Nisekoi Volume 2 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rated “T” for “Teen”

Raku Ichijo and Chitoge Kirisaki are in a sham relationship.  Ichijo’s father leads the yakuza syndicate, Shuei-Gumi.  Kirisaki was also born into a yakuza family, and her father leads the Beehive gang.  To stop a gang war, their fathers force Ichijo and Kirisaki to date, although they cannot stand each other.  In fact, Ichijo is searching for his childhood sweetheart.  He wears a pendant lock around his neck as a memento of the promise he made to a mystery girl 10 years ago.

As Nisekoi: False Love, Vol. 2 (subtitled Zawsze in Love – Chapters 8 to 16) opens, Ichijo and Kirisaki continue to struggle through their false romance.  His real love is Kosaki Onodera, and he is sure that she is the girl to whom he made a promise of marriage a decade earlier.  Onodera’s best gal pal, Ruri Miyamoto, is determined to get Ichijo and Onodera together, and begins a series of schemes meant to do just that.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Nisekoi: False Love manga is a yakuza comedy without explicit violence.  After all, this shonen manga is a comic meant for teen readers, especially teen boys.  There is plenty of slapstick violence – a comic punch, lighthearted gunplay, and threats against life and limb, but it is all meant to be funny.

Nisekoi: False Love Volume 2 surprised me as much as Vol. 1 did.  I like this manga.  The extents to which the leads must go to protect the truth about their false love consistently yield comedy go.  I don’t know how long creator Naoshi Komi can do it, but, for now, Nisekoi: False Love is truly good.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Readers looking for romance in a shonen vein will want to try Nisekoi: False Love.