To LOVE-Ru
This… this….. had soooo much goooood. SOO MUCH. Byong Boing! That’s the sound breasts make if you didn’t know! Do you like 2D Girls (Who doesn’t?), do you like the ecchi/lewd nature of anime (.. I DO!)…… do you want to watch something that is both funny and infuriating at the same time? (Probably not) To Love-Ru is all that and more! =)
So To LOVE-Ru is about Rito Yuuki, a boy who is, like your typical Harem shows, afraid of all things related to girls. He gets incredibly flustered at the slightest thought of anything slightly naughty… for instance, imagining his crush in a bikini will cause him to overheat and flip out and just “die”; if you hate hate hate seeing MC’s who act like that, skip To Love-RU, almost every single episode, say for maybe 2 of the 26, involve him getting into situations like that. If you can handle this type of personality, To LOVE-Ru rewards you with many many many many ecchi scenes.
The story starts out with Yuuki taking a bath when all of a sudden Lala appears naked in his bath and he just happens to be holding her breasts. Unfortunately for him, the way to propose a marriage to an alien of the Deviluke planet is to…. You guessed it!..... grab the breasts of the woman you want to marry. This is the beginning of To Love-Ru and for the most part, it stays comedic and fun throughout.
As I mentioned above, Lala is our alien from Deviluke, she’s super gorgeous, incredibly pretty, has a beautiful and radiant personality, full of bubbly lovey goodness. She has a super cute tail and she has a helper named Peke who can change her outfits on a whim. Some of the best scenes involve Peke changing her outfits, because Peke will wrap himself around her causing Lala to moan in rather sensual matters.
Now, a harem can’t consist of just one girl now, can it? So the others are, Haruna, Yuuki’s crush. She has a very shy personality and even though she likes Yuuki, they both tend to act the same when alone, flustered, shy, no words to say. Don’t except “anything” to happen between the two of them. We also have Yami-chan, she’s an assassin who is sent to kill Yuuki, but discovers that Yuuki is actually a really kind guy and she sort of falls for him; I think she’s absolutely amazing and her ability is super incredible ; she’s also the gothic Lolita of the show; so…… yeah. There is also Run-chan, who is one of the best characters of the anime. Being an alien, he changes genders in both body and mind 100% whenever he sneezes. As a male, he’s totally in love with Lala and tries to prove how much of a man he is. As a female, she will try her best to get Yuuki to notice her. As a female, she’s one of the best looking girls in the anime and is just so pretty . Then come the cast of supports who just happen to be a part of the harem or somehow involved with Lala or Yuuki, I won’t list them all, but Mikado-sensei is definitely one to look out for, she’s pretty great.
So a large cast of characters, a story that makes very little sense and a lot of episodes for something that should probably only be a 1-cour show; how does To LOVE-Ru keep people watching all the way through? Well easy; throughout most of the anime, To LOVE-Ru takes the direction of introducing other aliens who continually try to propose to Lala and fail. There are episodes where Lala tries to please Yuuki as much as possible, there are episodes that include some tentacle action, there are many episodes where the show is simply slice of life goodness. Around half way or so, we’re introduced to Lala’s father and for a second, a real plot starts up, but no… not at all. After that episode the anime goes back into its standard harem fairs and things. The best thing and probably the saving grace for To Love-RU are the ecchi related scenes. Pantsu shots? Yeah, expect to see at least 2-3 pairs of panties being shown per episode. Boobs? Yeah, expect to see the great breasts almost each episode (or honestly, every episode). Skin? Yesss, there is a lot of skin shown in To LOVE-Ru, backside shots, butts, thighs and all sorts of things. Ecchi/lewd is really where To LOVE-Ru shines and it’s the only reason anyone would really want to watch To LOVE-Ru. It’s a harem, with a rather lame MC, great and super cute girls and a lot of fun when Yuuki isn’t involved as much. I know the later seasons really spice things up and thank goodness, I don’t believe To LOVE-Ru could continue on with its direction for much longer before just becoming a chore to watch.
Art: It’s 100% static and very plain. The wind moves, but only to reveal pantsu (not complaining) and blow the girls hair. Nothing looks “good” really, aside from the girls themselves. The school is plain, the background art is plain, and everything is really….really plain. Thank goodness the colors are visually rewarding and the girls are pretty and cute. Aside from that, there is detail elsewhere. Shading where it counts, lines drawn in ways to give the viewers a better “understanding” at what they’re looking at, in this regard, huuuge A+ to the art team peoples, you did your job and fulfilled the ecchi role incredibly well, bravo!
Music/Sound: An aspect that To LOVE-Ru actually excels at. Great use of BGM, great understanding of when to begin and stop music, great music choices to begin with! The OP is amazing, as is the first ED, but the 2nd ED with Haruna as the key focus, that might be one of the best ED’s ever, it’s seriously so good to listen to and the art with Haruna is just incredible; for instance, there is heavy emphasis on her lips and man, it looks good; it’s simply amazing, really, they make Haruna not just look “good”, but incredibly attractive, more than normal.
To LOVE-Ru, an anime filled with ecchi, filled with lewd, filled with super cute girls. That’s really all there is to say about it; I expected something similar to what I received. Lala, however was the highlight of the entire anime and when the story plot started to matter (last two episodes), she did what I never thought she would do, simply because Yuuki is a loser…. I really hope Haruna and Yuuki get together in Motto, because it’s getting tiring seeing them act so ridiculous around one another . If not, then the lewd needs to be a lot better to really keep interest, much more risqué and more of it too.
NOTE: The below are my rather.... mind losing impressions of the OVA's, don't read, it contains a lot of "oh my gao/gau's" and me yelling names....
OVA: Episode 1: OH MY GAO, that’s incredible! I think To LOVE-Ru would be a ton better if it had Yuuki be like this instead, especially since he’s all “ooooh noooo, girls”, and stuff. I wish his personality was changed though, that would have made this so much better; but Lala is amazing. Saki, this episode made her absolutely amazing and incredible, goooo SAKI!
Episode 2: Mikan (Yuuki’s imouto) is way too cute this episode, so unbelievably adorable! Yuuki-baka! Yami-san continues to just be an all-around amazing girl and Haruna actually did something this episode, in an OVA, but still, she did something! Yuuki Baka Baka Baka Baka!!
Episode 3: An island resort consisting only of the girls? Yes please. Bikini’s everywhere, rubbing oil on each other, butts, thighs, boobs, and a little more of… oh this is heaven!
