To Love Ru Anime Review

To Love Ru Anime Review

In the world of anime, there exists a genre that defines the shows that dedicate themselves to bombarding viewers gratuitous fan service at the expense of storyline and characters. I am of course referring to ecchi anime (ecchi being a Japanese slang word for anything dirty or sexual). To Love Ru has essentially become a hallmark of the genre in recent years. In the same way that Gundam is the embodiment of Mecha, To Love Ru is one of the most recognizable ecchi anime out there.

            Our protagonist, Yuuki Rito, is an ordinary freshman in high school, wishing for nothing more than to successfully confess his love to the cute and shy Sairenji Haruna. His peaceful world is shattered when an alien girl by the name of Lala appears to him (naked) in his bathtub (while he is bathing). Through a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, Rito becomes engaged to Lala, whose father happens to be a powerful tyrant ready to destroy Earth if Rito proves to be an unfit suitor for his daughter.

            The show itself is almost entirely episodic. Each episode basically consists of one of Lala’s many inventions going wrong and causing mayhem around her. As with every harem/ecchi anime, To Love Ru has its own cast of exploitable side characters. Rito’s younger sister Mikan is a favorite of mine, but there is also Rito’s best friend Saruyama, the sex changing alien Rin/Run and of course the bloodthirsty Yami. If I had to rate To Love Ru’s story, it would get a 5/10, simply because there isn’t a solid storyline at all. But we don’t watch ecchi/harem anime for a good story. We watch them for the fanservice, comedy, and characters. In that regard, To Love Ru is a pretty decent ecchi/harem anime. The characters are all generally likable and have their own unique quirks that keep them interesting. The show throws many jokes at the viewers, many of which involve Rito sexually harassing a girl by accident. Sometimes the jokes work, and sometimes they don’t. I personally didn’t find many of the jokes in To Love Ru funny, but there were a few that had me smiling or even laughing out loud.

            I have now reached the part of the review where I talk about the show’s fanservice. As many of you know, fanservice can either work in a show’s favor, or it can derail the story and cause the anime to become unfocused (High School of the Dead). I can safely say that fanservice works in To Love Ru’s favor. The show depends on fanservice heavily, but luckily the original mangaka and show writers were smart enough to write a story that uses fanservice to push the show along. In terms of the quality of the fanservice, all I can say is that there in fact exists an uncensored version of To Love Ru. If someone posted an uncensored episode of To Love Ru to a hentai sharing site, it would likely do quite well.

            To Love Ru shares the same weaknesses that all ecchi/harem anime face. The story, music and animation are all on the weaker side. However, the creators were aware that this genre is inherently weak in those aspects, and they wisely turned their focus towards their characters, jokes and of course, fanserive. To Love Ru is by no means an amazing show, but it knows what it is and you can clearly see that the creators had fun with it. 

Rating: 6/10