Nisekoi
Nisekoi: False Love is a Japanese romantic comedy manga series written and illustrated by Naoshi Komi. Nisekoi was first published as a one-shot manga in Shueisha's seasonal Jump Next! magazine before being serialized in the manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from November 2011 to August 2016, with its chapters collected in 25 volumes. Nisekoi was published in English in Viz Media's digital magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump and was also released by the publisher in English in digital and print volumes. A three-volume novel series, titled Nisekoi: Urabana, written by Hajime Tanaka, was released from June 2013 to April 2015.
A 20-episode anime television series produced by Shaft was broadcast from January to May 2014. A 12-episode second season, titled Nisekoi:, was broadcast from April to June 2015. Aniplex of America has licensed the series for streaming and home video distribution in North America. A live-action film adaptation premiered in December 2018.
Plot
Nisekoi follows high school students [|Raku Ichijo], the son of a leader in the Yakuza faction Shuei-gumi, and Chitoge Kirisaki, the daughter of a boss in a rival gang known as Beehive. They unexpectedly meet when Chitoge hops a wall and knees Raku in the face. After she runs off, Raku realizes he has lost his locket which was given to him by his childhood sweetheart with whom he made a secret promise. After discovering Chitoge is a new transfer student in his class, he forces her to help him look for the locket. During the search, they begin to despise each other with a passion.Upon returning home, Raku learns that the Shuei-gumi and Beehive gangs have agreed to settle their feud by pairing their leaders' children. Raku learns that his girlfriend-to-be is none other than Chitoge, much to his horror. For the next three years, they must pretend to be in a relationship to maintain peace between the gangs. This turns out to be quite a challenging task, not only because of their hatred for one another, but also because Raku has a crush on another schoolmate, [|Kosaki Onodera], whom he secretly wishes was the girl who bears the key to his locket. Unbeknownst to him, Kosaki carries her own deep secret crush on Raku. The two do their best in their attempts to keep up their facade, while many developments complicate the situation, such as Chitoge's over-protective bodyguard, Claude, scheming to expose their relationship as fake.
During the school years new characters and developments arise to cause more trouble for Raku. Chitoge's childhood friend and Beehive hitman, Tsugumi Seishiro, joins the class, initially as an obstacle for Raku, before becoming a friend in the group, reluctantly accepting the relationship while unknowingly developing a crush on Raku herself. Marika Tachibana, daughter of the police captain, transfers in and declares herself as Raku's fiancée, having had a crush on him for over ten years. Haru Onodera, Kosaki's younger sister, initially attempts to sabotage Raku's attempts to get closer with her sister, before eventually developing her own feelings for him. Yui Kanakura, the newly appointed head of the Char Siu Mafia and Raku's childhood friend, later becomes the class' new teacher, herself also being in love with him.
Over the course of the story many revelations and discoveries are uncovered regarding the characters' relationships, the locket, and their promises. It is revealed Chitoge, Kosaki, Marika, and Yui all possess keys, and that they all knew each other ten years ago, making one of them Raku's "promise girl".
After numerous adventures with the girls, and several confessions, Raku realizes that he has fallen for both Chitoge and Kosaki, and must choose. A final confrontation prompts the group to travel and uncover the truth behind the keys, and what happened ten years ago, which will lead to the final confessions.
Characters
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Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Naoshi Komi, Nisekoi started as a one-shot published in Shueisha's seasonal Jump Next! magazine on January 8, 2011. It was later serialized in the publisher's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from November 7, 2011, to August 8, 2016. The series 229 individual chapters were collected by Shueisha in 25 volumes, published under their Jump Comics imprint between May 2, 2012, and October 4, 2016.A 14-volume re-print of the series, containing an epilogue set ten years after the main series' ending, were published from June 16 to December 18, 2023.
In December 2011, Shueisha published the first chapter in English online. The manga has been licensed in English by Viz Media and published in their digital magazine, Weekly Shonen Jump since November 26, 2012. They also released the 25 volumes in print from January 7, 2014, to January 2, 2018.
A spin-off manga, illustrated by Taishi Tsutsui, titled Magical Pâtissier Kosaki-chan!!, which features the character Kosaki Onodera as a magical girl, was serialized on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ online platform from December 1, 2014, to September 22, 2016. Shueisha collected its chapters in four volumes, released from June 4, 2015, to October 4, 2016.
Anime
In May 2013, an anime television series adaptation was announced. The 20-episode anime adaptation was produced by Aniplex, Shaft, Shueisha and Mainichi Broadcasting System and directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, with Shinbo and Shaft staff handling series composition, Nobuhiro Sugiyama designing the characters and, Kakeru Ishihama and Tomoki Kikuya composing the music. The series aired from January 11 to May 24, 2014. The first opening theme is "Click" by ClariS. The first ending theme besides "Click" for episode 1 is "Heart Pattern" by Nao Toyama, starting from episode 2. The second ending theme is by Kana Hanazawa, starting from episode 8.The ending theme for episode 14 is "Step" by ClariS, while the same song is the second opening starting from episode 15. The third ending theme is "Trick Box" by Mikako Komatsu, starting from episode 15. The fourth ending theme is by Kana Asumi, starting from episode 18. The ending for episode 20 is by Toyama as Chitoge Kirisaki, Hanazawa as Kosaki Onodera, Komatsu as Seishirou Tsugumi, and Asumi as Marika Tachibana. On the Japanese Blu-ray version, the fourth ending theme is by Yumi Uchiyama.
A total of four original video animations were produced and packaged with manga volumes 14, 16, 17, and 21.
A second season, titled Nisekoi:, aired between April 10 and June 26, 2015. The first opening theme is "Rally Go Round" by Lisa, and for episode 8, the opening theme is "Magical ☆ styling" by Kana Hanazawa. The ending theme for the first, third, and sixth episodes is by Toyama as Chitoge Kirisaki, Hanazawa as Kosaki Onodera, Komatsu as Seishirou Tsugumi, and Asumi as Marika Tachibana. The ending theme for the second episode is "TrIGgER" by Komatsu. The ending theme for the fourth episode is "Sleep Zzz" by Toyama. The ending theme for the fifth episode is by Asumi. The ending theme for the seventh episode is "marchen ticktack" by Ayane Sakura. The ending theme for the tenth episode is by Yumi Uchiyama.
Aniplex of America has licensed the series for streaming and home video distribution in North America.
Film
A live-action adaptation premiered in Japanese theaters on December 21, 2018. It was directed by Hayato Kawai and stars Kento Nakajima as Raku Ichijo and Ayami Nakajo as Chitoge Kirisaki, and was distributed by Toho.Other media
A three-volume novel series, titled was published by Shueisha under their Jump J-Books imprint. The novels are written by Hajime Tanaka and illustrated by Naoshi Komi. The first volume was published on June 4, 2013. It has stories concerning the main characters such as Kosaki sprouting cat ears from a virus, and Marika as a hit-woman. The second volume was released on December 28, 2013, with stories about the play and side stories such as the gang working at a maid café. The third volume was released on April 3, 2015.A voice comic was released on June 1, 2012. It features Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Raku Ichijo, Haruka Tomatsu as Chitoge Kirisaki, Hisako Kanemoto as Kosaki Onodera, and Daichi Kanbara as Shu Maiko.
The special edition of the ninth manga volume was bundled with a drama CD, released on November 1, 2013.
A visual novel titled was developed by Konami and released for the PlayStation Vita on November 27, 2014. Konami also released a game for Android and iOS named from January 2014 until its closure on December 26, 2015. Chitoge appears as a support character in the Bandai Namco Games' crossover fighting game, J-Stars Victory VS, released in Japan in March 2014 and in North America and Europe in June 2015. Two Super Mario Maker Event Courses designed by Komi, along with an unlockable Mystery Mushroom costume of Chitoge for the game, were released on February 18, 2016.
Reception
| Volume No. | Peak rank | Notes | Refs |
| 1 | 5 | 4 weeks | |
| 2 | 3 | 3 weeks | |
| 3 | 7 | 3 weeks | |
| 4 | 3 | 3 weeks | |
| 5 | 4 | 2 weeks | |
| 6 | 2 | 3 weeks | |
| 7 | 8 | 1 week | |
| 8 | 4 | 3 weeks | |
| 9 | 6 | 1 week | |
| 11 | 8 | 2 weeks | |
| 16 | 7 | 1 week | |
| 17 | 7 | 1 week |
| Volume No. | Peak rank | Notes | Refs |
| 1 | 13 | 1 week | |
| 2 | 12 | 2 weeks | |
| 3 | 10 | 2 weeks | |
| 4 | 9 | 2 weeks | |
| 5 | 8 | 3 weeks | |
| 6 | 9 | 2 weeks | |
| 7 | 6 | 2 weeks | |
| 8 | 5 | 2 weeks | |
| 9 | 8 | 3 weeks | |
| 10 | 6 | 3 weeks | |
| 11 | 8 | 3 weeks | |
| 12 | 6 | 3 weeks | |
| 13 | 4 | 3 weeks | |
| 14 | 6 | 3 weeks | |
| 15 | 3 | 3 weeks | |
| 16 | 2 | 3 weeks | |
| 17 | 4 | 4 weeks | |
| 18 | 3 | 3 weeks | |
| 19 | 7 | 3 weeks | |
| 20 | 4 | 3 weeks | |
| 21 | 5 | 2 weeks | |
| 22 | 6 | 2 weeks | |
| 23 | 11 | 3 weeks | |
| 24 | 3 | 3 weeks | |
| 25 | 3 | 3 weeks |