引用：amazon.com
Nisekoi is a romantic comedy manga that was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2011 to 2016.
The original author is Naoshi Furumi, and the comic has a total of 25 volumes. It has been made into an anime twice, and even into a live-action movie starring Kento Nakajima and Ayami Nakajo.
In spite of its popularity, when the last episode was over, there was an outpouring of criticism, and the Internet was ablaze with flames.
In this article, I would like to introduce the reasons for the criticism about the final episode that caused such a flare-up.
Please note that there are spoilers for the contents of the final volume.
Overview of Nisekoi
Nisekoi is a popular school-based romantic comedy manga that was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump.
Ichijo Raku, a high school boy born as the second generation of a yakuza, and Kirisaki Chitoge, the daughter of a gangster who is in conflict with him, meet. In order to stop the war between the yakuza and the gang, they decide to act as phony lovers.
However, the protagonist, Raku Ichijo, has had feelings for his classmate, Kosaki Onodera, since he was a little boy and also has a girl he promised to marry 10 years ago. Raku can’t remember the girl he promised, but he keeps the lock of the pendant as a memento.
Not only one girl has a key, but also Chisaki Kirisaki, Kosaki Onodera, Marika Tachibana, and Sister Hane have keys as well, and Raku Ichijo’s harem school life continues as he searches for the promised girl who fits the lock.
Also, in the last episode, it will be revealed who the promised girl is.
引用：hatena.com
Last scene
At that time, Raku was playing with Chitose, Onodera, Marika and others at Chitose’s mansion. They were having so much fun that they lost track of time, and before they realized it, it was time to go home. So, as we parted, I prepared a pendant and a key as a sign that we would meet again in the future.
It was easy to decide who would hold the key of fate.
From the conversation, the vague memories were revealed and I remembered who the promised child was.
That person was Onodera. In other words, Raku had always been in love with Onodera.
Chitoge thought that he and Onodera would get together, but when he found out that Onodera also liked Raku, he disappeared alone. Everyone was worried and searched for her, but they couldn’t find her. Then, Chitoge’s mother called and found out that Chitoge was at Amakoma Highland.
Raku heads to Amakoma Highland to look for Chitoge.
Meanwhile, Marika, who is in the hospital in the U.S., makes a move and confesses her feelings to Raku, but Raku clearly rejects her confession saying, “I’m glad to be your friend. But Raku clearly rejects her confession.
Later, when Raku and Onodera are alone, Onodera realizes in his gut that Raku likes Chitoge, and he makes a confession that he has never made before. Raku takes Onodera’s confession seriously and shakes his head with tears in his eyes.
They reached the top of Amakoma Plateau and finally met Chitoge. Chitoge had been running away without confessing his feelings to Raku, so he confessed his feelings to Raku so that he would not have any regrets. Then Raku tells her about how he rejected Onodera and about his memories of the person he loves. Finally, their misunderstanding is cleared up.
The two of them get together.
A few years later, Raku is a civil servant and a second-generation yakuza, and Chitoge is a world-famous fashion designer. After a long time, they meet again at Amakoma Highlands and kiss, and the Nisekoi story is complete.
Comment on the final episode of Nisekoi
In Nisekoi, there were many enthusiastic fans of Onodera and many people who wanted Onodera’s end. Therefore, there are many critics who are not satisfied with the ending where he ends up with Chitoge.
There was a lot of criticism about the ending of the last episode, and Nisekoi’s reputation became quite low.
In fact, there were other reasons for the Nisekoi criticism than just the ending with Chitoge.
In my opinion, there are three main reasons for the criticism.
・I think there are three main reasons for the criticism.
・The pendant and key from 10 years ago are buried in the ground, overwriting the promise made to Chitoge and Raku.
・Onodera’s expression is unrecognizable in the last episode
From here, I would like to look back on each of them.
引用：entertainment-topics.jp
Onodera’s courageous confession gets in the way
The first reason for criticizing Nisekoi is that Onodera’s confession was repeatedly interrupted.
Originally, Raku liked Onodera even before he fell in love with Chitoge. Like Raku, Onodera had been in love with Raku since middle school, or even since they met ten years ago when he fell in love for the first time. In other words, Onodera and Raku have had feelings for each other for the past 10 years.
Therefore, if either of them had confessed early on, Raku would not have gone out with Chitoge, nor would he have fallen in love with her. In such a situation, Onodera gathered up his courage and tried to confess to Raku many times, but each time he came up empty and his confession failed.
From this moment on, we can sense the author’s will that there is no ending that will bring Onodera and Raku together.
Some examples of Onodera’s attempts to confess are.
・When Onodera tries to confess to Raku on campus, he is interrupted by a baseball breaking the window.
・When Onodera tried to confess to Raku on the beach, Raku was asleep and did not hear him.
In this way, every time Onodera summoned up the courage to confess to Raku, he was interrupted.
And in the last scene where Onodera was able to confess without anyone getting in the way, he was rejected because Raku had already made up his mind about his future with Chitoge. In other words, Onodera and Raku were never meant to be together from the beginning.
The title of the story, “Nisekoi,” also refers to the ending of a fake love that turns into a real love, so we can consider that Onodera was a supporting character. As a result, Onodera Kosaki became a tragic heroine.
This kind of response to Onodera may have been one of the reasons for the criticism of Nisekoi.
引用：meigenkakugen.net
The pendant and key from ten years ago are buried, overwriting the promise between Raku and Chitoge
The second reason for criticizing Nisekoi is that the pendant and key are buried and the promise is overwritten.
Not only is Raku dumped at Amakoma Kogen, the place of their memories 10 years ago, but their pendant and key are buried as a parting gift. Then, Raku and Chitoge renew the pendant and propose to Chitoge.
Also, the “Zakusha in Love” that Onodera and Raku used in their promise 10 years ago was used in his proposal to Chitoge, which overwrote his memory of the past.
Onodera was criticized for being too cruel that the promise he made 10 years ago was betrayed and the words he used in the promise were used by someone else.
引用：amazon.com
I can’t make out Onodera’s expression
The third criticism of Nisekoi is that we don’t get to see Onodera’s face in the last episode.
Onodera was the two main heroines of Nisekoi, but her face is not shown in the final episode. While all the other major characters such as Maiko, Ruri, Kyoko-sensei, Sister Hane, Marika, and Seishirou have their faces shown, Onodera is the only one whose face is not drawn.
A few years later, Onodera had become a pastry chef and was making Raku and Chitoge’s wedding cake. It would be cruel for Onodera to make Raku and Chitoge’s cake, since they were promised children and supposedly had feelings for each other.
We don’t know what kind of expression Onodera has on his face when he is making the wedding cake because we don’t see his face.
The fact that we don’t get to see the facial expressions of Onodera, one of the two main heroines, in the last episode may have been one of the reasons for the criticism.
Summary
I have introduced the reasons for criticism of the final episode of Nisekoi.
The promised girl in Nisekoi was Onodera, but she ends up with Chitoge and the story is complete.
There was a lot of criticism about the final episode of Nisekoi, but on the flip side, I think it was because there was so much love for the characters.
Even if she had ended up with Onodera, the fans of Chitoge would not have been able to keep quiet and it would have turned out to be a flame war.
I think that’s why each and every character in Nisekoi had their own charm.
For this reason, Nisekoi is a popular school romantic comedy that has been loved by many people.
