The NAGATORO manga I examined in Part 1 is more nuanced in its
depiction of psychology than your average goony manga-comedy. That said, an
analogous series like Naoshi Komi’s NISEKOI engages with the subject of
female-male sadism in ways that are both more complicated and more complex
(which are not the same in this case). Three particular stories stand out as
relevant to this topic.
The introductory tale, “The Promise,” establishes a sketchy
background for male protagonist Raku Ichijo. Raku, who has just begun his first
year of high school, lives on an estate with his father, the head of a Yakuza
mob, and with several other male Yakuza who don’t seem to be family relations as
such. I say “sketchy” because according to the English translation Komi makes
no comment as to the disposition of Raku’s mother, who’s only revealed to be living
in America late in the series. The translation says nothing about whether Raku’s
parents are divorced or separated, though the former seems more likely since
the two remain in separate worlds at the story’s conclusion. The mother’s
absence becomes relevant in that Raku, who wants nothing to do with the violent
activities of the Yakuza (comedic though they are in the narrative), has
assumed a quasi-maternal role in the house. Since he doesn’t like fighting, Raku’s
become an expert cook and serves his Yakuza brethren all of their meals. The gangsters
insist that some day Raku will assume the “capo” status of his father. Raku
repeatedly denies that he will do so, fretting, “How come I’m always surrounded
by violence? I look forward to the day when I can leave it all behind and lead
a peaceful, quiet life.”
Sensible as this desire may be, it would have made Raku a
very dull subject for his creator. Thus he’s flung into a new conflict in high
school, which ensures that “my life became an even worse never-ending struggle!”
Late-arriving first-year transfer Chitoge Kirisaki bounds into Raku’s life when
she vaults the wall around the high school and accidentally knees Raku in the
face. The two teens repeatedly quarrel with one another, with Chitoge insulting
Raku for being an unmanly whiner. His purported unmanliness becomes underscored
by the fact that the model-gorgeous Chitoge is also a superb athlete who does
not hesitate to knock Raku’s block off when he insults her. Then Raku learns
that Chitoge, half-American and half-Japanese, is the daughter to the head of an
American gangster organization that’s moved to Japan. To prevent Raku’s Yazuka
and Chitoge’s gangster-group from fighting with one another, the respective heads
of the two gangs convince their offspring to fake a love-connection. Further
complicating Raku’s life is that he already pines after Kosaki, a fellow student
he’s known for years, and though Kosaki feels the same way toward him, neither
has been able to get up the nerve to confess their feelings. Ergo, more “never-ending
struggle.”
Naturally there would be no story if Raku and Chitoge did
not develop feelings for one another, despite her tendency to lose her temper
with him. Yet though Raku never becomes
physically tougher, he does often end up playing the typical male role of the
rescuer, particularly since Chitoge loses her nerve when confined to any dark
or confined place. More wacky complication ensue when more girls become drawn
toward Raku—principally Chitoge’s bodyguard Seichiro and Raku’s “family-arranged
fiancée” Marika.
The second story for consideration is “Transformation,” occurring
at least one year later. By this time Chitoge has become consciously enthralled
with Raku’s ordinary-guy charms but she hasn’t confessed her feelings. Raku feels some
degree of attraction to all four members of his “harem,” but he steadfastly believes that Kosaki is the girl for him. On New Year’s Day Chitoge gets
together their whole “gang”—Kosaki, Seichiro, Marika, Raku’s friend Shu and
Kosaki’s friend Ruri—and they all barge into Raku’s house to celebrate the New
Year. (Some Yakuza are around but they’re kept off to one side and don’t
actively participate in the story.) All the girls get drunk on “whiskey
bonbons,” and all except Ruri become erotically charged toward Raku. In fact,
Chitoge threatens to beat him up if he doesn’t kiss her, and there’s an
intentionally ambivalent scene in which the four girls gang up on him—though the
reader doesn’t see what they do to him and Raku himself blocks out the memory
of the incident. Since the reader has repeatedly been assured that the four
teenagers are all “good girls” at base, it’s unlikely that anything more than
an osculatory assault took place. But this speaks to the fact that the “rape of
Raku” proves amusing, as it (almost) never would with a female protagonist, specifically
because male rape by female is so improbable.
At the time of “Test,” it’s still only been “over a year” since the beginning of the false love. Chitoge considers confessing her infatuation to Raku, who remains clueless that their fake relationship has become real to the both of them. Though he’s spent much of that year being clobbered by the irritable Chitoge, he seems to have accepted this fate as the consequence of dating a “gorilla girl.” Here he voices a fairly rare complaint about his status as her punching bag: “we've been through a lot.... like you hitting me… and hitting me… and hitting me.” This provokes Chitoge to claim that “it was your fault all of those times,” and Raku replies that, “I’m pretty much totally defenseless.” To be sure, the above translation deviates from the official one, but I choose to believe that the latter translation is closer to Komi's thought, since it's funny to see a boy talking about being defenseless before a girl’s anger. Further, as with the “sort-of rape” in "Transformation," it would not be amusing were the genders reversed. Raku almost, but never quite, sounds like a masochist, though it might not be unfair to state that he has some submissive characteristics. Oddly, though, Chitoge defers to him to function as the “leader” of the group, particularly during the events examined in the longarc I’ve entitled “Limit.” And Raku does end up (SPOILERS) becoming the new head of the Yakuza sect, which he somehow makes over into a law-abiding organization. One might say that his ability to accept the chaos of Chitoge in his life makes him better suited to deal with all other forms of cultural chaos.
In any case, though these three stories don’t plumb the full depths of Komi’s take on the male-female power dynamic, they are among the most crucial for seeing how Komi both deviates from and reinforces gender tropes--
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