Ahhh… so the interesting mystery
that is Enigma has been replaced by some action-comedy-romance manga called
Nisekoi…
Anyway, Weekly Shounen Jump is
famous for releasing over the-top action-battle manga with really outstanding
art. I’ve only read a couple of manga from WSJ but I’d say that I didn’t really
expect to see some seemingly big romance in here that this manga could probably
offer.
I’m not saying that Nisekoi mainly
offers romance. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be published in WSJ at all but
what caught me here is the really good comedy. It’s certainly not close enough
to the comedy Sorachi, Hideaki does in Gintama, not much action-battle like
those popular series and certainly not Miho-Mashiro from Bakuman cheesy type of
romance. But then, this anime draws me to reading it because it just does.
Well, maybe I could give some
pretty good reasons to enjoy this manga. (1) Most people enjoy the tsudendere
type of character and I can definitely smell tsundere from Chitoge with how she
acts towards Raku in this chapter. (2) Raku comes from a yakuza family and he’s
not even physically strong at all. With that said, let’s call him the typical
male protagonist who will be beaten by the female protagonist for most of the
pages of the manga. (3) This first chapter is certainly good enough to give us
enough background on where the story will actually revolve. A span of 3years is
given but 3 short years is good enough to make lots of things for this
so-called fake relationship. It can even exceed the 3years if you add Onodera
as well as the possible real-relationship between Chitoge and Raku. (4) The art
is insanely good. It’s neat and each panel is well drawn. Plus, the color pages
are great!! :D
Moving to my impression on this
chapter, opening with two children making marriage promises and holding their
memories through a locket is pretty old school but who cares? It’s cute! With
the main protagonist, Raku Ichijou, being a part of a yakuza family, he had a
pretty rough time making friends. He meets this transfer student named Chitoge
Kirisaki in a not-so-good way. They unexpectedly became classmates and with
that, they landed on each other’s bad side. But then, with Raku’s lost locket,
he forced Chitoge to help him find it. They get pissed off with each other but
at the end of the day, we’re all pretty sure that they still do good things for
each other. With Raku reaching his limit, he gave up on Chitoge. As for
Chitoge, probably feeling guilty or sorry for Raku, she searched non-stopped
for Raku’s locket. After giving it to him, she told him not to talk to her
anymore. Also, we were given the idea that Onodera, Raku’s classmate, is the girl
Raku marriage-promised years ago. But then, another thing came up, Raku’s
family made a deal with their enemy family that Raku will be on a relationship
with the enemy family’s daughter. And for some reasons, the enemy family’s
daughter is Chitoge. Now how are they going to do this so-called fake
relationship? Plus, I’m pretty sure that we’re all thinking about their
possible real-relationship soon. Also, there’s still Onodera who’s clearly the
girl Raku promised to marry years ago. Now, I’d like to see how this possibly
action-comedy-romance will go.
I haven’t read any of Naoshi
Komi-sensei’s works other than this but then, I have to admit that he certainly
is a good artist. As for the story, it’s pretty typical that’s why it’s pretty
easy to get readers yet at the same time difficult. Easy because it’s a typical
story and difficult because some people might actually be tired of the typical
style of stories. But then, who cares about that? Anyway, I plan to stick to
this manga since Enigma already ended in chapter 55, with 3 chapters I haven’t
read yet.
So who’s betting this manga will
last a year?
