Nisekoi

I thought Rito loved Lala (I think that was her name, you know the space princess girl)?

Yes, that's her name. And yes, he does, but not until the end of the original To Love-Ru.

The end of the final chapter of the original To Love-Ru is basically:

Rito: "Sorry, Lala, I've grown to actually love you now, but I've loved Haruna since long before we met."
Lala: "That's great! Go confess to Haruna so we can both marry you! It'll be fine, since marrying me will make you king of the universe."
[One of Lala's inventions accidentally makes Rito botch the confession, the end.]

(At this point, Lala is well aware that both Rito and Haruna like each other, but would prefer that they're the ones to say it to each other.)

edited 4th May '15 5:09:49 AM by burnpsy

Much like the childhood promise in Nisekoi, To Love-Ru is effectively over once Rito and Haruna resolve their case of Cannot Spit It Out, since Rito's only reason for resisting the harem plan disappears.

Nah, the series could still go on, since there's a lot you can do with the alien stuff, like why should the galactic establishment ever accept Rito beyond 'because the Emperor said so', preparing him to be an actual ruler someday (because let's be honest, do you think the guy makes for any halfway decent authority figure?), you name it...

The series has a rich background that shouldn't be limited to 'Rito falls on crotches and can't confess to Haruna'.

To be fair, if you're expecting anything more from Onodera, that means you're reading Nisekoi for the plot and you probably deserve whatever you get as a result.

Well, it's not like one can follow the manga for the art (which is functional and competent, but not a main spectacular or outstanding hook. Although the anime improves on the visuals to a point where I can buy someone watching *that* just for the eye candy, and I don't mean the sexualized kind either), and the humor can be quite hit and miss. So that leaves... the Bile Fascination?

It's that last option for me, if you're doing surveys.

Dunno, for the little I've read (like, the first 2 chapters) it seemed to have a pretty good start. If it declined, maybe people just continue to read it to see the end (I know I was like that with Naruto. And it lasted more than 100 chapters.)

The problem with Nisekoi isn't that its declined...its stagnated.

As harems do. Very few can evolve without being under threat of getting canceled, and it rarely helps them survive.

Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.

Why would evolution be dangerous? At worst if the plot or the relationships move forward and are resolved the author can… I don't know… end the series properly?

And then the author would be short a job. The manga industry is filled with many, many young people of varying talent, experience and luck, and there's only so many pages in the magazines. Getting one of your series published is quite the battle, and I can see why the authors would take a steady paycheck over their artistic integrity.

For as far as "artistic integrity" applies to series like Nisekoi, of course.

edited 4th May '15 2:13:50 PM by Kayeka

Ugh… I didn't consider that aspect. —'.`— It can be quite a Moroton's fork when you see it that way… either you end your series not too late, but then you don't know when you'll be serialized next, or you drag it on but take the risk of boring the readers… it must be even worse in the Jump.

Now a series like Jitsu wa manages to still go strong even though its main romantic arc was resolved quite a while ago and it doesn't even have much of a plot (well, there is some plot showing its nose lately… kind of…)

If you're gonna do filler chapters, using them for Character Development and stuff can't hurt I guess. But then we go back to the problem of "not developping too much" that Daremo mentioned… huh… yeah, doing a harem is tough. =[

edited 4th May '15 2:33:19 PM by Lyendith

I disagree, Nisekoi's art in general is great for what it is. It's at least two steps above merely 'functional'. You're right that it's not the main draw, but the general style is great for slice-of-life stuff. If I were to pretend Nisekoi was that genre instead of a harem comedy, it'd be much more enjoyable than it normally is.

Since I've been kind of a third party about this series, I can imagine people follow it for the same reason why everyone follows harems.

They like seeing cute girls doing cute things, plot be damned. Its honestly why so many LN harems get published an animated.

Unfortunately, I need at least to see someone get punched in the face(and not in the comedic way) for me to give a damn. I am the worst type of mayun.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Thing is, looking for a harem story and asking for a plot is like...looking for a Michael Bay film and asking for a plot.

But I digress, harems aren't really so much about stories and characters as much as they are about situations. That's all they're about, certain types of characters in certain types of situation and Hilarity Ensues.

Sometimes with a gimmick.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

I can't believe my twelve deredere imoutos are all secretly Satan.

LOL I remember that being the punch line in one of Nozaki-kun's pages.

But yeah, the thing with harems is that once the status quo is broken, it's pretty much asking for a conclusion — and some artists won't risk that. Landing another serialization, especially in a gig like WSJ, is hard.

I've never been able to get that much into harems because of that. If I'm going to watch a bunch of characters do nothing and just do gags then I' rather just watch a twelve episode anime of the such rather than a hundred chapter manga that pretends to have a plot.

Now this might be my inner mayun talking, but at least with battle shounen it provides a variety of abilities, battles and worlds.

edited 4th May '15 5:07:53 PM by Archivist10

My man.

But yea, if its a short 12-Episode Anime then I don't mind it that much because its short and ends as quickly as it comes. Long Runner harems are the worst thing to me when they don't have ongoing story arc to distract me from the harem antics. Its like a never train of cliched situations and archetypes.

With battle shonen, you at least see different abilities shown off and new techniques are developed.

That said, I'm probably gonna start this series against my better judgement once the third season of High School DXD is over. It wouldn't be the first time I've followed a series with no ending in sight.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

I feel that if you go into harems expecting progression, you're looking at the wrong place.

I made this comparison before, but I always saw harems as those weekday sitcoms that everyone watched just for fun and laughs, not really expecting plot.

It's like asking for Friends to resolve relationships. That's not the point.

I'm not saying the series is GREAT or anything, or even saying that people's criticism are wrong. I'm just saying that expecting anything but gags is misguided.

Oh I know that haha, I just like to seeing different things happen after a while.

And like I said, we all just watch it to see cute girls act cute. And probably see the male lead grow a pair.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Which is what I was getting at.

Though of course there are lots of other reasons to dislike Onodera than just because her relationship does not, will not and cannot truly advance.

You assholes got me arguing who's best girl with a friend of mine, I hope you guys are happy. I'm becoming what I hate.....

Chitoge and Tsugmu btw.

A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.

Fine choices, brother. Welcome to the Chitoge/Tsugumi Alliance.