It’s usually Viz Media that snags the rights to Weekly Shonen Jump titles, but this old sci-fi romcom is being released by Seven Seas under its new adult ‘Ghost Ship’ label. To Love-Ru revolves around Rito Yuuki, a boy who’s head over heels in love with his classmate Haruna Sairenji but too shy to tell her. Then one day a naked girl suddenly materialises in his bath, as they do. This is Lala Satalin Deviluke – genius inventor (including of the warp-machine behind her clothing-challenged bath time surprise) and crown princess of an alien planet that rules the Milky Way.

As a princess, suitors are constantly trying to marry the pink-haired Lala but she has no interest in them, going on the lam to evade the arranged marriage her imperial dad has in mind for her. Rito helps her out reluctantly, but by doing so gains the confidence to finally confess his feelings to Haruna. Unfortunately, Lala mistakenly thinks Rito is confessing his love to her, and promptly decides to marry him. Not only does Rito find himself engaged to an alien princess, but he learns that – should he fail to protect Lala – her galactic monarch papa will pop over and destroy the Earth. No pressure then. 

Although To Love-Ru is chock full of fanservice even for a harem manga (there’s a fair amount of flesh on display, and even the occasional tentacle machine!), it never really strays into the realm of the pornographic. The quality of the writing does vary somewhat, though – while there are moments of great comedic surprise, there are also times when Rito can breathe underwater in a pool because he has straw ‘for some reason’ and the like. Reviewed by Ian Wolf 

INFO
Credits: Kentaro Yakubi (story) and Saki Hasemi (art)
Publisher: Seven Seas
Release Date: Out Now
Price: £15.99
Rating: 16+

Copyright: © 2017 Seven Seas