This is an anime that is not so much horrible as it is horribly dullI like to call it an atrocity of mediocrity. Ill get deeper into the plot and characters later but fundamentally the cardinal flaw with this show is that it is an ecchi series without very good ecchi. There is all the lack of plot and weak characterization you might expect from a major ecchi series but very little of the fanservicefilled payoff. Its like porn without the pornnothing in other words. 26 episodes of vapid vacuous banal stale insipid nothingness. And who would consider watching nothing for 26 episodes an enriching way to pass the time? Of course To LOVERu does in fact have the very vaguest semblance of a plot at least in the first few episodes. Our main character a man with a propensity for falling down on top of attractive women is named Yuuki Rito. He lives a normal high school life... that is until something shocking happens in the bath one day. While the unsuspecting Rito is minding his own business a naked alien girl named Lala who looks indistinguishable from a human besides her bright pink hair and tail falls on top of him out of nowhere. Through a series of extraordinarily contrived misunderstandings Rito accidentally proposes to this girl despite actually being in love with Haruna Sairenji another girl at his school. Naturally being utterly incapable of expressing himself to girls his age he finds himself unable to call off the accidental proposal and likewise unable to profess his love to the real girl of his dreams. To make things worse the reason Lala ended up in Ritos bath in the first place is that she is the crown princess of one of the most powerful civilizations in the galaxythe Devilukeansand was trying to escape a political marriage. As a result any attempts by Rito to break off the engagement would likely offend the Devilukeans and might end not only in his death but the death of the entire world. So with tensions as high as they are Rito is obviously immediately inspired to go out and face his problems clear up any misunderstandings andjust kidding he acts like the hero he is and continues with his daily life as though nothing is wrong. Yes while a number of other aliens show up to either try to assassinate Rito or convince Lala to cancel the proposal and countless other girls show up and dilute the situation further as far as progress there is none to be seen. Instead the show remains in an awkward limbo with Rito clearly in a situation in pressing need of his attention yet making only the most feeble and infrequent attempts at remedying this fact. In truth most of the episodes dont even mention the main plot at all. Rather they resort to episode long filler plots which range from bad to appalling. We see everything from Lala bringing in some alien tentacle monsters animated with horrible CG to cook and getting groped by them instead to some insignificant side character dreaming about being in feudal Japan. To summarize the story is questionable and mostly ignoredthere may as well be no story. But as I wrote above in an ecchi show such as this one sacrificing plot for fanservice is common practiceI daresay I prefer it that way. No one in their right mind would watch this show hoping for a complex or emotional story to blow them away as that would only get in the way of what really matters here: the fanservice. What they might hope for however is a plot that would facilitate as much fanservice as possible. And here is the heart of the issue. Despite advertising itself as a romantic comedy full of slapstick humor sexy girls and outlandishly lewd moments that defy the laws of physics To LOVERu contains a surprising dearth of lewdness. 90 of the fanservice in this series is composed of little more than panty shots and Rito being an accidental pervert by falling on top of girls and the other 10 is rarely much better. Sometimes the series will go for almost an entire episode with very little fanservice instead caught up in its lackluster filler plotsfiller plots like the one about feudal Japan I mentioned above which create practically no good opportunities for sexual moments. How could this become a flagship of the ecchi genre when it does ecchi in such a mediocre way? From what I have heard this situation was largely caused by the anime deviating heavily from the manga which is apparently much better. Certainly if there is one good thing about To LOVERu it is the character designs which were taken directly from the manga. On the topic of characters I think it is high time I discussed them. To get straight to the point they are clich and uninspired. And unlike with the plot being ecchi is absolutely not an acceptable reason for bad characters. Series like Nisemonogatari are proof that fanservice shows are perfectly capable of having wellwritten and unique characters. Now rather than talk about them broadly I think the best thing for me to do at this point is to scrutinize each and every character in needless detail. So without further ado lets begin. Main Characters Rito Yuuki: From head to toe Rito is comprised of little more than the standard elements of your friendly neighborhood harem protagonist. Hes nice bad at talking to girls clumsy and if the size of his harem is any indication the most attractive man in the galaxy. Only one little thing: he is absolutely 100 completely and fully opposed to anything even remotely sexual. Just imagining a girl in a swimsuit is too much for his sexaverse mind to handle. In this way this shows failures stem largely from the failures of this one aspect of this one character: someone thought it would be a good idea to make the lewdest show around about a kid who doesnt like lewd things. It is one thing to have the protagonist of say a battle shounen be sexaverse but for the main character of an ecchi anime to act that way is like trying to make a sports anime about a character who has a grudge against sports. Pure and simple: it doesnt make any sense. I realize that such timid protagonists are not uncommon in ecchi harem shows like this but I have always found this fact baffling and this show certainly does nothing to reduce my confusion. Of course the show does at least make feeble attempts at addressing this obvious contradiction and it does so rather creatively by attempting to have Rito become the preeminent accidental pervert of the anime world. And this to be totally and completely honest is not actually such a bad idea. Now instead of having some unsympathetic loser who goes around groping women as our main character we have a fine respectable young man who just accidentally finds himself groping women sometimes. In a good anime this could be a resounding success creating lots of fanservice in an interesting way but this is not a good anime. The vast majority of Ritos accidental perversion takes the form of him falling on top of girls and in doing so finding his hands and/or face where they really dont belong. Sometimes these scenes are amusing but by the end they are so overused and so rarely varied upon that they quickly become tiresome more than anything. Ultimately Rito is mostly generic and where he does deviate from the norm he rarely achieves anything of particular note. With such a weak foundation on which to build the rest of the show it is little surprise that To LOVERu is so spectacularly unsuccessful. Lala Satalin Deviluke: Ritos fiance Lala is nothing groundbreaking either characterwise but she remains one of the stronger characters the show has to offer. Her personality is bubbly upbeat and... well not very complex but her demeanor is so resoundingly positive that I have great difficulty maintaining any lasting dislike for her. In essence she is a bundle of joy and while she is not the most richly wrought character to ever come out of the world of anime her frequent presence is one of the few features that make this slog of a show bearable. Besides her personality the other main aspect that sets Lala apart is her inventing abilities. Though she never comes off as particularly intelligent we are told to believe that she is in fact a genius who regularly invents devices capable of nearly anything. Naturally To LOVERu being the show that it is nearly anything usually takes the form of a device that causes fanservicey shenanigans in some capacity. Be it a teleporter that causes the teleportees to lose their clothes along the way a machine that swaps the genders of its users or a pair of glasses that allows one to see through clothes Lalas inventions never fail to impress. As one of the few consistent producers of quality fanservice in the show it is always a delight when an episode centers on one of these though like all the good things this anime has to offer they dont seem to appear as often as they should. Haruna Sairenji: Ritos dream girl could best be described as blandness incarnate. The reason for Ritos attraction to her if we are to surmise from the two minutes dedicated to the subject during the first few episodes is her extreme kindness. At first there doesnt seem to be anything wrong with this but as the show progresses it becomes increasingly apparent that the reason that Rito finds her kindness to be her most appealing characteristic is largely that it is her only characteristic of note. Despite being one of the most important characters in the show her personality can pretty comprehensively be described with the word nice. Though she never does anything actively offensive her oppressive boringness made me quickly come to dislike any time she appeared on screen which was quite frequent given that she is a major character. This dislike was only compounded by the fact that every time Rito is in her presence he immediately becomes a blubbering retarded cow of a human being and finds himself utterly incapable of expressing even the most basic of thoughts without stuttering seven thousand times. Even given that this kind of awkwardness is typical of anime romances the extreme to which Rito takes it quickly makes it change from endearing and cute to tiresome and grating. Side Characters Konjiki no Yami Golden Darkness: The Golden Darkness is a cold and distant alien assassin capable of transforming any part of its body into a weapon. It was sent to the earth to murder Rito so that Lala could be married off to some other alien prince. After it meets Rito in person however it discovers that he is actually kindhearted and decides that killing him would be wrong. For the rest of show it remains officially still carrying out its mission to off Rito but really just living on earth because it has come to like it there. Oh and it takes the form of a cute girl that goes by Yamichan. Obviously. Cute girls can be coldblooded killers too Yami as a concept is probably the most compelling any character in To LOVERu gets though between her appearance her dispassionate personality and her status as a living weapon she draws a few too many similarities with Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion to call her wholly original. If anything she suffers from the same issue that Rito did: as an idea shes not bad and in a good anime she would be a successful character but as has been firmly established a good anime this is not. Shes given none of the development a character with a setup this interesting deserves instead mostly being used as the token deadpan girl and occasionally using her turningbodypartsintoweapons ability for slapstick humor. If there is one character in this show who deserves to be a part of a better anime then it is surely the Golden Darkness. Run Elsie Jewelria and Ren Elsie Jewelria: A childhood friend of Lalas that comes to earth aiming to woo her. Run and Ren are really two separate personalities that live in one body as an alien that switches between male Ren and female Run every time it sneezes. As an idea for a character sneeze induced genderbending is so bizarre that its hard to really criticize it and actually Ren and Runs personalities are fairly unique as well. Ren tries to win Lalas affection by performing various masculine feats in the hopes of outdoing Rito and Run after unsurprisingly falling for Rito herself ends up becoming an idol to try and impress him. Run and Ren are among the more infrequently appearing characters in the show but when they do appear it is always a pleasure to see them. Yui Kotegawa: Yui Kotegawa is a tsundere. By reading that one sentence anyone could come to understand the entirety of her character because thats really all there is to it. There are no other nuances no creative new takes nothingshe is nothing more a tsundere at its purest and most creatively bankrupt. Well perhaps I should give her at least a little bit more credit: there is at the very least a backstory. She is the president of the schools morals committee and finds Ritos accidental perversions repugnant yet simultaneously she realizes that she is attracted to him for some poorly explained reason. Whatever her feeble reasons may be though the fact remains that Yui Kotegawa is a walking clich. Mikan Yuuki: Mikan is Ritos responsible little sister who essentially acts as his mother while their actual parents are conspicuously absent for nearly the entirety of the show. She appears frequently early on but her influence wanes as the show progresses to the point that she gets relatively little character development. This is really too bad because while not stunningly original she has a sort of snarky air in the first few episodes which was one of the few things in this show that I found amusing. Plus I find that it is always interesting to see the reaction of those close to harem leads as things get crazier. Alas like so many elements of this show any interest Mikan might have held was crushed by awful execution. Kenichi Saruyama: Saruyama is the perverted best friend at its most tired and bland. He is so bland in fact that he holds the impressively unimpressive distinction of being my least favorite character in this show. His personality is so utterly formulaic that it could have been replaced with countless other similar characters from other shows and I suspect no one would even notice. To make matters worse rather than appearing infrequently for unfunny comic relief like most characters of his ilk do he often appears prominently even taking the spotlight in a few places. Not only is he the main character of the bizarre and out of place feudal Japan episode I mentioned above but he also is the focus of perhaps the worst episode of the entire show although there are many candidates for this in which an ugly alien creature gives birth in the school clinic and Saruyama is forced to help with the birth and later become a father figure for the child. God knows what extraordinary lapse of judgment must have occurred for the writers to think that making an episode about a side character helping an alien give birth was what this show needed. Principal: Why does this character exist? The principal is the disgusting old man who runs Ritos school and appears regularly as socalled comic relief to make public displays of his lust for high school girls. Because thats funny. The only saving grace for this abomination of a character is that even the writers seemed to agree that hes awful and he doesnt appear very often. Additionally unlike Saruyama when he does appear we dont have to suffer through entire episodes with him as the main character. Saki Tenjouin: Tenjouin is the token pretentious arrogant Ojou character. When she appears she is always accompanied by two of her lackeys and tends to spend most of her time flaunting her class and purportedly extreme attractiveness. Her main purpose however is to serve as something along the lines of Lalas rival in the early part of the show. I say something along the lines of because Lala more or less ignores her presence and she spends most of her time making a fool of herself in fanservicey ways. Shes irritating but intentionally so and honestly the episodes where she appears prominently tend to be some of the better ones in the show so I harbor relatively little animosity towards her. Shizu Murasame: The award for the most pointless character in this show must surely go to this ghost girl who appears in one episode about a haunted old school building and then just sort of continues showing up for some reason. She never really contributes anything to the showshe doesnt appear to share any meaningful relationships with any other characters never adds anything of value to the plot has no comedic purpose has no interesting dialog never plays a part in any fanservice she simply exists. It is as though the writers felt that some scenes seemed empty so they created a new character but couldnt be bothered to give her a reason to be there. Risa Momioka and Mio Sawada: These best friends and classmates of Rito exist more or less entirely to compare the boob sizes of girls in Ritos class and then grope them just to be sure. Now while I feel a deep admiration for anyone who has found a purpose in life as enviable as this I do slightly question if this show needs not one but two characters dedicated to showcasing it. At any rate necessary or otherwise these two are a staple of the show appearing frequently to spice things up with a little sexual harassment. Summary I suspect it was probably a little excessive of me to go through all of these characters but I hope I have made my point clear: most of the side characters can be defined by a few characteristics the major characters are shallow and dull and those characters that are interesting either appear infrequently or are poorly executed. The exact significance of having such weak characters may vary from person to person but for me it is the final damning blow in cementing To LOVERu as a truly hopeless affair. I have not dedicated 2000 words to lambasting these characters purely because it is fun although to be fair it is quite fun but rather because I find that good characters are integral to creating a good show. Not only are they the foundation on which every other part of the work stands they are the aspect of the work which most directly connects it to the reader. If I can empathize with a character it makes the entire story all the more meaningful to me. And if as with this show I cannot connect with any characters then it makes the experience merely a distant and pointless waste of my time. For the most part then the character designs are really the only good things the characters have to offer and without any fanservice of particular merit these designs are rarely put to good use. It is I suppose worth mentioning that the quality of the character designs also extends to the rest of the shows appearancethe art style is certainly one of the very few strong points To LOVERu has to offer. Although this is purely speculation I suspect that the reason the character designs and art style stand out so much from the rest of the show is that they come directly from the manga of which this anime is likely a botched adaption. Perhaps the blame for this animated abomination does not lie with Kentaro Yabukithe To LOVERu mangas artistbut rather with the fine folks at Xebec animation studios who thought it would be a fantastic idea to take a successful manga use its characters and scenarios and then make an entire season of brainless filler content instead of actually following it. Granted Im sure the manga is not high art either but I am certain that it at the very least has the decency to compensate for its lack of depth with some honesttogod fanservice.