Sometimes I really wish they’d cut to the chase and made this as a hentai series…
What They Say:
When junior princesses Nana and Momo transfer into Earth School where big sister Lala can keep an eye on them, things SHOULD be smooth sailing. In addition to sister drama, Yami, the Golden Darkness, enters the scene with all the subtleness of a supernova, along with an army of possessed high school students! All of which is certain to make Rito’s life suck more than a black hole at the family picnic. Unless, of course, a certain semi-demonic princess will open a can of Develukean Whoop Ass! It’s “Wham, bam, thank you, Space Ma’am” time once again in To loveru Darkness!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Rito stuck in his Riko form for the time being, Momo’s seizing the opportunity to add some yuri to her harem plan – no matter how hard Riko may try to object. Her lovin’ is interrupted by a surprise visit from Mea, though, who wants to see what Momo’s really like. Meanwhile, Run has something she needs to talk to Rito about…
This week, we take a break from things Yami-related, and concentrate more on things gender-confused, opening with Riko and Momo getting down and dirty (Momo really doesn’t mind whether Rito’s male or female when it comes to getting a piece of him / her, it seems), before that’s followed that up with Run’s attempts to woo Rito without her inner Ren getting in the way. An idol’s life may be a fun one, but it’s hard to deal with being in love when you know that one inadvertent sneeze will turn ‘she’ into ‘he’ and ruin the mood in dramatic fashion. If you hadn’t already worked it out, there’s a fair amount of gender-swapping going on here, while the inevitable resulting nookie is all hidden behind steam, black bars, and other obscuring devices. Darn them.
All of which is quite good fun, with Run’s conversation with Rito even managing to muster an unusual level of emotional drama – by To Love-ru’s low usual standards, anyway. Add in the routine faceplants, accidental encounters, and Momo’s harem-creating scheming, and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy myself.
With all that said, though, this is clearly a ‘filler’ episode – Mea’s still around, her faceless master is still lurking in the background, and their plan to turn Yami back into the ruthless assassin she was is still, as far as we know, active. Sure, Mea may be getting in on the harem action (she’s really into licking Rito at the moment, and carries right on from where she left off last week on that front) and taking a lead from Yami on forming friendships with those around her, but there’s still a certain aura of threat about her that we’re still waiting to see resolved, and while part of me was enjoying the gang’s antics, another part was sitting feeling somewhat detached from it all and wishing they’d get on with the ‘plot’.
Part of the problem is the series’ huge cast – I count at least 13 girls alongside Rito in the opening credits, and there’s definitely an effort being made to shoehorn A Moment With Rito into the series for each and every one of them. With only 12 episodes to work with, and Yami’s overarching story to squeeze in to, that’s going to be no easy task to complete.
In Summary:
Good and bad this week, which has become pretty much the norm for Darkness – a lot of fun to be had, but some frustration around the edges with the way its being presented. But nothing’s perfect, and for something you can unwind to on a Saturday night without taxing the ol’ grey matter too much, To Love-ru Darkness continues to be hard to beat.
Content Grade: B+
Streamed by: The Anime Network (North America), Anime On Demand (UK & Ireland)
Review Equipment:
17” Apple MacBook Pro, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.8.2
