back when it counts and isn’t as decisive as the others. I didn’t care for her much in the game either. Rikaritta’s really a kid compared to the others so you can’t take her quite as seriously in a fight. She’s a gun character with her twin gun style but sometimes they’re fake guns anyway so it’s not quite the same as a real weapon. While it’s a comedy plot she does always threaten to eat her pet as well which is a big no no.

Finally there is Subaru who may get the biggest role here and I dare say the OVA was shipping her the most. She’s relatively emotionless next to the other characters but also turns out to be the strongest one. She’s the only character to actually try to attack the main villain on her own and she was doing pretty well in the fight. Without any outside interference she very well could have won the battle and ended the OVA just like that.

As for Shinjiro, I can’t say he’s the best character. He spends a whole lot of the OVA yelling and being pushed around. Almost every episode ends with him yelling as the other characters tease him. He never stands up for himself. The only thing Shinjiro has going for him is the fact that he’s a solid fighter. While Ogami is likely still stronger, we see Shinjiro fighting outside the mech with his twin blade style more which is important. He’s not afraid to get out there and start fighting. He definitely should have declined the play position though if everyone was just going to make fun of him the whole time though.

While I was glad to have a real villain here, the villain was pretty bad. I don’t even remember his name and the wiki doesn’t bother to list his name on the OVA page as it is. That’s how forgettable the poor guy is. My main issue here is how he keeps on thinking that Shinjiro is the reincarnation of Cleopatra somehow and constantly suffers from huge headaches whenever he uses his ability. There’s no way you can get intimidated by someone who can’t even control his ability right? No matter how you slice it, this guy just isn’t impressive in the slightest. His sidekick was more interesting and she didn’t get to do much.

So at its core this OVA has quite a lot to make fun of. It’s clear that it was just thrown together without a ton of effort or anything. That said, it is nostalgic to see the cast from the game. Despite the crazy plots, the episodes all do flow together well and are over in a blast. The episodes can be ironically funny and I would say the writing is good. The villains may not be very solid but we do still get real fight scenes. It also can’t be understated how having a real ongoing plot is a nice change of pace as well. There’s a lot more you could have done with the New York cast to be honest but this is a start.

Overall, Sakura Wars: New York is going for a very different direction than the specials before this. I guess New York would have to be a little different right? It’s not perfect and the story is so incredibly forced, but it’ll keep your attention. If you liked the Sakura Wars video game based in this location then you’ll like the OVA even more. It’s pretty fun and at the end of the day that is important. I wouldn’t say there are any negatives that really end up hurting the OVA. SO it may not rise up to great territory but it’s pretty good and a consistent watch. I wonder if these characters will ever return.

Overall 7/10

Nisekoi Review

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It’s time to review a very different manga series. Seriously, it’s not one that you’d have expected me to read. It’s my first complete harem manga. There are some titles that can act a bit like a harem at times like Sword Art Online, but this is a full blown one with comedy hi-jinx around every corner and a lot of situations that will make you suspend your disbelief. So I can’t say that I had high hopes for this series at all. Luckily it plays up the comedy angle first and foremost. There isn’t a great deal of fanservice here as it’s pretty mild for the most part. There are some tricky moments though and it’s certainly not perfect, but it’s likely the best adaptation of this genre. I can’t imagine another one handling it quite as well.

The protagonist is Raku and he is the heir to a local Yakuza organization. He doesn’t want to lead the group though as his passion is to be a civil servant who lives in a very fair and balanced way. It’s an honorable aspiration and the gang members don’t mind this as they figure that he’ll grow bored and decide to lead the gang in the end anyway. His life changes forever when a girl named Chitoge moves into town. She is in a very similar situation and her gang does not get along with Raku’s at all. The two gangs decide to form a peace treaty by convincing Chitoge and Raku to pretend to be dating. Only the top executive of each gang knows that it is fake so the rest believe that it is legitimate and do their best not to get into fights. Naturally, this has serious social repercussions for both characters since they have to keep the act going 24/7. Raku was hoping to live a normal high school life and Chitoge wanted a great start to her school year, but neither were to be.

Quite a few more complications would enter the fray though. The main characters are all in the same class and it just so happens that most of them know Raku in some way or other from the past. Onodera was one of Raku’s best friends back in the day and Raku secretly admires her. Unfortunately for him, the Chitoge situation has shut the door on any hopes for him since he is officially taken and Chitoge has to find a way around that as well. Her best friend Ruri has decided that overcoming your rivals is necessary in a case like this and tries to push the two of them together. Meanwhile, Chitoge has a bodyguard named Tsugami who is forced to come to class as well to protect her mistress. She believes that Raku is not fit to protect Chitoge but gradually realizes that he is tougher than he looks. A rich transfer student also shows up who is a pre-arranged fiance for Raku. This hurts his reputation even more and she is the most overt with her constant advances towards Raku. Not to be out done, a transfer teacher also shows up named Yui. She grew up with Raku as she learned how to be an effective mob boss and then went her own way. Well, now she is also back to claim Raku. Finally, we also have Onodera’s younger sister. She doesn’t want to get in Onodera’s way but that becomes more difficult as her friend tries to push her into some tricky situations.

So, we’ve got quite the cast and you can see how this is clearly a harem title. There are 6 different girls going after Raku and he has to try to stop all of their advances while he chooses one over the others. While the reverse harem title Gentleman’s Alliance (I believe that’s the right name) did a cop-out by having the heroine choose 2 guys to alternate with, I can safely say that there is none here. The series wraps up with each girl getting her own story arc and one by one Raku completely rejects them tournament style. It’s pretty interesting and at least he was direct about the whole thing. Of course, the series is 25 volumes long and those arcs don’t really start til around volume 19. The first 18 are for good ole comedy shenanigans along with a plot about Raku’s pendant. See, he has this pendent which can only be opened by a girl that he promised to marry when he was a kid. The problem is that from the 7 girls, 4-5 of them have their own keys. They can’t try them out either since Raku conveniently breaks his pendent. Oh well, they’ve got a lot of time to figure it out right?

For a story like this, the two most important aspects are the characters and the writing. Those two things are handled pretty well and the art also helps a lot. You may notice that all of the pictures in this review are from the same fight. That’s because the art for this fight was just so good and it came out of nowhere. This was the only serious fight in the whole series or at least the only one that was of a decent length. It shows what the series could have been like if the author had decided to pursue Nisekoi as an action series. It would have had quite a lot of potential. The art is consistently good throughout and I’d consider it to be fairly high end even counting all other manga titles.

If there’s any part of the art that’s weak, it’s that parts of it can seem recycled. So that’s not a quality thing, but just a byproduct of the genre. It’s something that you tend to see in comedy titles a lot since the characters always have exaggerated expressions. You’ll see what I mean if you flip through a volume. The characters make the same faces constantly. You can’t go through a single chapter without someone yelling or panicking. At least not until you’re in the climax of the series. The overreactions can definitely get old pretty quick.

All right, lets talk about the characters. First off is Raku, our lead. He’s a nice guy who wants to help everyone out, but just has a lot of natural charm so everyone wants to hang out with him. Raku does his best not to lead anyone on and is pretty oblivious to the situation as you probably would expect. I can’t say that I’m really a fan of Raku though. While he handles most of the situations fairly well, he can also make them worse at times. Other times he’s a little slow on the uptake and tends to insult other characters at inopportune times. He calls Chitoge a gorilla as a joke while she calls him a bean sprout, but often times Raku will use this insult quite randomly and it makes you wonder what he was thinking.

Chitoge is the main heroine and one of the better characters. She’s probably my second favorite behind Tsugami. Chitoge is outgoing and does her best to make a lot of friends during her school days. She helped to bring the whole gang together and is always ready to help the others out like Raku. She’s pretty selfless as well and tries not to get in the way of the other character’s goals. Chitoge can also fight to a mild extent which helps quite a bit as well. Next up is Onodera, one of the other major characters of the series. Unfortunately, I was never a fan of hers. She’s a really shy character who has a hard time talking to Raku and her friends often have to push her into action. She means well though and is also a very nice character, but the shy character type has never been my favorite. Just about all of my favorite characters are outgoing or have generally tough personalities. I feel like it makes the character more interesting.

Next up is the worst character in the series, Shu. This character had no point being in the series and it feels like he is just here to make Raku look even better. After all, Raku is heroic, noble, and treats everyone with respect. Shu flirts with everyone and is always thinking very sketchy thoughts as he tries to get everyone into sticky situations. His romance plot was also the worst since it basically exonerated everything he does. The series ends with him refusing to change his ways and his partner just deciding that she can live with that. It’s just terrible all around and I’d wince whenever he was on screen. Bad things were always sure to follow.

Ruri is Onodera’s friend so she never really counted as one of the people interested in Raku. Things get tricky for a second, but her bond with Onodera is a lot stronger and another guy ends up appearing for her. Ruri was a pretty decent character until her romance plot started wrapping up. The series kept hinting at it whenever she would appear, but I just hoped that the title wouldn’t go down that route. Unfortunately it did and Ruri got the worst pairing possible. Anyway, she’s a nice friend who helped Onodera a lot, but the latter was just too timid to really make use of the assistance.

Another supporting character is Claude. He doesn’t like Raku and constantly makes plans to humiliate the kid or get some dirt on him that could be used as blackmail. Naturally he’ll never find any dirt on the perfect main character though and most of his plans backfire because his subordinate Tsugami breaks it by mistake. Claude gets a pretty decent action scene towards the end and he is one of the best characters. While he is really bias against Raku, he does ultimately mean well since he just wants to protect Chitoge. He makes his share of mistakes, but I can sympathize with this guy.

Back to the main characters, we have Chitoge’s bodyguard up next. Tsugami was the best character by a long shot as she’s a great fighter and makes all of the right choices. She puts her feelings behind Chitoge’s happiness and safety consistently. She can be a little too naive at times to be honest and the series really exaggerates this character trait of hers, but when it comes to being a bodyguard she is prepared for every contingency. She saves the day on multiple occasions and Raku definitely wouldn’t have lasted so long without her. She gave the series quite a few of its best scenes so it’s safe to say that the manga as a whole would have dropped without her as well.

Tachibana’s personality is one that you probably wouldn’t assume would work well but she’s actually one of the better characters. She’s the most direct and upfront about her plans for the future and she lets Raku know about this constantly. It’s a little refreshing when you compare her to everyone else who constantly ducks the questions with the classic “Don’t get the wrong idea!” lines. Her story is probably the most tragic of the bunch, but it has a fairly happy ending. Tachibana also did have the absolute best arc of the series so that was pretty cool. She also came out to help in the last part of the final arc. I’d place her as the third best character and she definitely made the series a whole lot livelier.

Honda is Tachibana’s bodyguard. She isn’t quite as skilled as Tsugami, but she comes close. The images that I’ve attached in the review are of her fighting Tsugami so you can see how she put up a really good fight. That being said, I definitely don’t like Honda. She is the opposite of Tsugami who knows when to disobey an order and where her priorities lie. Honda follows the orders no matter what and is very strict when it comes to the rules. This leads to her making a lot of the wrong choices throughout.

Haru is Onodera’s sister. She wasn’t a bad character, but I can’t say that she really added anything to the series either. You could cut her out and nothing would really change. Haru starts out as the most antagonistic character to Raku, but gradually warms up to him since he’s such a nice guy. She knows that Onodera is trying for him though and steps aside which is pretty self less of her. She wants to be a pro baker but goes through many adversities along the way. I was glad for that subplot though because I do like seeing snacks. I could use a good Chocolate Chip Cookie myself right about now.

Finally we have Yui. She is the leader of a gang and used to live at Raku’s gang base when she was a kid. She doesn’t have any family left so she looks to Raku as a brother. We get a pretty iffy subplot where her admiration morphs into something else, but by the end they agree that this would be a mistake so they keep the status quo as it is. It’s certainly a weird dynamic when you have her as the teacher though. Fortunately she got out of the arranged marriage thing so now she has time to rethink about what she wants to do. She was also a little unnecessary to the series and didn’t bring much to the table. I think I prefer Haru so the question is who was the worst heroine….her or Onodera? I’m probably going to give Onodera the slight edge here, but it’s reasonably close.

There are a few other supporting characters of course. Chitoge’s Mom shows up a few times during the series and she’s a good character. She lets her business get in the way of family time for a while, but Raku shows her how to balance it so she can hang out with Onodera more. The gang leaders show up a few times like Raku’s Dad, but they never really do much. There are ninja, classmates, friends of friends, and more characters but we covered all of the major ones.

This goes without saying, but one of the negatives of the series is the fanservice. It’s not all that excessive or frequent, but it is around enough where it still needs to be addressed. It’s an issue that most titles just can’t seem to get away from completely. Another issue is naturally the constant romance. As I mentioned earlier, the series is at its best during the normal adventures where the characters are just having fun and hanging out. The cast is actually better than some of the Shonen action casts. Perhaps it’s because we see them hang out more so getting used to the characters happens a lot quicker than when they are fighting and we don’t get to see the development for a while. Titles like DBZ throw that theory out of the water though.

The romance is handled well for what it is. I’d say that it’s probably better than most main stream films in that regard. The characters don’t immediately get to the next level for no reason and it’s not like a CW show where you’re rebounding from one character to the next. Since Raku is unsure about what to do for most of the series, he makes sure not to actually get together with anybody. Of course, he has to pretend to be with Chitoge, but he keeps it in pretend mode.

Since a great deal of chapters are standalone, it also stands to reason that for all of the hits there are some misses as well. For example, pretty much any chapter where all of the heroines drink a love potion and decide to chase Raku are fairly weak. On the other side, pretty much any athletic competition…or simply any competition at all are typically a lot of fun. Since the series is so long, the cast gets to go on quite a lot of adventures so pretty much every kind of situation happens. We get haunted houses, School against School competitions, trips to other states, island survival tests, etc.

I read most of the series in batches of 2-4 volumes so I can also safely say that the series is a page turner. It never gets remotely boring and I think that can be accredited equally to the interesting cast and the exceptional art. Both really help to complement each other for any series really. If a series has bad art, then it’ll be hard to marathon no matter how engaging the plot is. It was just fortunate to have both factors in its favor.

I wasn’t a big fan of the ending, but what else is new? Manga rarely have satisfying endings for me and this one had a big time skip as per usual. My main issue with it was the heroine’s final decision after being selected by the main character. It’s a choice that seems to happen a little more often now and I still don’t really get the logic behind it. It dampens what is otherwise a happy ending. There are also a few random pairings that I’m pretty iffy at, but the ending certainly could have been a whole lot worse.


Overall, Nisekoi is a pretty fun series. If I were to rate the series based just on how enjoyable it is, it would easily get an 8. However, just being fun isn’t enough to get a high ranking since I still do have to count the negatives. It’s in the same boat as Medaka Box although less extreme in both the positives and negatives. The author definitely did a really good job of mixing up the various arcs by the end and giving each character time to shine. All of the main characters got a lot of development through the series. I can safely say that Nisekoi was a lot better than I had anticipated. At least now if anyone asks me to recommend a good romance series I can bring this one up. Tsubasa is probably still my go to example though since it was pretty much perfect, but this one can definitely be seen as more of a traditional romance. Now I can only hope that it really does get a battle spinoff manga someday.

Overall 6/10