Ranked #1037

To LOVE-Ru OVA

To Love-Ru OVAs are just a whole lot better than the TV-series. At least from an ecchi enthusiast's point of view. Why so? I'm here to tell you.

First of all, there are many good insider jokes, since it is supposed, that you already know the characters and the main plot lines. Such humor wasn't quite yet awailable until the very latest of the TV episodes, as the characters were still pretty much unknown to the audience. So, even when the plot still contains random outcomes (always leading to ecchi scenes, though) for various random reasons, the scenario gained many new and fun details.

Secondly, the characters themselves have improven, gaining new experience. Rito grows temporary breasts and sees the world through the eyes of a dog, his younger sister gets a new face when she reveales the first signs of puberty (although she already acts more mature than the rest), Lala's cute, caring side is shown more closely through her change of personality and her sister twins were a great addition to the Devilukian saga. So now, after their debute, I can't wait for the next season season to come. And it is coming - Motto To Love-Ru!

The third point is, there is no needless censure, at least in the version I saw. The TV-series contained a great deal of "fog" and other unfitting things, like sunshine, used for that. This no kid's show anyway, whether it's censured or not, I'm pretty sure you agree to my point of view (only if you're not a kid yourself ;) ). And there were no more ugly aliens, which spoiled my fun before, only the cute ones were there, like Justin and Lala's dad (he's an awesome character, third place on my list after Lala and Yami, which is REALLY high ranked). These are the reasons why my enjoyment rose significantly.

So, if you've watched the first season of To Love-Ru, but haven't seen the OVAs yet, watch them at once! You will not be disappointed.

"Magical Kyouko-kun! Solves any problem by burning it..."

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Story: In terms of the material chosen for the episodes. I thought they picked pretty good chapters to animate. Ones that fans would appreciate watching. No episodes entirely of filler (For the most part) not based on the Manga like the actual series. Just going to give some quick (Except 3 and 6) thoughts on each episode.

Episode 1: This is where Rito turns into a girl, chapter 100. A good place to start. I didn't have a problem with the episode, it was a pretty good adaptation of the chapters.

Episode 2: Mikan feels a bit neglected because Rito spends a lot of time with Lala. I liked the way this episode was handled and thought it was a good pick. Just one of those awwwww kind of episodes. Well, if you ignore the ecchi that is.

Episode 3: This was the downfall of this Ova. This is the Revenge of the Fallen, the Endless Eight. I mean, the filler from the last series was bad but not this bad. So everyone gets to go to Saki's beach house and Rito swaps places with Haruna's dog, Maron. Most of the episode is just ecchi stills. Does Rito change back? What's Maron been doing in Rito's body? Who is Eric Cartman's father? None of these questions are addressed. I know To-Love-Ru is part of the ecchi genre but this is just bad. This episode was a big waste of time and a terrible pick for part of what might be the last adaptation of To-Love-Ru. I should also point out that this was supposed to be the last Ova episode until 3 more were announced so originally this was the final episode. Yuck...

Episode 4: Everyone gets stuck in an Rpg game. A great choice because I thought it was pretty well done and it's a memorable story from the Manga. For whatever reason, I had to laugh at Rito's first use of his watering can. This bit was nothing amazing humor-wise but it was just funny to me at the time. Good episode.

Episode 5: It basically gives you an introduction of Lala's sisters. I didn't like it as much as 2 or 4 but I'm sure many fans wanted to see an episode based on Momo and Nana and they got it.

Episode 6: Okay, if you read my review of the previous series, I said that instead of stretching out one story using filler to fill 20 minutes or just making original filler episodes not based on the Manga, the studio should've went with a Full Metal Panic Fumoffu approach where they do multiple stories/chapters in one episode since some of To-Love-Ru's stories are one chapter long. Here it is, we got 3 different chapters in one episode. None of it felt rushed to me and I thought this format definitely worked. Why didn't they do this for the last series? It certainly would've been much better because no one likes bad filler especially for a series of mostly filler anyway. I believe the studio had more than enough material at the time to not resort to original filler. One-chapter stories use this format and should a story need 20+ minutes, do that. Anyway, I'm going to say it's a good episode. I remember these chapters and they were well adapted.

Art: They went for a lot more ecchi. They revealed a lot more which kind of reminds me of the Love Hina Again episodes and how different they were from the original series in terms of ecchi-ness. I honestly don't care for ecchi but because it's To-Love-Ru, it's got to be there. Beyond that I thought the episodes looked great compared to the last series. Sometimes it would look a bit... not good but I thought they went a level higher on the animation for some of these episodes.

Sound: I liked the opening song, didn't care much for the ending. I believe the background tracks were the same for the last series but don't quote me on that. I didn't keep track of the background music for this series since I didn't like too many of the songs. No problem with the voice actors as usual. Thought they did a great job and I liked Momo and Nana's voices.

Character: Just good enough. Episode 2 brought in a side of Mikan we didn't really see before. It wasn't out of nowhere and I can see why she would feel this way. Go character development. Last part of episode 6 was another one of those aww kind of moments brought on by Lala and it was really the only part of these 6 episodes that focused on her. If they needed a chapter that focused on Lala, this was a good one. Also Celine makes an appearance which was nice to see. Lala's sisters aren't my favorite characters but I certainly don't dislike them and understand why they do what they do so no complaints on their arrival. There weren't many changes to the other characters so I'll leave it at that.

Enjoyment: One point higher than the first series sounds good. Other than 3, I liked the episodes well enough. When compared to the first series, this one was far better in quality. I really liked seeing episode 6 use multiple chapters and if there is a second actual season, I'd like to see more episodes like this and less bad filler. Can't use lack of material as an excuse this time.

Overall: If this was generally speaking, 8 is very generous. This definitely does not rival some of the other series that I rated at 8. I gave it an 8 for what it is. To-Love-Ru is nothing amazing as it is a mostly ecchi Anime and that's not really my thing despite how many I've watched but if they focused on the character interactions more and the relationship-driven chapters I think it would work out as a decent ecchi-comedy barring the Manga ending. That was terrible but most could see it coming. Would I recommend this series? Just to people who go for the ecchi stuff. I wouldn't recommend this to people who like comedy as it isn't that funny. It's also not a general series I'd tell others to watch either sadly but I liked the Manga well enough. If there was an actual second season, I'd watch it.

Thank you for reading my review. Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more