For most ecchi anime, much like their watchers, they usually don’t last long. Well, they don’t last long enough to usually require watch orders anyway. However, To Love-Ru, an ecchi harem anime and occasional rom-com, is a series of impressive girth and length.
It is more than just a season and a few cheeky OVAs like standard ecchi might be. If you are not careful, you might even miss a few seasons. As such, if you are looking to break into To Love-Ru, make sure you at least watch it in the right order.
To Love-Ru Watch Order
How to Watch To Love-Ru in Order
Unlike your standard ecchi anime series where the OVAs are just more fan service, the To Love-Ru OVAs are actually story important sometimes. As such, they should be included in your watch order. Especially if you are looking to continue with the manga after.
However, outside of that, the watch order is pretty straightforward if you know the title of the next entry in the series.
The complete watch order of To Love-Ru is as such:
- To Love-Ru
- To Love-Ru OVA
- Motto To Love-Ru
- To Love-Ru Darkness
- To Love-Ru Darkness OVA
- To Love-Ru Darkness 2nd
- To Love-Ru Darkness 2nd OVA
- To Love-Ru Darkness 2nd Specials
- To LOVE-Ru: Multiplication – Mae kara Ushiro kara
The Difference Between To Love-Ru and To Love-Ru Darkness
Initially, To Love-Ru Darkness was a spin-off series of To Love-Ru, it later became a full blown continuation.
While To Love-Ru, the original, was more a harem rom-com with ecchi elements, To Love-Ru Darkness leans full-on into ecchi. Sometimes it leans on ecchi so much it is borderline hentai. Darkness does, however, put a stronger focus on a plot rather than cute shenanigans.
In short, Darkness is where the real lewds live. So if you are looking to get into the series because it is a very popular ecchi series, you need to watch until Darkness to fully understand why.
Do You Need to Watch the OVAs?
The thing about the To Love-Ru OVAs is they introduce new characters, particularly the OVA for the first series. However, because OVAs are often superfluous, they are often hard to find on streaming sites. If you can’t find them, it isn’t the end of the world, just realize there will be minimal plot and character introductions that you missed.
If you are indeed watching the series for the story, I really have to recommend the manga. To Love-Ru Darkness was a pretty good adaptation, but the original To Love-Ru anime was a hot mess in terms of manga adaptations.
