To Love Ru Season One
What They Say:
They say that the bathroom is the most dangerous room in the house, but when a beautiful, naked alien princess teleports into Rito Yuki’s bathtub, it’s a definite case of rub-a-dub-doom! Having no idea that the planet Develuke even exists, Rito is completely unaware that touching a girl’s breasts there is how they propose marriage. Consequently, due to some slippery tile and some extra-prominent female appendages, Rito’s suddenly on his way to being a member of the royal family.
Unfortunately, as hot as Lala is, this is one royal family no one wants to become a part of given that her father, King Develuke, bears a suspicious resemblance to the devil! And then there’s the little issue of the very nice human girl that Rito’s already interested in, who’s probably not going to be too understanding of his sudden involvement in intergalactic affairs. Will Rito become the next king of the galaxy? Will he learn the secret of the Big Bang?
Contains episodes 1-26.
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release is simple and straightforward as we get only the original Japanese language track in stereo encoded using the DTS-HD MA lossless codec. The series has a good mix of dialogue, wacky dialogue and action pieces to it that keeps it lively and flowing. The nature of the show is one that fits your standard romantic comedy with slice of silly action material well as the forward soundstage moves well through as we get a good range of material which does some decent placement at times and certainly with plenty of faster pieces as they move across the screen. The big action pieces aren’t exactly huge in a way and they lack a lot of punch but they fit for this kind of show. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we didn’t have any problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally airing in 2008, the transfer for this twenty-six episode TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. The series is spread across two discs with thirteen on each disc. That’s a bit of a concern to be sure, but the folks at Sentai said that without an additional language track, there’s more than enough room. For the most part, the transfer here is pretty good with bright and vibrant colors that maintain a solid feel throughout outside of a few minor areas. The main offender, and it’s a weak offender overall considering the amount of content here, is that some of the darker green school interior pieces look like they have a bit more noise to them. Most of the colors generally look good and solid though and the flow of animation definitely looks good. The other issue that crops up a handful of times across the twenty-six episode run is that during some of the stills when they do some panning, it introduces a bit of line noise when it moves up and down or left and right. It’s minimal overall, but noticeable when you’re paying attention. That’s more of a source issue than anything else but it’s also catches your eye.
Packaging:
The packaging design for this release is certainly familiar as it was used for the first DVD release, but that’s not a complaint since it looks good. The front cover gives us the two main characters in full while our hapless male lead is in the background amid some of the swirls. Lala and Haruna looks good here, though Lala’s positioning always felt a little weird and off in some ways because of the angle of it all. There’s some nice detail here and you generally get a good idea of the character designs, which is half the selling point to a series like this. It’s a bit of a busy cover in some ways but it definitely looks good without being too overt. The back cover carries the same background theme to it with a section along the upper left that has a number of shots from the show and another small strip through the middle. The premise is well covered and the extras are given a decent nod as well. Production credits and technical grid information is all straightforward and cleanly presented and we get a decent nod towards the overall quantity of episodes included in the set. No show related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menu design for the show works off of the cover design a bit with stronger pinks used to the background design elements, which works in its favor since that gives it a lot more pop. The background itself doesn’t have much going on but the foreground works nicely as the first disc has a close-up of Lala while the second lets us see Haruna looking up at the viewer. The right side provides the menu navigation strip which is essentially just the episodes by number and title which has a lot of pop as well with the pink, black and white while the second volume has a touch more with the extras submenu. The release has no language options and the whole thing moves smoothly and looks good when used as a pop-up menu.
Extras:
The only extras included in this release are the clean versions of the opening and closing sequences.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the manga by Saki Hasemi, To Love Ru is a twenty-six episode series that brings an exhibitionist type of alien princess to Earth. The manga series finished its run in 2009, but that was a fair bit after the anime had finished ending so there’s going to be differences in the show when it comes to the end. To Love Ru owes a lot to the past with shows and manga that have come before it, but after taking in the first thirteen episodes I have to admit that I enjoyed it more than I expected. There’s certainly a mild Urusei Yatsura vibe going on here which is very appealing but it’s also because To Love Ru has fun with its sexuality, nudity and simple romantic comedy elements.
To Love Ru revolves around the pairing of a young woman named Lala and a young man named Rito. It’s not exactly the most normal relationship as Lala is a princess from the planet Deviluke who has essentially run away from home and landed herself on Earth, where she actually ends up naked right from the start inside of Rito’s bathtub. Rito’s a fairly normal high school kid who is good at sports, has a bit of a green thumb and seems to have decent grades. He’s your basic nice guy that has hit a serious rough patch at school though. Ever since he met a girl named Haruna in school a couple of years prior, he’s been madly in love with her. That love took an awkward turn this year though when the garden she tends at school got ruined and he got blamed when he came across it and was discovered that way. Haruna hasn’t held it against him but most everyone else has given him dirty looks ever since.
His interest in Haruna is certainly more complex now that Lala has landed and decided that she’s going to live with him for awhile and revealed her true nature to Rito’s sister Mikan. The parents are out of the picture so it’s easy to deal with there. Rito’s not going to let Lala stop him from getting closer to Haruna though so he sets things up to confess to her his true feelings. It’s that point that sets the real stage for the series as his confession of love is intercepted by Lala who takes it very literally as a marriage proposal. So much so that they’re essentially engaged. Haruna witnesses all of it and is decidedly confused, but she also gets the picture that the confession was meant for her, so she gets to slowly explore her own feelings for him as time goes on even as Lala gets closer to Rito.
The basics of the show are certainly familiar with the alien princess setting herself up on Earth to marry a high school student. Her problems with fitting in are large ones to be tackled repeatedly, from social issues to her choice of clothing. Lala does end up going to the school that Rito and Haruna go to which adds even more of a wrinkle to events since all the other students quickly become aware of the relationship between her and Rito. The school comedy is fairly straightforward with the science fiction angle applied to it, such as the school nurse being part of the Deviluke empire who is helping to keep an eye on things. There’s also the captain of the ship that was in pursuit of Lala, a man named Zastin, who takes easily to Earth life and serves as her guardian there. He’s pretty chummy with Mikan as he explains the reality of the situation to her so she’s fully in the loop.
Like most comedy series, as it progresses it adds more characters. The class rep in Yui has a good episode where she gets more involved in things and there are other characters that filter in. Where the show takes a less than welcome turn is when some of the aliens arrive on the scene. One episode has a fish-like creature that’s come to Earth to take Lala for his own but does it in an almost classic creature double feature kind of method. The aliens don’t seem to gel with the show as well as it’s done in other shows as everything works better when it’s kept to humanoid characters. When the humanoid aliens show up, including Lala’s father, the flow works and the comedy doesn’t go poorly. A lot of this is situational comedy to be sure, but the characters are all quite likable and the comedy works well because of it, especially since it plays the raunchy side reasonably well.
The design for the show with its animation is another angle that helps this rise above being just a mediocre comedy-romance. A lot of it rides on the girls and they manage to pull it off really well. Lala herself is essentially the lead for it and her personality shines through in her design, with bright colors, very outgoing and vibrant, with a fair bit of skin showing that pushes her free spirit nature. For Haruna, she has a bit more of the classic beauty to her with the shorter haircut, a more reserved demeanor and a more Japanese approach to relationships as she’s spending more of her time watching events rather than directly interacting in it and trying to get what she wants herself. The other characters make out well overall, though many don’t stand out hugely. Rito has a good look but like most male leads of a comedy-romance like this he has a bit of that beaten down nature to him. He’s not a wimp character, but he’s more reserved and not all that interested in being the center of attention.
As it progresses, most of the episodes deal with fun things, such as the cat-woman one where Saruyama works hard to find a girlfriend to get out of that sticky situation. There’s a school festival episode that involves the class making an animal cafe that serves okonomiya that involves all sorts of sexy costumes and the importance of working together for things. Predictable but the point of To Love Ru is about the fanservice and silliness. This is also very apparent in the big fanservice episodes with the time at the pool and the search for a close hot spring. The pool has lots of swimsuits and scantily clad moments where it really does seem like the world revolves around Rito as all these women are drawn to him. The hot spring episode is very cute as it has Lala digging deep into the Earth with everyone in tow to discover the best hot spring they can, all while passing by numerous amazing treasures. Both go for the skin in a blatant and fun way, and it’s because they do it in that way that you can laugh and enjoy it for what it is, nipples and all.
One of the best episodes that’s not pure fanservice related involves Lala coming down with an alien flu that alters her personality on a daily basis. The first part is priceless as she becomes completely shy and opposite of herself and Rito finds that surprisingly enticing. A few other changes are thrown into the mix but the best is when she becomes completely supportive of Rito becoming the greatest ever and helping him to conquer Earth so he can begin that journey. With a full on military getup on her, she designs a cadre of androids to do the job. The best is when all of Rito’s friends decide to throw in with Lala on this for their own sweet holdings when the conquering is all said and done with.
Like any show of this nature, it does have to spend at least the last one or two episodes dealing with something bigger than the usual silliness and fun. For To Love Ru, it’s the return of Lala’s father as he’s come to conquer the world in an open and outright fashion. But he does make it something that Earthlings can fight back with and he assigns Rito to the job of challenging. The challenge is simple in that when they start the game he has to make it to where Lala’s father is within a certain period of time. With all the stops pulled out by him, Rito has quite the challenge ahead of him with the fate of the world at stake. It’s the expected big kind of plot you’d expect for the end of the show but they do it well enough so that it’s fun and we see the growth and changes of the core characters that has come from the show so far.
In Summary:
Similar to when I had first watched the series, I came away from it having enjoyed the show a lot. It’s a more current show but plays a lot of elements like an 80’s show in some ways, but with glossier fanservice. While for the most part it doesn’t really rise above itself that much when it comes to being all about the fanservice and situational comedy that stems from it, it manages to do it so well and the characters are fun enough that it all works together really well. The core trio is what works the best and all three of them are fun to watch, though Haruna won me over as my favorite of all of them, both because of her design and personality but also because of her position where she is aware of things but still doesn’t let go and wants to try and find a way to make it work. While I would have liked to have seen this series and subsequent seasons get a dub, I’m definitely glad that it has a high definition release since there’s a good bit of pop to the color and a more engaging feeling overall, even with the few minor issues that crop up along the way. The show has held up pretty well since it was first released on DVD here and a second viewing has left me once again thinking positively about it.
Features:
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Clean Opening, Clean Closing
Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: B-
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: March 18th, 2014
MSRP: $89.98
Running Time: 650 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.