There’s never enough SHAFT to share with the world. As my favorite studio to date, regardless of the series they pick to animate, it always gives me something to enjoy in some way. While they’ve created some of the greatest anime to date in recent years, we find ourselves a tad baffled by their decision to animate Nisekoi.
Nisekoi has a pretty easy to predict, and, well, narrow perspective as a series. As a comedic school life series whose action is kind of lacking as a JUMP title, I personally find it enjoyable as its own thing. As a manga, though, it gets dull after a while since the fun of the series becomes overplayed, generic, and boring. In my personally opinion comedic school life series are much better animated. Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, Nichijou, School Rumble, Ouran High School Host Club, and so many others can attest this as well.
There is nothing in terms of animation I can complain about when it comes to SHAFT, certainly not in their recent shows. The music was very fitting and lighthearted, as I would expect from a show like Nisekoi. Even though the show has a projected ended, it’s still nice to see how the series can pan out with SHAFT’s quirky take on it. While I may be praising SHAFT a lot, it’s really because for shows like Nisekoi that aren’t as action based and can appear to drag on for a while, SHAFT can still make them interesting and fun to watch.
The voice acting was great, and fit their characters well. I really liked how the color of the show really makes the show pop out a bit, and since SHAFT is a bit artsy, it makes me enjoy the scenery of Nisekoi more. Since there’s not much that Nisekoi can deliver in terms of originality besides the character interactions and backgrounds, the visual appeal and fitting music makes up for it, at least for now.
Now that is not to say this episode was perfect either. There were some things that are easily noticed and potentially may annoy you if you’re not used to SHAFT. Unlike most of their other shows, their signature head tilts are highly increased (at least in the first episode; they may decrease it later on). I felt like it took away from the episode a bit to see these motions happening all the time, but others might not even notice. There are also a couple of repetitive scenes I’m already going to expect to happen in later episodes. The opening and ending were great and fit the atmosphere of the show, so no complaints there. Though, seeing as I do read the manga, we’re going to be feeling a lot of the same arguments and reactions, so hopefully SHAFT will shake it up a bit if it does happen. While it was an excellent episode, it was also very predictable considering it is a school life series and will follow the classic storyline of almost every other school life before it. The only difference Nisekoi has compared to other series is that it a romance focused shounen series, and it doesn’t actually focus on ecchi so much.
Overall, Nisekoi was a highly enjoyable manga and I believe SHAFT’s take will make me enjoy this series even more.
