Nisekoi: OVA

Also regarded as OVA 4, this was released way back on January of 2016, after the end of Nisekoi 2nd season. I didn`t hear about this OVA when it first came out, and never got to watch it. I just recently stumbled upon it, read the name, and thought to myself 'Yeah, I got some free time, lets watch it.' Nisekoi is an anime which I liked, just barely, and whose manga and its ending which I utterly despised. But the OVAs of popular romance animes tend to be at the very least entertaining. And the name and plot summary seem like it could be ... fun. Honeymoon and magic girls, sure why not. How bad can they mess it up? Pretty bad it seems.

This OVA is pure Nisekoi, with all its flaws and problems that I have with it. Its story is repetitive, shallow, and lacks any meaning, reason, or pay-off. I was turned off and bored out of my mind.

STORY AND WRITING:
The anime is divided into two separate stories. One is a dream honeymoon sequence, while the second is an adventure of magical girl story. And both SUCK in terms of Script and Writing.
The honeymoon part is essentially a type of dream sequences in which Raku dreams of spending his marriage anniversary with Onodera, Tachibana, Tsugumi and Chitoge, one at a time. These dreams sequences are too short, lasting from 2 to 3 minutes each, and give you no joy or satisfaction at all. They all contain noting more than some greeting, a lit bit of praising, the overused "Dinner, bath, or me” phrase, TOGECHI (yeah, that happened) and a lot of blushing, chinch, and bad comedy. This makes the entire half of the OVA feel empty and uninteresting, short and pointless. This was a great opportunity to show some meaningful romance and payoff, and yet the episode completely butchered it and fell flat on its face.
The magical adventure part picks up from the first half of episode 8 of the 2nd season (Which took me years to force out of my mid, THANKS A LOT OVA!). In this part, the magical girls (Onodera, Tachibana and Chitoge) go on a mission to stop Dr. Maiko from doing, something. Led by the great sage Rurin and the Magical princess (*sign* I really feel like I`m shortening my lifespan by writing this). It`s what will happen if Nisekoi and several magical girls shows from the 90s had a baby. Yeah, only awful things can happen from that. This half is also lacking in any content. Its empty and has noting more than transformations, erotic scene, and yep you guessed it, bad comedy.
The script is dumb and the writing is poor. The stories are uninteresting or fun, but they are so lacking in any real thought or content. The characters are the same, and without even a hint of change. Nearly half of the OVA contain only the intro and outros, with the actual story feeling like an afterthought. The OVA will constantly jump from one scene another, without properly wrapping them up properly. Believe me when I say that I was looking forward to some variety and change in this show`s repetitive and boring story. And this type of story points gave it the opportunity to do so. Yet it still somehow was able to deliver the same type of story that I am sick and tired of. And it even went above and beyond the call of duty. Because the script and writing for this OVA are some of the worst this show has given (I was going to say the worse, but then I remembered that the Tachibana rescue arc happened in the manga).

ANIMATION AND MUSIC:
One thing which Nisekoi could lean on, is its animation and music. It`s animation and music are much better compared to many other romance animes. And when it uses them together, it creates many eyes warming and pleasant to watch scenes, which the anime is filled with.
The animations, character animations in particular, are fluent and colorful. This makes watching the shows regular banter and fake-outs bearable and sometimes entertaining. Season 2 improved those aspects, and it`s carried on to the OVA. The dream with Onodera and Tsugumi, had some good animation pieces. The magical girl section also had some, particularly their transformation one, which takes half of their part`s runtime. But the problem is that there is barely any of that here. Half of the OVA`s runtime is taken up by the 2 intro and 2 outros of the show. There is not enough run time and barely any worthwhile animation piece.
The situation is even worse in the music side of things. Nisekoi has quite a few charming OST pieces, that the OVA refuse to use. The intro and outro of the second season is in here, and it`s as average as I remember. The intro and outro for the magical girl part, somehow, I liked. And combined with the animation, it was pleasant to watch. I`ll raise it a point for that (now it’s all the way up to 4).
CONCLUTION AND VERDICT:
This OVA is extremely bland, boring and at times horrifying to look at. Just like the actual anime, this OVA is determined to frustrate you and waste your time, with no pay-off and satisfaction. It`s plot constantly jumps back and forth, it tries so hard to be comedic and fails miserably, the writing is extremely dumb. Even the animation and music are underutilized. What was suppose to be a chance to give fun and entertaining episode, turned out instead to be an extreme misfire and a very big DUD.
I wasn`t expecting much from this OVA, not even enjoyment. I just wanted to turn my mind off, spend my time, watch something dumb and fun, and don`t think much about anything. And yet here I am, writing this DAMN review because of how much shocked and frustrated I am. I didn`t even remember much about Nisekoi. And looking back at it, I always thought that I was I little TOO hard on Nisekoi. But now I know that it was because I was successful in removing it out of mind. And if this is how I remember the anime, no wonder I was hard on it. If you are like me and don`t like Nisekoi`s writing, then avoid this OVA at all cost.

Thank for reading the review. I wasn`t planning on writing this, but I still gave it my all. Hope you enjoyed it. Goodbye.

Nisekoi: OVA is an extra 26 minute episode that was released with a recent issue of the Nisekoi manga. Its plot is divided into two parts. Part 1, also known as, "Honeymoon", centers around the male main character, Raku, and the first four female characters of his harem: Chitoge, Kosaki, Marika, and Seishirou. In "Honeymoon", Raku and each of the four characters share a dream together in which the two of them become married.

Part 2 of the OVA is "Magical Pâtissière Kosaki-chan!" It essentially builds off from the first half of Episode 8 from the second season of Nisekoi ("Magical Pâtissière Kosaki!"). Here, Chitoge, ... Marika, and Kosaki use their magical powers once again to battle the evil leader Shuu.

If you're wondering if the scriptwriting improved, you will be sorely disappointed. It uses the same old antics, but even then, the humor is far drier than its parent story. On top of that, the plot jumps all over the place (and since when did Nisekoi ever have a straight plotline? Good question.). As for the characters themselves, they don't change much from the second season, which is to be expected since this is just a single OVA.

The art is done well and does not differ much from the second season. The shading is very consistent and the animation is fluid. If you pay close attention, you will also notice that Magical Pâtissière Kosaki-chan! pays tribute to some of Shaft's other shows, including Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica and Bakemonogatari. Aside from that, I do want to warn some of you that there is some minor fanservice. If you're not interested in stuff like that, I wouldn't recommend watching, but if you're okay with it, go right ahead.

The sound in general is decent, but it is certainly far, far from spectacular. Let's just say that it suffices for the context of this episode.

Overall, this OVA was pretty poorly done and lackluster. It had its moments, but it ultimately fell flat on its face due to the fact that it was so dry. If you decide to not watch this OVA, don't worry - you're not missing out.

(In case you're wondering, by the way, I gave this OVA overall a 3 because MAL says 3 is "poor." Which is what exactly this was.)