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- May 11, 2019
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Nisekoi is an interesting case study in how it can be viewed as a sort of culmination for romcoms as a genre up until that point. So many of the ideas, concepts and tropes of prior works were incorporated in in such a way to where they felt equal parts accessible to newer readers and interesting enough that they wanted an answer to the central mystery and exploration of the characters. Komi also did an impressive job keeping readers in the dark as to who would win, while in retrospect it was obviously going to be Chitoge, Onodera I'd argue was a successful teasing of an other choice.
The issue, of course, is that the series ended up struggling under the weight of a narrative which Komi had no idea what to really do with, and that ended up compromising itself with random additions to the cast (most infamously Haru) and increasingly nonsensical elaborations on the story (having 2/3s of the harem being Raku's forgotten childhood friends, for example). Not to mention the series got so centered around the romance that the ending basically fucked one of its main characters over in a way rather cruel to her fans. It's a symbol of that "everything and kitchen sink" mentality, for better and worse.
You can argue that Nisekoi has consequently influenced a number of manga to try and actively avoid a lot of its pitfalls. If you look at WNL, the series closest to Nisekoi in style and tone, it's faster and more tightly paced, has a story not built on an increasingly nonsensical mystery, and has safely avoided random add-ons for the hell of it narratively. It's not a masterpiece, but I think it speaks to the influence and legacy Nisekoi has had that its successor is more or less averting many of its failings.
The issue, of course, is that the series ended up struggling under the weight of a narrative which Komi had no idea what to really do with, and that ended up compromising itself with random additions to the cast (most infamously Haru) and increasingly nonsensical elaborations on the story (having 2/3s of the harem being Raku's forgotten childhood friends, for example). Not to mention the series got so centered around the romance that the ending basically fucked one of its main characters over in a way rather cruel to her fans. It's a symbol of that "everything and kitchen sink" mentality, for better and worse.
You can argue that Nisekoi has consequently influenced a number of manga to try and actively avoid a lot of its pitfalls. If you look at WNL, the series closest to Nisekoi in style and tone, it's faster and more tightly paced, has a story not built on an increasingly nonsensical mystery, and has safely avoided random add-ons for the hell of it narratively. It's not a masterpiece, but I think it speaks to the influence and legacy Nisekoi has had that its successor is more or less averting many of its failings.