Rival (episode)

is the seventh episode of the Nisekoi series that is originally written and illustrated by Naoshi Komi as a manga. The episode aired on February 22, 2014.

Overview
Seishirou Tsugumi is introduced as a transfer student. As a former acquaintance of Chitoge, Seishirou finds Raku unfit to be Chitoge's lover. Seishirou challenges Raku to a duel but is inadvertently outplayed. While trying to revive his opponent, Raku learns that Seishirou is actually a girl despite her masculinity. The day ends with Raku earning a genuine amount of respect and affection from Seishirou.

Plot
Shū tells Chitoge and Raku that they are getting a transfer student at school and tells them that the transfer student will be a guy which is rumored to be a pretty person. Their teacher comes in the class announcing that they're having a new student in their class and calls him in. The student introduces himself as Seishirō Tsugumi. When Seishirō is about to sit down he smiles at Raku, with Chitoge suddenly standing up calling Seishirō's name. Seishirō is happy to see Chitoge and embrasses her but Chitoge pulls him back. Later, Seishirō asks Chitoge for forgiveness, and explains why he is at her school.

Chitoge talks about the uniform Seishirō has, which Seishirō explains as easier to move around in. Later, Seishirō tells Chitoge that he heard that Chitoge has a boyfriend, which Chitoge is shocked by. Seishirō asks Chitoge to introduce her boyfriend to him and calls Raku to introduce him to Seishirō. Seishirō seems to be happy that Chitoge has a boyfriend and reintroduces himself to Raku and explains what Chitoge is to him. During lunch, Seishirō gets on Chitoge's nerve while Shū tells Raku that he has a rival. Chitoge tells Seishirō that he must stop clinging on her, which Seishirō doesn't follow. After Chitoge leaves the classroom to go to the bathroom, Seishirō is tells Raku that he has something to tell him.

Seishirō brings him to the rooftop where Seishirō asks Raku if he really loves Chitoge. Raku tells him he does which he almost denies. Then, Seishirō asks Raku how much he loves Chitoge with Raku's response of loving her beyond belief. Seishirō then asks him if he is willing to die for Chitoge. Raku answers that he is ready to die for Chitoge. Seishirō is happy to hear that and suddenly pulls out a gun from his sleeve telling Raku that he must die. Seishirō puts the gun under Raku's chin and tells Raku that he is very disappointed that Chitoge has fallen for him because of how weak he is which makes Seishirō wonder what Raku is really after. He later overreacts believing that he loves Chitoge more than Raku.

Seishirō tells Raku that he is going to snatch Chitoge fair and square from him and walks away. Raku is happy about Seishirō taking Chitoge away but remembers about the war the two gangs are going to have with each other if that were to happen. Raku tells Seishirō that Chitoge is his girlfriend and that he would not let anyone else have her. Chitoge overhears this at the stairway in shock abut what the two are talking about. As Seishirō starts a fight between them, Chitoge comes on the roof to stop their fight. Seishirō tells Chitoge not to stop him and complains about not accepting Raku as her partner. Seishirō talks to Chitoge about the promise she made with him 10 years ago. Seishirō challenges Raku to a duel in which he must defeat him to get Seishirō to acknowledge him but if Raku loses he will subject him to agony worse than hell and kill him.

After Seishirō leaves the roof, Chitoge explains more about Seishirō which the two are later seen arguing with each other. Chitoge tells Raku not to lose because it would be the end to the city. Raku arrives at the school's square with Seishirō giving him props for appearing and not fleeing. Raku asks Seishirō about the peanut gallery, which Seishirō wonders the same to. However, the school makes bets about the battle between Raku and Seishirō with Seishirō more points and Raku with zero. Seishirō tells Raku once the coin falls the battle starts. Raku seems to be prepared, but once the coin falls to the ground, the fight starts and Seishirō shoots at Raku with multiple guns and missiles. Raku is shocked from all the weapons and runs away from Seishirō. Chitoge says that Raku is an idiot for not knowing that Seishirō doesn't fight bare handed.

Raku keeps running while Seishirō is shoots at him. Raku and Seishirō have a discussion with Raku saying something that makes Seishirō snap and run faster after Raku. Raku sees a chance to escape which results into the two falling from the third floor to the school's pool. After getting out of the pool, Seishirō seems to be completely unconscious which Raku decides to help him. At the boy's locker room, Raku strips Seishirō's clothes but discovers that Seishirō is actually a girl in the process. Everybody looks for Raku and Seishirō and come closer to the boy's locker room. Raku panics and forces Seishirō unto a locker. Chitoge opens the door and sees nothing within the locker room after hearing voices from the room. A student asks Chitoge why she asked to look for Seishirō at the girl's locker room, which Chitoge reveals to the class that Seishirō is in fact a girl, with the entire class in complete shock.

In the locker, Raku cannot focus with having Seishirō is half-naked right in front of him. Raku asks Seishirō if her name is probably an alias, but Seishirō tells Raku that it is her real name and explains that Claude is the one who gave her that name because he thought that Seishirō was a boy and not a girl. Raku tells Seishirō that she is cute, which Seishirō blushes to. She tells Raku that nobody has ever called her 'cute' before. Chitoge than opens the locker they were hiding in and punches Raku high in the sky for having Seishirō stripped. After explaining, Seishirō tells Raku that he hasn't won the duel because he didn't show to her that he has not the ability to protect her which she declares the duel invalid.

Shū appears telling that Raku must write a letter to the teacher for using the pool without her persmission and leaves. Seishirō tells Chitoge that she was actually defeated and explained why. Seishirō wonders why peoples are think that she is a boy when she is actually a girl. Chitoge has an idea and brings Seishirō in a girl uniform the next day. Seishirō is seen embarresed being in a girl's uniform, which Seishirō later tells Chitoge that she has promised to protect her, but Chitoge doesn't remember the promise. Seishirō explains the promise to Chitoge because she doesn't remembers it at all. Chitoge gives Seishirō a ribbon so nobody would mistake her as boy. Raku compliments Seishirō that the ribbon looks cute on her, which Seishirō tells him that it isn't. After school, Seishirō walks away with her usual uniform but with her ribbon on her hair. She thinks that Chitoge might forgotten her love from 10 years ago.

Characters

 * Raku Ichijō
 * Chitoge Kirisaki
 * Shū Maiko
 * Kosaki Onodera
 * Ruri Miyamoto

Debut

 * Seishirō Tsugumi

Character revelations

 * When the two were young, Seishirō was mostly feeding Chitoge.
 * According to Seishirō, she and Chitoge once bathed togheter.[[Image:Nisekoi Episode 07 End Card.png|thumb|Episode 7 end card.|231x231px]]

Trivia

 * This episode is adapted from chapter 15 "Rival", chapter 16 "Duel", and chapter 17 "Cute".
 * The eyes snapping at the beginning of the episodes can be taken from different series, as the first one can come from either Osamu Tezuka's work, or from Leiji Matsumoto. The final shot can come from Rock Lee from the Naruto series but is actually mostly compared to that of the spin-off Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth series.
 * The episode title card come from the cover of chapter 17 of the Nisekoi manga series.
 * At the end of the episode, a end card is shown to be illustrated by Robico. Robico is a Japanese manga artist best known of his My Little Monster that has been published from August 23, 2008 until June 24, 2013 in a Shōjo demographic monthly manga magazine Dessert.

Error

 * Some scene's shows that Seishirō's beauty mark is not added. It can be that it is hidden behind her hair, although the scene's shows that her hair was next to her face and her beauty mark is shown clearly next to her eye.
 * When Seishirō was reintroducing herself to Raku, the stripes on her neck-tie were missing.
 * When Seishirō asked Raku to talk with him, the top stripe on her neck-tie was missing, however, the stripe on top of Seishirō's neck-tie is also seen missin on different scenes in the episode.
 * When Seishirō is walking away from the rooftop, she walks on the same spot constantely.
 * There is a scene where Raku and Seishirō were jumping straight towards the pool. After that, Raku takes Seishirō out of the pool which Seishirō is not seen in her blue jacket. After that Raku taked Seishirō out of the pool and look if she is OK, she then is seen with her blue jacket.

Differences between anime and manga

 * Appearances of students are seen in the manga once Seishirō was walking towards her classroom. In the anime, they changed it with eye snapping.
 * Raku told that Shū was easy to read in the manga, also there was a more extended conversation between Raku and Chitoge after Shū's dissapointment. This scene however is not included in the anime.
 * Seishirō is seen with four buttons on his pants when he was introducing himself to the class. That design is not shown in the anime because of the change of Seishirō's design.