ToLoveRu : Episodes 1 to 3

To Love Ru (AKA: Trouble), brought to us by Studio Xebec, cross serialized in Manga form (in non english, though) by Tokyopop.

Via fansub, I picked up ToLoveRu on the suggestion of a friend, I have been following the Japanese version of the manga for a while and am a fan of the series. ToLoveRu is a romantic comedy, love triangle style series with a sort of cliche air. Alien princess from another world crash lands while running away from home and somehow manages to get ‘engaged’ via some bizarre alien tradition to the ‘hero’ of the series. I have to admit this sort of thing isn’t the genre I liked to begin with, but I decided the character designs looked nice enough to at least merit a glance… After all, the main heroines looked pretty cute, right?

(Light, unimportant spoilers located within!) orz

The first episode isn’t bad, it gives you the usual intro if a bit unusual and vague in nature, more vague than usual as it dives right into making the love triangle and hijinks very obvious, very in your face. Lala (picture posted in the intro), well… she comes off as a complete and utter ditz. Naive, inattentive, thoughtless, and immature. Of course, she offsets this by having a huge set of breasts and curves that would make most Lemans racers wonder what the heck is going on, but I honestly cannot stand her. By episode three she’s been nothing but a disruptive nuisance, not even slightly remorseful, almost constantly in a state of undress or gratification. It’s too much service. I love service, I really do, but coming from Lala just really disappoints. Sure, some people gun for it, but I can’t swallow it down. She even has her own rather ecchi (very ecchi) mahou shoujo transformation sequence.

Sairenji is the ‘other’ heroine, and is a very moe-deredere type. Very soft spoken, intelligent type but comes off as having a pretty dry-as-cardboard personality. It’s kind of sad, because I tend to like the short haired moe types. Sairenji is the main heartthrob of the hero of the series, Rito Yuuki. The series starts off with a sort of long-rooted misundestanding between the two that shot Rito in light as a guy with bad-attitude after being mistaken as a vandal. That plot arc ends abruptly though as by ep 2 it’s revealed that Sairenji knows it wasn’t him and is of course, doki-doki-in-love with him.

Out of the three main characters, Rito is the one I find most entertaining. He has life, energy and is portrayed and well voiced by his seiyuu. Since it’s an antics series, he has his fair share of moments, including a completely random and unnecessary face-in-crotch moment with Sairenji (seriously, completely unnecessary, just seems to be tossed in there at the end of an episode), but otherwise is pretty entertaining as he reacts to the Lala crazyness. He does have the ‘badass’ hair complex, really spikey, really expressive, but he actually is pretty soft of a guy underneath that gung-ho shell. It’s a cliche arrangement, but they work it well.

I’ve seen both the To Love Ru and anime now, though only the first three episodes of the anime. I suppose that it comes as no surprise that I find the Manga better. I’m not quite 100% certain as to why, but Lala just doesn’t feel so thick-skulled in the manga.

Art & Design
- Rating:
- The art is beautiful, the character designs are really pretty and curvy. As much as I disliked Lala’s character, her look is actually pretty hot. Backgrounds and such are standard, but some of the outfits they give Lala and Sairenji are quite nice.
Plot & Writing
- Rating:
- Liveable but, in my opinion, substandard writing. Seems to jump around without warning situationally, has events that just ‘poof’ happen without lead in or lead out.
Entertainment Value
- Rating:
- Good entertainment value if you can stand slapstick. Zastin is pretty awesome in the funny department as well.
Overall
- Rating:
- Passable, but not ground breaking. Fanservicy, lots of cliche characters. Texture like dry cardboard dipped in milk.