To Love Ru

I've binged a lot of anime over my past five years of being a weeb, and in the past few months I've felt some burnout. To Love Ru changed that. I haven't binged an anime this quick in a good while. I was absolutely addicted.

I have known To Love Ru's status as one of the ecchi classics, and now I can certainly see why.

To Love Ru is a nonstop engine of every single possible teenage dream a boy could ever have. Piranhas that only eat swimsuits. Absolutely ridiculous stuff, in the best possible way imaginable.

Obviously, you need to be into this kind of stuff to enjoy this anime. You have to love the garbage. You have be the garbage. This anime is one that people would point to in order to prove a point that anime is a trashy hornyfest. It only makes it more powerful, more worthy of your time.

Not only is To Love Ru a teenage dream, it's also genuinely hilarious. There is a minor overarching plot happening in the background, but To Love Ru mostly just hits you with ridiculous over-the-top slice of life arcs one after another. Oh, this episode Earth is in dire danger. The next, they have to hunt dinosaurs. Now they have to run a hotel? A furry cat mom is giving birth?! The situations that play out are so random and absurd that it makes for an ecchi that will give you a lot of good laughs while you're busy trying to get your erection to go away.

Humor is a giant plus, but the arguably biggest thing for an ecchi to get right is the characters. And To Love Ru nails it. The girls are all incredibly charming, well-designed, distinct from each other (all fulfilling a different fantasy, the entire waifu menu is in your hands), voiced wonderfully, and fun to watch. They're tropey as hell, but that's fine because this is To Love Ru. I already warned you that it's ecchi trash.

The lads are great in To Love Ru as well. Zastin, Lala's brother, is a fun one because he's a mover of the plot but also funny as hell and involved in a number of gags. He's voiced by none other than Takehito Koyasu, Dio's VA from JoJo, so you know he's gonna be a great character. Saruyama is Rito's male friend, and he fulfills the super trashy horny character stereotype. He's definitely one of the most cookie cutter of the show, but like everything about To Love Ru, he goes so unapologetically over the top with it that it makes for a number of humorous moments between all the girls.

Most of all, To Love Ru simply takes me back. Watching this series makes me feel like a high schooler again going crazy on hormones, a simpler time. It's the ultimate ecchi comfort food. It's trashy, it's fun, it's To Love Ru. I can't recommend it enough!