| ⚠️ | Spoiler Warning!
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""I may just be a "fake" boyfriend, but if anything happens, I'll be the one to protect you. So don't worry."
" |
| Raku Ichijō | |
|---|---|
| Japanese | 一条 楽 |
| Translation | Ichijō Raku |
| Character information | |
| Other names | |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 15(1st Year Arc)
16(2nd Year Arc) 17(3rd Year Arc) or 18 |
| Date of birth | December 20th |
| Blood type | A |
| Height | 168 cm(1st Year Arc)
172 cm(2nd Year Arc) |
| Weight | 56 kg(1st Year Arc)
58 kg(2nd Year Arc) |
| Occupation | Head of the Yakuza; Worker in the city hall |
| Home country | Japan |
| Goal | Civilized government job in the future[4]; (accomplished)
Discovering the girl who he made a promise with (accomplished); Confess to Onodera(accomplished); Confess to Chitoge(accomplished); Reunite with Chitoge(accomplished) |
| Likes | Chitoge Kirisaki, Kosaki Onodera (Formerly), Cooking, Animals, Chocolate Cakes |
| Dislikes | Being called the next heir of his Yakuza family (formerly)
Claude spying on his relationship with Chitoge Kirisaki (formerly) Belittling people |
| Background information | |
| Chapter | "Promise" |
| Episode | "Promise" |
| Vomic | Yoshitsugu Matsuoka |
| Japanese | Kōki Uchiyama |
| Image gallery (24) | |
Raku Ichijō (一条 楽, Ichijō Raku) is the main male protagonist of the Nisekoi series that is written and illustrated by Naoshi Komi. He serves as the fake boyfriend of Chitoge Kirisaki for the next three years of his life to prevent a war between the Bee Hive Gang and the Shūei Clan. He is Chitoge's main love interest and becomes her husband at the end of the manga.
Background
One summer ten years ago, Raku made a promise to a girl to marry her once they reunite. The promise girl exchanged a pendant with Raku and held on to a key that would unlock his pendant once they meet again. Ten years had passed and Raku has no memory of the girl's name or what she looks like but remembers the promise he made.
After he started his fake relationship with Chitoge, he encounters a series of events where he learns that Chitoge, Onodera, Marika, and Yui all possess keys that are connected to his pendant and that they all met each other ten years ago. They all seemed to have made a promise with a boy ten years ago too. This makes all four of the girls be the possible promised girl until Yui returned to Raku and confirmed herself that she is not one of the possible promised girls, despite having a key.
His interest in the keys that Chitoge, Onodera, Marika, and Yui possess can get him in trouble for certain situations. He will go to great lengths for his pendant and freaks out if he loses it. Chitoge and Raku had tried opening the pendant with her key but it broke in the process. After Raku gets it fixed, Shu's uncle says that the only way to open it is to break it open.
Raku is also the heir to the Yakuza family as the only son but wishes to not take the position, even if he is urged by the members of the gang.
Personality
Raku Ichijō presents himself to be quite civilised and highly altruistic, except when he encounters a person with a lack of respect or regard for him or others around him. As a child, as evidenced in flashbacks, Raku would go as far as to put himself in difficult situations for others' benefits. He is easy to get along with and is highly motivated by past actions. He is highly skilled at rough work and is happy to do so, as evidenced in his cooking for his Yakuza clan.
He can also be highly oblivious of academic faculties and is highly unaware, at times, of certain conversations that he can easily misinterpret, either because of the vagueness of the circumstance, or the fact that he is lost in thought about Chitoge or Onodera. He is dull as he is oblivious to the romantic feelings of the girls around him, especially Chitoge's and Onodera's. He is well-educated and is slow to anger, but will respond with the same emotions or tone, most of the time, if he is addressed as a bean sprout by Chitoge. He is not immune to embarrassment and can use his faculties to run in order to escape whenever he feels that he is in a pinch.
Relationships
Main Article: Relationships of Raku Ichijō
Appearance
Raku is a little taller than average for a high schooler and has messy, black and indigo hair with two white clips on the left side of his face, which forms an "X" shape. He has lightly tanned, fair skin and also has a big scar on the right side of his forehead which was possibly caused by an animal.
In the winter, Raku wears his school's uniform which consists of green and white slip-on shoes, black pants with a green belt, a white long-sleeved shirt, and the school uniform jacket. The summer school uniform's only difference is the white shirt is short-sleeved and the school uniform jacket is not worn. He is generally seen wearing the pendant he was given ten years ago beneath his shirt.
While swimming, Raku doesn't wear a shirt but wears the school's navy blue swim shorts. He is also seen to wear red shorts in At the Beach.
Raku generally wears his kimono when he is at home, and casual clothing when he hangs out with the gang or on a date with Chitoge. When he is doing outdoor activities as shown in Temple Festival and Loss, he wears a cloth around his head.
Abilities
Raku Ichijō has demonstrated the following abilities to the best of his capacity:
- Swimming: Ichijō has demonstrated that he is highly capable of swimming at unrealistic capacities. He used these faculties multiple instances, to save Chitoge and to teach Onodera. He also used it to leave the girls' bath and was shown to be capable of holding his breath for a long time.
- Strength/Stamina: Ichijō is shown to be a capable runner, just as anime-like as his swimming faculties, and is able to perform a number of tasks with his strength. He can carry another person, as shown when carrying Seishirō Tsugumi. He is also very agile and flexible in his ability to dodge, despite Tsugumi's detesting. His flexibility and agility are shown when he repeatedly does handsprings after learning that Kosaki Onodera had been accepted into the same high school as him.
- Acting: He is highly capable of keeping Tsugumi, the Bee Hive gang, and his Yakuza clan from fighting, despite being involved in the somewhat serene circumstances of their "Nisekoi." and during the Romeo and Juliet play in the school festival.
- Singing: It is evidenced, if only for a brief moment, that he can sing very well in a limited genre of music.
- Altruism: Although not evidenced by Chitoge's rough exterior, he is highly altruistic in a lot his behaviour. He can be thoughtful, despite his lack of thought in certain situations.
- Cooking: He has demonstrated multiple times an almost super-human ability to cook things both quickly and precisely with a little amount of effort.
Story
First Year Arc
Raku is the heir to the Yakuza family and is urged and respected by all the member in the gang for him to become their next leader. Raku personally wants to turn down the role and wants to become a civil servant. Going to school, Raku thinks about the girl he made the promise to marry to ten years ago and pulls out his pendant. As he observes it, a girl jumps over the school's high fence and accidentally knees him in the face in the process. The girl apologises and runs to class because she's late for class. He begins his day, hating it after he got kneed but enjoys it again when his crush, Kosaki, offers him a bandage in the place where he got kneed. As class starts, Raku's teacher presents a new transfer student named Chitoge Kirisaki who was actually the girl who kneed Raku that morning. Raku instantly recognises her and starts complaining about the accident. The two clash but end up sitting next to each other in class.
Second Year Arc
Chitoge realises that she loves Raku and tries to do lots of things to get praise out of him.
Third Year Arc
Marika is forced to marry someone against her will and Raku & co comes to interrupt the ceremony. Raku declines Marika's confession. Raku has started noticing that he has feelings for both Kosaki and Chitoge. He, later on, finds out that he has developed the feeling of love for Chitoge.
Haru confesses that she knew Raku was her prince.
When Shu invites everyone to go stargazing along Bonyari High's rooftop, Raku passes out and Chitoge overhears Kosaki confessing to Raku. Chitoge later confirms that Raku likes Kosaki, so she runs away from Japan. Tsugumi confesses to Raku, then tells him to save Chitoge.
They meet back at the location '10 years ago' and Raku confesses to Chitoge after rejecting Kosaki.
Epilogue
In the epilogue, Raku is shown to have succeeded his father as head of the Shuei Clan, at the same time receiving a job as a government worker placed in the department of public safety. He is also busy with plans for his upcoming wedding with Chitoge, hiring Shu to send out his invitations to all of his friends.
Trivia
- There is a running gag that has Raku earning the ire and jealousy of most of his male classmates because of his involvement with several female characters, only once letting him off in their 2nd-year school trip when Raku is paired up with the other guys instead of the girls.
- In the original design for Raku in chapter 0, Raku is shown to be very smart, being one of the top students. He is also shown to have completely black hair, unlike his current design that has a mix of blue. As part of the chapter 0 storyline, apparently, he was given an origami by Chitoge but later passed it onto one of his Yakuza members.
- Raku's first love was Kosaki Onodera, his first girlfriend (fake and otherwise) was Chitoge Kirisaki, his first kiss was shared with Yui Kanakura, while the first promise of marriage was done to Marika Tachibana. This clearly shows that Raku has had a certain level of intimacy with all the key holders.
- He is shown to have a son with Chitoge in the omake, named Haku Ichijō
Quotes
- (To his servants) "I want to live a life where I graduate from an Ivy League Colleague and become a civil servant with a civilised job."[2]
- (To Chitoge Kirisaki) "I may be a 'fake' boyfriend, but if anything happens, I will be there to protect you.So don't worry."
- (After being slapped by Chitoge) "I'm used to getting clobbered by her and all. But damn. A slap on the face hurts so much more."