To LOVE-Ru

Oh look, another accidental boob-grab.
Oh look, another accidental ass-grab.
Oh look, he mentioned he likes Haruna again.
Oh look, he was inadvertently prevented from confessing to her again.
Oh look, he tripped and fell face-first into some random girl’s private parts again.
Oh look, he got slapped again.
Oh look, he got kicked again.
Oh look, that assassin showed up again promising to kill him, again.
Oh look, she turned up in his bed in the morning, again.
Oh look, he got ridiculously shocked at finding her in his bed, again.
... Oh look, that girl reaffirmed her rivalry with Lala again.
Oh look, he told Lala to stop being so affectionate and close. Again.
Oh look, he got embarrassed again.
Oh look, he got embarrassed again.
Oh look, he got embarrassed again.

God knows how many rules I'm breaking, since I haven't finished watching this anime (I'm on episode 14), and there are one or two insignificant spoilers in that list above. (Insignificant because, so far, and most likely in the future, that haven't and won't be developed upon in anyway).

But already I recognise this anime to be an annoyance which is all mere filler (no plot development except for the first two episodes), and what makes it worse is the travesty that is Rito's character; he is utterly annoying and unbearable in large doses. The most grinding little twat in the history of Japanese animation.

His character, along with his voice actor, make him a idiot weakling who overreacts or gets majorly embarrassed at every single little detail good or bad, resulting in an utterly pathetic and downright annoying character who makes the show nearly unbearable to watch. He’s far too loud and far too annoying. And my overuse of the word "annoying" is even annoying me, but I can't say anything else.

There has been absolutely no character development from any character in this series, (only new characters get introduced here and there), especially from Rito (although by ep. 14 he has stated he will change (I won't say how) but I predict the show will continue to plod along. Never changing).


The only thing that keeps me here is the fan service, and that never keeps me around for long without an interesting plot (which there isn't, since it's all unrelated filler) and a bearable main character around (which there isn't, for the reasons above.

For characters, I give this 3 instead of 1, since the characters of Lala and Haruna are pretty much spot on and well suited to their other aspects (appearance, relationships with other characters etc etc) and are mildly interesting. Zastin speaks for himself.

Overall I'd like to give this anime 5, the extra 3 in recognition of Lala, Haruna, and Zastin, but the cons of this "anime" outweigh the pros brought by these 3 characters, so I give To-LOVE-Ru a 2: Dreadful.

I hope the manga isn’t like this.

To-Love-Ru was a huge disappointment for me. The series had so much potential, but in the end, turned out to be one big failure... It had no plot whatsoever, beside the first few episodes, which introduced the "story". No plot progression for characters as well, what they did was throw in a few new characters during the show and there it ended. They could use much more interesting turn of events and character progression it even hurts to think about it.

Another thing I have to point out - the humor in this series is simply NOT FUNNY... AT ALL. The only one who actually made ... me laugh was Zastin - he's a genious, not to mention his seiyuu is Takehito Koyasu and he's one of my favorites (Adam Blade from Needless, Shark Fujishiro from Seto no Hanayome, Luke Valentine from Hellsing...). Still wasn't worth it...

Sound and animation are OK I guess, nothing special but not great either. Too much tenticle service also brought it down for me, though other echii scenes were decent. There were a few, only a FEW normal episodes, yet they also weren't satisfying, the rest were simply dreadful. When I got to the 9~10's episode, I thought I'm gonna quit, but still gave it another chance - that was a mistake.

As I said, I did not enjoy the series at all and would not recommed it to anyone. Bad humor, poor story, no character progression... Overall - bad, very bad. One of my friends saw it before me, he said "whatever you do - do not watch this anime", but I still gave it a shot... Should've listened to him in the first place...

Alright, right off the bat, I've never hated a male protagonist like I do this guy. He spends easily a majority of the anime obsessing over a girl, because of flowers, and he makes the typical clueless male trope seem like a genius. The show itself has little plot, and seems filled with nothing but filler, using the main love interest, Lala, as fanservice, and the inner thoughts of a truly idiotic male protagonist. The show had plenty of potential for a good story, and character growth, but it's squandered to over the top fan service, and the idea that the protagonist is in love ... with the girl he's obsessed with, Haruna. Haruna herself is more of a side character, but feels forced in an attempt to make her a main character. The art work is very good. The sound is good. The characters are mostly uninteresting with the exception of Lala, and a couple others. If you're coming for an interesting romance, and a good, thought out story, stay away. Hell, run like Jason Vorhees was chasing you in an 80s slasher flick. If you came for fan service, and over the top goofiness, then this is your show.

Hm... What can I say, there was some potential in the story though it was not the most original. And since To Love-ru was made relatively recently, the animation quality was very well done.

Now that I've got all the positive factors out of the way, its time for some good ol' criticism. The music was not great or memorable and the characters were cliched, but there was one thing that topped them all. To Love-ru flirts with the borders between ecchi humor and hentai. There is often tentacle monster fondling, but in those situations, there is usually a clothes barrier between the tentacles and the ... skin (though the tentacles do reach in between the legs a few times).

So say your watching this anime at home and one of these scenes occurs as your mom is about to walk by. Do you keep watching because it's not actually hentai, or do you try to block the screen so she can't see and look even more suspicious to her?

Now i am not saying that ecchi humor is bad or that hentai sucks, but I would prefer knowing what catagory an anime falls under. To Love-ru just felt weird as I was watching it. It failed to create a viewer friendly atmosphere for me, but who knows you might enjoy it. It's just not my cup of tea.

What a woeful, sodding show this is. Never has an anime given me such grief. This was an extremely hard show for me to get through. 26 episodes! Of what? That's a bloody good question! I have no idea just what this anime is trying to tell me. I have never seen such a cringe worthy compilation of terrible humour, immensely drab and repeated cliche 'harem scenes', sub- par ecchi scenes that don't even KNOW whether they want to take advantage of the show's R+ rating, as well as a story that serves NO PURPOSE.

The entire show was utterly, and completely, pointless. "Don't watch ... ecchi shows looking for good story" some may say. Fair point, perhaps watching a show that has a completely pointless story doesn't work for me. What I'm concerned about primarily here is... what the show DOES focus on and what it DOES value is also done to a horrific standard; i.e the humour and the ecchi scenes. The story and the humour are both closely intertwined, which is why I have mentioned the story.

The issue with this story is not only in the fact that it is totally pointless... it is also physically painful to watch. The humour present is just so stupid, and the story events are supposed to be funny and goofy... but they're really not at all. They're just crap. There is no other way for me to explain it without pulling out my foul-word-repertoire. The only time I was laughing was when it was beginning to hit me just how terrible this show is.

The ecchi, also closely linked to the story (which leaves the ecchi dead on arrival, as the scenes are badly executed due to the badly written story) is just lacking. If you're going to have a show based so heavily around ecchi- scenes, make them good. Seriously. (I will say that To LOVE-Ru Darkness really picks up the ball on this one, but that's not related to this steaming pile of buffalo feces i.e the first season of this show). The ecchi scenes are just not good enough for a show like this. They cover the nipples more than they should, and as has been previously mentioned, the scenes are just badly executed in general, to an eye- rolling extent.

Now, the characters. Oh god, the characters. Here we go. The main character, of course, being Rito (who is clearly just an unfortunate soul trapped in a terrible anime for the lowest common denominator) is just a completely pointless character. Yes, there are a few scenes demonstrating the fact that he's just a genuinely 'nice' kid, and that he likes plants (which is the basis for which one of the characters in the show falls for him... what kind of CRAP is that?!), but they hardly explore his character at all apart from his internal conflict regarding whether or not he wants to bone the hyperactive pink haired bimbo or the ONLY INTERESTING CHARACTER IN THE SHOW, Haruna. Instead they just use his character as a means to instigate terrible ecchi scene after terrible ecchi scene; you know, the usual trip over and somehow strip the woman naked - mistakes and bumbles that are mildly funny once or twice, but become ridiculously depressing to watch after 26 EPISODES.

I don't want to make this too long, but in summary, all of the other characters except for Haruna, in this season anyway, are just 'there', and serve no purpose other than to be 'hot' or to be stripped naked. Lala is one of the few anime girls that I would willingly punch in the face, and the school principle should be arrested. Not for being a sexual predator, but for being a fat midget who is NOT FUNNY AT ALL.

So, what do we have here? We have a story that is completely and utterly pointless with NO redeeming aspects whatsoever, whether it be in regards to the characters (who have the depth of a piss puddle) or the humour (which is some of the worst I've seen in anime thus far). I am aware that a lot of the things I have outlined in this review aren't unusual for a harem anime, but my concern is that this anime does everything BADLY. I actually LIKE a lot of the aspects that this show presents; aliens, ecchi, humour, just to name a few. What concerns me is just how TERRIBLY these were done. If you're going to have a crap story, support it with something else that's good in place of it. A an anime that is weak in all aspects, to the point where it hurts to watch a few minutes of one episode out of 26 EPISODES, should not be allowed to exist.

I regret ever getting into this series.

Classic ecchi, weak characters, no plot, no music no nothing, if you like grab boobs and so it's your show, if you want to watch a good anime, stay out of this one, only character that is okish is yami.

MC is horrendous, classic good guy who makes all the FC fall for him, totally really retarded.

The art is ok-ish, the only good thing of the anime probably and is not even that good.

FC are just stereotypes with no personality or developement.

If you like boobs and play with your wood this is your anime if you want something decent... just no. As ecchi is ok-ish, if ... you know what I mean.

Lion Tamers, it's time to talk about "To LOVE-Ru".

Before I go any further, I want to point out, this show is utterly moronic, in almost every category. But there is no voting category for imbecilic anime creation. So I'm forced to put that on the table, up front and center.

Does this mean I intend to rip this show a new hole in its' posterior? Not necessarily. It just means that this show is intended to be liked by folks that have appreciation for things that equate to unreal expectations.

And there are times when that is appropriate behavior. For example, if you notice a multi-mile long ... asteroid approaching the planet you live on, and understand the consequences of this approaching doom-stone, you may just wish for a nice breezy day on the beach .... of another planet. That is clearly a good reason to put your mind in the 'make-a-wish' zone.

To LOVE-Ru, is not mainly concerned with that kind of apocalyptic event, and so the wishful thinking now runs into the kind of thinking of; "... these folks are doing ... what, ... why? ..."

So let's now move into the characters, almost all of which need some discussion (I'm going to deal only with some of the primaries, the secondary characters will take too much time):

Rito Yuuki-
I realize this kind of fellow turns a lot of teenage boys cold, but let's look at this kid with a little more sincerity. Rito is loyal, decent, polite, not excessively aggressive, and he's bashful around girls. He is in fact, exactly like the young fellows who often review this show and rip it a new one because of Rito; because they have all the same characteristics. They have them, but don't really want them.

In other words, they want the girls to be attracted to boys that are abusive, obscene, non-intuitive, crass, rude, overly aggressive, pushy, loud and generally mean-spirited.

I'm sorry to make this absolutely plain, but in real life, Rito will get the girl every time; in comparison to an abusive bastard every time. It's just too bad for you young folks that want things to be otherwise. Deal with real life, and try to extend that knowledge into your appreciation for anime.

In other words, To LOVE-Ru got this part of its' story right. Rito is exactly like every other boy his age, in the real world, and just as shockingly non-adult. So he gets flustered around real girls, especially when a pretty girl is in very close proximity.

Haruna Sairenji-
Haruna is everything most of the critics of this show don't really like. Because she is the female version of Rito. She is: loyal, decent, polite, not excessively aggressive, and she's bashful around boys. Wow, there's a strange thing. And oh, I forgot; she's also cute as a bug in springtime.

Strangely enough, girls have also been bashful and self-embarrassed around boys; for a very long time. Again, I realize boys don't like this kind of girl. They want to think that the more mature view is of a girl who will drag them behind a tree and do sexual favors on demand. This is because the boy is almost always to bashful to ask for that. Boys of this age group believe they are much more manly if they wait for the girl to suggest it for them, ... because the boy is already too much of a coward. As well he should be, at Rito's age.

But in the end, we are all stuck with real life. Most girls don't behave that way. And strangely enough, when one finds a girl of that persuasion, the girl doesn't get the boy either. At least not for long.

Again, To LOVE-Ru got this part right as well. The good girl, in real life; normally wins her hearts' desire, and ends up with a nice boyfriend, and even a fine husband. I know, I'm speaking sacrilege, but the truth is; the purpose of dating, meeting friends of the opposite sex, and socializing with them; is to to get married and start a family that will raise children that are worth having in society.

The over-sexed girl gets that abusive fellow already described; and never, ever, produces anything worth having. Both die non-contributive to society, and almost never makes anything worthwhile in their own lives. These are the facts of real life.

Lala Satalin Deviluke-
Lala is a character designed in lala-land. She is pretty, slender and shapely, and she has a tail, and her bat wings stick out from the sides of her hat. She is in fact a 2-dimensional character with an equally simple personality. And for some very good reasons.

Lala is a princess of a planetary empire, her father being an abusive bastard that can destroy pretty much whatever he wants, and uses that fact to his personal advantage. A clear case of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

Her father is such a bastard, that the whole last set of episodes of To LOVE-Ru are all about a challenge designed to destroy the suitor to his daughter, Rito. Does he play fair? No, breaks even his own rules in order to win. In other words, Mister Deviluke lies, cheats and steals, even when he can win without doing so. What a piece of pond scum! One wonders why, in his infinite display of disreputable conduct, he doesn't just lay it on the line, and create a new family by sexually assaulting his daughter (collaborative pun intended). It is not outside his own personality.

Lala however, is a fairly nice little girl (I can't figure out why she should be) that is quite intelligent, in an intellectual set of disciplines that leads to the creation of inventions that are never developed sufficiently to work the way they were designed.

In other words, she's a dilettante, who never, ever; finishes anything she ever starts. Which leads us all to a really important question. And that is;

"When she's finally gotten to the point where she would normally drop an invention, as it regards Rito; will she operate as she has in the past, or will she stick to something important, for once?"

After all, she got involved with Rito because she didn't want daddy to pick her husband. She said as much in the show.

Does this make her a bad person? No, far from it. It means she chafes on the abusive and domineering behavior of her father. She would like to strike out into real life on her own, and make choices for her future, by herself. She is, however, a product of her own life. She is a very rich, spoiled brat, who expects everything to work out nicely; and when it doesn't, either she builds her way out of it, or appoints someone responsible. Leaving the whole mess in something or someone else's lap. Like Zastin, as a true to life character in which this sort of thing actually happens, in To LOVE-Ru.

The only reason Lala gets away with stuff on Earth, is because she is dealing with a whole school full of boys who are too bashful to say NO, and also full of girls who raise their own game because of Lala being a threat to the social structure that they had expected, and is now in jeopardy. Most of the student body are NOT the offspring of the idle rich, and Lala IS. It creates an artificially difficult struggle for everybody concerned.

If she were to understand honorable conduct, and all that implies; Lala would go home to Deviluke, and fight it out with her father, take the throne away from him and rule the place as the reasonable and at least polite individual she is capable of.

Instead, she runs away from home, hopes her father is too busy blowing up planets to bother about her absence (which of course, makes Lala an accessory to mass-genocide), gets involved with a boy that is almost reaching the point where he can confess his appreciation for a girl in his class; as happens in real life. Totally screws that up, invades another persons' household, creates extra duties and work for Rito's sister, blows up several relationships in school, that at the bottom of all is none of her business, involves her 'true love' in events containing aliens of no-ones' choosing, endangers Earth with the arrival of some of these ne'er-do-wells, and even endangers the alien doctor, that Mister Deviluke should marry. She's his kind of girl.

In all of these events and scenarios, Lala Satalin Deviluke walks through her life with charm and great cheer, while leaving destruction in her wake. Everybody else has to clean up the messes Lala creates. But Lala is fine, although totally oblivious to almost everything else around her. The only good word that describes Lala is IRRESPONSIBLE, beyond any kind of redemption.


The Audio/Music-
While the music is cute, it is also mindless J-POP of the worst type. Having no meaning, in the sense that it might have meaning to the anime. I'm one of those people that think the music should say something about the anime. It doesn't. The inter-stigial music is adequate, but continues on the theme of "What theme might that be?"

The dialog is read well, and the mindless commentaries by Lala are appropriate for the situations. This goes for most of the other characters.

The Artwork-
Actually not bad at all. It describes the actions well, and helps tell the story. Do we get some really fresh background parallax art? No, but it is otherwise adequate.

The Story-
The basic story plot is excellent, and it had a lot in the way of comedy potential. Potential is what it had. Only a fraction of the comedy potential was ever realized. Would have been much better if Lala's father was not quite as much pond scum. Lala should have had a little more intellect (oh I dunno, maybe like real human girls?). But I keep forgetting, this show is to please teenage boys with very little appreciation for 'the thinking stuff', while providing a female heroin that girls can feel 'speaks to them'.

Yea, right. Really? Is that all Mankind has to look forward to? If so, Mister Deviluke will have little trouble destroying Earth. We'll be too busy looking up his daughters' cute little ass, to notice our cities being blown up for his personal amusement.


I'm done with this review. I'm done with To LOVE-Ru. I actually sat through all the episodes. God what a trial! The show is entertaining in a certain mindless way, but I'm sorry if I'm one of those people that can't shut my brain off.

I gave this colorful and entertaining piece of mindless pond scum a generous 4.

A lot of people recommended this to me. It took me well over a year to finish but I wanted to give it a review because I think it is overhyped.
Animation and Sound: The animation is ok. The only problem I have it is that the characters look creepily young which is a problem in an echhi anime. Because of that, many parts of this anime are very uncomfortable and kind of gross. The voice acting is hard to judge because the dialogue is so repetitive that it doesn’t really get a chance to be memorable. The voice acting does shine in the final ... episode but at that point it is already too late. The music is also repetitive. Every episode has the same goofy tune which gets really irritating after about the third time you hear it.
Characters: After about the 5th episode they become so predictable that there is no point in them even talking. Instead of building on these characters the cast just expands with even more flat characters.
Story. This show is tedious. Every episode is like wading through oatmeal. The story starts out interesting and goes absolutely nowhere for 22 episodes. Its just filler through and through. On top of that every episode follows the exact same formula with minor alterations just so we can tell episodes apart. It becomes the same nothing over and over again. There is a main plot but it takes place over 4 episodes, making 22 episodes a complete waste of time. I admit the main plot is ok and actually has some substance. The problem is it is easily drowned out by the fluff surrounding it. This show tries to be a comedy but manages to become completely unfunny. I didn’t laugh once. The closest I would ever come to laughter was a long depressing sigh. With a drawn out story, bland characters, and a complete lack of humor the show really isn’t worth it. If you judge the show by the 4 real episodes its ok. However, a review is not fair if you pick and choose and 22 terrible episodes ruin the average. If you like harem, ecchi, or comedy there are better shows out there so I would say don’t waste your time with this one.

to love ru, one of my favorite manga, got the shaft here.

first and foremost i have to say this, i hate filler, but believe that it can be done right, and can be worth watching

there are a total of 2 non filler episodes, 3 episodes that are half filler half in the manga, and the rest is filler. i made it half way through episode 15 before i couldn't go on anymore. from my count they had up to chapter 104 to work with, at least up to chapter 58. the filler in this anime is all just bad... inexcusably bad.

the art is ... ok, but cant drive a story on art alone, the sound is there and noting is annoying, the characters are there, mostly manga, but there seams to be some filler in their personalities too.

i will finish this some day because im a completionist, but i can NOT recommend ANYONE watch this crap. and im not saying this is bad because its just filler, its REALLY BAD FILLER

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SERIES.
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To love ru is a series about an alien girl who fled from her home to escape forced marriage and then landed on earth where she accidentally gets engaged with a random boy when he accidentally fondles her boobs. And then from there its just mindless stuff with nothing actually going for it.
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.The animation was decent for the 2008 standard of animation. And that's the only positive thing I can think of about this series.
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... The protagonist is a trash beta male.
The fanservice scenes are mostly disgusting.
Characters are bland, boring, and forgettable
The story was bad or should I say there was no story at all.
The ecchi scenes weren't enjoyable at the least.
The ecchi scenes consist of "tentacle rape" and "NTR" which grossed me out big times
The pace was all over the place.
Comedy/Humour wasn't funny at all.

Holy crap!! What the hell is this??
I never thought that this kind of piece is exist in anime industry!!!
I'm sorry for any fans, but I personally don't like it!

Listen!
The story is crap! No progress... I gave it a chance until 10 episode, almost one season end, but no progress at all... And I dropped it because I can't stand it anymore. 80% of my neurons died because of this!

Fans services are decent, but the jokes are shit.
I kept my poker face through the episode.

... The male main character is plain, bullshit, crap, and useless.
In this anime, he becomes star which any hot girls are dying for him... but in the real world, no one cares.
I want to punch my monitor every time he appears in every scenes.

But I'll be honest, I kept watching this anime because of the music. Opening theme and ending theme are great. Even the background musics are outstanding.

But, only the music.
So, I won't recommend this anime to anyone! Else, your brain will die! Your neuron will die! Your life will meaningless...

The MyAnimeList reviewing scheme suggests that giving a show a 2/10 implies that I found said show "Horrible." For the most part, this is not inaccurate, but when it comes to To LOVE-Ru, it doesn't really fit. This is an anime that is not so much horrible as it is horribly dull—an atrocity of mediocrity if you will. I'll get deeper into the plot and characters later but, fundamentally, the cardinal flaw with this show is that it is an ecchi series without very good ecchi. There is all the lack of plot and weak characterization you might expect from a major ecchi series, but ... very little of the fanservice-filled payoff. It’s like porn without the porn—nothing, in other words. 26 episodes of vapid, vacuous, banal, stale, insipid nothingness. It is natural then that I regret watching To LOVE-Ru, for who would consider watching nothing for 26 episodes an enriching way to pass the time?

Of course, To LOVE-Ru does, in fact, have the very vaguest semblance of a plot (at least in the first few episodes). Our main character, a man with a propensity for falling down on top of attractive women, is named Yuuki Rito. He lives a normal high school life... that is, until something shocking happens in the bath one day. While the unsuspecting Rito is minding his own business, a naked alien girl named Lala (who looks indistinguishable from a human besides her bright pink hair and tail) falls on top of him out of nowhere. Through a series of extraordinarily contrived misunderstandings, Rito accidentally proposes to this girl despite actually being in love with Haruna Sairenji, another girl at his school. Naturally, being utterly incapable of expressing himself to girls his age, he finds himself unable to call off the accidental proposal, and likewise unable to profess his love to the real girl of his dreams. To make things worse, the reason Lala ended up in Rito’s bath in the first place is that she is the crown princess of one of the most powerful civilizations in the galaxy––the Devilukeans––and was trying to escape a political marriage. As a result, any attempts by Rito to break off the engagement would likely offend the Devilukeans and might end not only in his death but the death of the entire world. So, with tensions as high as they are, Rito is obviously immediately inspired to go out and face his problems, clear up any misunderstandings and—just kidding, he acts like the hero he is and continues with his daily life as though nothing is wrong.

Yes, while a number of other aliens show up to either try to assassinate Rito or convince Lala to cancel the proposal, and countless other girls show up and dilute the situation further, as far as progress, there is none to be seen. Instead, the show remains in an awkward limbo, with Rito clearly in a situation in pressing need of his attention yet making only the most feeble and infrequent attempts at remedying this fact. In truth, most of the episodes don't even mention the main plot at all. Rather, they resort to episode long filler plots which range from bad to appalling. We see everything from Lala bringing in some alien tentacle monsters (animated with horrible CG) to cook and getting groped by them instead, to some insignificant side character dreaming about being in feudal Japan.

To summarize, the story is questionable and mostly ignored—there may as well be no story. But as I wrote above, in an ecchi show such as this one, sacrificing plot for fanservice is common practice—I daresay I prefer it that way. No one in their right mind would watch this show hoping for a complex or emotional story to blow them away, as that would only get in the way of what really matters here: the fanservice. What they might hope for, however, is a plot that would facilitate as much fanservice as possible. And here, is the heart of the issue. Despite advertising itself as "a romantic comedy full of slapstick humor, sexy girls, and outlandishly lewd moments that defy the laws of physics," To LOVE-Ru contains a surprising dearth of lewdness. 90% of the fanservice in this series is composed of little more than panty shots and Rito being an accidental pervert by falling on top of girls, and the other 10% is rarely much better. Sometimes the series will go for almost an entire episode with very little fanservice, instead caught up in its lackluster filler plots—filler plots like the one about feudal Japan I mentioned above, which create practically no good opportunities for sexual moments. How could this become a flagship of the ecchi genre when it does ecchi in such a mediocre way? From what I have heard, this situation was largely caused by the anime deviating heavily from the manga, which is apparently much better. Certainly, if there is one good thing about To LOVE-Ru it is the character designs, which were taken directly from the manga.

On the topic of characters, I think it is high time I discussed them. To get straight to the point, they are cliché and uninspired. And unlike with the plot, being ecchi is absolutely not an acceptable reason for bad characters. Series like Nisemonogatari are proof that fanservice shows are perfectly capable of having well-written and unique characters. Now, rather than talk about them broadly, I think the best thing for me to do at this point is to scrutinize each and every character in needless detail.
So, without further ado, let's begin.


Main Characters


Rito Yuuki: From head to toe, Rito is comprised of little more than the standard elements of your friendly neighborhood harem protagonist. He's nice, bad at talking to girls, clumsy and if the size of his harem is any indication, the most attractive man in the galaxy. Only one little thing: he is absolutely, 100%, completely and fully opposed to anything even remotely sexual. Just imagining a girl in a swimsuit is too much for his sex-averse mind to handle. In this way, this show’s failures stem largely from the failures of this one aspect of this one character: someone thought it would be a good idea to make the lewdest show around about a kid who doesn’t like lewd things. It is one thing to have the protagonist of, say, a battle shounen be sex-averse, but for the main character of an ecchi anime to act that way is like trying to make a sports anime about a character who has a grudge against sports. Pure and simple: it doesn’t make any sense. I realize that such timid protagonists are not uncommon in ecchi harem shows like this, but I have always found this fact baffling, and this show certainly does nothing to reduce my confusion.

Of course, the show does at least make feeble attempts at addressing this obvious contradiction, and it does so rather creatively by attempting to have Rito become the preeminent accidental pervert of the anime world. And this, to be totally and completely honest, is not actually such a bad idea. Now, instead of having some unsympathetic loser who goes around groping women as our main character, we have a fine, respectable young man who just… accidentally finds himself groping women sometimes. In a good anime, this could be a resounding success, creating lots of fanservice in an interesting way, but this is not a good anime. The vast majority of Rito’s accidental perversion takes the form of him falling on top of girls, and in doing so, finding his hands and/or face where they really don’t belong. Sometimes these scenes are amusing, but by the end, they are so overused and so rarely varied upon that they quickly become tiresome more than anything.

Ultimately, Rito is mostly generic, and where he does deviate from the norm, he rarely achieves anything of particular note. With such a weak foundation on which to build the rest of the show, it is little surprise that To LOVE-Ru is so spectacularly unsuccessful.


Lala Satalin Deviluke: Rito’s fiancée Lala is nothing groundbreaking either character-wise, but she remains one of the stronger characters the show has to offer. Her personality is bubbly, upbeat, and... well, not very complex, but her demeanor is so resoundingly positive that I have great difficulty maintaining any lasting dislike for her. In essence, she is a bundle of joy, and while she is not the most richly wrought character to ever come out of the world of anime, her frequent presence is one of the few features that make this slog of a show bearable.

Besides her personality, the other main aspect that sets Lala apart is her inventing abilities. Though she never comes off as particularly intelligent, we are told to believe that she is, in fact, a genius who regularly invents devices capable of nearly anything. Naturally, To LOVE-Ru being the show that it is, “nearly anything” usually takes the form of a device that causes fanservice-y shenanigans in some capacity. Be it a teleporter that causes the teleportees to lose their clothes along the way, a machine that swaps the genders of its users, or a pair of glasses that allows one to see through clothes, Lala’s inventions never fail to impress. As one of the few consistent producers of quality fanservice in the show, it is always a delight when an episode centers on one of these, though like all the good things this anime has to offer, they don’t seem to appear as often as they should.


Haruna Sairenji: Rito’s dream girl could best be described as blandness incarnate. The reason for Rito’s attraction to her, if we are to surmise from the two minutes dedicated to the subject during the first few episodes, is her extreme kindness. At first, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with this, but as the show progresses it becomes increasingly apparent that the reason that Rito finds her kindness to be her most appealing characteristic is largely that it is her only characteristic of note. Despite being one of the most important characters in the show, her personality can pretty comprehensively be described with the word “nice.” Though she never does anything actively offensive, her oppressive boringness made me quickly come to dislike any time she appeared on screen (which was quite frequent given that she is a major character). This dislike was only compounded by the fact that every time Rito is in her presence, he immediately becomes a blubbering, retarded cow of a human being and finds himself utterly incapable of expressing even the most basic of thoughts without stuttering seven thousand times. Even given that this kind of awkwardness is typical of anime romances, the extreme to which Rito takes it quickly makes it change from endearing and cute to tiresome and grating.


Side Characters


Konjiki no Yami (Golden Darkness): The “Golden Darkness” is a cold and distant alien assassin capable of transforming any part of its body into a weapon. It was sent to the earth to murder Rito so that Lala could be married off to some other alien prince. After it meets Rito in person, however, it discovers that he is actually kindhearted, and decides that killing him would be wrong. For the rest of show it remains officially still carrying out its mission to off Rito, but really just living on earth because it has come to like it there.

Oh, and it takes the form of a cute girl that goes by “Yami-chan.” Obviously. Cute girls can be cold-blooded killers too!

Yami as a concept is probably the most compelling any character in To LOVE-Ru gets, though, between her appearance, her dispassionate personality, and her status as a living weapon, she draws a few too many similarities with Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion to call her wholly original. If anything, she suffers from the same issue that Rito did: as an idea, she’s not bad, and in a good anime she would be a successful character, but (as has been firmly established) a good anime this is not. She’s given none of the development a character with a setup this interesting deserves, instead mostly being used as the token deadpan girl and occasionally using her turning-body-parts-into-weapons ability for slapstick humor. If there is one character in this show who deserves to be a part of a better anime then it is surely the “Golden Darkness.”


Run Elsie Jewelria and Ren Elsie Jewelria: A childhood friend of Lala’s that comes to earth aiming to woo her. Run and Ren are really two separate personalities that live in one body as an alien that switches between male (Ren) and female (Run) every time it sneezes. As an idea for a character, sneeze induced gender-bending is so bizarre that it’s hard to really criticize it, and actually, Ren and Run’s personalities are fairly unique as well. Ren tries to win Lala’s affection by performing various masculine feats in the hopes of outdoing Rito, and Run, after (unsurprisingly) falling for Rito herself, ends up becoming an idol to try and impress him. Run and Ren are among the more infrequently appearing characters in the show, but when they do appear it is always a pleasure to see them.


Yui Kotegawa: Yui Kotegawa is a tsundere. By reading that one sentence, anyone could come to understand the entirety of her character, because that’s really all there is to it. There are no other nuances, no creative new takes, nothing—she is nothing more a tsundere at its purest and most creatively bankrupt. Well, perhaps I should give her at least a little bit more credit: there is, at the very least, a backstory. She is the president of the school’s morals committee and finds Rito’s accidental perversions repugnant, yet simultaneously she realizes that she is attracted to him for some poorly explained reason. Whatever her feeble reasons may be, though, the fact remains that Yui Kotegawa is a walking cliché.


Mikan Yuuki: Mikan is Rito’s responsible little sister who essentially acts as his mother while their actual parents are conspicuously absent for nearly the entirety of the show. She appears frequently early on, but her influence wanes as the show progresses, to the point that she gets relatively little character development. This is really too bad, because, while not stunningly original, she has a sort of snarky air in the first few episodes which was one of the few things in this show that I found amusing. Plus, I find that it is always interesting to see the reaction of those close to harem leads as things get crazier. Alas, like so many elements of this show, any interest Mikan might have held was crushed by awful execution.


Kenichi Saruyama: Saruyama is the perverted best friend at its most tired and bland. He is so bland, in fact, that he holds the impressively unimpressive distinction of being my least favorite character in this show. His personality is so utterly formulaic that it could have been replaced with countless other similar characters from other shows and I suspect no one would even notice. To make matters worse, rather than appearing infrequently for (unfunny) comic relief like most characters of his ilk do, he often appears prominently, even taking the spotlight in a few places. Not only is he the main character of the bizarre and out of place feudal Japan episode I mentioned above, but he also is the focus of perhaps the worst episode of the entire show (although there are many candidates for this), in which an ugly alien creature gives birth in the school clinic and Saruyama is forced to help with the birth and later become a father figure for the child. God knows what extraordinary lapse of judgment must have occurred for the writers to think that making an episode about a side character helping an alien give birth was what this show needed.


Principal: Why does this character exist? The principal is the disgusting old man who runs Rito’s school and appears regularly as so-called “comic relief” to make public displays of his lust for high school girls. Because that’s funny. The only saving grace for this abomination of a character is that even the writers seemed to agree that he’s awful, and he doesn’t appear very often. Additionally, unlike Saruyama, when he does appear, we don’t have to suffer through entire episodes with him as the main character.


Saki Tenjouin: Tenjouin is the token pretentious, arrogant “Ojou” character. When she appears, she is always accompanied by two of her lackeys and tends to spend most of her time flaunting her class and purportedly extreme attractiveness. Her main purpose, however, is to serve as something along the lines of Lala’s rival in the early part of the show. I say “something along the lines of” because Lala more or less ignores her presence, and she spends most of her time making a fool of herself in fanservice-y ways. She’s irritating, but intentionally so, and honestly the episodes where she appears prominently tend to be some of the better ones in the show, so I harbor relatively little animosity towards her.


Shizu Murasame: The award for the most pointless character in this show must surely go to this ghost girl, who appears in one episode about a haunted old school building and then just sort of continues showing up for some reason. She never really contributes anything to the show—she doesn’t appear to share any meaningful relationships with any other characters, never adds anything of value to the plot, has no comedic purpose, has no interesting dialog, never plays a part in any fanservice, she simply exists. It is as though the writers felt that some scenes seemed empty, so they created a new character, but couldn’t be bothered to give her a reason to be there.


Risa Momioka and Mio Sawada: These best friends and classmates of Rito exist more or less entirely to compare the boob sizes of girls in Rito's class… and then grope them just to be sure. Now, while I feel a deep admiration for anyone who has found a purpose in life as enviable as this, I do slightly question if this show needs not one, but two characters dedicated to showcasing it. At any rate, necessary or otherwise, these two are a staple of the show, appearing frequently to spice things up with a little sexual harassment.


To sum up, most of the side characters can be defined by a few characteristics, the major characters are shallow and dull, and those characters that are interesting either appear infrequently or are poorly executed. The exact significance of having such weak characters may vary from person to person, but for me, it is the final damning blow in cementing To LOVE-Ru as a truly hopeless affair. I have not dedicated 2,000 words to lambasting these characters purely because it is fun (although to be fair, it is quite fun), but rather because I find that good characters are integral to creating a good show. Not only are they the foundation on which every other part of the work stands, they are the aspect of the work which most directly connects it to the reader. If I can empathize with a character, it makes the entire story all the more meaningful to me. And if, as with this show, I cannot connect with any characters, then it makes the experience merely a distant and pointless waste of my time.

For the most part then, the character designs are really the only good things the characters have to offer, and without any fanservice of particular merit, these designs are rarely put to good use. It is, I suppose, worth mentioning that the quality of the character designs also extends to the rest of the show’s appearance—the art style is certainly one of the very few strong points To LOVE-Ru has to offer. Although this is purely speculation, I suspect that the reason the character designs and art style stand out so much from the rest of the show is that they come directly from the manga, of which this anime is likely a botched adaption. Perhaps the blame for this animated abomination does not lie with Kentaro Yabuki—the To LOVE-Ru manga’s artist—but rather with the fine folks at Xebec animation studios who thought it would be a fantastic idea to take a successful manga, use its characters and scenarios, and then make an entire season of brainless filler content instead of actually following it. Granted, I’m sure the manga is not high art either, but I am certain that it, at the very least, has the decency to compensate for its lack of depth with some honest-to-god fanservice.

Ah, saga of the eternal suffering of average japanese celibate. Surrounded by beautiful girls whose name he can't pronounce without shaking like a koala shitting from the tree main character doesn't have a slightest clue what he wants and even when he does get it then he doesn't want it. Confused much? Yeah, so was I. To me it was unbelievable that any teenager would reject naked hot girl lying in bed with him because of his high-school crush who keeps avoiding him. As main character Rito excels at exactly one thing, being as annoying as humanly possible while constantly screaming on top of his ... lungs, trait we are suppose to treat humorously it seems. Personally I'd rather get my nasal hair waxed daily than watch another episode with him in it, which is the main reason why I only watched three episodes. One can have only so much nasal hair and patience to withstand such torture, mine ran out after third.

Other characters are no better. While "comedic" overreaction which made dogs in my neighborhood howl for hours on end is missing or at least toned down they are equally one dimensional. Haruna is supposedly in love with screamer-kun but she rarely notices him while looking perpetually confused by everything. Am also thinking she might be a plot-ninja since spawning at the worst possible time and place seems to be her unique skill in this universe where a space battle can occur and two ships fall on planet earth without so much of a hint of government reaction.

Am not going to comment on art and sound because this is not Demon Slayer level of art and even if it were am not sure it would be enough to carry the show for me. Though they have about the same depth and level of plot development. So there's that.

I'd say it's not worth the watch. From what little I've seen counting rice looked like more entertaining endeavor and no level of story writing can compensate for annoying characters and poor initial setup. I might be wrong, but am usually not. Some people like it, probably due to abundance of preadolescent and uncensored tits being shown, because let us not forget this is ecchi show with 18+ rating happening in school filled with 16 years olds.

This is a couple years after my viewing, but I thought I should say something anyways. The reason it's even coming up is because the show was mentioned somewhere and got me thinking about how I don't even remember finishing it, and I was wondering if I had dropped it. Coming here, I see that I actually did, in fact, drop it, and all of its sequels, about half way through.

Why did I drop it? Because it is boring. Unbearably boring.

I guess I should have seen it coming, since it's an ecchi. So there's going to be big anime tiddies and gratuitous fanservice. But the ... thing is, Kill la Kill is also an ecchi, and KlK is fucking awesome.

So what does KlK do right that this show does so horribly, horribly wrong? I'm not completely sure, probably because it's been so long since I last attempted to watch it, but there are things in this show that irked me from the first episode.

First of all, nothing ever happens. From the first episode, we're introduced to this impossibly clumsy protagonist, who always manages to fall onto random women, with his face ending up in either their crotches or their big anime tiddies. Then the girl screams and Johnny Bravo's him, and he feels embarrassed until the alien girl (can't even bother to remember her name. Lala?) bursts into the room with some insane shenanigans that either blows up the area or results in an alien coming to challenge the guy for her hand in marriage, despite the fact that she is completely head over heels for the protagonist and will obviously not go for the challenger no matter how badly they kick the protagonist's ass, either because she's a rebel or because she's eccentric, I don't remember. This happens EVERY. SINGLE. EPISODE. It's ridiculous.

I feel like this show has an element of tongue-in-cheek to it, like it's not taking itself seriously, but at the same time, I feel like they got the execution completely wrong, so it ends up being boring instead of funny. I only managed to put up with 15 episodes before I dropped it.

oh...that was like two things...

I also put some comments on my list entry. I usually do this for the REALLY good/bad shows as a "note to self" in case I forgot why my opinion was so extreme. If that makes any sense. I feel like my fresh commentary from the time will help. Maybe. Here's what I wrote:



"It took me 7 months to watch 15 episodes. This show is so boring that I just can't do it. Every episode is the same. Here's the formula: protagonist slips on a banana peel and falls into one of his classmates' vaginae. An alien comes from another planet to either kill/marry/rape/strip the protagonist/lala, the alien princess who fell in love with him out of boredom because she fell naked into his bathtub from space.



If that sounded like the plot to a porno, that's because it is. They just pussed out of going all the way and as a result this is horrible both as a show, and as a hentai.



Fail."

Oh yeah, there's also a girl the protagonist has a crush on. I don't remember her name. she's the purple haired girl in the top left of the cover art.

But nobody gives a fu