To Love Ru Darkness is the sequel to
Motto To Love Ru and is naturally based upon the sequel manga of the same name. There are twelve episodes in the first season plus six more OVAs. The OVAs, or at the very least, the first one, is a must watch. The first OVA, which is the prologue, sets up the arc for the sequel series. Darkness has a more defined focus compared to the original To Love Ru. Inspired by Rito, Lala and Haruna’s arrangement, where Lala proposed that Rito can just marry the both of them, Momo hatches a plan. She decided to help Rito gather his harem and sets about “recruiting” all the female cast into it. She does this by engineering scenarios where Rito and the target will be able to share a bonding or an intimate event to help bolster those feelings.
The prologue also sets up the tone of the series which is to push the boundaries of what is acceptable without turning into a full blown hentai. It is determined that at every opportunity it will push forward fan service, and these aren’t your average teasing. Rather, they are heavily suggestive in what it is portraying, complete with evocative poses, questionable fluids and heavy breathing.
There are breast shots even when it is unnecessary and done in an awkward way. There are way too many moments where it lacks tact and that defeats the purpose. Nothing is sacred anymore and if you’re a female character in the anime, then you can sure that there will be explicit romantic feelings and scenes. Rito just being clumsy and awkward as the reason for a lot of the situations that he’s in just does not cut it anymore. It is even more of a terrible flimsy excuse when the position he ends up being in cannot be explained this way and this kills the scene.
As a result of the “Project Harem” plot point, the focus swaps from Lala and Haruna to Momo, and Momo takes up a lot of screentime. Even if it the scene currently has Rito and one of the female cast, Momo will almost always have something to do with it. So it’s bad news if you don’t like Momo, who is way too manipulative and fake. Her more negative traits tend to be enhanced this season, and it highlights how much she acts like an innocent good girl on the outside but doesn’t hesitate to take advantage and is quite scheming in actuality.
The other major plot point in Darkness is what the subtitle is alluding to. Yami, aka Golden Darkness, has become accustomed to her life on Earth. She’s a lot more passive compared to her cold demeanor from when she was introduced as the assassin to kill Rito. It’s actually pretty sweet when she admits herself that she doesn’t remember or noticed how she slowly changed to wanting to live life like this and have started to branch out on learning more about Earth’s customs.
Unfortunately for Yami, her past comes back to bite her. With the introduction of the major character Mea, she and her master has a plan to try to convert Yami back into being a coldhearted assassin. In many ways, Mea is similar to Momo and Yami. She can be dark and sadistic like Momo, while naïve and inexperienced like Yami. One thing’s for sure though, and that is Mea is a force to be reckoned with, as she easily outclasses both Momo and Yami in terms of pure power. There is a clash of ideologies between Yami and Mea. Yami tries to teach Mea what she has experienced, learnt and now appreciate. Mea was like what Yami was before she arrived but lacks even the tiniest amount of empathy. The anime manages to wrap Momo’s plan and Yami / Mea’s plot neatly together though.
The anime can be very slow paced at times. It lacks the more innocent, yet teasing, humor of the original and it is the worse for it. There is a lack of creativity in terms of Rito yet again accidentally crashing or falling into a girl, and the two ending up in a sexual pose. It just feels too lazy and over the top to be enjoyable now. It ruins every single genuine touching moments between characters with fan service at the end of the scene, breaking the atmosphere. Coincidence was always the theme of the series and it’s even more so now. The city is very small since the characters will always bump into each other. There are way too many coincidentally moments for it to feel natural or acceptable.
The last part of the season focuses on the backstory of Yami. She had always been shrouded in mystery so it is an interesting concept. As expected, there are a few references to Black Cat (since Yami herself was based on Eve). It’s nothing spectacular or surprising, and feels tame as a result.
The season ends with an open ending as expected, it felt like it was just another everyday episode. One thing that stood out was that it had the boldest attempt in regards to the fan service scene between Rito and Momo. Everything in it was designed as a direct parallel to the sexual act so it was surprising that it made it to a normal episode rather than an OVA.
The rest of the OVAs are slice of life type of events as Rito has more of his normal shenanigans. Nothing too important happens and Rito gets into the same types of situations as he had done for the whole season, which is starting to get stale. An interesting point is despite how mature and manipulative Momo had acted for most of the season, deep down, she is still young and naive. It makes her character more likable.
Overall, To Love Ru Darkness tries to add some reasons for the things happening in Rito’s life. At its core, it had a good concept with the Yami focus (the harem project by Momo? Not so much), however it is marred by the extreme fan service scenes. Fan service isn’t inherently bad when done well, but To Love Ru Darkness has it dialed up to the point where it impedes and intrudes on everything. For every genuine moment there are five invasive fan service scenes, and when you have too much of one thing, you start to get accustomed to it or even get sick of it.
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