So the first chapter of To Love-Ru Darkness has been released, scanned, and translated by CXC Scans, and because it is relevant to my interests I thought I'd put up a thread here and see what kind of discussion I can stir up.
The original To Love-Ru was about as formulaic as harem comedy gets, essentially Tenchi Muyo lite but with the fanservice cranked up to eleven and all the plot stripped out. Personally, I found it to be very much a guilty pleasure and the only reason I stuck with it the whole way through was because of Golden Darkness. Well, the Darkness spin-off (and let's be honest, it's a sequel in all but name) caught my attention when it became apparent that Yami was being promoted to main character status, and now that it's actually out, I'm surprised to see a number of other reasons to keep reading.
First of all, Lala and Haruna have shifted into the background to make room for Yami and Momo as the new lead females. The new series apparently takes place sometime after the end of the "pool arc" at the tail end of the last series, but Rito -- spineless wuss that he is -- is resisting the idea of the Harem End on moral grounds. Momo's apparently got a plot to fix that and turn Rito into a regular playboy, but part of that plan involves getting Yami to confess to her own feelings and start acting like the haremette she so clearly is; needless to say, this is going to be an uphill battle. To make matters even more interesting, someone from Yami's past has shown up on Earth and is apparently trying to lure her back into "regaining her edge" as an assassin, starting with killing Rito.
Now granted, this is only the first chapter and the series could easily devolve back into pointless fanservice and a complete lack of plot, but I hold out hope that this is a sign of things to come. Before Yabuki was doing plotless fanservice, he was doing Black Cat, one of my favorite shonen action manga in recent years, and it feels like this might be an attempt to merge a fairly serious story with the TLR universe.
Thoughts/opinions?