Nisekoi - Episode 10

Continuing with their school trip, and following on from last week's bathhouse incident, it's time for Nisekoi to continue its run of highly original ideas with... a test of courage!

While Raku's heart is pounding the next time he sees Chitoge the morning after the night before, Kirisaki herself seems to be as cool as a cucumber - or rather, she's simply better at hiding her nerves.  Regardless, thoughts soon turn to the day's big event, a test of courage in the nearby woods where all of the students will be paired together as boy and girl via a lottery.  It's no secret who Ichijou and Onodera want to be paired with, but will fate conspire to bring them together?

As it happens, fate doesn't need to conspire as Ruri is more than capable of taking on that role, dropping a massive hint to Raku as to what number of should be looking out for.  Lo and behold, that's exactly the number of picks, opening the door to a tense and nervous bout of hand-holding as the event begins.  Or at least, it would if this wasn't the point where Kirisaki goes missing - having volunteered herself to take the place of a sickly "ghost" in spite of her hatred of the dark, she's left in the middle of the dark woods without a working torch, which isn't exactly her idea of a good time.  Knowing her fears, Raku races to the rescue - an event which seems more than a little reminiscent of incidents in Kirisaki's past.

It's so easy to harp on about how predictable and cliched everything that Nisekoi does is, but in a way this only makes me more amazed at how it continues to be successful at what it does - this was another really fun episode that didn't hold any surprises but entertained with every scene in spite of it.  Helped along by its visuals, I continue to look forward to Nisekoi each week, as a series that perhaps proves that sometimes the old ideas are the best.