"Anime was a mistake" - me after watching this

We’re using that meme right at the door and keeping it there, because this is some serious shit. “Motto To Love-Ru” (or To Love-Ru Season 2, which is what it actually is) is an abysmal excuse for an ecchi romantic comedy and it fails on almost every level. Basically every episode devolves into senseless 13-year old puberty wish fulfillment and all the jokes are so obnoxiously juvenile or poorly timed that they fall flat. Character development doesn’t happen often, and when it does, it never sticks, because every single named character is a simple caricature of an already-established shonen/ecchi trope, and they will never deviate from that.

Every character is also incredibly annoying, detrimental to the plot, and unclear in motivation. Lala is an alien princess who likes Rito (the main character) and tinkers with machinery that always has a fatal flaw. 99 times out of 100 this flaw is used to exploit To Love-Ru’s extensive female cast, be it to put Rito into some lewd situation, or to put any of the girls into some insane situation where they lose their clothes or get groped. Even then, the plot never consistently relies on this mechanic- only in the first season is it an incredibly reliable pattern. Instead, each episode of “Motto” has 3 different stories that usually focus on different girls in the harem. I would describe the flaws with each girl, but that would take far too long. Instead, let’s look at the things that they don’t get wrong, because those are much rarer.

OP/ED are serviceable and I have no problems with them. The main character actually is written as a decent person and not a deplorable human like Heaven’s Lost Property or, more recently, Hajimete no Gal. Rito is a likeable young guy with a crush on a girl from school and a tendency to get into situations rife with misunderstandings, but overall, he does the right thing. The only problem is that everyone fails to learn that, or understand that, so he’s basically the opposite of Keiichi from Oh My Goddess.

In OMG, Keiichi Morisato gets involved with plenty of misunderstandings between himself and the “goddesses.” However, most of the characters learn and understand that Keiichi has no ill or lewd intent and would not act on any such urges, so most of the misunderstandings are concluded before any conflict can arise. This is satisfying on multiple levels- first, any contrived conflict coming from something out of the character’s control is mitigated, and mostly resolved quickly. Second, even if the conflict still arises, the characters are able to react to it in a new or sensible way, instead of screaming or violence EVERY SINGLE TIME.

In contrast, Yuuki Rito is the single most misunderstood and abused harem lead ever. Every single skirt flip, wardrobe malfunction, accidental teleportation, body-switching, accidental drugging, rape attempt (yes, really!), is HIS FAULT. WITHOUT ANY DOUBTS. He is consistently on the receiving end of slapstick violence and high school girl screaming for all of the things he never does, or in some instances, is literally incapable of doing. If he wasn’t such a great guy, this would be FINE. But he’s clearly pure-hearted and shy! Well, as pure-hearted as a teenager can get.

People do not fully enjoy seeing good people get punished, without retribution or reason behind it. Let’s use an example to explain how this cycle works.

In a similar vein to To Love-Ru, Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou is a harem focused around one guy and all the strange girls who fall in love with him, and their daily life. In one chapter/episode, one of the girls (Miia) is accosted and manipulated by a (presumably male) creeper into almost-rape on a canoe, but the main guy (Kurusu) arrives just in time to stop it in a both comedic and important manner. This actually involves some character development- Kurusu has never gone to such extreme lengths for any of the girls like that before, and it is even revealed later that he was trying to find Miia to give her a gift. Also notable is his treatment of the creeper, offering to undress “him” so that they don’t get sick from being wet. “Conflict -> Tension -> Fear -> Comedic Action -> Catharsis -> Development.” Not only does it help the viewer further understand the established characters involved, but it provides a proper resolution to the conflict, attempts a light comedic moment, and it’s very well-paced and introduced.

To Love-Ru does none of this. At the start of each segment, a girl is “chosen” to star, and she gets in some mess, and Rito is involved/blamed. The situations are lined with depravity and perverted wish fulfillment, from anything to an incestous relationship with a little sister, having a girl almost coerce you into rape after you do a “gentlemanly” act for her, licking a girl erotically while morphed into a dog, accidental sexting with an uptight student body member, and excessive amounts of unnecessary softcore tentacle hentai. A large majority of these events are treated as if the viewer should just sit back and enjoy the boobs (which are pretty much always either HUGE or nonexistent) while nothing substantial happens. And you know what, that would be perfectly fine, if…

This show didn’t pretend to have a plot. Consistently it is referenced that some of the girls actually seriously view Rito as a romantic interest, most notably Haruna (Rito’s crush) and Lala. This is brought up as if it’s a problem? Though Rito, at the beginning of To Love-Ru, was very clearly only interested in Haruna, and it’s only randomly brought up in “Motto” (and parts of the first season) that he’s interested in Lala, though it feels pointless and out of left field, especially considering how Rito’s life became pure hell after he met her. But that’s why this show makes me so angry. It’s not advertised as pure softcore porn/ecchi. It’s advertised to have story, progression, character development. And it has NONE OF THAT. It is as structurally sound as Kiss x Sis, as substantial as a sheet of cardboard with fake boobs drawn on it. The plot is only occasionally used to bring DRAMA and TENSION that feels, somehow, even MORE contrived than the rest of the plot. It’s painful to see such a decent base for a story be so wasted.

Instead, go watch/read Oh My Goddess or MonMusu. Maybe even Shuffle or Oshiete! Galko-chan, if you really need the high school setting. They have actual character development, well-timed humor, and substantial plots. And hell, you can even get some enjoyment out of the first season of To Love-Ru. It’s not an 8/10 but it’s so much better than “Motto” that it’s insane.