Saturday 3 May 2014

Nisekoi - Episode 17

You can't have an anime series without a festival of some kind (seriously, it's a law or something), so lo and behold it's festival time for this week's Nisekoi - an event which sees Raku working hard given that his family "acquaintances" run most of the stalls there.

Although Ichijou plans to ditch work for play later on, his schedule is inadvertently moved up markedly when he unexpectedly bumps into Chitoge, leading to everyone insisting that he go off to have fun with his girlfriend.  It's arguably Kirisaki who has more fun as a result of this, as once she learns that Raku is something of a "free pass" for the event given his connections she insists that she go on a date around the festival with him to make full use of this walking meal and game ticket.  Little do the two of them realise that eyes are watching them intently... the eyes of Marie and Kosaki, of course.


Amidst all of this frivolity, Ichijou does have one thing that he really wants to get out of the festival, that being the purchase of a much-vaunted love charm on sale there.  In the process of bagging this sought after piece of merchandise Chitoge is lost in the crowds, only to be replaced by Onodera - perhaps the charm actually works after all?  If it is the charm that worked its magic, its effects may be short-lived, as a passing cat snatches it away from its owner to take Raku on a journey of misunderstandings and wardrobe malfunctions as he pursues the thief and reclaims his precious memento.

We all know the drill by now - Nisekoi is all kinds of stupid (and increasingly so) in terms of its dumb, cliched and arguably lazy story-telling... if we can even call this week's episode a story rather than a series of comic skits.  Yet, once again, this week's episode was also ridiculously fun despite these limitations thanks to its great use of the show's cast and personalities to its comedic ends, providing plenty of laughs and no shortage of smiles as it went about its daft business.  No matter what my critical brain tells me, I just can't fall out of love with this show, and that very same part of me wants it to never end - these girls can chase Ichijou around in circles eternally if they like and it would be fine by me.

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