Synopsis

As the reluctant heir to a yakuza family, Raku Ichijou would be in an interesting position, if he wanted anything to do with it. All he really wants is a quiet high school life and maybe a chance with his crush, Kosaki Onodera. Instead, he gets Chitoge Kirisaki, a transfer student who knees him in the face on day one and turns out to be the daughter of a rival gang boss. To keep their families from going to war, Raku and Chitoge are forced into a fake relationship, and they genuinely cannot stand each other. On top of that, Raku's been carrying around a locked pendant since childhood, a memento from a promise he made to a girl he can barely remember, and suddenly more than one girl seems to know something about a key. Nisekoi is a 20-episode TV series from Shaft, and you can feel it in every frame. The studio brings their signature visual flair, quick cuts, bold typography, gorgeous backgrounds: to what is essentially a romantic comedy about a guy too dense to figure out his own love life. It's light, funny, and leans hard into its harem setup without pretending to be anything else. If you liked the bickering-couple energy of Toradora or the fake-relationship premise of Oreshura, this hits a similar sweet spot. The mystery of the pendant keeps things moving, but honestly, you're here for the character dynamics and Shaft being Shaft.