To LOVE-Ru Darkness

One series can only be considered at the forefront of a particular genre that gives it its own identity or face; that series in question would be To Love Ru. It has had a rough start in adapting to the source material by not providing a coherent narrative to the manga. It has made a name for itself for being one of the top ecchi anime, thanks to the later seasons that are somewhat “reboots” if you want to take it that far. Now comes To Love Ru Darkness, a separate manga that continues the story of To Love Ru to breathe new life intoits characters and comedy. To put it bluntly, it is a triumphant sequel that exceeds all expectations. “That’s a perfectly natural behavior for a living creature,” says Mea Kurosaki. This quote itself, in which the word “that” is supposed to signify sexual thoughts, encapsulates the entirety of To Love Ru Darkness’s charm. It tells us how we should view Darkness as nothing more but a fun joy ride through joyous comedy and beautiful girls through sexual feelings, but we shouldn’t be ashamed by this mere fact alone. That is one of the main selling points of the show. It lives off of making us feel excited through hilarious incidents of girls in suggestive situations without making it feel demeaning or deliberate to either of the sexes. This aspect alone that To Love Ru Darkness expresses should be an example that all Ecchi shows should follow, which sadly isn’t always the case. Now to express how all the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph work, unlike in most shows in what Darkness follows, the one thing that works is how every character carries the show with their likability despite their very cliched nature. Cliched in that, you have Yui Kotegawa, the stereotypical tsundere who wants order in the classroom. Nana, who’s another tsundere. Mikan, the younger half-sister who loves him. Yami, the Dandere psychopath. And Haruna, who the protagonist has feelings for, yet she so happens to be in love with him. Despite how many would view cliches as a negative term, however, how Darkness handles them is through sheer charm and personality makes them feel energetic and alive. You even feel contempt for them whenever drama happens between the characters, even with their stereotypical archetypes. However, if one character must have one entire paragraph alone to analyze would be the one and only Momo Deviluke. Because she is the new heroine of the series, replacing Lala, Momo is what makes Darkness unique. Thanks to the glorious voice of Aki Toyosaki, Momo’s sarcastic and devious personality makes her such a delight to see on-screen. The best is when she has one of her humorous fantasies and clever schemes to make the girls fall more in love with Rito. With these things in mind, you might think that Momo’s personality only gives off this one-sided aspect, primarily being a devious pervert throughout the show. I want to describe a scene involving her and Rito in a gym closet room in the last episode. Momo is on top of Rito, seducing him as usual, until we suddenly see Rito finally give in to his instincts and do the same things to her. Then we suddenly see Momo in a very vulnerable state. It isn’t until later that we find out it was just another fantasy that Momo imagined while on top of him. This fantasy she envisioned took her by surprise, something which we had never seen her go through before. It wasn’t until Rito finally tried to stop her by putting his hand on her arm, which suddenly surprised her, and she jumped away from him quickly in fear and respite with her constant breathing and blushing face. We now see Momo in a completely different light than we are used to seeing her before. This scene alone makes Momo a three-dimensional character not through general exposition but character interaction. Something that has changed from previous installments of the series is the art direction. While all characters still look the same, everything is now colored in very bright overtones. While many can argue that Motto To Love Ru's art looked better in terms of how the characters looked, that should not disregard that Darkness’s art still looks excellent in keeping the traditional manga art in context with the show. I’ve always admired the series, and more so in Darkness is how they’ve always drawn the girls and their figures that look gorgeous without overemphasizing anything on their body like other ecchi shows tend to do. Thanks to this, the girls look like high school-aged girls who have just hit their period of going through many body changes. To Love Ru has not been widely known for having an impacting story to show forth underneath its charming fan service; it wasn’t until Darkness that we do have one that fills this very gap. Generally, most people will think that the writers wouldn’t bother writing a competent story because it is an ecchi series, and those typically don’t go so well. While Darkness doesn’t break any new ground in this aspect, it has an exciting twist in the harem genre where the heroine is doing all the work to help our protagonist get all the girls. As I mentioned with Momo’s schemes, her intentions in doing these are very well-handled in how it balances sweet romantic moments and pure fun comedy. Thankfully, there isn’t a sudden tonal shift between drama and humor to make it edgy. The plot might not be a deep one to experience. It doesn’t try to be one in the first place and sticks with it, which is very well appreciated. As a protagonist, I would say Rito can be grating at times in how slow they build him up to be a harem leader after years of seeing him flustered over women falling over him. In Darkness, it still portrays Rito as if he hasn’t experienced a girl falling on him in a questionable position before, even though we’ve seen him in the past in these types of positions countless times before. You’d think he would get used to it by now and not be phased by it after all these months. He still has some moments where he comes across as caring and likable to everyone he meets, so there’s never really a moment where you think to yourself, “Why would any girl fall in love with this boy in the first place?” Onto the comedy itself, needless to say, there will not be one person who is into suggestive comedies to be disappointed with Darkness. Almost every situation is handled with great comedic timing. Whether it be a scene involving Rito bumping into a girl and, in true ecchi fashion, being in an awkward position or a scenario that’s in a constant pace in showing jokes that involves hilarious dialogue, a great example would be between Nana and Mea or Momo, or vice versa. Not all of them hit the right notes throughout the show’s duration. Still, it will nevertheless entertain the masses who love to engage in hilarious perverted comedy like myself. Not only do the characters themselves make the show enjoyable to watch, but the voice acting is what gives them their endearing personality through the sheer talent that Darkness brings to the table. I’ve already mentioned Aki Toyosaki previously, but she’s not the only great Seiyuu in the casting. Kana Hanazawa plays wonderfully as an upstanding little sister for Rito and gives Mikan a clear voice that feels perfect for her. Nana and Momo are among the best sister duos in anime, thanks to the great chemistry between Itou Kanae and Aki Toyosaki. They have previously worked together in a somewhat similar situation in Railgun. Only this time, it’s Aki who plays the devious one instead of Kanae, and it shows that Aki’s voice does fit with that archetype more than Kanae. Finally, we have Kaori Nazuka as Yui Kotegawa, probably one of the best tsundere roles we have had in a long time. Her authoritative voice, combined with childlike embarrassment, will surely make any man’s, no matter what age, heart burst with joy and pure ecstasy. It all comes down to that Darkness won’t win any new fans that aren’t into something like To Love Ru, but even with that said, it is something that you should still at least try to see once to see if it pulls you in. Anyone who is a fan will feel right at home with this new installment that has so much to offer for ecchi fans and people who are fans of the series for more than the fan service. It will be funny and sometimes heartwarming in its romantic undertones for everyone who has followed the franchise. That will ultimately lead to our hunger for more, and for now, with the OVAs coming out to continue it. For now, Darkness is more than enough for us to enjoy while we wait for the next extensive anime installment for To Love Ru. Grade: A

...and the reward for best Ecchi anime of 2012 goes to... To LOVE-Ru Darkness!!! Those of you who do not like Ecchi/fanservice anime might want to stop reading here. This anime focuses mainly on these two things and will most likely not be for you. Now for those who are in to Ecchi/fanservice, I will tell you why i think To LOVE-Ru Darkness is so great. To LOVE-Ru Darkness is a sequel to the original To LOVE-Ru series. I highly suggest watching To LOVE-Ru, Motto To LOVE-Ru, and all the OVA's before you watch Darkness. For those who have watched and are familiar with the ToLOVE-Ru series, To LOVE-Ru Darkness continues straight off from where Motto To LOVE-Ru leaves off. It - believe it or not- actually has a plot to it that extends for more than one episode. The story this time mostly focuses on the alien princess Momo and her harem plan for her beloved Yuuki Rito. We also get a some back story about Yami, who was a side character for most of the To LOVE-Ru series. The plot is nothing special, but it is still pretty good. We get random nonsensical episodes here and there, then we would be thrown back into the actual story. There is a good balance of serious scenes and comedic scenes that makes the series quite enjoyable even if you do not like Ecchi that much. An important thing to remember is not to focus too much on the plot though. Like the other To LOVE-Ru series, the story should not be taken too seriously. The issues do not even get resolved by the last episode, so yes it is a cliff hanger ending. What truly carries this series is it's very appealing fanservice. That brings us to the artwork. The backgrounds are extremely bright and colorful. The characters are beautifully drawn and very hot. If you are looking for an anime with a cast of very sexy girls doing borderline hentai stuff, then this is what you are looking for. The only problem is the bright lights of censorship, but those will be taken away in the blu-ray releases. The characters are really nothing special though. Yes, they are all pretty, but their personalities are as generic as you can get in anime. The way i see it, you can split the characters in to two groups. One side has all of the girls who want the main character, Yuuki Rito , and will be all over him when ever they get screen time. The other side also likes Rito, but they are too shy to express their feelings. Pretty normal for a harem anime. Does this mean that they are not fun to watch? Hell no. Watching their hilarious and erotic interactions with Rito has been great a experience. Many of these scenes are very risque, so it would be best to turn down the volumes and lock your bedroom doors. This is probably the best part of To LOVE-Ru Darkness. Some of the scenes might seem a bit cliche- like the classic falling over and groping a girl's chest scene- but it can still be very amusing. Enjoy To LOVE-Ru for the Ecchi/fanservice because that is where this show excels the most. So what is my overall opinion of this anime? It's a great show, but definitely not perfect. Its ability to only attract a specific audience- the Ecchi/fanservice lovers- severely lowers it's potential. For those of us who do favor fanservice heavy shows, then this is like a treasure among treasures. Definitely give this a shot because you'll like what you see.

To love ru darkness, brings up the new hope about how a harem anime which usually have negative comments can make all that comments gone. A common knowledge to all the anime lover that harem anime is usually is lack in the plot and story, since what makes harem anime interesting is fanservice and all beautiful or moe girl. If you have ever seen The World God Only Knows then maybe you have seen a good example how a harem anime can turn into from fun harem into a serious harem anime (in story aspects). Back to the To Love Ru darkness , ifyou have ever seen the previous season of To love ru darkness (To love ru and Motto to love ru), maybe you will realize the "gap" between this anime between the previous season. Not just from the score (which TLR darkness have bigger score than the two previous) but also from story aspects. if those previous seasons are TOTALLY random and doesnt have strong plot or story then this anime was 180 degree between those two. honestly, i really feel relieved since To love ru is getting better in each season, from the season 1 which is really abstract and season 2 which like a gag anime and to the season 3 (TLR darkness) which i felt like my effort for watching this series is paid off. To love ru darkness or we can called TLR darkness, is focussing on Momo (Lala's sister) and Mae (Yami's sister) story. As for Mae, she is the new character that just appears in this season. Anyway, this anime has two main story, for the first one is Momo obssession to make a harem plan for Rito, since she thinks with the harem plan Rito can make all the girl happy, and for the second was about Mae and Yami (i am not gonna spoil it). So, what makes this season differences between those two previous season? First it was the story itself, So this series FINALLY have a story? YES IT IS! we have a main goal and know what this story about, and it obviously different with other season, like Motto To love ru, until i had finished Motto, i still dont know what the story about and it really like Shinyraku Ika Musume which have 3 different stories in each episode (I love Ika musume), but honestly it didnt fits well for a series like To love ru. Back again to TLR darkness, after the story lets talk about the art. This maybe the whole reason why people love to watch TLR darkness. I am not gonna exaggerate it but it was superbly amazing! my first impression was extremely colourful and, so bright. The lines for the character design is really have a high quality art, like from the each character's hair or body. If you comparing between the art quality between the season 1 or season 2 and this season, you wil realizel see how big the gap between those season. Not just from the art for the character itself, the background was suprisingly really well-made. It was colourful, beautiful, and gorgeous. My eyes were never tired to watching the quality of this anime, my suggestion is you must watch this anime in the highest quality to improve the enjoyness. Then, lets moving into the sound section, first lets talk about the opening songs. "RAKUEN PROJECT" by Ray. Honestly i dont really care about the opening songs in every anime but then i thought i might give it a try. From the first i listen it, and its directly raping up my ears. I totally love it, what makes more awesome is the video clip in those opening, it was heartwarming (especially in the end of the songs when Mae and Momo hugs Rito) not just the video clip, the lyric is really describing on what TLR is about. for me it was really fits with the anime and yet its a lovely song to hear. And for the ED, i didnt really paying attention to it, since it doesnt so special. For the seiyuu,i dont find any negative things in here. Oh! For the new character, Mea which is being sounded by Yuka Iguchi (the seiyuu for Tsukihi from bakemonogatari and Maria from boku wa tomodachi) is really good, its really suitable with the Mea's traits which is taciturn and sometimes being naughty. as for the other main character in this series like Momo, Aki Toyosaki really did a good job for being a seiyuu for Momo. It was cute and easily grasp every viewer who're listening her voice. And, finally, the character section. The character in this series is probably what makes this anime so special. Since in this series we will have a good developments between each character and more, We have nearly 8 or more CUTE girls that appears in this series not to mention how lucky that Rito being loved by many cute girls. because of so many girls that appears in this anime, i will just describing the main character in this series. For the first, we have Mea Kurosaki. The new character that appears in this season series. Mea is like Yami, she is an assasin who is being sent by "master" to look for Yami, like i said before Mea is Yami's sister, so they same kind of ability that can transform their body into a weapon.On the first impression, you will see her as a taciturn girl and emotionless, but as far as the story goes, she had developments in her characters and of course the "love" development between Rito and her. its harem anyway. The Second one is Yami, as we know from the previous season, she appears to be a dandere girl , which is cool and taciturn. She is also a loner and more She states she hates "ecchi" people, and does not hesitate to assault a person who looks at her in an obscene way, and usually Rito is the victim of this. lol. For this series, we will see the development between Yami and her friends. The third one is Momo Devilluke Belia, she is Lala's sister and Nana's twin, she appears to be a naughty girl which is usually tease Rito in her way, despite of her action, she really loves Rito even she makes a harem plan just for Rito and even she is always protect Rito from any dangers .The last one is Rito, our main character in this series. I dont have many words for him, one sentence for me, He is a lucky guy who is being liked by many cute girls!. I do really love with this series especially this season, because they had improve their quality like from the story and the art. But of course, there is nothing that perfect, so does this anime. Still there was unnecessary fanservice that really distrubing my eyes, Like how Rito is always trapped in such ecchi scenes (like he is usually grabbing boobs absently or how he trapped in Yami's panties without any logical reasons), but despite of that unnecessary scenes, i know that scenes were made to refresh our eyes. And of course its acceptable since this anime genre is Ecchi, honestly, although i found that unnecessary, as a man i must said it was kinda fun. At the last, I must say i quite enjoyed this anime. I really surprise on how this anime can improve are, from such a fail anime turned into an amazing anime. of course, thanks to Momo and Mea as the new character that makes this anime more lively and fun. The summary for this review : + Finally has a strong plot + This season have some improvement than the previous one + Amazing OP + A good developments between each characters - Unnecessary fanservice scenes that sometimes didnt really make a sense, but oh well. Its ecchi anime anyway - There is still fillers episode *Thanks for reading my review! If you found this review was not helpful or doesnt good enough,please message me. I really appreciate any feedbacks*

I wouldn't usually write a review for an ecchi/hentai/harem/porn/incest/whydon'tyoujustjackoffalready?-anime, but people are being driven crazy by this thing, it's already got a score of 7.99(at least when I wrote this) and the OVA basically is what they don't get to jack off to--I mean watch in the regular To Love Ru Darkness season, I mean, I get it, the show is good at getting your dick hard, good, and it can also make you have some giggles and good fun on the process? Great! But is it really a 10/10 show? No, it isn't. And if there is anyone who dares to say that is thebest anime they've ever watched, is because they probably mean it's the best porn they've ever watched, ask them to justify why it is the pinnacle of anime, and you'll see the anwser will be along the lines of "Can't you see how brave this characters are? They dare to have a guy touch them when he is already semi-kind of engaged! Not in this world man", "The art is soooo good! Have you seen the way those watermelons dance?", "I came 3 times that day", "My penis pretty much typed this review". And why? Why is it that all the people making reviews are getting so crazy about it? Well, that's because this is porn, what where they looking for when they watched this? Porn. The simple fact that they are looking at anime as a pure masturbation mean, makes them lose their criticism and can only say wonderfull things about it. Now, I'm gonna stop being a dick to all those people who are controlled by their sexual lust and are not able to be critical about anime because of this reason. Story (6): The story is not amazing, in Love-Ru we start off with the usual girl who falls in love with the main character and then they have a problem, and they have to fix it, they are given time, in that time more females are introduced, they all fall in love with the main character eventually, the problem comes back, and with enough -falling on their panties- moments, the problems comes back once again, and then it can either leave and come back later or end the problem and start something new. To Love-Ru is pretty much this, probably the only thing I've enjoyed in this new "lets create a Harem" deal, is the fact that Momo tries to get into Rito's mind and make him into a perverted playboy, wich adds somekind of psychological control, wich is a nice touch and I can appreciate it. I'd also like to add that Darkness probably beats the other To Love-Ru arcs, just for the fact that this might actually go somewhere, the character development is minimum but there is some of it...I think. Art (9): I don't really care that much about art to be sincere, cause I believe a lot of people tend to ignore other animes just for the fact that the art style is strange or different to their usually anime, so I don't think the art makes the anime, but it can obviously be appreciated mostly in a show where the way characters look is so important. Darkness has a pretty solid art style and has a nice look to it. Sound (7): I've never really liked the music themes in the To Love-Ru franchise, but I guess there might be someone out there who enjoys them, but is nothing I would consider memorable or outstanding, the sound effects in the show are good in setting the atmosphere, maybe not the greatest, but good. Character (6): Well, maybe the part where most of the people might disagree with me, a lot of people can only say that the cast of characters is great, that they are all deep and amazing, original and well thought...this is one of those harem shows where the show is trying to make you pick which girl you like the most, there's nothing new to them, you can find them on other harem shows, where they try to introduce as many female personalities as possible (wich I wouldn't say is always bad -Kotegawa best girl) , the shy, the dumb, the responsible, the perverted, the athletic and then there's the one that's in love and the one that just wants some action under the sheets. Despite what must people may say, I think the characters don't have that much to them, they don't really seem to have motives in their lifes, they are always in the same mood until something happens to them, they don't really seem to be troubled with their every day problems, their personality just blends into the situation. Overall (6): But overall, I enjoy the show, not because of the plot, not because of the music, just because it has some ok comedy and is good at getting my dick hard, I can't deny that. In the ecchi category I could even consider that it stands out from the others, but if I'm really critical about it and look at it as anime as a whole, is not that incredible, the plot is ok, sound and art are nothing life changing, but is enjoyable. An overall 6 in my eyes.

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Studio

Producers

Themes