Nisekoi - Episode 20 (Completed)

Kosaki's ankle injury has put the class performance of Remoe and Juliet in peril - desperate times call for desperate measures, and having managed to uneasily rebuild bridges with Kirisaki it's she who takes on the leading role as Juliet herself.

Things start swimmingly too - despite having not learned the script, Chitoge is rolling off lines like a pro... for about thirty seconds, anyway.  A request for "Romeo's" help in picking up these forgotten lines soon turns into an unintentional comedy skit as the two end up quarreling on-stage - much to the delight of the audience - and this reaction leads to Maiko turning the whole production into a harem romantic comedy where every girl is chasing after Romeo (sounds familiar...), leaving the cast to ad lib their lines.  By the end of it all Claude is trying to stab Raku and the whole set comes toppling down to make for a spectacular finale before Romeo and Juliet finally manage to deliver some iconic lines to close things off.

In the aftermath of all of this, Kirisaki is one decidedly happy girl having come to terms with her feelings and reconciled things with Ichijou, but the man himself still feels the need to try and cheer up Onodera (albeit after a nudge from Ruri) given how much her place as Juliet had meant to her, going to some lengths to allow her to at least partially fulfill her dream.  And so they all lived happily ever after, or something...

Having talked about how predictable much of Nisekoi has been, it was a lot of fun to see it finishing things off by tearing up the script and having some fun with its school play - it was utterly silly but it reveled in the fact and delivered some great moments out of the back of it.  There was also something rather touching about Chitoge's story across these final episodes as she got in touch with her feelings, even if it did ensure those cheering on Onodera were left to take a back seat.  Still, this was an entertaining end to a hugely entertaining series - incredibly unoriginal but still an example of hitting all of the typical notes of a harem romantic comedy and playing every one of them just right with some aplomb.  We all sometimes complain about the lack of original and unique story ideas in certain genres of anime, but Nisekoi has delivered a handy reminder that sometimes originality can be over-rated, and sticking with a good, old-fashioned formula that works is the way to go.