When you talk about a genre as trashy as the harem genre, it's hard to find anything to necessarily praise about it since it is essentially just pandering to the greatest common denominator of people, yet Nisekoi is able to stand out. As someone who has unfortunately read a whole lot more harem manga than I would have liked, there are a few things that I always find lacking in any harem: character development and plot, both of which Nisekoi has a decent amount of. Now I know Nisekoi gets a lot of trash for being a filler filled, bad ending choosing harem bait, but let me try to explain why it's actually not that bad and may even be exceptional in the harem genre.

The setup for this story is a bit complicated: 10 years ago, the MC made a promise with a girl to marry her in the future, and to keep that promise, he has a lock and the girl has a key. Now there are multiple keys throughout the story, which comes into play for the overarching plot and finale, but that's not the most important part. The inciting incident is when the MC, the son of the yakuza, has to pretend to date Chitoge, the daughter of gangsters, in order to prevent all out war. However, he already likes one of his classmates, so that's kind of awkward. This setup is fairly standard in harem manga, and as the story progresses, more and more girls are added to the circle. So then if the plot is both convoluted but also standard at the same time, why is Nisekoi good? That's because with both of these plots developing, there is a sense of progression to the story. We aren't constantly stuck with the feeling of, "Where is this going to go? Is there an end point other than when he chooses a girl at some time?" The story will end when they find out the correct girl with the key, when they don't need to pretend to date anymore, and when he chooses a girl to be with. The constant plot keeps the story going.

That's not all that Nisekoi has to offer though. The more important part is its emphasis on characters. Throughout the story there are pretty much 6 girls in the harem, with a guy and girl as supporting characters. Each one of them has their own motivations and desires, some of which fall outside just getting the guy to get the guy. Some of it is motivated by professional or family matters. This is important because it makes the characters stand out from each other. By giving them individual motivations it makes Nisekoi feel like more of an actual story rather than just harem trash. The way the author decides to show these different motivations is also a lot better than most harems. Each character is devoted a couple of chapters in a row to develop their own stories and history, as well as to build up chemistry with the MC. This works far better than scattering one off stories with no real weight to them throughout the run time of a manga. This allows readers to become more invested in the characters for a longer amount of time. No character simply stands still either: they all grow into more mature people from when they first started out. This means that even if your favorite character isn't chosen, you can still enjoy the series.

It also helps if the character's tropes fit your taste of course, which will always be a hit or miss for most harems.

Another thing that sets Nisekoi apart from a majority of harem manga is that it doesn't rely on ecchi content for its story. Most of its appeal is actual based in comedy and chemistry build up between characters rather than showing off half naked women or unintentional groping every other chapter. In that way, it feels a whole lot more wholesome than most harem.

All in all, Nisekoi does so much more than a traditional harem manga to the point where it stands far above it's contemporaries. Its plot and character driven story feel so refreshing to read in a landscape full of unbelievably bad content, and deserves it's place among the best harem manga, even if that's not the most amazing distinction you could get.