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REVIEW: To Love Ru Darkness Sub.Blu-Ray


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rpgothic



Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 27
Location: UK
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 11:35 am Reply with quote
Good Review, Momo is a far more interesting lead and the fan service in this season has completely leveled up. Really would like another season as I love the To Love-Ru Series
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 11:49 am Reply with quote
Quote:
which begs the speculation that perhaps the source manga for Darkness became much racier in response.


I'd say in the manga, Yabuki exceeds most other fanservice titles. Dude draws in hidden vagina shots by placing in reflections of pipe faucets or within Rito's eye. Definitely not something you could easily recreate in color for an anime, though.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18137
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:07 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I've regularly been hearing stuff about the manga which suggests that the anime, even as ramped up as it is on fan service, is still tame compared to the near-outright-hentai content that the manga has.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:33 pm Reply with quote
The flaw in the franchise is that while Momo moves ahead with her harem plan, her actions and personality prove she really should be in a worthier series. That is, she should be girl number one, or two, rather than being perfectly happy with being wife #5. And her ideas for Wives 1-4 are kind of boring, not to forget the choice of the husband.

As for the series, I can't decide if the move from WSJ or the artist's divorce from his wife, the model of Haruna, which prompted its cancellation/move had more of an effect on the series. I'm pretty sure it's not an improvement. Without real boundaries, there's no fun in seeing what they can get away in a general audience release. "I can't believe they did that." {A good to great source of its comedy} became "Well, that happened" in Darkness.

I was a fan of the WSJ series {probably too strong but I read it every week} but grew bored of it after the move.
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kevinx59



Joined: 27 Jan 2012
Posts: 959
Location: In sunny California
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 2:18 pm Reply with quote
Oh, I need to finish Darkness, as I find myself enjoying the To Love Ru franchise more with each new installment. That said I liked Lala and I prefer Nana to Momo. I do like the greater focus put on Yami spoiler[ I like the references/connection to Black Cat as well.] I'm amazed that Sentai still gives it a TV 14 rating. Probably only the original would be that rating, season 2 is more TV MA territory, and Darkness is definitely MA.

BTW how's the video and sound quality on the blu ray? I want the series, but having all twelve episodes on 1 disc seems a bit stretching it quality-wise.
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leatherhead333



Joined: 15 Aug 2013
Posts: 1187
Location: Kansas
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 3:00 pm Reply with quote
I probably shouldn't have marthoned this right after i marathoned the second season.

I'll be honest, one thing that got really irritating about this series was the repeated use of the same gags over and over. Rito falls and gropes one of the girls or ends up naked with them. After a certain point it just got annoying. Darkness makes light of this but it didn't keep the repetitive nature from getting tiring.

Storywise the show at least showed some promise but as mentioned in the review it was never really resolved.

By the way, is the reviewer intentionally not bringing up Rito? Because he also was a crutch to the series in my opinion. Throughout the series he has never really changed from the indecisive guy he was in the first season. Some girls would come onto him but nothing would ever result from it.

As is always the case. In my opinion it really makes the series feel pointless. We know Rito's heart lies mostly with Lala and Haruna but his relationships with them for the most part get pushed to the side in favor of Momo. And by the last episode, once again nothing happens with these relationships. The girls do get noticeably more forward with him but i still fail to see why. It would be nice if Rito actually earned his harem like say Shinichi from Outbreak Company. But in the end it turns into him being caught in compromising positions with the girls while they have a blushing contest as he "accidentally" gropes them. Yay romance? I suppose the fact he gets raped by them counteracts his sexual assault? (Ah forgot i better not complain about this stuff here).

Overall romantically speaking the show is very weak. Ecchiwise it's godlike of course but I wanted some genuine romantic developments from BOTH parties not just the girls. I can root for a girl but knowing Rito is never likely to act on his feelings even if the series continues I feel it to just be a waste. He doesn't turn them down or accept them. He just leaves the thread hanging. I know this is shounen so they have to extend the story as long as possible but I don't feel it's acceptable for 3 seasons to go by with hardly anything romantically changing.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 3:39 pm Reply with quote
leatherhead333 wrote:
I'll be honest, one thing that got really irritating about this series was the repeated use of the same gags over and over. Rito falls and gropes one of the girls or ends up naked with them. After a certain point it just got annoying. Darkness makes light of this but it didn't keep the repetitive nature from getting tiring. Overall romantically speaking the show is very weak. Ecchiwise it's godlike of course but I wanted some genuine romantic developments from BOTH parties not just the girls. I can root for a girl but knowing Rito is never likely to act on his feelings even if the series continues I feel it to just be a waste. He doesn't turn them down or accept them. He just leaves the thread hanging. I know this is shounen so they have to extend the story as long as possible but I don't feel it's acceptable for 3 seasons to go by with hardly anything romantically changing.


It's, er, a little hard not to notice that TLR started during the big 00's 20th-anniversary nostalgia push for Urusei Yatsura--Lala is an almost facepalm-worthy dumbing-down of what grownups remembered about Lum from their childhoods--but bad memory seems to be the problem:
Modern Japanese today, with the particular skew toward anime old and new, remember UY as "That horny teenager who kept throwing himself at that sexy alien devil-girl in the bikini". So, of course, it must have been an ecchi fan service series, and they were just too young to notice... Rolling Eyes

A few telephone-games of bad memory later, and we have the ecchi-fest that is the current series.
But the problem is that Ataru Moroboshi was not the Rito of modern gynophobic nosebleeding harem/closet-girl fantasies...Maybe "unlucky" Ataru was in that crappy first season, but he later became an instigator, a rebel, and a veritable criminal genius of Irresponsibility incarnate. Which pushed Lum's relationship, particularly in the later Yamazaki episodes, into being the one person in the universe (literally) who could be one step ahead of him by being calamitously persistent as he was, and the two were the ultimate perfect match for each other, so you knew they had to end up together.

I physically can't watch TLR, as the attempt to replicate UY very, very badly and with a very, very shallow interpretation, sounds like someone trying to quote Shakespeare while forgetting half the words.
("To be or not, that's like, y'know...stuff!")
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:08 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
that Sentai Filmworks only gave this a TV-14 rating, when something like Funimation's High School DxD release earned a TV-MA, is astonishing, as this one is easily the more explicit of the two. If fan service is what you watch for, you will certainly not be disappointed.

Just on this point, Funimation will give a TV-MA rating at the slightest provocation, whether one curse word or one nip-slip. Viz is even worse! To Love Ru and Motto To Love Ru did have some nudity, so did Infinite Stratos and Sentai gave them TV-14. In terms of raunchy fanservice, Majikoi was also given a TV-14 (see back side) which may be more comparable here. It's interesting to note that this is in line with the Canadian rating system, which is government controlled and included on the back.
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kanechin



Joined: 21 Jan 2012
Posts: 447
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:00 pm Reply with quote
still manga ftw, I hate that they show nana but not mikan fully nude. They look like each other except with color swaps.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13540
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 8:00 pm Reply with quote
I did a marathon of sorts of the 3 TV series and various OVA titles from a Fri. and Sat. back in May. I find a mistake the casting directors did was the
fact that Rito is voiced by a woman. I know that woman frequently voice teen boys but, unless they are effeminate/cross dress/get a sex change, I feel harem titles are cases where they shouldn't be voiced by girls.
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Ali07



Joined: 01 Jun 2014
Posts: 3333
Location: Victoria, Australia
PostPosted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 11:37 pm Reply with quote
leatherhead333 wrote:
Overall romantically speaking the show is very weak. Ecchiwise it's godlike of course but I wanted some genuine romantic developments from BOTH parties not just the girls. I can root for a girl but knowing Rito is never likely to act on his feelings even if the series continues I feel it to just be a waste. He doesn't turn them down or accept them. He just leaves the thread hanging. I know this is shounen so they have to extend the story as long as possible but I don't feel it's acceptable for 3 seasons to go by with hardly anything romantically changing.

Gotta say, i 100% agree with the above. Any potential for further development was thrown aside to allow Momo's work on the "harem plan" to take centre stage.

I will say, I usually want a harem protagonist to make a choice and take one character. Hate harem endings. But, going into TLR, it has "harem end" painted all over it...and I actually don't mind it. I'd actually be shocked if Rito were to choose one girl at the end of the series.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6864
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 4:04 am Reply with quote
kadmos1 wrote:
I know that women frequently voice teen boys but, unless they are effeminate/cross dress/get a sex change, I feel harem titles are cases where they shouldn't be voiced by girls.
But Rito does get a sex change on numerous occasions, albeit on a temporary basis.
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residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2404
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 7:24 am Reply with quote
Story "B". Hahaha.
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jr240483



Joined: 24 Dec 2005
Posts: 4369
Location: New York City,New York,USA
PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:34 am Reply with quote
walw6pK4Alo wrote:
Quote:
which begs the speculation that perhaps the source manga for Darkness became much racier in response.


I'd say in the manga, Yabuki exceeds most other fanservice titles. Dude draws in hidden vagina shots by placing in reflections of pipe faucets or within Rito's eye. Definitely not something you could easily recreate in color for an anime, though.


most people was also ready to put the manga in the hentai category considering how much he antied uped the fanservice similar to the fansrvice that was in Mad Bull 34. not that i am complaining cause its still that. alongs as it doesnt go in the borderline category (Aki Sora:Yumi no Naka , Shoujo Sect ) where people will start debating on whether its hentai or not, i'm fine with that.

what i am not fine is that after all this time not only that the OVAs haven't been licensed but it haven't gotten an english dub at all. i mean come on. i can get the reason why the OVAs werent licensed cause they seriously pushed the fanservice where Sentai would have no choice but to give it the TV-MA rating ,but the entire series have no english dub when its clearly it sold well enough for them to even get the other season is insane. especially when other highly excessive fanservice series like Queens Blade , Ikkitousen and High School DxD have dubs.

hopefully it will get one in the future ,but considering this is Sentai were talking about here, the odds of an english dub let alone any of the OVAs being released in the US is the same chances for Kodomo no Jikan being licensed in the US.ZERO!
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 1:12 pm Reply with quote
residentgrigo wrote:
Story "B". Hahaha.


Well, to be fair, the show does possess amazing PL0TZ.
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