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.