Ah, the story. This element might have singlehandedly brought this anime down. The 2nd season of Nisekoi has the "same" plot as the 1st. A Yakuza head's son by the name of Ichijo Raku has a pendant, and he doesn't know who has the key to opening it. The one with the key is his "true lover." Throughout the story we see a bunch of girls join his harem with different keys.
The first season at least had SOME plot progression, whereas in the 2nd season you might as well watch paint dry on a wall. In the 2nd season, its not about the pendant anymore, nor is it about him developing better relationships. Now, although you cannot blame the studio for merely just following the manga, the story is now focused on Onodera's sister who goes by the name of Haru. This ratchet little ignorant pitbull of a character gets saved by Raku from a bunch of gangbangers and refuses to believe that it was Raku who saved her. The only reason why she hates Raku is based off of the rumors she heard from others that described Raku as a perverted monster of a person.
Okay, premise is "alright," its safe for the audience to hope that we can see some character development within Raku and Haru right? Wrong. Not only does Haru get introduced in the 7th episode, which is more than halfway throughout the 2nd season, we get nothing before it! If you were to start at episode 7 in the 2nd season, you'd miss nothing. The episodes before are merely fillers. Even after Haru joins the harem, they are so focused on trying to push her to be the Main Focus that we get next to no character development between Raku and anyone else. It is now episode 11/12 and I have yet witnessed ANY genuine character development in the anime series except for the episodes that forced Raku and Haru together as the main dish, with a little spice of Onodera.
The Art is AMAZING. Only reason I made it this far was because of the art. It is merely eye candy, SHAFT always does a fantastic job with the artwork.
Sound is great! However nothing too special. I'd say its more on the better side because of how fitting the sound is with everything thats going on.
The characters? Oh right! This show was a harem right? Right right, we had characters other than Raku and Haru and Onodera.
Raku: The same thickheaded character as before. His blatant ignorance to everyone's feelings toward him makes one want to rip their hair out, but he cant be hated as a character. He is lovable and charming to the max when he gets screentime.
Haru: Eh, I see plethoras of comments talking about how shes the new ship with Raku but I don't like it. Her choices of refusing to believe that Raku is a genuinely good person is stressful to the audience.
Onodera: Onodera is more or less the same as the first season. We see more character development with her and Raku and thats good to see because they are the #1 ship.
Literally every other girl in the harem: They are now irrelevant and are on the anime purely for the comedic reliefs.
I wouldn't be surprised if the series gets dropped and a 3rd season never comes because I don't know what the mangaka, nor the studio is doing with this series. This show with its comedic scenes had so much potential to be a great comedic harem anime. Now however, the dream is lost. A 5/10 overall seems just about right, although theres this voice in the back of my head that is telling me that I am being too lenient. Lets hope the plot gets somewhere in the future. Cheers!
