Nisekoi Volume 15 - Beauty Contest.
Nisekoi Volume 15 - Beauty Contest
This is my review of Volume 15 of Nisekoi. This volume sees Yui become more integrated into the harem along with second school festival for Raku and his friends.
Raku once again wakes up to Yui sleeping in his futon, only this time the situation is made worse when some Shuei-Gumi members enter to tell him that Chitoge has arrived for their date. After clearing up the misunderstanding, Raku and Chitoge go out on their date along with Yui, who has joined them as she there is something she needs to do. Yui sends Raku to get them all lattes (the nearest place that serves them is the other side of the station) which leaves her alone with Chitoge, so she asks about their relationship: how long they’ve been dating, who asked out who and is it tough to be fake dating someone. Chitoge answers all of the questions above, but realises her mistake with the last one, although Yui agrees to keep quiet about it. Yui then asks if Chitoge still loves Raku, which she denies, but realises who was her crush was when she was 5. Yui then reveals she is in love with a younger man, which is Raku and she is not going to let anyone beat her. She heads off and leaves Chitoge dumbfounded at the revelation.
Coincidentally, Kosaki and Ruri were passing by and overheard Yui confession and are equally surprised by it, but Kosaki resolves to still win Raku’s heart even when she has a strong new opponent.
Coincidentally, Kosaki and Ruri were passing by and overheard Yui confession and are equally surprised by it, but Kosaki resolves to still win Raku’s heart even when she has a strong new opponent.
The Shuei-Gumi gang have gone on holiday, leaving Raku and Yui at home alone, so Raku decides to use peace and quiet to study. Shu calls Raku to ask him to hang out, but is rejected. Shu then relays to Chitoge, Kosaki, Seishiro and Marika that Raku is all alone with Yui, so they all race over to prevent Yui making any moves on their man. With everyone here, Yui suggests that they have lunch and volunteers Raku to help her, which sees everyone volunteer in her stead, so she decides that Night will help her instead. Lunch is served, which is only dumplings of various flavours as that is only thing that Yui can make, after which Shu suggests the King game.
The rules for the King game works by having some numbered sticks and one marked stick, which are shuffled and drawn randomly. The person who draws the marked stick can order 2 people (including themselves) to do something, by referring to the numbers available or the King if they wish to refer to themselves. Those who are not the King, must keep their number secret until an order is given.
The first King is Chitoge, who doesn’t fully understand the game, orders number 2 to pat number 6’s head, so Raku pats Yui’s head - oops. Kosaki is the next King and to avoid a similar situation as Chitoge, orders number 5 to shake hands with the King, so Raku shakes her hand. Marika is next King and gets Honda to distract Raku, so she can see his number, which she does. Armed with this information, she orders number 1 and the King to kiss, which horrifies Seishiro as she is number 1 and eventually the order is ignored as Seishiro begins to cry. The chapter ends with Yui being revealed as the next King.
The rules for the King game works by having some numbered sticks and one marked stick, which are shuffled and drawn randomly. The person who draws the marked stick can order 2 people (including themselves) to do something, by referring to the numbers available or the King if they wish to refer to themselves. Those who are not the King, must keep their number secret until an order is given.
The first King is Chitoge, who doesn’t fully understand the game, orders number 2 to pat number 6’s head, so Raku pats Yui’s head - oops. Kosaki is the next King and to avoid a similar situation as Chitoge, orders number 5 to shake hands with the King, so Raku shakes her hand. Marika is next King and gets Honda to distract Raku, so she can see his number, which she does. Armed with this information, she orders number 1 and the King to kiss, which horrifies Seishiro as she is number 1 and eventually the order is ignored as Seishiro begins to cry. The chapter ends with Yui being revealed as the next King.
Yui’s order is for numbers 2 and 7 to reveal their crushes, which Shu reveals to be all the girls (except Ruri) and gets retribution and Marika begins to reveal hers, but everyone else moves to the next round instead. The doorbell rings and Haru, Paula and Fu have arrived, as Haru and Paula want to know why Kosaki and Seishiro respectively dashed to a Yakuza’s home and Fu is here to help Haru (get with Raku). Raku comes over to greet his new guests and Haru is startled by how hot he looks in his kimono that she insults him. The King game continues with the additions and Haru and Fu agree to let each other know what Kosaki’s and Raku’s numbers are to help them get together. Fu is the King and Haru reveals both hers and her sister’s numbers to Fu, who orders number 9 to hug number 2 from behind for 10 seconds and Raku hugs Haru from behind 10 seconds. Fu’s excuse: teehee, oops. They continue to play until Yui notices it is getting dark and suggests that everyone should head home, but they refuse and begin a sleepover to prevent Yui having any alone time with Raku. The have food and begin to play other games until everyone except Raku and Yui are asleep, so they begin to wash up and Yui remarks how much fun she had as she hasn’t been able to make friends that her own age-ish since moving away from Raku, due skipping school years. She also admits that she’s thankful that everyone hasn’t massively changed (personality-wise) since she last saw them and gives Raku the credit for it. She then asks if Raku would have a bath with her and Marika wakes up to get everyone to play some games, so no baths can be had.
Marika is frustrated that she is not getting any closer to Raku, but stumbles on a ‘secret’ love technique in a magazine, where if someone is not responding to your advances, then act cold towards them, so the sudden change will make them pay you more attention. She employs the technique the next day, but hates how distant she has to be towards to Raku, so much it causes her pain. Her situation is made worse when she and Raku have to stay behind clean up their classroom, as they are rota’d to do so, so must resist the urge to hug (tackle) him. Marika struggles to clean the higher areas of the chalkboard, so Raku steps in, which she doesn’t ‘appreciate’. The 2 are then tasked to bring some worksheets to Yui, much to Marika’s agony as she wishes to no longer be alone with Raku to stop torturing herself. she again suffers when Raku has to catch her after she trips over her own foot. Yui doesn’t grant her reprieve (she is unaware of Marika’s predicament) as she gets the 2 to collect materials for another teacher, which Marika tries to complete quickly, but only causes materials to fall and Raku having to shield her. As they complete their class officer duties, Raku asks if he’s done something wrong and does she hate him, to which she emotionally denies and explains the entire situation, much to Raku’s relief. Marika asks if he started to dislike her, which denies, so her response is to hug (tackle) him whilst declaring her love, thus injuring his neck in the process.
Mimiko Kiki has volunteered to interview Raku and Chitoge under the pretence of interviewing them on the Romeo and Juliet play that their class put on last year, but she instead wants to interview them about their relationship as she believes it to be fake. Raku and Chitoge deny and dismiss the idea, but Mimiko isn't convinced, so asks Raku about his fiancee that he has. Neither deny it, but with the caveat that Raku had no idea about the engagement before dating Chitoge. However, Mimiko has an unnamed source who confirms that she is Raku's fiancee and is not bothered his current partner as she expects Raku to be eventually hers anyway. Mimiko moves onto her next point of accusation which is that Raku spends a lot of time with girls and has interviewed another anonymous source to help back her claim up. In this interview, the interviewee does a bad job of denying the accusation that the 2 are a fake couple and becomes flustered when Mimiko asks about when Raku stayed over at her house during a typhoon in which they exchanged phone numbers. Raku quickly explains to Chitoge what he doing at the interviewee's house. Mimiko has interviewed someone else, who is totally convinced that Raku and Chitoge are a proper couple, even if he associates with other women and she showed him her underwear on a luxury yacht. Before Raku can explain, Mimiko shows another interview with a member of their inner circle who is all too willing to describe how affectionate the couple are with each other. Raku is called to the teacher's office and leaves Mimiko and Chitoge alone, so the former asks the latter if she is in love with Raku to which she gets an emotional, truthful response. This convinces Mimiko to drop her fake couple story, as while she doesn't fully believe them just yet, she has too much integrity to publish stories without proper evidence.
Haru's class is running a haunted house, which is a perfect chance for Kosaki and Raku to get closer to each other (in more ways than one). She and Fu head to Kosaki and Raku's class to pick them up, where it's revealed that they are running a cosplay cafe and everyone is in various costumes, that were helpfully provided by Shu (he had more 'naughtier' costumes in mind, but they were swiftly intercepted by Ruri). Haru escorts the 2 to her classroom and they begin the haunted house tour. Kosaki is terrified by the scares in the haunted house, as Haru has set the haunted house to full of things that scare Kosaki - like Konnyaku. They eventually make it out, but Kosaki has small graze on her right hand, so Raku leaves to get a plaster. Upon leaving, he passes by Haru and commends her on the scariness of the haunted house before asking if there's anything wrong with her, which she denies. The truth is there is something wrong with her: she is still madly in love with Raku and despite pleased that she managed to get her sister and her crush closer, she is still sad. Fu meets up with Haru and tells that she has signed her up to participate in the school-wide beauty contest, which this year features the school's most famous couple as guest judges - Raku Ichijo and Chitoge Kirisaki.
Haru is still reluctant to participate in the beauty contest, but does so on the assumption that she will be eliminated in the first round. She is also unsure about competing in the outfit she has on for her class's haunted house, but Fu has made an outfit for her to wear and this outfit is similar to her work outfit at family's Japanese sweet shop. Haru is incredibly nervous as she walks onto to the stage and stumbles over her words during her introduction, then advertises her family's Japanese sweet shop during her 'What Makes You Special' segment. The guest judges ask her questions with Raku asking what her favourite food is (answer is any Japanese sweet), before asking a more love focussed question which is does she prefer older or younger men (answer is older men). Haru's time is up and we move onto the next contestant which is Paula, who has entered to win the bonus prize of a year's supply of sweets and her strategy to win is to follow advice from Seishiro which is to wear something nice and don't talk, which she does to a T. Marika follows Paula as the next contestant, but is disqualified as her costume is too revealing. The preliminary round is over with Haru and four others making the cut to the final round, which is not surprising as she has a number of fans who are quite vocal about their support for her. However before the final round can begin, a shock twist as Kosaki is now part of the final round as well!
Kosaki's participation is thanks to Ruri making a deal with Shu to allow this in exchange for the return of his 'naughty' costumes that were confiscated. Kosaki introduces herself (stumbling over her words like Haru) before flashing a smile that is too much for members of the audience. The votes for the final round are cast and there is a tie between the Onodera sisters meaning we head to the tie-breaker round which requires the 2 contestants dress up in a costume found backstage. Now that she has time alone, Haru accepts that she has probably lost and is willing to bail on the competition and begins to leave when she runs (quite literally) into Raku. Raku remarks how surprised he is at Haru competing in a beauty contest as well as how how cute she was up on the stage and he is cheering for both her and Kosaki. Haru tells him to exclusively support Kosaki and downplays her attractiveness and Raku disagrees with the latter statement. This ticks Haru off who alerts him to the fact that statements like that are what makes him have a reputation as a player. The 2 part ways with Haru telling Raku he must vote for her sister, but he can root for her if he wants to and she heads back into her dressing room and after reading a flyer for the beauty contest, decides to choose her outfit.
The tie-breaker round begins with Kosaki taking to stage first in a black Sailor-style school uniform, which wows the crowd and everyone waits for Haru to appear who eventually arrives after a small delay.
The tie-breaker round begins with Kosaki taking to stage first in a black Sailor-style school uniform, which wows the crowd and everyone waits for Haru to appear who eventually arrives after a small delay.
Haru has gone for a wedding dress, which took longer to put on than expected and explains her delay, also everyone is seemingly in love with Haru's choice (except Haru who is still expecting defeat after eyeing Kosaki in her Sailor-style school uniform). The Tie-breaker round also includes series of questions which we only see the answer for 2. The 2 sisters answer the question "what type of guy you like" with "someone who is kind", but split on the final question: "Is there anyone you have have special feelings for right now". Kosaki denies having special feelings for anyone, but Haru bares her soul and confesses that she is love with someone and here on stage in the hope the person notices her.Everyone casts their vote and the winner by a slim margin is Haru (her confession of being in love being the deciding factor for some), so she wins both the trophy and grand prize: your choice of partner at the folk dance that follows the beauty pageant. Haru chooses Raku, because he is the only guy she has any proper interaction with and not because she is in love with him (if she asked her crush that would equate to confessing her love him in front of everyone).
Haru is treating this dance as one last selfish moment with Raku and not going to confess her feelings as finally she is going to give up on him - for real this time. Raku asks ,whilst dancing, if Haru was really okay dancing with him and she reminds him that the only other guy she could have chosen is her 'Prince Charming' but she doesn't know where he is or if he saw the contest, however Raku lets her know that he probably did see her and probably thought she looked amazing in the wedding dress. Haru decides to tell Raku the truth about her feelings, but Raku invites to her a Japanese dessert festival at the shop they bought Kosaki's present from (others including Kosaki are going) and she agrees, putting her confession off until a better time.
The Magical girls bonus comic continues with Dr Maiko, who is armed with a ray gun that disable magical items, such as the Magical girls's outfits, but Rurin knows his weakness and how to exploit it.
Haru is treating this dance as one last selfish moment with Raku and not going to confess her feelings as finally she is going to give up on him - for real this time. Raku asks ,whilst dancing, if Haru was really okay dancing with him and she reminds him that the only other guy she could have chosen is her 'Prince Charming' but she doesn't know where he is or if he saw the contest, however Raku lets her know that he probably did see her and probably thought she looked amazing in the wedding dress. Haru decides to tell Raku the truth about her feelings, but Raku invites to her a Japanese dessert festival at the shop they bought Kosaki's present from (others including Kosaki are going) and she agrees, putting her confession off until a better time.
The Magical girls bonus comic continues with Dr Maiko, who is armed with a ray gun that disable magical items, such as the Magical girls's outfits, but Rurin knows his weakness and how to exploit it.

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