IT. IS. NOT. A. POINTLESS. HAREM.
Okay, you know what? I’m going go off on this. It SERIOUSLY pisses me off that people call it a pointless harem with no plot progression but that is decidedly missing the point.
I’m going to keep this as spoiler-free in the beginning because OP is looking for recommendations, but you can easily find out that Nisekoi revolves around the idea that Raku, the main character, has a locket and that ten years ago, he made a promise with a girl who he fell in love with at the time. Before they parted, he was given the locket and the girl had the key, with the promise that one day they would reunited and open up the locket.
That seems like a very good point, right? A decent plot point: who is the girl with the key? Raku, after all this time, still is in love with the idea of this girl and the promise that they kept, so much so that even though he can’t remember who she is, he wants to do right by her and cherishes this locket greatly and will take great pains to figure out who holds the key.
Unfortunately, this task is made all the more difficult because Raku is the son of a yakuza family, but because of a turf war with some gangsters, the two heads of the households have their children fake a relationship to ease the tensions. Hence, Nise (“false”) Koi (“love”).
The main cast of characters of Nisekoi go as follows, and they seem to follow standard harem anime conventions. Raku appears as the dense MC, Chitoge is the bishoujo tsundere, Onodera is the shy and quiet friend, Shuu is the joking best friend of Raku, Ruri is Onodera’s best friend and the one trying to get her to reveal her true feelings, Marika is the klutzy dunce who is very exuberantly head over heels for Raku, and Tsugumi is the trap (though honestly the way her chest size fluctuates makes it nearly impossible to imagine anyone seriously thought she was a guy at first).
And of course, the main complaint that people have is that there are many steps along the way that derail Raku from finding out who holds the key to open his locket. It doesn’t help that there are multiple keys around with people having various memories of being with him at that age. Not to mention the whole “fake relationship” plot line tends to ebb and flow, where it feels like it’s not featured as prominently or the consequences aren’t nearly as severe for revealing the truth of the situation. And there are moments like Nisekoi S1 that cause rage among fans because “BUT MUH PLOT PROGRESSION.”
EXCEPT THAT NISEKOI IS NOT ABOUT THE LOCKET. IT IS NOT ABOUT WHO HOLDS THE KEY. IT IS NOT ABOUT PEACE WITHIN THE COMMUNITIES BETWEEN GANGS. If you are looking as that as the point, then YOU are the one that’s pointless, not Nisekoi.
Nisekoi is very much so a tale about two people falling in love; the only thing is, we don’t know who those two people are. Sure, there are definite harem elements to it, with each of the girls in turn either coming to grips with their feelings for Raku or showing up already confessing like there’s no tomorrow. But there is a purpose to it all, as we see the characters grow and mature over the course of their high school careers. These characters are shown to be multi-faceted; the tsundere shows why she can’t properly express herself, the doormat stands tall and takes ownership of her destiny, the trap embraces her femininity, the klutz yearns for elegance and puts others ahead of herself, the best friends grow into their own fleshed out characters.
Let me submit to you, then, that Nisekoi’s point is about finding yourself and your other half, finding what makes you complete. Yes, it does it in a very roundabout way and over the course of infuriating developments at times, but at its heart, Nisekoi is about reaching out and overcoming fears to see what that next step can be.
It’s so easy and circle-jerky to dismiss it is as a pointless romcom, especially if you’re an anime-only watcher (S2 was a disaster of an adaptation). On the other hand, you can definitely tell what Nisekoi is trying to say, and in its stops and starts, it shows what many forms of love there are.
OP, if you’re looking for a pointless, trash harem, go watch To-Love-Ru