To Love-Ru Darkness – OVA

Let’s be honest – we all know you watched it. And we all know why.

Do I really need to warn anyone that the screencaps below are NSFW (and trust me – I could have gone a lot farther)?

I’m not going to pretend that To Love-Ru is anything more than it is – and “Darkness” is that on steroids. When the first season of the anime aired, it was actually sort of plot-driven at first – or at least there was some plot to go along with the ecchi, and the character drama between Rito, Haruna and Lala (I actually found the Rito-Haruna relationship quite sweet in the early days) was the major theme of the series. By the end of that season and even more in the second series Motto To Love-Ru, that was taking a back seat more and more to ecchi for its own sake. When the original manga wrapped up (supposedly as a result of legal ugliness with the writer’s ex-wife, whom he based Haruna on) it took about a year off before re-launching (after a move from Shounen Jump to Jump Square) as To Love-Ru Darkness.

As far as I can tell, “Darkness” is basically an excuse to really crank the ecchi up, and to nominally shift the main focus onto different girls (especially Lala’s sister Momo and a new girl, Mea). But it’s basically the same gag – MC Rito Yuuki’s harem grows ever larger, and he’s continually thrown into ridiculous situations that generally involve he and one of the harem being nude and on top of each other before he’s knocked unconscious. And thanks to alien fiancée Lala’s remarkable string of malfunctioning inventions, there’s a lot of body-switching, gender-swapping and – a series favorite – turning characters into animals, which gets a turn in this OVA as Haruna turns into a cat.

I don’t think To Love-Ru is going to be winning any Tezuka ka Awards, and it certainly doesn’t represent the best anime has to offer in terms of gender roles – the girls are oversexed and often naked, and Rito, while a decent chap, is pretty much hapless and overwhelmed (and the supporting males are much worse). If you’re looking for enlightened and enlightening, look elsewhere. But there’s something to be said for ecchi that’s unpretentious and unapologetic about what it is. To Love-Ru is about fanservice, fanservice and more fanservice – and beyond – and more so than ever with “Darkness” it pretends to be nothing else. Plus, it was one of two properties that became the highest-profile test cases of the abomination that is Bill 156 (the other being Yosuga no Sora) when a father was alarmed at finding a copy of the TLR: Darkness manga in his teenaged son’s room. Imagine that, a teenaged boy using an ecchi manga for nefarious purposes – I don’t blame Dad for being shocked! Given that Bill 156 is so vague as to be effectively unenforceable, the “commission” set up under the law declared that To Love-Ru wasn’t breaking any law that it could identify, and that was that. But it does give TLR a feather in its cap for being the biggest name that Ishihara’s idiocy tried to take on – and lost.

With this OVA, TLR has basically evolved into a full-on hentai – almost – except one with excellent production values and fantastic character designs. I’ve always liked the manga artist Kentaro Yabuki’s style, and TLR: Darkness is one of Xebec’s better-looking efforts. While things never quite make it to hard-core, there are more nipples than a pacifier factory (everyone except siblings Rito and Mikan flashes them) and a couple of still shots that come pretty close (pun intended). When you have a hentai that looks this good and stars the likes of Tomatsu Haruka (Lala), Kana Hanazawa (Mikan), Yahagi Sayuri (Haruna), Toyasaki Aki (Momo), and Itou Kanae (Nana) people will take notice.

I don’t see too much point talking about the plot, but for the record the OVA (a TV series premières in October, presumably slightly less explicit) is split into three stories: the Haruna/cat chapter, Mikan getting zapped by Celine’s pollen and wanting (even more than normal) to go the wincest route, and Momo generally mooning over Rito and trying to figure out a way to make the three-way implied by the ending of Motto To Love-Ru a foursome. I’ll say this for Rito – he’s got one of the largest and best-looking harems in anime, and it’s growing all the time. The situations in TLR have gotten so extreme and so preposterous that one can almost feel sorry for him – the poor guy must one of the most stimulated characters in anime.

20 comments

Click

August 18, 2012 at 5:45 am

I WATCH THIS SHOW FOR THE PLOT

PocariSweat

August 18, 2012 at 10:30 am

This post sums this show this up
(in a sarcastic manner)

belatkuro

August 18, 2012 at 5:51 am

>Enzo
>TLR Darkness
…am I seeing things here? I'm gonna have to take time to absorb this because this is quite something.

I never watched the first and second season but I finished the manga and currently reading Darkness. This OVA and the upcoming series seems to be in good hands with this quality and content. And surprisingly, Darkness has some plot happening. Not PLOT but a real plot, or at least I think so. Though its focus does lean less on Haruna and Lala but it's still good. I'm gonna jump in on this series come Fall. This is gonna be good.

PS. Kotegawa is the best girl.

admin

August 18, 2012 at 6:41 am

I'm a Haruna man and always will be. One of the prettiest anime characters ever, and genuinely sweet.

I confess, I haven't read much of the Darkness manga – but my sense was that it was continuing the road the original was going down and basically saying, "let's just minimize the parts people fast-forward through and give the people what they want."

And yes, this is quality work – heck, "Motto" looked good too. I like the art, I like the character designs, and Xebec is animating quite acceptably. If you're going to go for ecchi, you might as have something like that which is unpretentious about what it is, and has just enough likability to the characters to give them more personality than body pillows.

�

†Croos†

August 18, 2012 at 6:02 am

I know this is a generic ecchi anime but this one was done right. I could really sense the title of ToLoveRu Darkness seeing as DarK(ecchi and stuff) TROUBLE(ToLoveRu in proper english) while watching this.
I could also see that the shifting of music to ecchi scene was actually nice. One example is from Mikan's ecchi scene in the bathroom.
All in all I really like this one than the old ToLoveRu series.

leokiko

August 18, 2012 at 7:47 am

I didn't. I prefer porn.

Ishruns

August 18, 2012 at 9:25 am

I watched it, but I can't believe you did. In fact I don't believe this is GE and I'm gonna call the FBI to inform them that your site has been hacked and your an MIA.

ANYway I enjoyed the original To Love-Ru series before I became so cynical. And to be honest I liked this OVA, the Ika Musume style 3 skit format to show various ecchi happenings was amusing because that is what ecchi is all about; no ridiculous plot like Campione, no real story, just ecchi things happening because that's the only reason people watch it.

Also liked the lack of Lala because for me that is Haruka Tomatsu worst role, she sounds grating to me.

If the series comes out in Fall I might watch it if stays like this OVA; lots of ecchi and skit format.

dv

August 18, 2012 at 1:25 pm

I am with you. If not for the fact that I do not live in California I would have drove to Enzo's front yard and knock on his door. LiA has been hacked!

Seriously Enzo… Why do you blog this? Alright… you did do Yosuga no Sora… but that HAD a plot. And the omnibus format was interesting.

This is more like DxD, no plot. Just pure for hot blooded shonens. I do agree that Haruna is the best.

I have not watched this. I would not. Heck, I couldnt even watch further than the second ep of the first anime. Did read the manga though. And I can say this, based on the screen caps, things are not yet at ultimate level yet. Its going to get way more H.

admin

August 18, 2012 at 4:13 pm

Listen, I've watched every scrap of TLR anime ever and read some of both mangas – I'm no noob here. I just have no false pretenses about what the show has evolved into. But if I didn't care about the characters at least a little, I'd probably have given up the ghost.

Ishruns

August 18, 2012 at 4:24 pm

Since everyone is saying who there favourite girl is I must confess that Mikan has always been my favourite. That she has less explicit fanservice than the rest of the cast is probably because being an elementary student Ishihara wouldn't have it/

admin

August 18, 2012 at 4:33 pm

I thought there was a genetic defect in the Yuuki family that caused them not to have nipples, but your theory makes more sense…

TLR was around long before Ishihara, and Mikan always had less explicit fanservice than the others. Let's not give that idiot law credit – it was just a matter of common sense.

Ishruns

August 19, 2012 at 2:58 am

It's not genetic because it Rito's case they had girl Rito who had nipples. I think they just didn't want to give him any so he isn't mistaken for a girl with a washboard.

admin

August 19, 2012 at 3:57 am

I was kidding!

Anonymous

August 18, 2012 at 9:25 am

There is a plot coming. This is just an appetizer. I know since I read the manga itself.

dv

August 18, 2012 at 1:26 pm

Yes the plot is coming. Like a shotgun that is. It comes it goes. Reloading takes too much time.

admin

August 18, 2012 at 10:09 pm

And the older you get, the longer it takes to reload…

Anonymous

August 20, 2012 at 9:00 pm

Hey-o

Son Gohan

August 18, 2012 at 10:11 am

Believe it or not, there is actually a plot in TLR:Darkness. It's just that for this OAD Xebec chose (rightfully) to animate two stand-alone chapters. The main story is reserved for the tv series that will air in Fall.

PocariSweat

August 18, 2012 at 10:28 am

Lol Enzo. Just admit it this time. You watched it for perv as did I :p. No need to be try and smart about it 😀

Lotor IV

August 18, 2012 at 12:02 pm

Why watch this?

To Love-Ru Darkness – OVA

Guardian Enzo

20 comments

Click

PocariSweat

belatkuro

admin

†Croos†

leokiko

Ishruns

dv

admin

Ishruns

admin

Ishruns

admin

Anonymous

dv

admin

Anonymous

Son Gohan

PocariSweat

Lotor IV

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leokiko

Ishruns

dv

admin

Ishruns

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Ishruns

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Anonymous

dv

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