VOL. 1
0 – Prologue
I… ummm… don't know what to make out of this, begins like any other To Love-Ru chapter, not being serious and filled with laughs. From what I can gather out from this Prologue, is that it’s centred more around Lala’s sister, Momo now, the ecchi has really gone up a notch, to the point where it’s too much, it ruins the story (writer has gone out of their way to put it in…).
Anyway, hopefully it becomes better but I’m not holding up too much hopes, as now that I think about it, the ending of To Love-Ru wasn't so bad… not enough to warrant a sequel just for the hell of it.
1 – Continue
A long chapter (three times the normal length at around 60 pages), but it isn’t really any better than others. I am positive that the ecchi aspect has become too much, it’s ruining my enjoyment of the manga.
The attempted story (and I do think this series might actually have an ongoing storyline) does not hold any interest for me (Momo creating a Harem for Rito, errr, no thanks, I’ll be alright…).
Not to mention that the writer seems to have favoured ecchi over comedy, which is disappointing, makes it seem more like a perverted manga rather than a carefree one. I won’t condemn it that much this early in the manga, unlike To Love-Ru, “Darkness” does not look promising at this stage.
2 – Doubt and Dish
I see currently it is focusing on two characters, first is the aforementioned Momo, and the second, it took me a while to pick it up, is the focus on Yami (I thought it would solely focus on Momo). The story surround Momo is lame and I don't like it, it feels awkward and very forced (creating a Harem for Rito, it’s one thing for it to ‘naturally’ happen in the story, but it’s another when one characters ‘artificially’ creates one), plus, when the chapter’s focusing on her story, it’s usually more ecchi orientated than anything.
The story focusing on Yami, on the other hand, which is more about her past, is a lot more interesting and mysterious. This chapters ends with a good revelation, and one that made me want to read the next chapter (which hasn't been the case with the previous two chapters). At last, a good chapter that is worth reading, and is able to create some questions for the reader to brood about. Like it’s name, To Love-Ru Darkness seems a lot darker and more serious (focusing a lot more on a story) than it’s predecessor and you can see that in this chapter.
3 – Each Speculation
An interesting chapter, it’s finally getting on its feet, and a lot of things are put forward. Furthering Yami’s story, there’s some mystery involved, who this girl, Mea is, and what her master’s plans are. She has transformation powers and is potentially even more powerful than Yami. I still don't like the weird Harem plan on Momo’s side of things, and she seems even more, evil, or seductive, I can't find the word, than To Love-Ru, like she’s just gone overboard. Anyway, the story is tighter than before, and for that, it makes it a bit more enjoyable on one side of things, but in the other, sometimes it’s a bit too serious (but then again, that is the tone set in this series), an above-average chapter.
4 – Exciting Squall
Regardless on what the title suggests, this chapter isn’t exciting. The content of this chapter is completely related to Momo’s storyline, although it’s not as bad as the previous time. There’s less ecchi and more other things happening so I’m happy (you can only put up with so many of one thing), and the events happening are fairly interesting.
It’s about Rito and Kotegawa’s relationship, which hasn't been fully explored before, although Kotegawa doesn't really seem to be her own self, she kept a lot of things to herself… Anyway, I expected worse, but the atmosphere seems so much more depressing, at times, even too serious.
Overall
Setting a completely different tone than To Love-Ru, Darkness seems to promise an actual story, and is a lot more serious and “dark”. Depending on your preferences that can be good or bad. It’s awesome that I see the cast again on some new adventure, but the story that is created; I have some doubts about it. Changing the main female protagonist to Momo and Yami was a bit of a surprise, I would rather Lala be kept and Momo was still just a side character.
