Naoshi Komi’s “Nisekoi: False Love” vol. 7 is entertaining, heart warming and highly recommended!
© 2011 Naoshi Komi. All Rights Reserved.
MANGA TITLE: Nisekoi: False Love Vol. 7
STORY AND ART BY: Naoshi Komi (å¤å‘³ç›´å¿—)
FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: SHUEISHA, Inc.
PUBLISHED IN USA BY: VIZ Media, LLC/Shonen Jump Manga
RATED: T for Teen
RELEASE DATE: January 6, 2015
It’s almost Christmas, but Chitoge’s not in a festive mood, because her mother, Hana Kirisaki, is visiting Japan for the winter holidays. Chitoge introduces her false boyfriend to her workaholic mom, who then decides to test his mettle – by making him work as her secretary! While laboring away, Raku can’t help but notice the strained relationship between Chitoge and her mother. Is there anything he can do?
Chitoge is starting to have feelings towards Raku, but is not sure how he can get him to pay attention to her even more. Meanwhile, Seishirou Tsugumi’s rival, “Black Tiger” has come to challenge her and Chitoge’s mother, Hana is coming to visit her. But why is Chitoge so terrified?
Find out in “Nisekoi: False Love” vol. 7!
What is “Nisekoi: False Love”?
Naoshi Komi’s manga work is well-known for readers of Shonen Jump. From “Koi no Kami-sama”, “Williams” and “Double Arts”, Komi’s manga “Nisekoi” (False Love) was created as a one shot for Jump NEXT! in 2011 but then receiving the go-ahead as a weekly manga serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump”.
It was also one of the first manga to receive an English translation online courtesy of Shueisha and a total of nine volumes have been released since then.
And now, Viz Media will be releasing the first volume of “Nisekoi: First Love” in the U.S. to coincide with the anime adaptation release of the series slated for January 2014.
“Nisekoi” revolves around high school Raku Ichijou. When Ichijou was a kid, he met a girl and he kept a lock, she kept the key and promised each other to get married if they one day find each other.
Since then, Ichijou has kept his promise and has worn the lock around his neck and has been hoping to meet her again.
But Ichijou’s life is a little complicated. While a good-natured individual, unfortunately for him, he is the son of the leader of the Shuei-gumi yakuza syndicate. He has no interested in become part of the yakuza but everyone expects him to be the next one to lead the syndicate in the future.
Meanwhile, while going to school, he sees a foreign girl jumping from a wall and landing on him. He loses the lock on his neck and is very upset of what had transpired. Next thing you know in class, that same girl becomes a new student in his class.
Chitoge Kirisaki just moved from the U.S. to Japan and since her mom is Japanese and her dad is America, she is fluent in both Japanese and English. And suffice to say, when both Ichijou and Kirisaki see each other, they start yelling at each other and she nails him with a hit after he calls her “monkey girl”. People see how tough she is but to make them get along, his teacher puts Ichijou in charge of showing her around school.
He tries his best but the two are like oil and water, they just don’t get along. For the next week of trying to assist her, the two end up arguing and getting in each other’s faces.
If anything, Ichijou focus is more on finding the lock that was lost when Kirisaki landed on him. And he wonders if Kosaki Onodera, the popular girl in school and a person who has treated him with nothing but kindness is the girl that he made the promise with. He hopes it is her.
But just when Ichijou is about to give up, Onodera pleads with him to keep his promise and Ichijou is reminded that a promise is a promise and he intends to keep it. But wants to ask Onodera if there is any chance she may be the girl he made the promise too.
What he doesn’t know is that Onodera does have a key and she has always liked Ichijou but doesn’t have the guts to tell him.
But as Ichijou wonders if Onodera is the girl he made a promise too and excited for the possibility that it might be, when he gets home, his father talks to him about something important.
The problem is that the Shuei-gumi and another rival yakuza gang are in the brink of all-out war that would damage both yakuza gangs, he and the other leader have come up with the plan. Ichijou must pretend to be dating the daughter of the leader of the opposing yakuza gang.
Ichijou doesn’t want to get involved and his father told him that he must forget dating any other girl and focus liking this girl they set him up with.
When the two are introduces, Ichijou is shocked that the girl is Chitoge Kirisaki. And for both of them, they must promise to be boyfriend and girlfriend for three whole years and be convincing to both yakuza gangs that they are truly in love.
Both don’t want to be involved with each other but they have no choice. But now they must find a way to co-exist with each other as both yakuza gangs are suspicious of their relationship especially Kirisaki’s guardian, Claude.
Meanwhile, Ichijou still wants to ask Onodera if she is the girl with the key and Onodera is about to let him know that she is. But before they can, the whole school are told that both Ichijo and Kirasaki are boyfriend and girlfriend.
And now it has made things tough for both Ichijou and Kirisaki, but can they keep this charade of being in love with each other, especially if they despite one another?
And since then, there are a few other complications as not only Chitoge and Onodera have fallen for Raku, but also Chitoge’s bodyguard Tsugumi and Marika Tachibana, who Raku’s father promised Marika’s father that they would marry?
But while Raku Ichijou and Chitoge Kirisaki are supposed to fake their relationship, Chitoge is starting to realize that with each moment spent with Raku, she is slowly falling in love with him.
For volume 7, Chitoge wants Raku to pay more attention to her. But what can she do to make him pay attention to her?
Meanwhile, out of the blue, Tsugumi’s rival “Black Tiger” has come to challenge her and the winner gets to kiss Raku!
And the key story revolves around Tsugumi’s mother Hana, a workaholic business woman that only visits Chitoge during Christmas. Feared by many, she is in need of an assistant and chooses Raku to be her assistant.
Meanwhile, Raku is determined in getting Hana to recognize Chitoge even more.
With the latest volume of “Nisekoi: False Love”, it has been an interesting volume as it starts to show more of Chitoge’s feelings towards Raku.
As we continue to see Onodera, Tsugumi and Marika like Raku, Chitoge is quite interesting because of how she went from this tsundere character to a character that genuinely has feelings for Raku, but yet, he doesn’t catch on to any of it.
With volume 7 of “Nisekoi: False Love”, we see Chitoge trying to get Raku to recognize her, Tsugumi’s rival challenging her for a chance to kiss Raku, Ruri trying to tell Raku that Onodera has always loved him but possibly one of the most touching and interesting chapters to read is the introduction to Chitoge’s mother, Hana.
If you thought Chitoge was tough, she is nothing like Hana, beautiful but cold, feared by many but yet independent and successful. But she is a workaholic to the point that she is never there for Chitoge and the only passing conversation is short.
But when Raku is forced to become Hana’s assistant, Raku sees it as an opportunity to bring mother and daughter closer. But can he?
So far, I really enjoy this manga series because it’s fresh take on the young promise made by youngsters to marry each other and it also has that similarity to “Ranma 1/2” of two people arranged by their parents to be together, although not to be married but to have this fake romance for three years. And then having multiple young ladies vying for his attention.
The artwork by Naoshi Komi is well-drawn, the series is full of humor and for the most part quite delightful in capturing their emotions on each page. But Naoshi Komi’s manga series has been nothing but delightful and very entertaining!
Naoshi Komi’s “Nisekoi: False Love” vol. 7 is entertaining, heart warming and highly recommended!