Deal with with Power of Friendship is a bit like facing the Borg. Resistance is futile, as Mea’s about to find out…
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:
After many years of separation, Yami – or Eve, as Tearju calls her – is finally reunited with the nearest thing she has to a mother. As reunions go, it’s more awkward than happy. Both of them have things they want to say and questions they want answered, and Yami doesn’t feel that she can go back to how things were – which leaves Tearju almost distraught. Mea, meanwhile, is keeping a close watch on Tearju’s activities…
First. a grumble. I have many pet hates with anime, but the one at the top of the list is the comedy / fanservicey show that spends ten episodes out of 12 being fun and hi-jinks, but then suddenly develops a streak of High Drama that must be followed to see the series out. These two aspects rarely if ever go together, and I really wish that shows wouldn’t do it. WIth that off my chest, guess what happens to To Love-ru Darkness this week?
Yup, it’s High Drama time, right from the opening scenes of the episode (without the usual opening theme this week, which is another mark against the episode as I love that song). Given what’s happened in their past and the circumstances surrounding their separation, it’s not surprise that the reunion between Yami and Tearju isn’t exactly joyful – all the moreso as Yami still hasn’t really gotten the hang of this ‘emotion’ business yet. But the exchange between the pair also felt a bit forced, intended to make sure that things didn’t go easily for the pair now that Tearju was back on the scene.
That was in marked comparison to the confrontation between Tearju and Mea, which started with all the sense of threat you’d expect to see when an assassin confronts her target – only for all that threat to melt away when the Power of Friendship comes onto the scene and makes her see sense. Okay, it’s To Love-ru – it’s never going to be really thorough about doing this sort of thing “right” because it’s not that type of show. But that’s precisely the reason why this sort of show should just steer clear of serious drama in the first place.
I’ll get off my high horse now. Despite the ranting above, I did enjoy this episode overall – Mea being evil works for me, and there are a few moments here and there where it slips back into its more usual playful mode that tweaked the ‘guilty pleasure’ buttons.
In Summary:
I do hate when shows try to be something other that what they really are, and this episode of sadly falls right into that trap – in a completely expected and predictable way. For all that, it’s still done fairly well and gives some of the characters a chance to shine – if you can stop wishing to have the usual hi-jinks back.
Content Grade: B+
Streamed by: The Anime Network (North America), Anime On Demand (UK & Ireland)
Review Equipment:
27” Apple iMac, 2.9GHz Core i5, 8GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.8.2
