It is that time of the season again. Where that legendary anime studio that every anime fan and their mother knows the name of, Shaft, comes with another adaptation where they put their technical chops into. Regardless of whatever manga or light novel they want to adapt, especially when Akiyuki Shinbo is the head of the production, they always want to shift their spin to make it their unique vision. The results are either really good or very mediocre. Thankfully, Shaft’s recent show, Nisekoi, is one of those on their filmography that deserves to be on the firmer side of the spectrum.

There is nothing much to criticize or praise about Nisekoi’s plot, under the premise that there’s not much that you could regard as a significant plot. While it isn’t magnificent, the show doesn’t try to build it up as anything but silly and frivolous in its storytelling, which leads to its comedic writing. Even when Nisekoi decides to be serious and heartwarming, it still has an edge where it comes across as pandering silliness to it, too, to the point where it comes off almost like a parody. What does save the show from being terrible from this angle is the comedic writing being very spot-on and sharp in its dialogue and how the show presents it in its pacing. Shaft’s idea of comedy comes from Shinbo’s excellent direction, with his recognizable camera angles and his obsession with putting it directly at a character’s face whenever a significant comedic moment happens. The comedic timing has a great hook to it as well. The experimental editing makes the comedic timing and its pacing stand out very nicely.

The characters are directly in conjunction with the comedy, making Nisekoi appealing to watch. All are very diverse in their personalities, based on the archetype that they fill in for the plot. Right away, you can see how these roles seem very similar in tropes; the loud-mouthed tsundere, the long-time childhood friend who has a crush on the protagonist, the protagonist’s perverted friend, etc. Like I said before, the self-parodied way Shaft implements its comedy doesn’t necessarily put down the characters from having these cliched tropes, except for the perverted friend who doesn’t leave much of an impression. Most of them still have enormous charm and charisma in their personalities, making them worthwhile to laugh out loud. What makes a harem cast exceptionally well done is that you find all of the characters likable, and in that respect, you wouldn’t mind whoever the protagonist goes out with. I could consider Nisekoi, along with Sora no Otoshimono and Boku wa Tomodachi, one of the few that fulfills this aspect quite nicely.

To start picking out characters individually, our main protagonist, Ichijou, actually proves to be a likable character despite what many might point out how he never seems to bat an eye at how girls might see him. Chitoge, the beautiful blonde girl and our main heroine, is a ton of fun to see in many hilarious attempts at being entertaining from her charming personality and intellectual stature, despite being fragile underneath it. Our childhood friend character, Onodera, might seem like the most uninteresting out of the rest at first. Still, as she grows onto you, she is in no shortage of getting a lot of laughs and cuteness, thanks in part to Kana Hanazawa’s exceptional performance. The tomboy of this lovely harem is named Tsumugi, who has less screen time than most girls. This shouldn’t knock down the powerful aura she ushers in Nisekoi, that and I’m a sucker for tomboys. Finally, we have Marika, the haughty and conniving girl that promised marriage from a childhood oath to our protagonist. Even though I wouldn’t call her out as being dull and overly conniving in too many places, the writers all did a decent job of adding in some twists here and there to make her stand out to the crowd.

The quality of animation brought by Shaft in Nisekoi is absurd and almost incomprehensible in some places described from how they portray certain comedic situations. However, whether it goes through those hilarious situations, the animation still has that same spark of creativity that Shaft has been known for. Their ability to transcend all of the characters’ art designs into deformed designs creates a very visceral outlook on the insane amount of wacky humor in Nisekoi. On the technical side of things, there are no apparent signs of corners being cut with the budget that Shaft had to work around with. Characters flow fluidly enough to garner some recognition for the animators who worked hard on making the girls look adorable and funny in motion.

The audio department is not short of brilliance for Nisekoi. Besides, the music is nothing too special from the usual synthesizer instrumentation that you typically hear in most anime shows. Nisekoi gathers some of the best voice actors in the business that all work well together, adding to the characters’ distinctive voices. Kana Hanazawa has redeemed herself after a couple of underwhelming shows these past two seasons by playing the lovable Onodera. Her attempts at being embarrassed are no short of hilarity and cuteness from her brilliant talent. The recent starlet, Nao Touyama, plays the heroine Chitoge, and she is having a ball playing her in what can be considered her first tsundere role. She needs to play more in her future career. The last one in the main cast is Kouki Uchiyama, who plays harem protagonists that can be hit or miss. Still, he does a pretty nice job with Ichijou, giving him an excellent needed level of sympathy and style for his comedic performance.

Observing the overall basis for Nisekoi will leave people feeling that Nisekoi only adds more to the table of light romance shown in a harem on the drawing board. The strange truth is that it is, but the show doesn’t try to be what it’s not. It’s proud of being another generic harem show and proudly displays itself out of the rest. That might seem like a strange recommendation at first, but when you have the brilliant team behind Shaft that adds so many layers of depth to the show’s comedy and characters, there are very few things not to like about Nisekoi. Nisekoi is proof that you can guarantee Shaft's talent in creating a story that is seemingly done before but adds fresh twists to it to make it feel exciting enough to sit down and watch it from beginning to end.

Grade: A-