Nisekoi

Well now that Nisekoi is finished I can review it and explain why you shouldn't read it.

Story : 6/10

The story is great. It's well paced during all the chapters and feels natural. It has arcs dedicated to specific characters that develops the characters and progresses the story...

...Or at least it was great until chapter 200. Komi clearly rushed the final chapters, you can see that in multiple aspects. At the chapters 180-200, Komi completely abandoned several characters in terms of development, such as Yui, and Onodera. Yes, the other main girl, Onodera, stopped being developed somewhere around the chapter 190.

[Spoilers] The complete switch of sides from Raku also felt incredibly unnatural. Even though Onodera would have never won, I'd at least expect some sort of reaction from her other than just dealing with the fact that her best friend just stole her love. Naturally, when a person loses something or is rejected in love, they feel sad or angry, even if that person is very kind, something that Onodera does not do.

Art : 7/10

The art is very good. Komi's art style is one of the best art styles I have ever seen. The art is very detailed too.

... Or at least it was until chapter 210, where it started to feel rushed and lazy. The deciding chapters 226 through 228 looked awful. Chitoge was drawn in such a sluggish manner.

Character : 1/10

The more I read Nisekoi, the more I realized how unnatural the characters are. Raku is literally a rock, Chitoge is an unlikable hyperactive ape, Onodera is way too kind to Raku and Chitoge, Yui serves no point in the story and Marika is way too farfetched and unnatural. So that leaves Tsugumi, who I find to be the best character in the manga, Ruri who isn't really that present and Shuu.

Enjoyment : 5/10

The manga was amazing at first. Then great. Then good. Then ok I guess. If I was to mark only the ending, it would have been 1/10, but taking in consideration the rest of the manga, that I actually enjoyed, the mark elevates to 5/10.

Overall : 5/10

Nisekoi isn't terrible, nor is it good. It's somewhat in between that I would not recommend reading since there are plenty other manga out there that are more worth reading than Nisekoi

Nisekoi is among the chief disappointments that I have read. What started out as a rather funny and enjoyable love triangle manga has become an extremely bloated and needlessly long marathon in which we see a dopey protagonist somehow steal the heart of every hot girl in the series. Now why I judge Nisekoi so harshly is because I know what it can be. At its height I thoroughly enjoyed the series, and part of me still legitimately cares about the story. But at this point the actual story is becoming a faint memory, replaced with extremely repetitive filler in which nothing is accomplished. Gravely disappointing to say the least.

Nisekoi's story is simple enough: Raku Ichijou is the heir to a yakuza gang, and is forced to "date" Chitoge Kirisaki, the daughter to the don of a rival gang. The reason behind it is to "keep the peace" between the gang and the yakuza. The only problem is that Raku has feelings for fellow classmate Kosaki Onodera. And from there we have our story. Now the premise for Nisekoi may be severely simplistic and cliche, but does little to ruin what is an enjoyable first third. It is nothing revolutionary or genre changing, but it is rather funny, light-hearted and cute. However, everything changes after a certain event in the story. After this point, story and character progression quite literally grinds to a halt. Since this point the readers have been forced through several filler arcs and many more "false flag" arcs, or arcs with seemingly important story implications that turn out to only be extremely short or entirely worthless. Now for many this may be tolerable, even enjoyable, but for many including myself Nisekoi is a shadow of its formal self. It may of been cliche, but it was enjoyable. Now its cliche and increasingly frustrating. A very poor mix indeed.

Character wise the manga was never anything to speak of, even before the aforementioned event. Raku is a standard romance protag: boring and devoid of real personality other than being "nice" and "hard-working". This is of course to allow reader immersion, creating a blank slate for all to impose themselves on. The girls are all neat and tidy stereotypes, ranging from the cute dopey one to the tsundere one to the energetic one to Haruhi (Chitoge). Before the "event", as i'll call it, there was a decent amount of character progression, with certain characters, or should I say character, noticeably treating others differently, signifying change and growth in personality. Since the "event" however, this has also ground to a halt. As is standard for filler, characters go through the motions every chapter, only to disregard the events of said chapter when they are next called upon. In this particular genre, character development is hard to find, but I've seen bad shoujo that do it better than Nisekoi.

Nisekoi's art is one of its strengths. While sloppy in bits early on, there are moments of great quality and for the most part is fairly consistent. As the manga progresses, the art grows continually better. The designs, though rather uninspired, are all neatly drawn and distinctive, so that no character looks the other. A fair job all around, not much to complain about here.

While I rag on Nisekoi immensely, a small part of me earnestly wishes for its return to quality. I still clock in every week to see what the manga has dished out. The only problem is that, for what seems like ages, I am always disappointed in what I find. Nisekoi is a manga that I will continue to read, but at this point its only to see how it ends, not because I take any particular enjoyment out of reading it. Yes, Nisekoi is truly-

3/10
Poor

This manga's title, Nisekoi, means "False Love". However, it should also have a second meaning: "False Genre".

Naoshi Komi's Nisekoi is deceiving. At first, it starts off with a genuine low-drama love triangle, in which the story is based around solving the mystery behind Raku Ichijou's childhood lover. It is never doubted for any moment that comedy is the main focus of this manga; however, it also has a great amount of romance. As the plot thickens and the story progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult for the reader to predict which girl the male protagonist will end up with. (And that's what all romance manga should strive for: unpredictability). Unfortunately, Nisekoi could not take the momentum of its great start and carry it throughout its entirety.

After the end of the anime adaptation, I (along with MANY others) went to the manga seeking a continuation of this enticing love story. I wanted to find out more about Raku Ichijou's past. I wanted to know how his relationships with the various girls would be resolved. Did I get what I was looking for? Not quite. What I did get, however, was a continually-growing harem that seemed to solidify the fate of Nisekoi, which is that Raku Ichijou will never choose a lover. As the chapters progress, the main premise of Nisekoi becomes increasingly muddied, to the point where you forget that it even had a plot. It simply becomes a never-ending slice-of-life manga with dashes of romance here and there. Nothing too major though, as its premise has changed to pleasing the male demographic with more and more beautiful girls instead of providing a solid romance story.

Nisekoi is listed as belonging to "Romance, Comedy, and Shounen" genres. While that is absolutely appropriate for its beginning, it does not stay that way; it can only be seen as a harem manga as it progresses. Every single girl that is introduced in the manga eventually falls in love with the main protagonist, Raku Ichijou, who is even initially "bland" and "unappealing" in the eyes of said girls. Clearly, this is not an element of the standard romance manga.

Perhaps Nisekoi's one claim to fame would be its characters. Their extremely appealing personalities and mannerisms are clearly reflected in the occasional character popularity poll. Just the fact that so many people are willing to express their support of their favorite character shows how likable each and every one of them are. All of the girls act cutely and are lovable. Any one of them have the potential to become one of the reader's favorite characters; that's how appealing they are. The same can be said even about the side characters, like Kosaki Onodera's mother or the various members of Raku Ichijou's gang. No character ever comes off as being bland (which is ironic, because the "bland character" Ruri Miyamoto actually serves to provide some of the funniest punchlines).

Overall, Nisekoi will appeal to readers who enjoy watching characters interact with each other in a slice-of-life fashion (with hints of romance) and those who do not mind a stagnant plot. However, if you are one who absolutely despises a genuine romance manga being ruined by the addition of a harem element, steer clear of Nisekoi. You know best what type of reader you are.

First and foremost, if you started from watching the anime first and plan to marathon the manga, don't I highly recommend you not to. But if you are, go ahead I mean I can't really do much to stop you really. My advice is to start from the very start or continue where you left off from the Anime, you'll only be startled.

The series really got me riled up actually. To begin with, what I can say in terms of the story/plot is "Ugh, are you serious?" overall. There are TONS of turn-of-events. As the series progressed, it just gets more complicated, piling one after another. Quite a lot of cliché events to add to that.

Art is AWESOME, I've never really though of something like "that doesn't really look like __". Very good, crazy details for a weekly series.

Character is lacking in this series, specially character development. I'll give my thoughts on the MCs and other ones that are worth mentioning.

To start off we have our male leading MC, Ichijō Raku like a lot other characters are "dense". He's a smart student, very thoughtful & quite honest towards Chitoge. His love for the "Promised Girl" is admirable, he hasn't thunk much what he would feel if it was Chitoge or Marika but always though that if Kosaki was "her", would be very happy from the bottom of his heart. Nothing much to say about him, his pretty ordinary I'd say.

Kirisaki Chitoge, tsundere or not? Personally I think how much people like her is over exaggeration. I'm not sure if I hate her overall but I definitely detest her personality. She's full of pride, totally not feminine (for the most part anyways), violent, rude and abusive. I really don't like her act of tsundere if she's considered one. She also doesn't respect people much unless she has a good relationship with them, examples of this is physically hurting Marika just because she "pisses" her off. Marika is STILL the fiancé of Raku and she should respect that she and Raku are only pretending to date because of their family's relationship. She really needs a huge character development, I don't see why her attitude has to be like that.

Onodera Kosaki, the cutest person in this series in my opinion. She very thoughtful of others just like Raku. She misleads what Raku's doing sometimes even though he might be doing this and that for her. She doesn't have very much self esteem but I think that's another adorable side of her. She's pretty much the ideal girl of Raku. Just like Raku again, she wishes that the boy she promised with long time ago is him.

Tachibana Marika, my favourite in this series! Personally I think forcing your love to somebody is very wrong, specially when the other person don't seem to feel the same towards you. In this case though I HIGHLY think Marika deserves Raku the best. Marika's engagement with Raku is something that their parents agreed upon but that's not the reason why she's currently heads over heels for Raku. She treasured all her memories with Raku all those years and haven't forgotten about them, even coming to as trying her best to be his ideal girl, growing her hair, changing the way she speaks etc. Raku also thinks that he can't believe such a beautiful girl like him, which in my opinion is a huge I mean he thinks very negative of Chitoge most of the time. Oh and of all she's been the only one to kiss Raku, even two times!

Tsugumi Seishirou, I'm not sure what I really think of her, I personally don't like Seishirou chapters. I do know that I like her more than Chitoge and that she's more cute than her. She's so obvious with her tsundere attitude.

Miyamoro Ruri, she's hilarious and has very good common sense/awareness.

If you don't practically like enjoy mystery series but are good at inferring, you might this one. The comedy on this series I would have to say aren't really one of the best, it's mostly Chitoge being violent other than that embarrassing moments and Ruri appearances. There aren't that much ecchi in it but when there is it's quite enjoyable. I personally really don't like the fact it's shōjo I think it ruins it.

Overall your in a bitter sweet ride with Nisekoi but before you realize it, it's probably late to back down and drop it if you want to since you wanna know how it's gonna end up.

First of all, I’d like to go out on a limb here and say that Nisekoi’s genre represented here on MAL is actually inaccurate and can be quite misleading to newer viewers. If you’re expecting a complexed and hilarious love story…well, you will get that for the most part, but be forewarned that this is also a harem in the making. While having a strong start in the lines of a romance comedy manga, this convection flails as the series progresses. However, do not let this factor hinder you from reading. Being ranked 44th here on MAL, I think its popularity says for itself just how amazing this manga is. And Nisekoi certainly does provide quite the exciting read, from problems issuing from a school cultural fest to helping a friend confess his feelings, Nisekoi leaves you on the edge of your seat even without the intense fighting of a Shounen.

To strip it down to the basics, Nisekoi is about a boy named Raku, who is your typical 1st year highschool boy. He gets decent grades, knows how to cook, and has a faithful childhood friend (who is, sadly, a huge pervert) and aims to become a civil servant someday. But unlike normal highschool boys, Raku has a family background that is, to put it mildly, quite…unique. Well, that is unique with a capital “U”, as no typical highschool boy have a Yakuza family. Due to this, many people at school are intimidated by him resulting in Raku not having any friends. However, despite all this Raku is not discouraged, as he has a reminiscence of 10 years into his past, where he made a promise with a girl he loved, and although he does not remember the details, he holds a pendant as proof of their relationship, with her in possession of the key. And so our MC hopes to some day reunite with his love and to uphold their promise-that is, to get married.
Due to delicate circumstances, our MC is forced into a fake relationship (thus the name Nisekoi) with a beautiful and talented “gorilla”, Chitoge, which creates a huge problem, as he already loves another girl. Through this relationship, they encounter dilemma after dilemma, many of which will get you laughing your head off, from convincing their families that they are real lovers to conflicts with a cross dressing hitman, the comedic humor is endless. Under all this however, the commitment to solving the mystery behind his past never eludes Raku, and as the intricate love story progresses and it is discovered 4 different girls were present 10 years ago, all of whom holds keys, the romance story is thrown into a mass of exciting confusion. As their group overcomes various obstacles, from making chocolates on Valentines Day to viewing exhilarating fireworks on New Years, more mysteries from their past are slowly revealed, and it is completely unpredictable as to what will happen next.
Nisekoi does take detours from the original plotline, and between chapter 50 to chapter 90, the whole pendant issue seems to have been momentarily forgotten in replacement to a harem-like build up where every dam girl just irresistibly falls for our MC through the progression of events. While it was initially annoying to see such a great romance story turn into a generic harem, it was not disappointing. In fact, contrary to what many people are saying here, it was not unenjoyable to read these in-between chapters. Instead, it serves as a great character development, and not at all lacking in the hilarity of the beginning chapters. The harem element does not detract in the least from the actual romance storyline. Honestly, the only thing that pisses me off is how there is so much budding romance, but it just doesn’t seem to be heading anywhere. But with the good outweighing the bad, it definitely is worth the read.

Not much to say about the art, but that it is really cute. All of the characters look really nice. I fell in love with Marika’s character design instantly, but then her personality kind of screwed it up for me. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but the varying clothing designs is certainly an added bonus, from the elaborate kimonos to Romeo and Juliet style dress. It is quite impressive.

I thought the characters were really well done, with each having distinctive character traits and back stories. From the tsundre like Chitoge, to the shy and introverted Kosaki, to the persistent and determined Marika, the cast is a colorful crew who guarantees hours of enjoyable reading. And while not completely original, all these diverse personalities all coming together and interacting is something of a miracle on its own, take for example Marika’s clinginess to Raku, and Chitoge’s jealously of said clinginess. What seperates Nisekoi from other mangas of the same genre is the background behind all the characters. Some people argue that as readers we do not know much about the pasts of many characters and the story offers very few flashbacks so we are left guessing as to what might have happened, and thus has a very low view on Nisekoi. However, keep in mind that this sort of thing is intentional, as this is a romance story focused solely on the events 10 years in the past, and that said past shrouded in mysteries would slowly be revealed in time. As for things we do know, the story provides a sense of connection between all the characters, and serves to offer an emotional depth at the same time. All in all, each of the characters are very strong (in Chitoge and Tsugami’s cases, physically as well) and there is a strong sense of idiosyncraticness not seen in the likes of, say, 1/2 Prince. If anything, I’d suggest people read Nisekoi just for the characters.

Overall, Nisekoi was one of the best romance mangas I’ve ever read, and will continue reading. With such a creative storyline, intricate situations, both in the past and present, leaving you on edge wanting to find out just who the chosen one is. And so, I’m going to stop digressing and end it here. However, I just want to say one last thing, no matter if you are a newer viewer or seasoned otaku, you will not regret it if you give Nisekoi a try, as contrary to what many people are saying here, Nisekoi certainly does give off a vibe of its own,

Actually, unlike majority who have written reviews about Nisekoi, I feel that it is quite a good manga.
If you have watched the anime, and are planning to read the manga now, you should be warned that the start of the manga would shock you. The art is ... meh but after awhile the art work goes to the expected standard i.e. like the anime.
I really like harem manga and anime so the story was great, so it got a 9/10 for story.
The characters are quite good too, there are a wide range of characters.
I enjoyed reading it as I watched the anime first and wanted to know what happened afterwards.
The ending was so sweet that I nearly cried and I have never cried over a manga/ anime.
Overall, to me, this manga was awesome.
However if you have watched the anime, I recommend that you start from the part where the anime ends as it is very boring to reread.

I normally wouldn't put time and effort in creating a review about a manga that I didn't particularly enjoy or that didn't meet my expectations. Nisekoi on the other hand dissapointed me to a point where i'm suprised myself that I had such high hopes for this manga.

I'll hit it off with something more positive. The art is good. Everything blends nicely together, he plays a bit with the characters clothing and the expressions are entertaining to a certain extent. The art kept me from dropping the manga right off the bad, so even though the story, characters are poorly done, the art makes it enjoyable enough to keep reading.

THE STORY on the other hand is very plain & simple, guy has a bunch of girls he knew from his childhood and as with all childhood-based romances, love already blooms very early and the MC makes a promise to marry the girl who's name is locked up in the locker. (False Love) Quite intruiging and fun i'd say. But in the first 50 chapters the mangaka pushes all clichés and tropes he can recall right into the story, making it much too apparent that this is going to drag on 'til the end of the story, which it did. I apologize beforehand if i'm slowly starting to sound rude.

There are several genre-tags attached to this series, but the 3 most important ones are done in the worst way possible. The Drama, Harem & Romance tag. I didn't particularly laugh my way through this manga, but a lot of people love the clumsy jokes, love-fretting & the most ridiculous love-revealing situations and tropes all the different characters have to bluff their way out. Comedy is personal, so i'll leave it up to personal preference.

Drama: Because of the comedy I mentioned above, the series had a sort of lighthearted & all but serious vibe surrounding it. Drama was barely apparent to me and I couldn't take the fretting of most characters serious. The simple reason is that the fretting is so exaggerated and longterm, without any conceivable progression in it, that it becomes rather amusing then dramatic. But after keeping that up for 100 chapters it starts getting rather annoying and frustrating that the characters are still having the exact same worries. Besides that the first 50 chapters already give you a rather self-evident image of what is going to take place later on, making it regrettably predictable. That kills the fun of rooting for your own character and it makes you think why the mangaka is still trying so hard to make the other girls seem potentially dangerous in snatching away the MC from the Main Girl. It's almost embarassing to read.

Harem: Going somewhat more in-depth in the predictability of this series, will hopefully make my point clear. From the point onwards that Onodera and Chitoge are introduced, every other girl is already automatically cancelled out. As I already vaguely hinted at above, the mangaka tries very hard to make other girls in the Harem look like the desired bride for our MC, but the difference in focus regarding these side-Harem characters and Main love-rivaling characters is just too apparent and makes all situations taking place rather unecessary and time-consuming. It made me want the conclusion even sooner, then seeing every different girl try in vain. Just as the title is False Love, it's a False Harem as well. It's simply a race against time for our two main girls: Onodera & Chitoge, nothing more, nothing less.

Romance: It is a romance, I wouldn't try to convince you otherwise. But it's lacking in so much. It lacks in depth, mystery & unpredictability. There is nothing to ache for, to be excited about or to look forward too, because it is just too damn clear what we can expect. It completely blows away every readers hopes, who's hopes aren't in line with the already spoiled storyline in the first 50 chapters. (Leading to a fearsome quarrel between Chitoge fans and Onodera-fans in every possible comment section) A romance that lacks it's most rewarding features 'the suprise': characters figuring out their own feelings and towards who, characters doing suprisingly warmhearted and kind actions to make their love clear to the other person. It was all already revealed & when the characters finally started to realize and take action, it was already far too late for me to have any excitement and even respect for that particular characters genius realization... It was so poorly done, so anti-climactic and add to that that even with the realization most characters still hold onto the denial-stage for another 10-20 chapters, before giving up and accepting what it is. Time in this manga is a rather frustrating thing, definitily if you could only read it with the weekly releases. It slowly eats all your enjoyment and joy for this manga and turns it into frustration, annoyance and salt regarding the snail pace of this series plotprogression.

CHARACTERS: To simple and too straightforward for a series that progression with a snailpace. Because most characters are so straightforward to the reader that every action and thought is so blatantly clear, making it very frustrating that it takes ages for the character itself to make any progression regarding the realization of their own feelings and those of others around them. If I put this in amount of chapters, then the straightforwardness of these characters should've wrapped up the complete story in max 50 chapters, we have >200 now. It's already 4x more then what would be considered an acceptable pacing and steady progression.

Onodera: A very big factor in my low score. I normally am a sucker for these kind of girls, but the fact that she's so dense , extremely denying & i would even say delusional that i scrapped her off really fast. Her attempts at confessing are laughable and poor and her fretting succeeded in summoning my impatience and anger, rather then sympathy and support. To top it all off & this is the mast despicable turn of events i have ever experienced in anime /manga, the mangaka decides when the moment is finally there for both to confess that they both 'don't' & have never actually loved each other. Onodera x Raku is the leading and visible ship the mangaka rolls with, because we know from early on they are madly in love with each other, but they don't know each others feelings. This feeling of love only increasing through the 200+ chapters, just like their bond increases. To ultimately brush it off. These characters take 150 chapters to realize they extremely love each other and it take even longer before they realize that the other loves him/her too, but when everything comes together they realize in one chapter that all this realizing and so-called love meant 'ZERO'!!! (And people are suprised Onodera fans hate this, everything their fav. character worked for has been simply branded wasting her time on something that was actually just her imagination). Onodera is introduced as a clutch, who doesn't know how her future should look. She isn't the best at studying, nor in taking over the shop off her parents, but she throughout the series she realizes a lot of her talents and even gets quite some tips about what to do wit her life. All these tips were brushed off ofcourse, just like the love was in the finale. Makes you wonder where she could've been now if she realized this sooner, she might've already gotten a solid part-time contract or future job-security. I'm really dumbfounded when I start piecing her whole progression together.

Chitoge: I don't particulary enjoy tsuns, neither their agressive attitude, so I was biased about this character from the start and didn't support her struggle for Raku's heart. But as I repetitively said, it was clear that Chitoge would become the girl from the first chapter she was introduced. Raku & Chitoge, no compatibility, Chitoge hides behind a facade, Raku doesn't show any love or warmth towards Chitoge, let alone romantically. But the mangaka decides to win the readers heart by breaking her down completely and building her up from scrap. Meaning he tempted us by showing us her weak side and she realizing and finally confronting and accepting this. For me this is rather pitiful, because he just switched Onodera's redeeming quality with Chitoge and reverse. Onodera is suddenly able to put up a strong front and endure the sadness and pain of her confession and realization & Chitoge lets go of that strong front to become a whining mess, that we expect from Onodera.

I'd say the mangak isn't able to choose any girl and just bullshits around with the readers feelings.

To top it all off they finally confess and you expect a happy ending. No Chitoge decides to move abroad and follow another dream now that she worked out this one. She leaves her love right off the bat for status and reputation and money (fair enough, I can dig that myself, but it's not what you like to see in a romance, I thought romance was the most important thing in romance... *scratches head* Ah well... who cares...hmmmmm?!). The manga starts normal with an MC alone without lover, some good friends and it ends normal with his lover immediately leaving his side and pursuing bigger dreams, leaving him again with only good friends.

This is what you will be reading in this False Love story. You will have to endure, frustration, hate, disgust, irony, sarcasm, impatience & a completely ridiculous and all but satisfying ending. I honestly wish the same Amnesia these kids went through, applies to me for this series. (How can you even forget such a good time in your childhood, really beats me... Well it was probably an indication for all the poor writing to come...)

Please belief me on my word, but people calling this a real romance and putting it on #1 is completely uncalled for. It has nothing authentic, nothing romantically praiseworthy or outstanding, there is barely a need for a harem as most girls are completely unecessary material to fill up background of every panel.

I would suggest reading 'Orange' or watching it. Compare both romances and decide what is the better romance. Ofcourse the answer depends on which kind of romance you like, if it's the dreamy unrealistic love with only good-times, then Nisekoi rocks your boat, but if you just like me have a knack for the more realistic and really dramatic romances, then please skip Nisekoi and go read 'Orange', it's frustrating because it's so recognizable, while Nisekoi is frustrating because it's so impossibly & simplistically stale, it stagnates through chapter 25-185.

That's my 2 cent and once again apologizes my heated dislike for this series. I normally don't like to be judgy or know it better then the mangaka himself, but this is so enormously lacking in quality & i'm quite frustrated i've been reading this from 2014 and only now managed to quit, a lot of wasted time that could be spend on better manga imo.

Have a good day.

I don't know why people love this manga. Nisekoi is a romantic comedy manga. Nothing more, nothing less. The art style is really good, but the story is.....meh.

It starts from being something like a Romeo and Juliet comedy manga version, then a love-triangle and then it becomes a harem, where the girls fall in love with the protagonist because of his gentleness and such like every harem circulating. Boring and predictable. Oh, and around half of the chapters are fillers.

The characters are the usually stereotypes. The protagonist, the tsundere, the shy type, the overly attached type, the more shy type, the sister-in-law.The ones really interesting are the supporting ones like Shuu or Ruri.

The comic part is still funny, sometimes. If you don't have nothing better to read, give it try.

Before I say anything else, I should clarify that a 6/10 score doesn't mean this manga isn't worth reading. 6/10 is "fair" and that is exactly what this manga is at this point. Secondly, I feel like I really have to give two scores for Nisekoi:

For the first 45-50 chapters:
Genuine plot progression and character development, decent romance, and the feeling that the story was building upon itself. This part of Nisekoi is highly enjoyable and is the section currently being covered by anime Shaft is producing. It's a rom-com at its finest and gets a solid 8/10.

The problem starts after that....unless you like 60(sorry, did I say 60? I meant 160) chapters of filler. Gone is the character development, gone is the hilarious approach to love, in is an ever-growing harem of girls we know won't win and the abuse of gags. What starts as a truly entertaining love triangle blossoms into a nauseating dodecahedron with all the depth of a bath tub. It's like the manga is an airplane that has stalled and is now plummeting downwards, getting closer to a wreck by the week. With the latest girl added to the harem: the onee-san ninja chinese gangster who Raku happens to know, it is obvious the author is suffering from PSOOYA disease, a terrible conditions many writers suffer from. That is, "Pulling Shit Out Of Your Ass" My current score for chapters 55-current(118) is about 4/10, and that's being generous to say the least.

To understand why Nisekoi's plot goes off the rails and is replaced by bland moe-blobbery on a weekly basis, you have to understand two things. First; this is a manga that is published in Shonen jump, where long serialization is more important than development. Second: the demographic reading it doesn't give a shit. The popular vote for favorite character is very telling to the kind of people reading this in Japan, but I'll get to that later.

Story: 5/10
Starts off with an unoriginal but fun premise and is, for the first part at least, very well done. It would have a higher score if it had progressed an inch in 60 chapters.

Art: 8/10

While the art in Nisekoi can vary slightly, it always seems to get its point across perfectly. As much as I hate what has been drawn recently(moe,moe,moe!) it always does a very good job at representing characters and their emotions. No complaints here.

Characters: 5/10
"Five out of ten in a series based off its characters! Sacrilege!" is probably what the die hard fanboys are thinking right now, but with no development whatsoever in any character apart from Chitoge that is what they deserve. For starters, let's look at the MC.

Raku: Typical dense MC. Is at his most interesting/least cliche when dealing with Chitoge, but becomes a flat character when dealing with just about any other girl. Has a case of convenient amnesia.

Chitoge: First girl bias, incoming. A lot of people brand her as the "typical tsundere/bipolar" but her being cold to Raku initially shouldn't be surprising considering the premise. She hates Raku at the beginning but is forced to act all lovey-dovey when others are around, so of course she comes across as bipolar: that's the "joke". She's the only girl with some proper backstory and that has some level of depth to her character, but that's largely because she's the only one that went through non-contrived development.

Onodera: Fan-boys are going to flame the crap out of me for this, but she is your run of the mill cutesy girl character. A lot of people prop her up as "pure" but the truth is she's annoyingly indecisive and mind-numbingly boring. If you have a hard-on for shy girls and have never been in any sort of relationship in your life she's going to be your favorite character because that is her entire appeal. Surprise surprise, she's the most popular character in Japan.

Ruri: Best female character? Maybe. It seems side-characters are the only ones with heads on their shoulders in this series and in Ruri's case this is extremely apparent.

Shuu: Best male character? Definitely. He isn't dense and he's generally extremely fun to watch.

The rest of the harem: You'll fall in love with Marika if you stalkers who hold onto a love from when they were five years old and are ready to rip couples apart to get it back. "She deserves Raku the most" is a bit half-arsed when she doesn't know jack-shit about the current Raku and none of us know anything about her apart from the fact that she's pretty, talks like a redneck, and wants to marry Raku. She'd be a lot more likable if she'd been introduced slowly. Tsugumi plays her role well but her character development was contrived as it gets "he called me cute, character 180 time!". I'm not even going to get into the others, because we don't know enough about Chinese-teacher-don-nee-chan yet and I don't even want to get started on the little sister.

The 'fake love' between Chitoge and Raku is really the highlight of this manga.

Enjoyment: 6/10

For the same reasons as I put on "story", 8/10 for the first half and 6/10 for the second half, respectively.

Overall: 6/10

If within the next 20-30 chapters there is a sign that this manga is once more moving towards an ending it will go back up to a 7-8. At this point in time I don't recommend reading it because I'm not sure how the authors going to do it, but I can guarantee to you if you hear that Nisekoi got a "harem end" it's NOT worth the read.

EDIT:
After literally years it has ended. Years of filler. Honestly, give this thing a shot for the first few chapters and if you don't like the characters a LOT by the 50s or 60s, drop it. Not worth it otherwise. Ending was ok at least.

I think a pretty clear sign that a manga hasn't had the best writing is when you have a story with probably the most heated waifu war in recent memory, yet even the supporters of the winning side generally seem to agree that the story sucks. That's Nisekoi for you.

The biggest problem with Nisekoi overall has quite simply been its progression, or rather its lack of it. Seriously, why did this manga need to be 229 chapters long? You could easily have accomplished just as much in less than half of that. The sheer amount of filler, wasted opportunities at romantic progression and plot conveniences is almost unacceptable. But despite everything, Nisekoi has still managed to stay somewhat entertaining throughout at the very least.

For what it's worth, I really think Nisekoi did have an interesting premise for a romcom. The idea of having a guy and a girl being forced to pretend to be a couple even though they don't actually like each other led to a ton of great comedy moments early on, and for the first few dozen chapters it's a really solid manga. But past a certain point it just feels like the story flatlines completely. I'm not sure if the author is to blame or if it's Weekly Shounen Jump for wanting to milk the series as much as possible (probably both), but either way between roughly chapters 100 and 200, basically *nothing* happens in this manga. The jokes and usage of clichés keep going in circles, repeating the same events over and over again. There is no trace of progression in terms of either plot or romance, and it's pretty hard to keep caring about the characters anymore.

Speaking of which, the characters aren't exactly a whole lot better either, which is pretty ironic given how dedicated the fan bases of many of them are. Raku is denser than anything on the periodic table. How he consistently fails to notice any of these girls' feelings after all the things they put him through is so far-fetched it barely even feels realistic. I guess you could argue that he's too blinded by his supposed love for Kosaki to notice anyone else, but there's a line to be crossed here. Also, the so-called mutual affection between the two of them is some of the most awkward writing I've ever had to sit through reading. Seriously, these two have been in love with each other for so many years already, yet they are both completely incapable of making a move on the other no matter how many golden opportunities the manga provides for them. Especially Kosaki who has a ton of love rivals is the one you'd think really ought to step up but instead she's basically a doormat throughout the entire story. Chitoge on the other hand is probably the only character who actually has somewhat decent writing as she actually changes over time, going from full violent gorilla mode in the beginning to a rather sensitive and kindhearted girl towards the end. But even so it doesn't change the fact that this could easily have been accomplished in half the time. And then there are all the other girls that join in on the love rivalry over the course of time such as Tsugumi, Marika, Haru and Yui, but it's painfully obvious from the start that they're never going to have a chance at winning the race, and it really just feels like the author threw them into the harem because he could. Their sheer existence is ultimately nothing but fanservice.

And then... there's the whole "promised girl" aspect. This seriously has to be one of the most awkwardly executed plot mechanics I've ever seen in a romcom. Raku has a pendant which supposedly contains the memories of his "promised girl" from his childhood, and it just so happens that he doesn't have the key to it, and it just so happens that all the girls all seem to possess similar keys that might fit the lock, and it just so happens that despite realizing this they don't unlock the damn thing until close to the end of the manga, and they all just so happen to be connected to whatever happened in the past yet none of them actually remember it, and... I feel like I could go on forever. Why. Is. It. All. So. Convenient? This seriously made me cringe so hard whenever it was brought up. It's neither funny, romantic or emotional. It's just incredibly dumb, through and through.

While the manga eventually picks up pace again around chapter 200 and then keeps it up for what little is left before the end, it sadly remains as predictable and cliché as ever even when the plot progression is trucking along and it eventually culminates in a rather average ending. Not terrible by any means, but certainly nothing impressive either. And in the end I just can't help but ask what the point of this whole manga was? It started out great, but before long stagnated into nothingness and then climaxes in a predictable ending that might as well have happened before the stagnation even took place. Nisekoi literally could have ended over 2 years ago and it'd probably have been a better manga than it now is.

In the end though, I still can't make myself hate this manga. Why? Well despite everything I never really found it straight-up boring or filled with plot holes or anything like that; it's just painfully average. Everything about this manga bar the start is either cliché or just... meh. And whilst being meh certainly doesn't make it anything I'd recommend people, it's not total garbage either.

But hey, if nothing else Nisekoi has undoubtedly cemented its position as yet another classic meme in the anime/manga industry, so I guess that'll make people remember it at least.