Throughout Shueisha's shounen manga series, To LOVE-Ru, a manga focused strictly on a romantic comedy, had been one of the few to last as it was in Jump of all magazines. When most think of Jump, they'd most likely think of an action manga. As of now, To LOVE-Ru has been continued in a new story, "To LOVE-Ru ~Darkness~".

To LOVE-Ru ~Darkness~ has been continuously considered as a "better" manga than the original series, To LOVE-Ru. In my opinion, that statement is false, based on what most say. Focusing on the two heroines, Haruna and Lala, To LOVE-Ru lasted from 2006 to 2009. Now, in the story of To LOVE-Ru, Lala and Haruna are both hardly recurring. And please, do not bother talking about "Shiho and Hasemi Saki." This is just a rumor, and To LOVE-Ru was never high in the ToC of Jump to begin with. The ToC is the biggest factor, following with author's choice and series returning from hiatus. As for Hasemi Saki and this "Shiho" person, it's funny someone would believe this without any evidence. This "Shiho" person has worked with Yabuki Kentaro, the artist of To LOVE-Ru, on To LOVE-Ru and his previous work, Black Cat. How she would all of a sudden spout that she looked just like Haruna 140+ chapters in, I have no clue why she would care, and if that was true. Hell, searching her name up, I have managed to find a person who looks nothing like Haruna.

Now then, instead of mumbling about how To LOVE-Ru was better, I guess it's time for the review. To LOVE-Ru ~Darkness~ is a manga serialized in JUMP SQ, a monthly magazine. This manga focuses on ecchi, romance, and comedy, a common three genres. Regardless of what people may say, this manga does NOT have a story of any sort. It is still episodic at most times, just like To LOVE-Ru was. In To LOVE-Ru, the average chapter would make comedic jokes at random. In To LOVE-Ru ~Darkness~, the average chapter is about Rito falling into the hands of a heroine, and causing a revealing scene. There has also been character development between a character, although I do not see much of a point as it was quickly passed on, with the turn of two pages resulting in an imaginative sex scene between that specific character and Rito. As of now, the two likely main heroines are; the one mentioned before (Who will remain unnamed) and Momo. As for Momo, she just wants Rito to have a perfect harem, simply put, a large group of the opposite sex falling for him. In the end, the story is nonexistent almost at all times, and is less constant than that of the original series.

As for the art, it appears to have changed over time a bit, taking the look-alike art from the adaptation of Mayoi Neko Overrun's light novels to a manga. I will admit, it is high-quality. I won't say it is incredible, but it is definitely great. Thus, there isn't much to say about this.

And again, time to mumble about parts most would personally not care about. I do not care if this manga was made specifically for "the sex appeal" in someone's opinion, and if that is so, I don't have much to say. I do not care if this little "character development" was important in someone else's eyes, as it obviously wasn't to me. Lastly, I do not care if someone believes "ecchi" or the "harem plan" to be the story, as I obviously do not think so.

Overall, it would be better of this series were to end, and have a follow-up which isn't filled with "ecchi" in every chapter. It could well enough live on the type of ecchi it had in To LOVE-Ru, with constant comedy, and possibly some story, although comedy will make up for it. Unfortunately, exposing women's bodies will not.

... Last updated on October 8th, 2012, 7:26am

Ever since reading Black Cat, I've followed Kentaro's art. He wrote a solid shonen story as well--nothing too deep or thought-provoking, but sufficient for its target audience (I was fourteen at time of reading).

Let's get the good points out of the way first:

The "plot" in Darkness is way beyond its predecessor, but more on that later. The art is good, too. Really good. Also, this may be the first time I've seen a manga approach a harem situation with a "bed ALL the girls" attitude, and coming from one of the girls, no less. Yes, the harem plan relates to the back story, but that's about as deep as the story gets.

And... that's about it. Now let's rip it apart.

I have no problem with episodic storytelling, but in Darkness, you can easily predict the ending of every last chapter: Rito is thrown into a sexual situation (uncensored this time), gets slapped/punched/kicked for his clumsiness (as he always "falls" into girls' chests, etc.), and ends up somehow attracting a harem of girls through being a nice guy, all the while never taking his existing relationship a step further.

His existing relationship was unexpected. Though it happened in the end of the manga, I'm genuinely surprised that Rito actually got a girlfriend. But now what does she get? One chapter? It seems almost as if they've grown farther apart.

The characters are all as shallow as you'd expect from a harem manga. The cast of girls is only attracted to Rito for his outstanding kindness. They never get any deeper than that. The first part of TLR and this are filled with moments that could potentially develop excellent characters, but unfortunately, the writer doesn't take any opportunities, instead leaving Rito as a wish-fulfillment self-insert character.

I mean, who else has noticed that Rito never does anything wrong? He gets kicked around a lot for accidentally touching girls, but it was never his fault. Nothing was ever his fault. Come to think of it, what flaws do any of the characters have? And I'm talking about real flaws, not hastily-added anger issues on top of a tsundere personality or anything like that. Everything is superficial at best.

All in all, To Love-Ru Darkness is a poorly-written, but extremely well-drawn manga. You may come away from this manga with a perverted smile remembering an excellent pseudo-sex scene, but if you're looking for deep story and characters, you won't find them here. I have to give props to the writer for daring to write what is potentially the first non-hentai true harem, but unless the later chapters get a lot better, this manga will forever live in mediocrity. Five stars out of five for the art. One out of five for the writing. I rate this a six.

... Last updated on April 18th, 2012, 5:49am

To LOVE-Ru: Darkness supersedes its predecessor by amazing amounts. The fanservice is still quite intact, but there is one thing that changed, the amount of plot. Yes, finally instead of the episodic(yet still appealing) chapters, you get an awesome amount of plot along with increased ecchi each and every chapter. The series did change from being weekly into monthly, but the amount of plot along with long chapters quickly and easily over weigh this fact.

As many people have already said, this series has changed entirely.
It went from an ecchi fanservice manga into one with an actual plot. The shift of main female lead (and pretty much main character, to be honest) from Lala/Rito to Momo is a good move on the mangaka's part.
As it is now it's very interesting and I await new chapters, of course there is always the ecchi, but it's not as ridiculous as the original series

Yup, this is one of those rare mangas which is simply better than its predecessor in all aspects. Now the main protagonists have switched to Momo and Yami who are really much more interesting and involved in the plot than the dum-dums that were Haruna and Lala (who are more like side characters now). Showing the increasingly complicated relationship between Momo-Yuuki-Yami is actually the best move the author could have taken.

Edit (5ish years later):
I have to take everything back. Other than a focus on different girls, absolutely nothing has changed. The plot is as static as ever and there is no growth for anyone. Truly sad.

... Last updated on June 26th, 2016, 3:19am

To Love-ru is back with moar ecchi than ever before! Speaking of "moar", there's plot galore. New characters, delving into the secret past of Yami-chan, and Momo's plan to build Yuuki's harem. All this and moar are awaiting you in this epic of epics.

This manga is really different from all other Harem manga. And after first season this one has really interesting turn of events. It was totally unexpected and that is what I liked the most.

without Yabuki Kentarou fantastic art noone would "read" this
sure its atleast 80% better than everything Kentarou have done on his own
so its obvious he needs a writer for his drawings...but i dont know...its so shallow and so sexual its not even funny...if this had run in a R-18 magazine and just show 1 more nipple/chapter i would get it

unless you are a teenaged boy that constantly think about sex...you will get bored FAST

This deserves good points just for the dose of monthly ecchi scenes, i just hope it won't turn into 1-2 chapter stories later on...
I prefer to look at it like ecchi picture book with something like a plot to link all the images together, and for those alone this definitely deserves a 10.

It's back.
Now with plot.
Plot? Yes, something like...
Awesome! I like how Yabuki Kentaro draw girls.