To LOVE-Ru – 15

「密林のプリンセス」 (Mitsuri no Purinsesu)
“Princess of the Jungle”

Episode at a Glance:
With Zastin crashing into Rito’s school pool, everyone soon finds out that Lala is an alien, and oddly enough, are completely fine with it. Required to act as a royal diplomat though, Lala is taken to space, along with Rito and Haruna, to meet Prince Carter from the allying planet, Barroad. Seeing that this is troubling Lala, Haruna also decides to help out, so everyone gets dressed up and heads over to Carter’s spaceship. There, Carter dances with Lala, during which he explains that his people are a clan of hunters, that he came to Earth because of its splendid hunting grounds, and that he hopes to earn the title of the universe’s greatest hunter. Only focusing on “the universe’s greatest” part of what he said, Rito is reminded about Lala’s father and insists on accompanying Carter. After finding out that Rito is Lala’s fiance, Carter agrees, but explains that they have traditional customs when it comes to hunting, and offers every a set of prehistoric clothes and weapons. After arriving at some hidden hunting ground on Earth, everyone is suddenly dropped into the jungle and left to fend for themselves.

In this vast jungle, Haruna gets taken away by Ginga Kong despite Rito’s best efforts, while a group of amazons take him away to be their husband, after seeing his display of courage earlier. Rito tries to escape though, but is captured and prepped for their mating ritual. However, Lala appears to take Rito back and is able to fend for herself, until they grab onto her sensitive tail. Before the amazons can continue their ceremony though, Ginga Kong comes back after listening to Haruna’s plea for help, and quickly saves both Rito and Lala. Ginga Kong then brings Rito towards Haruna, but senses their romantic moment, so he throws Rito off into the distance out of jealousy. Angry about this, Haruno tells Kong to hurry up and find Rito, which he complies with. Seeing that she tamed over Kong, Carter later names Haruna the universe’s greatest hunter, which Rito is a bit disappointed about not getting himself. Waking up in her bed later, Haruna thinks it was all a dream, until she looks over and sees the huge trophy that she was awarded.

Next Episode:
「ルンの突撃告白タイム」 (Run no Totsugeki Kokuhaku Taimu)
“Run’s Confession Assault Time”

Impressions:
Hmm, so everyone is just suddenly okay with Lala being an alien, with some of Rito’s classmates actually being relieved because it explains a lot. All of that was pretty much resolved in the first quarter of the episode too, so while you would expect that at least someone to make a big deal out of it, no one did—not even our upright, public morals committee member Yui. In any case, it was overall another silly episode, much like what we know this series for, but it was nice to see it still hover around Rito trying to become the universe’s greatest man so that Lala’s father doesn’t destroy the Earth. Also, Rito and Haruna continue to get closer despite neither of them having properly expressed their feelings. While it’s evident they’re both thinking the same thing and moving their relationship forward, I can’t help but feel bad for Lala, who’s very earnest about her feelings towards Rito all the time, and sees Haruna as a really good friend of hers. While the natural argument will always be that she forced herself on Rito, much like Kasuga did with Aoba in Tokimeki Memorial ~Only Love~, you can’t really blame Lala for being so direct about her feelings when Rito is simply going along with it (her father’s threats not withstanding). In any case, the direction of the anime makes me think that Lala will only get hurt down the road, but I’m sure they’ll resolve everything in the end somehow so that everyone is at least okay with the outcome. Not the most gratifying ending by any means, but hey, that’s the way these type of shows often go.

Next time, it looks like everyone’s at a water park and we’ll have a Run-focused episode with her going after Rito. This preview shot with Motemizu Hikari (last seen in episode twelve) may make us think it’s him instead of Rito, but I’m fairly certain he’s just getting in the way again, much like he did with Lala and Rito.

Cast:
– Yuuki Rito (結城 梨斗) / Watanabe Akeno (渡辺 明乃)
– Lala Satalin Deviluke (ララ・サタリン・デビルーク) / Tomatsu Haruka (戸松 遥)
– Sairenji Haruna (西連寺 春菜) / Yahagi Sayuri (矢作 紗友里)
– Zastin (ザスティン) / Koyasu Takehito (子安 武人)
– Carter (カーター) / Touchi Hiroki (東地 宏樹)
– Amazon Queen (アマゾネス女王) / Tsuda Shouko (津田 匠子)
– Tenjouin Saki (天条院 沙姫) / Kawasumi Ayako (川澄 綾子)
– Momioka Risa (籾岡 里沙) / Yuzuki Ryouka (柚木 涼香)
– Sawada Mio (沢田 未央) / Chiba Chiemi (千葉 千恵巳)
– Kotegawa Yui (古手川 唯) / Nadzuka Kaori (名塚 佳織)
– Peke (ペケ) / Arai Satomi (新井 里美)
– Ginga Kong (銀河コング) / Matsuo Daisuke (松尾 大亮)