TITLE: Nisekoi: False Love Vol. 25
YEAR: January 2018 (US Release)
COMPANY: Viz Media/Shonen Jump Manga
STORY AND ART BY: Naoshi Komi
The final volume of “Nisekoi: False Love” is here and who will Raku choose as the girl he truly loves, Onodera Kosaki or Chitoge Kirisaki? And the revelation of who’s name is in the locket that Raku has been trying to open all this time is finally revealed!
All this and more in Naoshi Komi’s in the grand finale, “Nisekoi: False Love” vol. 25!
What is “Nisekoi: False Love”?
Naoshi Komi’s manga work is well-known for readers of Shonen Jump. From “Koi no Kami-sama”, “Williams” and “Double Arts”, Komi’s manga “Nisekoi” (False Love) was created as a one shot for Jump NEXT! in 2011 but then receiving the go-ahead as a weekly manga serialized in “Weekly Shonen Jump”.
“Nisekoi” revolves around high school Raku Ichijou. When Ichijou was a kid, he met a girl and he kept a lock, she kept the key and promised each other to get married if they one day find each other.
Since then, Ichijou has kept his promise and has worn the lock around his neck and has been hoping to meet her again.
But Ichijou’s life is a little complicated. While a good-natured individual, unfortunately for him, he is the son of the leader of the Shuei-gumi yakuza syndicate. He has no interested in become part of the yakuza but everyone expects him to be the next one to lead the syndicate in the future.
Meanwhile, while going to school, he sees a foreign girl jumping from a wall and landing on him. He loses the lock on his neck and is very upset of what had transpired. Next thing you know in class, that same girl becomes a new student in his class.
Chitoge Kirisaki just moved from the U.S. to Japan and since her mom is Japanese and her dad is America, she is fluent in both Japanese and English. And suffice to say, when both Ichijou and Kirisaki see each other, they start yelling at each other and she nails him with a hit after he calls her “monkey girl”. People see how tough she is but to make them get along, his teacher puts Ichijou in charge of showing her around school.
He tries his best but the two are like oil and water, they just don’t get along. For the next week of trying to assist her, the two end up arguing and getting in each other’s faces.
If anything, Ichijou focus is more on finding the lock that was lost when Kirisaki landed on him. And he wonders if Kosaki Onodera, the popular girl in school and a person who has treated him with nothing but kindness is the girl that he made the promise with. He hopes it is her.
But just when Ichijou is about to give up, Onodera pleads with him to keep his promise and Ichijou is reminded that a promise is a promise and he intends to keep it. But wants to ask Onodera if there is any chance she may be the girl he made the promise too.
What he doesn’t know is that Onodera does have a key and she has always liked Ichijou but doesn’t have the guts to tell him.
But as Ichijou wonders if Onodera is the girl he made a promise too and excited for the possibility that it might be, when he gets home, his father talks to him about something important.
The problem is that the Shuei-gumi and another rival yakuza gang are in the brink of all-out war that would damage both yakuza gangs, he and the other leader have come up with the plan. Ichijou must pretend to be dating the daughter of the leader of the opposing yakuza gang.
Ichijou doesn’t want to get involved and his father told him that he must forget dating any other girl and focus liking this girl they set him up with.
When the two are introduces, Ichijou is shocked that the girl is Chitoge Kirisaki. And for both of them, they must promise to be boyfriend and girlfriend for three whole years and be convincing to both yakuza gangs that they are truly in love.
Both don’t want to be involved with each other but they have no choice. But now they must find a way to co-exist with each other as both yakuza gangs are suspicious of their relationship especially Kirisaki’s guardian, Claude.
Meanwhile, Ichijou still wants to ask Onodera if she is the girl with the key and Onodera is about to let him know that she is. But before they can, the whole school are told that both Ichijo and Kirasaki are boyfriend and girlfriend.
And now it has made things tough for both Ichijou and Kirisaki, but can they keep this charade of being in love with each other, especially if they despite one another?
And since then, there are a few other complications as not only Chitoge and Onodera have fallen for Raku, but also many other ladies have a crush on him!
For volume 25, it all comes down to Onodera Kosaki or Chitoge Kirisaki. Raku finally confesses his love and what is inside his locket and who has the key is all revealed in this final volume!
With the past few volumes of Naoshi Komi’s “Nisekoi: False Love”, the manga showed how Raku would turn down each of the girls that liked him or how they would come to accept that he is in love with someone else.
With this final volume, we will find out who Raku will decide of where his heart belongs. Will it be Kosaki Onodera, the girl that Raku has loved since childhood? Or will it be Chitoge Kirisaki, the girl that he was forced to have a fake relationship with (because of their parents trying to prevent a gang war) and eventually developed feelings towards?
It’s wasn’t an easy decision, but Raku has listened to his heart and he knows who he truly loves. Meanwhile, Chitoge has gone missing and stopped attending school. What is going on?
And Raku finally gets the key that will open his locket and reveal who the person was that he loved as a child.
So, all is revealed and we also get a glimpse into the future of each of these characters as adults.
25 volumes in through the series, I really enjoy this manga series because it’s fresh take on the young promise made by youngsters to marry each other and it also has that similarity to “Ranma 1/2” of two people arranged by their parents to be together, although not to be married but to have this fake romance for three years. And then having multiple young ladies vying for his attention. But now the storyline has come to a close and Raku decided on who his heart belongs to…Chitoge or Onodera?
I know when the final volume was released in Japan, there were a few people who didn’t take the finale all to well. But it’s understandable if you were pulling for a certain character all this time and she wasn’t picked.
The artwork by Naoshi Komi is well-drawn, the series is full of humor and for the most part quite delightful in capturing their emotions on each page. But Naoshi Komi’s manga series has been nothing but delightful and very entertaining!
Vol. 25 of “Nisekoi: False Love” is the grand finale of the series and the long awaited revelation of what is inside the locket is revealed and which girl Raku will choose is decided. A fitting conclusion and if you invested your time in reading this manga series for so long, vol. 25 is definitely worth reading!