To Love Ru...
To Love Ru, on its face, bears a passing resemblance to the beloved classic, Urusei Yatsura. So, of course, I had to see if the new alien on the block, Lala, compares favorably, or not, to Lum...
To Love Ru is fairly fan service heavy with a lot of low angle views of girls' skirts, compromising positions, bare breasts with nipples, bare bottoms, of course, the requisite tenticled beasties, and gratuitously revealing transformation sequences. The first few episodes concentrate on the impossible nature of Rito's predicament. To complicate matters or make things more interesting, depending on your point of view, Lala has a companion that can transform into any article of clothing that Lala wants to wear. But, of course, when the companion's power runs out, the clothes come off. Despite the copious amounts of fan service and the many compromising positions that Lala and Rito find themselves in, there are no actual naughty bits. And, aside from the occasional nose bleed, there isn’t really any red ink in the series.
In To Love Ru, Lala has a penchant for inventing dangerously insidious technology and succeeds in causing chaos and mayhem with science. There's the giant vacuum cleaner that is so powerful, it can rip trees out of the ground and Lala forgets how to turn it off. Or, an inter-dimensional refrigerator that can store any amount of food, through which, the aforementioned giant tenticled beasties emerge. And so on and so forth. Hilarity ensues. Then, Lala's guardian, Zastin, the aforementioned thug in knight's armor, has his own issues. Zastin is obsessively defensive in regards to Lala and when the local class queen challenges Lala to a swimsuit competition, Zastin misinterprets this as a threat on Lala's life and institutes security measures which have disastrous consequences. Then, there's Ren. Can anyone say Ranma 1/2?
As the series progresses, Rito shows a certain amount of growth as he adapts surprisingly well to strange alien visitors, bizarre inventions run amok and all the other complications that come with being engaged to an alien princess. To Love Ru cannot really escape comparisons to Urusei Yatsura, but, nonetheless stands well on its own and was reasonably enjoyable to watch. Beyond the fan service, there's not much in the way of eye candy, but, the story is engaging and well-paced. There is a tendency in the series to revert, in its story telling, to an alien-of-the-week format where new aliens pop up in many episodes to complicate Lala and Rito's lives.
There are some anime fans who might argue that To Love Ru is among the worst anime ever made, but, I disagree. Overall, To Love Ru was reasonably entertaining, but, the series does have some flaws and cannot wholly escape the long shadow cast by Urusei Yatsura. There are no naughty bits or gore to speak of, but, there is a lot of fan service. Given the extraordinary amounts of fan service, this series is not suitable for the youngest anime fans among us. Also, you will have to read your anime as the series is subtitled only. Even so, I would still give To Love Ru a 3 out of 5. While Lum will always have a special place in my heart, there is room for Lala as well. As it happens, I picked up the individual season sets for the first two seasons during their initial run. I didn't really feel a compelling need to have all four seasons. But, at the time of this writing, all four seasons are now available in one box as a multi-disc mega-set.
To Love Ru opens with Lala being pursued by a desperate gang of black-suited brutes and a thug, in what appears to be knight’s armor. Enter Rito, a typical human boy who finds himself at the center of a shotgun engagement with the escaped alien Princess Lala and with Lala's family threatening to destroy the Earth if he even thinks about breaking the engagement. As the fickle hand of fate toys with Rito as a cat would play with a mouse, Rito finds himself in an impossible situation. Due to a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, Rito, is unable to confess his love for his true sweetheart, Haruna, and the more he tries to get close to Haruna, the more events and aliens seem to conspire against him.Season 1
They say that the bathroom is the most dangerous room in the house, but when a beautiful, naked alien princess teleports into Rito Yuki's bathtub, it's a definite case of rub-a-dub-doom! Having no idea that the planet Deviluke even exists, Rito is completely unaware that touching a girl's breasts there is how they propose marriage. Consequently, due to some slippery tile and some extra-prominent female appendages, Rito's suddenly on his way to being a member of the royal family. Unfortunately, as hot as Lala is, this is one royal family no one wants to become a part of given that her father, King Deviluke, bears a suspicious resemblance to the devil! And then there's the little issue of the very nice human girl that Rito's already interested in, who's probably not going to be too understanding of his sudden involvement in intergalactic affairs. Will Rito become the next king of the galaxy? Will he learn the secret of the Big Bang?
Season 2
Motto To Love Ru
The insanity that began when a very naked (and very female) alien teleported into Rito Yuki's bathtub (while he was in it) continues. And even though Princess Lala has finally started to admit her true feelings for the young man she's inexplicably engaged to marry (as a result of what happened in said bathtub and Deviluke customs), her sometimes erratic technology and the snags and snarls of intergalactic politics and intrigue are still causing major problems.
That transporter? Yeah, it still has the nasty habit of leaving the clothes behind. Alien bounty hunters? Yep, even more of them and they're even more devious. Add body switches, alien skunks, a bathroom that changes size and shape, the inevitable sleepover that you just know it's going to go horribly, horribly wrong (spoiler: it does). Worst of all, there's Valentine's Day, and even in space you'll be able to hear Rito scream!
Season 3
To Love Ru Darkness
As close encounters of the twisted kind between the residents of the planet Deviluke (represented primarily by the female members of the royal family) and the inhabitants of Earth (represented mainly by one very exhausted Rito Yuuki) continue to escalate, the situation spirals even further out of control.
When junior princesses Nana and Momo transferred into Earth School where big sister Lala can (theoretically) keep an eye on them, things SHOULD be smooth sailing. But when Momo decides she'd like to supplement Rito's relationship with Lala with a little "sisterly love," you know Lala's not going to waste any time splitting harems.
Unfortunately, it's just about that point that Yami, the Golden Darkness, enters the scene with all the subtleness of a supernova, along with an army of possessed high school students! All of which is certain to make Rito's life suck more than a black hole at the family picnic. Unless, of course, a certain semi-demonic princess can apply a little of her Devilukean Whoop Ass to exactly that portion of certain other heavenly bodies!
Season 4
To Love Ru Darkness 2
Rito Yuki's latest close encounters are starting to resemble a straight out invasion! While intergalactic romance is out of this world, attracting such high voltage vixens is not unlike being a fork stuck into an anti-matter engine to retrieve a plutonium bagel; it definitely messes with your head and heart.
Rito struggles to grasp how he can love more than one girl at once, all while his inability to confess to his human paramour, Haruna, causes Devilukean Princess Momo's Harem Plan to come to a standstill.
On top of that, the transforming assassin, Golden Darkness, is still interested in killing him, but she has her own family issues to deal with. Not to mention, a different darkness lurks among the innocent pandemonium.
Things are just as out of control as always, but danger is on the horizon in TO LOVE RU DARKNESS 2!
To Love Ru is fairly fan service heavy with a lot of low angle views of girls' skirts, compromising positions, bare breasts with nipples, bare bottoms, of course, the requisite tenticled beasties, and gratuitously revealing transformation sequences. The first few episodes concentrate on the impossible nature of Rito's predicament. To complicate matters or make things more interesting, depending on your point of view, Lala has a companion that can transform into any article of clothing that Lala wants to wear. But, of course, when the companion's power runs out, the clothes come off. Despite the copious amounts of fan service and the many compromising positions that Lala and Rito find themselves in, there are no actual naughty bits. And, aside from the occasional nose bleed, there isn’t really any red ink in the series.
In To Love Ru, Lala has a penchant for inventing dangerously insidious technology and succeeds in causing chaos and mayhem with science. There's the giant vacuum cleaner that is so powerful, it can rip trees out of the ground and Lala forgets how to turn it off. Or, an inter-dimensional refrigerator that can store any amount of food, through which, the aforementioned giant tenticled beasties emerge. And so on and so forth. Hilarity ensues. Then, Lala's guardian, Zastin, the aforementioned thug in knight's armor, has his own issues. Zastin is obsessively defensive in regards to Lala and when the local class queen challenges Lala to a swimsuit competition, Zastin misinterprets this as a threat on Lala's life and institutes security measures which have disastrous consequences. Then, there's Ren. Can anyone say Ranma 1/2?
As the series progresses, Rito shows a certain amount of growth as he adapts surprisingly well to strange alien visitors, bizarre inventions run amok and all the other complications that come with being engaged to an alien princess. To Love Ru cannot really escape comparisons to Urusei Yatsura, but, nonetheless stands well on its own and was reasonably enjoyable to watch. Beyond the fan service, there's not much in the way of eye candy, but, the story is engaging and well-paced. There is a tendency in the series to revert, in its story telling, to an alien-of-the-week format where new aliens pop up in many episodes to complicate Lala and Rito's lives.
There are some anime fans who might argue that To Love Ru is among the worst anime ever made, but, I disagree. Overall, To Love Ru was reasonably entertaining, but, the series does have some flaws and cannot wholly escape the long shadow cast by Urusei Yatsura. There are no naughty bits or gore to speak of, but, there is a lot of fan service. Given the extraordinary amounts of fan service, this series is not suitable for the youngest anime fans among us. Also, you will have to read your anime as the series is subtitled only. Even so, I would still give To Love Ru a 3 out of 5. While Lum will always have a special place in my heart, there is room for Lala as well. As it happens, I picked up the individual season sets for the first two seasons during their initial run. I didn't really feel a compelling need to have all four seasons. But, at the time of this writing, all four seasons are now available in one box as a multi-disc mega-set.
