To-Love-Ru Final Impressions: Well, That’s 572 Minutes Of My Life I’ll Never Get Back.

It’s not your fault the show sucks, Yami.

Unlike my fellow sufferers, I didn’t blog this show from beginning to end, so I have a lot of stored up frustration that I haven’t been able to vent until now.

I can’t be positive about this show. I went into To-Love-Ru with absolutely no expectations whatsoever. I was literaly just looking for a fun and mindless show to pass the time, and this ecchi, harem comedy seemed to fit the bill at first glance. But oh how wrong I was in expecting this show to be any good. Though I admit it has its moments of comedy, these sre to few and far between to justify the stream of nonsense that’s crammed into your brain whenever you watch the show. I can take the fanservice, the lack of plot, and the zero character developement (especially as we had a LOLRESET ending) but what put me off liking this show was the random crap they kept throwing out in each episode. To-Love-Ru is waaaaaaaaay out there at times, only in a horrible, horrible way.

So, what’s good about To-Love-Ru?

• Yami-chan. She is just so awesome in every way, tsun/yandere transforming lolita killing machine who loves pastries.
• The OP and the 2nd ED, as well as a couple of the music tracks (one of which showed up around three times through the whole series).

• KING DEVILUKE, CHIBI MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE. BOW BEFORE HIS MIGHT AND BOOMING VOICE.

• Mikan, the greatest little sister of all time. Cosplay Mikan = INSTANT WIN.
• Some moments were actually hilarious, and they were most likely what kept me watching the series in hope of more of that type of comedy.
• Episode 24 with the multiple personalities of Lala. Funny almost all the way through though the end of the episode was horribly cliche (like half the other times in this show).

And what wasn’t so good?

• Absolutely everything else. Here is the complete “Ever Closer To Becoming The Number One Man In The Universe” saga, accompanied by what I think was bad about the series.

Real men pose nekkid in front of their sisters.

Either that or he’s trying to put on some sort of invisible trousers.

• The random moments that happened in the episodes that the creators thought could be considered “comedy”. Some of it was weird, some of it just fell completely flat, and some parts were downright disturbing (like the episode with CG tentacle rape. Exactly). Then there was that episode devoted to a completely imaginary show that was airing in the world of To-Love-Ru itself that was just painful to watch.

Real men are into S&M.

Either that or he’s joined some sort of water circus and become a tamer’s lion kitty cat.

• Lala’s voice and character. She’s the stupidest genius I’ve ever seen, and whenever she opens her mouth I feel like stuffing a sock in it just to get her to stop screeching.

Real men like to have their swimsuits sucked off.

Either that or the pole has… other uses for him…

• Every other character in this show is a worse version of a stereotype. Rito’s the hopeless lead who inexplicably gains a bevy of beautiful girls despite being bad at everything he does, Haruna’s the quiet, reserved shy girl, Saruyama’s the male lead’s friend who just can’t seem to get any, Mikado’s the hawt nurse that every boy at the school fantasises about, Saki’s the spoilt ojou-sama with followers who cater to her every whim and I’m not even going to kepp doing this as you’re most likely got the point by now. There’s nothing unique about ANY of the characters in this show.

Real men let their bodies be used as weapons by girls…

And blush when girls touch them.

Either that or the stimulus was too much for him and he had an… “accident”.

• Animation = generally bad and re-used often. At least there weren’t any moments of QUALITY in the show; taking a small budget and making an overall crappy looking show is better than having great moments and horrible moments, at least.

Real men get their asses kicked almost every day.

Either that or he’s a masochist.

• There was no sort of coherent plot throughout the entire series. I wasn’t expecting much from what I’d seen before hand, but something, ANYTHING to give the show some direction that wasn’t cooked up by writers on crack would’ve been nice. Some episodes didn’t even end properly, we get to the height of a crisis, the credits roll, and then the next week everyne acts like nothing happened. Then there’s the point when Lala reveals she’s an alien, which goes something like this.

Lala: I’m an alien!

Everyone who didn’t know: Okay!

Real men let people who want to kill them get as close as possible.

Though I have to admit, since it’s Yami-chan, even REAL real men wouldn’t stand a chance.

But Rito still looks like a retard.

• Character developement was non-existent. Far from resolving the supposed love triangle in the show, the creators actually had the balls to reset the whole thing to make the show even more inconclusive than School Rumble. And THAT takes some doing.

Real men dress up as women.

Either that or he’s looking for some trap-tastic “action” in that get up.

• Fanservice can be used for comedy. It can be used subtly. Throwing tentacle hentai in your audiences face every chance you have is NOT good fanservice. It’s not funny and it’s not attractive, it’s just boring and pointless. Plus, there wasn’t enough Yami-service in the show at all.

Real men don’t want hot girls in their beds.

Either that or…

You know, there’s really no excuse this time. You suck, Rito.

So overall, watching this show completely confirms the fact that I am both a masochist and a saint, slowly killing myself for the sake of people who had the wisdom to get out and/or not watch this show before their spirits were sucked into the black hole that was To-love-ru, churned up and left a husk of their former selves. I won’t read the manga, as simply by being connected to this anime it has become unreadable for fear of recalling the horrible moments in the series.

Awwwww.

Poor, irritating, oblivious, hasn’t showed any meaningful emotions until the last episode Lala.

NEVER AGAIN.