Title: Nisekoi Volume 2

Author/Artist: Naoshi Komi

U.S. Distributor: Viz Media/Shonen Jump

Release Date: March 4, 2014

Format-: Manga

Genre: High School Comedy/Romance

Industry Age Rating: 13+

Overall Personal Rating: B+

Synopsis:

Raku Ichijo is a normal high school boy, unless you consider his home life since his father leads a gang (tough and goofy). Raku is a romantic, when he was little, he promised a girl that they would meet again and that they would get married. He has a locket to remember her by, good thing because he doesn’t know her name and only needs to find a girl with the key.

Recently, in order to stop a gang war, Raku’s dad talked him into pretending to be dating the rival leader’s daughter, Chitose Kirisake. Well, the kids are going along with it even though they don’t really care to even be in the same room. The guys in the gangs are protective of them and are always watching to make sure everything is okay. Raku and Chitose are also classmates at school, so they even have to pretend to be dating there.

Volume 2

Chitose hasn’t had a traditional schooling. She seems to be enjoying all of her “firsts” when it comes to being normal and her attitude seems to be lightening up.

Onodera’s crush on Raku is becoming obvious to some of the other kids at school, just not to him even though he has a severe crush on her! Their classmate Ruri decides to do something about it by getting group to go over to Raku’s house to study. Emotional turmoil is rampant in this new situation.

The pretend dating situation isn’t going so well and some are not sure it’s real, both gang members and classmates. When Chitose is asked directly, she has to quickly decided what to do. The secret is creating problems in her making friends. And to top it all off, the gang sends in a transfer student to keep an eye on her. He is Tsugumi, who grew up with her, but he has a big secret that even Chitose may not know.

Onodera may have a last chance to tell Raku how she feels but Chitose’s past may cause yet another road block.

Commentary:

Once again, I’ve enjoyed the comedic level in this series. I guess I’ve been reading a lot of dramas lately and this is a nice change. The tangled web of who likes who, and why they don’t do anything about it, may not be original but it adds to the humor. The having to pretend is something that makes it more unique. It is so foreign to the characters so they just sort of go overboard with the syrupy stuff because they have no clue what it really would be like.

I enjoyed the artwork. It is both cute and skillful in rendering the human form, really supporting the story with the expressive images. I’d like to mention the backgrounds. I think they are really successful without being overworked. Either they contain nice details for the setting or these graphic/tonal designs to set or support the emotional moments. With the characters there is liberal use of caricature and chibi moments. It is another little way that ups the comedy. A live action could never portray such great comically nervous teens.

The basic Sitcom premise is silly but makes its own sense. I definitely see this more as a comedy than a romance. At this point the romance is used all for comedic elements because basically there is only crushes and idiotic moments as any attempts, real or pretend, are made.

Being many decades past the teen years myself, I think this illustrates that the series can be fun for a wide audience. This is also a Shonen Jump title, so there is more evidence that both male and female can enjoy it.

Overall Grade: B+

” In the Radius”