To Love Ru
A drama CD was released in February 2008, featuring an original story along with character songs. Following a 26-episode anime television series adaptation that aired in Japan in 2008, Xebec produced six original video animation episodes and a 12-episode second season, titled "Motto To Love Ru", between 2009 and 2010. Four video games have been released for various platforms. A continuation of the manga called was serialized in Shueisha's "Jump Square" magazine from October 2010 to March 2017, and the chapters collected into 18 "tankōbon" volumes. Between 2012 and 2017, Xebec produced 10 OVA  episodes and 26 anime television series episodes based on "To Love Ru Darkness". The "To Love Ru" and "To Love Ru Darkness" manga series have over 16 million copies in circulation. Synopsis. Section::::"To Love Ru". Set in the fictional city of , the story of "To Love Ru" revolves around Rito Yuuki, a shy and clumsy high-school student who cannot confess his love to the girl of his dreams, Haruna Sairenji. One day when sulking in the bathtub, a mysterious, naked devil-tailed girl appears out of nowhere. Her name is Lala Satalin Deviluke, the runaway crown princess of  the planet Deviluke. Her father wants her to return home to marry one of her marriage candidates. When Devilukean commander Zastin arrives to bring her home, she swiftly declares she will marry Rito in order to stay on Earth, leading Zastin to attack Rito. But when Rito angrily declares that marriage is only possible with the person you love, the two dull-witted aliens misunderstand him, believing he truly understands Lala's feelings. Lala quickly falls in love with him, and Zastin also approves of their engagement, much to Rito's dismay. While Zastin reports his support for the pair  to Lala's father, Gid Lucion Deviluke, who is the King of Deviluke and much of the known universe, Rito reluctantly helps Lala transition to life on Earth, while gradually befriending his dream girl, Haruna, along with a colorful cast of other girls (both humans and aliens), such as the uptight, high-strung girl Yui Kotegawa, the gender-switching alien Run/Ren, and the queen bee Saki Tenjouin, among others. In the meantime, Rito must also fight off Lala's antagonistic alien suitors, one of whom sends the alien assassin Golden Darkness to kill him. Section::::"To Love Ru Darkness". The  story continues in "To Love Ru Darkness", which focuses on Lala's little sister, Momo Belia Deviluke. She and her twin sister, Nana Astar Deviluke, have since come to live with Lala in Rito's house. While Rito remains indecisive between his longtime crush on Haruna and his growing affection for Lala, Momo has also fallen in love with Rito. But not wanting to steal Rito away from her sister, Momo instead plots to build a harem of girls around Rito, hoping that if Rito marries Lala and becomes the King of Deviluke, he can legally marry every girl who  is in love with him, including Momo herself. While Momo works in the background and plays matchmaker with Rito, a plethora of beautiful girls gradually enter Rito's life and warm up to his kindness, including Golden Darkness, who has since lived peacefully on Earth but struggles to escape her dark past. Thus, Rito's otherworldly love troubles continue forever. Publication. "To Love Ru" is written by Saki Hasemi and illustrated by Kentaro Yabuki. It was serialized in Shueisha's "Weekly Shōnen Jump" magazine between April 24, 2006 and August 31, 2009. The chapters were collected into 18 "tankōbon" volumes  and were published by Shueisha between November 11, 2006 and April 2, 2010. The series was republished in a 10-volume "bunkoban" edition between November 18, 2016 and March 17, 2017. A sequel manga, "To Love Ru Darkness", was serialized between October 4, 2010 and March 4, 2017 in "Jump Square". Shueisha published 18 volumes for "Darkness" in Japan from March 4, 2011 to April 4, 2017. Additionally, two bonus chapters were published in the May and June 2017 issues of "Jump Square". The series was republished in a 10-volume "bunkoban" edition between October 16, 2020 and February 18 , 2021. To celebrate Yabuki's 20th anniversary as a professional artist, a special "To Love Ru" story was published in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" on April 27, 2019. A full-color "To Love Ru Darkness" one-shot was published in "Jump Square" on May 2, 2019 for the same occasion. Both manga series are licensed in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment, who release them in print and digital formats. "To Love Ru" was published in two-in-one omnibus volumes, while "To Love Ru Darkness" was released as single volumes. Both series were originally slated to begin publication in October  2017, but were later delayed to December 2017. Media. Anime. An anime television series adaptation produced by Xebec and directed by Takao Kato aired in Japan between April 4 and September 26, 2008, and contains twenty-six episodes. The anime uses characters and general themes from the original manga, it captures various chapters and events from the manga in no specific order. The anime's opening theme is "Forever We Can Make It!" by Thyme, the first ending theme for episodes one through thirteen is and the second ending theme is both are sung by Anna. The anime is licensed  in North America by Sentai Filmworks and distributed by Section23 Films. The complete DVD collection part one containing the first half-season was released on December 15, 2009 and part two containing the second half-season was released on February 16, 2010. Sentai released the series on Blu-ray on March 18, 2014. Sentai Filmworks later produced an English dub of the series, which began streaming on Hidive on March 27, 2020. Three original video animation (OVA) episodes produced by Xebec and directed by Takao Kato were shipped starting on April 3, 2009 with pre-ordered copies of the manga 's 13th, 14th and 15th volumes. An additional three OVA episodes were released with the bundled version of the 16th, 17th and 18th volumes. The opening theme for the OVAs is "Yatte Koi Daisuki" and the ending theme is "Apple panic"; both songs are by Haruka Tomatsu and Sayuri Yahagi, the voice actresses of Lala Satalin Deviluke and Haruna Sairenji, respectively. A second season of the anime, titled "Motto To Love Ru", produced by Xebec and directed by Atsushi Ōtsuki aired 12 episodes between October 6 and December 22, 2010. The opening theme for the second season is "Loop-the -Loop" by Kotoko and the ending theme is "Baby Baby Love" by Tomatsu. Sentai Filmworks have also licensed the second season and released the complete series set on DVD on April 3, 2012; the Blu-ray set was released on May 27, 2014, and the English dub began streaming on Hidive on February 2, 2021. Six OVA episodes of "To Love Ru Darkness" were produced by Xebec and released with the limited editions of the manga's 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 12th, and 13th volumes on DVD on August 17, 2012, December 19, 2012, August 19, 2013, December 4, 2013 , December 4, 2014, and April 3, 2015, respectively. A twelve-episode anime television series adaptation was also produced by Xebec, directed by Atsushi Ōtsuki, and aired between October 6 and December 29, 2012. The opening theme for "To Love Ru Darkness" is by Ray and the ending theme is by Kanon Wakeshima. Sentai Filmworks released "To Love Ru Darkness" on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on July 15, 2014. A second season of "Darkness", titled "To Love Ru Darkness 2nd", aired in Japan between July 7 and October 29, 2015. The opening theme is "secret arms" by Ray  while the ending theme is "Gardens" by Mami Kawada. Sentai Filmworks released "To Love Ru Darkness 2nd" on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on November 1, 2016. Three OVA episodes of "To Love Ru Darkness 2nd" were produced by Xebec between January 4 and December 2, 2016. A fourth OVA episode to commemorate the 10th anniversary of "To Love Ru" was released on November 2, 2017 with a book titled "To Love Ru Chronicles". Video games. Five "To Love Ru" video games have been released. The first is a 2D and 3D visual novel on the Nintendo DS  titled which was released on August 28, 2008. The second is a 2D adventure visual novel on the PlayStation Portable entitled which was released on October 2, 2008. A third game, titled was released on May 22, 2014 for the PlayStation Vita. It was developed by FuRyu, the developer of "Unchained Blades". Lala Satalin Deviluke appears as a support character in the "Jump" crossover fighting game "J-Stars Victory VS". A smartphone game titled was released on March 19, 2014; the game was later added to the website DMM.com on May 13, 2015. A game titled was released on November  5, 2015 for the PlayStation Vita. Other media. A drama CD for "To Love Ru" was released on February 29, 2008 with an original story, featuring the voice cast later used in the anime, along with character songs. Hikaru Wakatsuki wrote two novels based on the series; was published on August 3, 2009, and was published on August 17, 2012. Three art books have been published for the two manga series; "Love Color" on January 4, 2010, "Venus" on October 9, 2012, and "Harem Gold" on May 2, 2016. An official data book was published on March 4, 2011, while  a guidebook to "Darkness" was published on October 3, 2014. A special book celebrating the tenth anniversary of "To Love Ru" and its sequel was published on November 2, 2017. It features tribute illustrations by artists such as Akira Toriyama, Rumiko Takahashi, Eiichiro Oda, and Hajime Isayama. Reception. Sales and popularity. "To Love Ru" and "To Love Ru Darkness" had over 16 million copies in circulation by March 2017. According to Oricon and Tohan, the collected volumes of "To Love Ru" consistently ranked in the top 10 best-selling manga during their first weeks of release in Japan. Volume 7  was the best-selling manga volume in its week of release, while two versions (a regular and a limited edition) of volumes 13, 15, and 17 ranked in the top 30 during their respective release weeks. Like its predecessor, the collected volumes of "To Love Ru Darkness" all ranked in the top 10 best-selling manga during their first weeks of release. Two versions (a regular and a limited edition) of volumes 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, and 17 ranked in the top 40 during their respective release weeks. According to Oricon, "To Love Ru Darkness" sold 1,067,988 copies  in 2011, while its fourth volume alone sold 460,543 copies in 2012. The series sold 1,558,973 copies in 2013, 437,671 of which were from volume 7. Oricon reported that in the first half of 2014, volumes 9 and 10 sold 326,208 and 334,502 copies respectively. Volume 15 of "To Love Ru Darkness" sold 277,118 copies in the first half of 2016, while volumes 17 and 18 sold 262,024 and 262,201 copies respectively in the first half of 2017. In November 2014, readers of "Da Vinci" magazine voted "To Love Ru" number 20 on a list of "Weekly Shōnen Jump"s greatest  manga series of all time. In early 2018, a Goo poll of 5,322 people saw "To Love Ru" voted the most erotic manga in "Weekly Shōnen Jump"s history. Critical response. Anime News Network had four different writers review the first two-in-one omnibus volume of "To Love Ru". Lynzee Loveridge, Amy McNulty and Rebecca Silverman each gave it a 3 out of 5 rating. Loveridge described the work as pure harem and praised Yabuki's comedic artwork, but felt that the personality types of the love-triangled main characters were "retreading well worn ground." McNulty disagreed, calling Lala "refreshingly  charming" and noting that Haruna does not enter tired tropes either. Silverman called Yabuki's art dynamic and attractive and recommended the series to fans of harem rom-coms, but called the plot very cliché and providing nothing new. McNulty stated that the beginning with just the original love-triangle works just fine, making the love interests added later seem unnecessary, and comes off as quaint when compared to "To Love Ru Darkness". Also in comparison to the sequel, Loveridge described the original series as tame in comparison to the "thinly veiled hentai" that is "To Love Ru Darkness". Austin  Price, the fourth writer, gave it a scathing review, calling the story a straight rip-off of "Urusei Yatsura" and claiming the jokes were ripped straight from harem comedy classics such as "Ranma ½", "Tenchi Muyo!" and "Love Hina". He also called Yabuki "the most utterly unremarkable artist in "Shonen Jump"s history." Stig Høgset and Tim Jones of T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews described the first season of the anime series as "a watered down "Urusei Yatsura" for the 21st century" and called it the worst romantic comedy they have ever seen. They mainly criticized the anime's large amounts of original  material not adapted from the manga, but also noted poor animation and music. When they reviewed the "Motto To Love Ru" anime, Høgset and Jones felt it improved significantly as it reduces manga arcs into 7 minutes each so as to include three in each episode. They gave it 3 out of 5 stars, but stated it unfortunately focuses on the "lesser characters" too often, and their "antics will get old in 5 minutes." Controversy. In 2012, "To Love Ru Darkness" was reviewed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly to see if it violated their newly passed controversial Bill 156. This  was after they had received a phone call from a parent who discovered a "To Love Ru Darkness" book while cleaning a son's room. The parent did not like that there was frontal nudity of a female character, including her lower body. At the meeting on April 9, 2012, they decided that while the book did include the aforementioned nudity, it did not violate the new ordinance. In 2014, volume 9 of "To Love Ru Darkness" was officially designated a "harmful publication" in Fukushima Prefecture under its "Youth Protection and Nurturing Ordinance".