Yūki Rito

Yūki Rito is the main male protagonist of the To Love-Ru series, and its sequel, To Love-Ru Darkness. He is a normal 16-year-old student of Sainan High, who has a big crush on Sairenji Haruna, to whom he attempted numerous times to confess to but has met failure each time. It was only by accident that he met Lala Satalin Deviluke, an alien princess he accidentally became engaged to. Rito used to be on the soccer team in junior high and was fairly good, but quit because he was constantly helping his father with his manga duties, and did not want to leave his little sister Yūki Mikan alone in the house. Mikan comments he is very good at the most "useless little things", like crane and festival games (e.g. hoops, catching fish, squirt guns). Along with the many useless little things Rito is good at, he is also an accomplished florist, gardener and horticulturist.

Rito's nature is an extremely loving one, yet also somewhat clumsy, where he always ends up unintentionally molesting or groping the many girls in the series. He is generally very kind, thoughtful and has a lot of respect for women, though mostly by intention, and not so much by a success. Due to his shyness around girls, he is very awkward around women and has great difficulty maintaining his composure around any sort of stimulating situation. Even without interference from Lala's inventions, Oshizu's psychic powers, or Celine jumping into his face, Rito is individually clumsy enough to trip over absolutely nothing, and possesses extraordinary skill in accidentally reaching his hands or face into the breasts or other private parts of any girl within reach when he is falling. He is constantly viewed as a "pervert" but unknowingly, his kindliness is what wins him the affections of most of the girls in the series.

Over time he also comes to love Lala and knowing his feelings for Haruna, she suggests for him to be with both of them, because due to being engaged to her, he is next in line for the throne of Deviluke, which would make polygamy legal for him. In To Love-Ru Darkness, Lala's little sister Momo also falls in love with Rito and expands Lala's initial idea into her harem plan, where she and all the other girls who love Rito can be with him.

As of Chapter 61 of Darkness, Rito became Nemesis' Trans-Fusion host after he offered her his body as a temporary home until she recovered enough power to retain a physical form. Nemesis inside Rito knew that he has feelings for Haruna so she created an atmosphere so under such circumstances they finally confessed to each other.(Chapter 75 & 76).

Appearance
Rito has golden brown eyes and orange-brown hair. In the original series the spikes on his hair were sharp and seemingly sticking out, but in To-Love-Ru Darkness his hair seems to be a lot neater and softer. He is shown to be of average height, if compared to other male students in his class and is taller than most of the female cast.

Personality
Rito is kind and sweet and he always cares about people. He is virtuous, righteous, and withholds an incredible deal of respect towards others that surpasses his own idea of self-worth. He is courageous and persistent enough to risk his life to protect his friends well being, like when he protected Lala from her strong bodyguards Maul and Smutts or the hitman Kuro, saved Haruna from Ghi Bree and stood up to his deceptively monstrous form, traveled to a dangerous planet to find a cure for Celine when she was sick, and tried to save Rin from Bladix's control and broke her free from it, nearly having his own mind being taken.

Rito is especially caring and considerate towards women in particular, as he has shown disgust multiple times towards the concept of assaulting girls in any way (though he once violently threw Momo off his bed), and refuses to take advantage of and/or demean them intentionally, even if they give him permission to do so, unless it is absolutely necessary (such as when he had to bring Yami back to her old self when she was in her Darkness Form). Despite whatever struggles may come his way, he never gives up on those in danger. For these reasons, Lala stated that he's "the most dependable person in the universe". Rito also tends to help out those who dislike him, such as Yami, before she developed feelings for him, like when she was sick from over-using her powers and he carried her to Mikado's clinic. He has also shown his sympathy for her when he learned of her past, and expressed anger towards the organization that created and raised her to become a weapon, going as far as to say he will never "forgive them".

Being a normal boy, though, he initially can also easily and somewhat frequently lose his temper and snap at people when annoyed by their actions or words, even when he doesn't mean to. At first, he has shown to be angry and upset with Lala quite often, since he does have to put up with a lot of her hijinks, and even punched Ren in the face for thoughtlessly ruining what could have been a moment between him and Haruna, as well as for accidentally kissing him. His humble nature, in turn, can often have low self esteem about himself, building off of his rare short fuse. He rarely gives himself credit for his good deeds, tends to dwell on his mistakes more than anything when sad, hardly ever speaks up for or voices himself and, in general, doesn't do anything to truly stand up for himself.

His personality as a kind and loyal friend makes him quite trustworthy, and very persuasive which enables him to sway and befriend other people. Girls tend to feel a certain "warmth" when close to him or when he comforts them. He is a very charismatic person, always trying to make people feel better and understand others' points of view and changing it to a more positive outlook. He cares for plants and animals, as shown when he was the only one who didn't neglect to care for the school flowers, and when he rescued a cat from a tree, both of which persuaded Haruna and Yui that he is really a kind person.

Unfortunately, while girls appreciate and cherish his innocent nature, his innocence is arguably one of his worst traits. He rejects sexual pleasure often due to his nervous and celibacy-filled nature towards it, and he easily loses his composure around provocative situations being pushed into his face due to a moral sense of chivalrous respect for the opposite sex. As a result, he has grown to become very clumsy and shy around women, often getting flustered when faced with sudden upfront, erotic situations either out of guilt, unsure panic, confusion, or all three. Due to his unique clumsiness, his flustered reactions always lead to accidentally violating them in absurdly over-the-top ways. For these reasons, he is either regarded by other girls as an innocent boy and suitable love interest, or as an insolent boy and 'pervert', though never anything worse than this.

While sleeping, Rito acts as what Momo describes as a true Harem King. He has dreams about ice creams and marshmallows, and starts to grope and lick those who are sleeping next to him (mostly Momo), thinking them as marshmallows and/or ice cream. He even was about to kiss Momo, but she stopped him telling him their first kiss must be of his free will.

He seems to start getting more interested in sexual activities as seen in Darkness Chapter 73 where he has a dream about pushing Momo down and grabbing her breasts on purpose, while it actually was Lala in his futon at the time.

History
As a child, Rito would often go out and play football/soccer with friends, but because his parents weren't always around, which would leave Mikan all alone at home. Feeling bad for her as any good family member would, Rito would stay in to look after her. When he was thirteen, he took Mikan to the public pool that was crowded at the time, which caused the two to separate (although Mikan unaware of it). Rito was so worried that by the time he found her, his T-shirt was covered in sweat which Mikan noticed how desperately he searched for her, though she thought it was stupid of him she was also happy.

Rito has always assisted his father's work as a manga artist, and then would take Mikan to a shrine nearby to play. One time, during his fifth grade, while Yui was also at the shrine, Rito climbed a tree to help a cat who was stuck. This was the first time that Yui met Rito, although it was years later during a déjà vu that Yui remembered that the boy was, in fact, Rito. The cat that Rito saved from the tree was the same cat that Yui tried but couldn't save prior to Rito and Mikan's arrival at the shrine. She tried to ask some of the boys from her class to help her, but they rejected her because they hated Yui's strictness as their class representative, and left to play games instead. Because of that, Yui had the impression that all boys are bad. However, due to Rito's bravery, Yui's perception of boys changed, and she realized that not all of them are bad. Rito isn't aware that Yui was the same girl he met at the shrine.

During Rito's eighth grade, Rito became classmates with Haruna Sairenji. It was stated that this was the last time that Haruna and Rito became classmates (prior to the start of the series). In the anime, Rito has been in love with her when she was the only one who believed he did not vandalize the plants in the school garden. Haruna stated that she first noticed him during a school competition, when their class was lagging behind the other classes in a race, and he never gave up, and ended up winning the race for his class and won the trophy. Haruna also noticed Rito's care for the plants in the school, and noticed that Rito would always refill the water in the flower vase while no one else cared, and concluded that he must be a kind person.

Before Rito met Lala, it was stated that Rito had difficulty talking to girls, which led to his lack of confidence and clumsiness around them. However, because of Lala's friendliness, and Rito's growing relationship with Lala, most of Lala's female friends became Rito's as well, especially Haruna Sairenji (whom Rito had a crush on and could not even talk to prior to Lala's "descent") and is now able to have a proper conversation with them.

Powers and Abilities
As a human boy of the most ordinary kind, Rito has no superhuman abilities of any kind. Among some of his minor talents are gardening, sports, and manga illustration, the latter skill he uses to assist his mangaka father. It was mentioned that he was also good at soccer. As his sister described, he's only good at basically useless things, such as sports, festival games, and video games. Oddly for an average human, Rito apparently has a few skills that no normal human boy would have. His most significant physical skills, however, are often seen in comedic and perverted effect.
 * Weaponized Body: Comically, Rito can be used as a very effective weapon for Haruna when she panics in fear and blindly attacks whatever scares her by either swinging him around and/or throwing him.
 * Durability: As far as physical skills go, Rito has good resilience to physical attacks; a very useful characteristic for a boy regularly harassed by troublesome characters around him.
 * Speed and Agility: Haruna has mentioned that he is a very fast runner, as he was able to outrun four people ahead of him and win the sports festival race for his class. The extent of his speed is further seen when dodging incoming attacks, as noted by Yami in episode 11. Even before meeting Yami, Rito is very agile and can hop around the roofs of houses in his neighborhood when he and Lala ran away from the Devilukian guards in the first chapter.
 * Peak Human Reflexes: Even though he gets punched and hit continuously, he is seen to be able to dodge life-threatening attacks, such as Zastin's sword attacks and Yami's bladed transformations, even when she was still serious about killing him. This is referred to later on when Rito is seen narrowly dodging multiple sword slashes by Kujō Rin when she is possessed by the demonic sword Bladix; Yami notes that due to avoiding her own attacks at him over the year, Rito's ability to dodge deadly attacks has increased to the point which an Earthling shouldn't be able to avoid, showing that he has also gained great reflexes. Oddly, despite this skill, he is still clumsy on a regular basis.
 * Immunity to Seduction: Alongside Gid Lucione Deviluke, Rito has proven to be completely immune to the power of the Charmians, which supposedly can make all individuals of the opposite gender, regardless of species, lose their minds and lust over them. When Sephie had asked him why he wasn't affected by her charm power, Rito states that "he hasn't lost his senses yet", meaning that he may not be completely immune but is rather capable of resisting it and controlling himself quite fine for a long period of time.
 * Woman Pleasure: Despite being a generally innocent boy without perverted intentions, Rito appears to have sexual talents which he himself is not entirely aware of. Nemesis complimented his "technique" on pleasuring women when she ordered him to massage her shoulders. Momo believes the same thing about him when he fondles her in his sleep, which she greatly enjoys, and has made it a goal of hers to bring out his "inner harem king". Other times, whenever Rito trips and falls into a girl, some of the ways he manages to accidentally touch them seem to overtake them with an overwhelming sense of aroused euphoria before they notice what just happened. In the latest chapter, it is shown that Rito was able to strip Haruna in a mere second.
 * Lucky Pervert: Rito's most remarkable and infamous "skill" is his ability to accidentally grope any girl within his reach almost every time he falls. In To LOVE-Ru Darkness, his clumsiness becomes even more powerful, shown to be capable of accomplishing nigh-impossible feats, such as reaching his hands or various objects into the clothing and undergarments of girls or partially strip off their clothing, and grab several private parts of several girls all at once, all of which purely by accident. His clumsiness is even able to "defeat" stronger opponents, such as when he caught Nemesis off guard and landed himself in her privates, and when he predictably tripped and "defeated" Rin's attempt to dodge him and managed to pull her underwear. Nemesis later guarantees that female opponents such as Azenda will never be able to kill Rito because of this ability.
 * Woman Identification: Rito can tell the differences between Lala and Momo judging by their hip sizes. He can also recognize Nemesis in her alternate form by contacting with her crotch.

Rito's Godly Indecency
Doctor Mikado suspects that Rito's strange and godly "acts of god" manifested because of the way Rito's overly sincere nature restrained himself with the girls without knowing how to cope with the increasing amount of stimulation, causing his "libido" to accumulate frustration and release in the form of accidentally groping girls' bodies and all other perverted accidents that happened so far. This appears to explain how his accidents appear to almost selectively "aim" at the private parts of girls and women.

The more he suppressed himself, the more extreme and unbelievable his next "accidents" would become. His libido can act freely when Rito's own consciousness weakens, and the most prominent example is how he becomes frisky Rito is often a victim to streams of otherworldly mischief and chaos around him, such as Lala's inventions, Oshizu's psychic powers, or Celine's pollens. But even without such interferences throwing him around, Rito is already often clumsy enough around women to trip over minor obstacles or absolutely nothing, and when he does, he never fails to accidentally reach his hands or face into the breasts or other private parts of any girl in close proximity to him.

In To LOVE-Ru Darkness, his clumsiness becomes even more frequent and violating as well as strangely inventive and surreal, allowing him to molest and violate in ways nobody thought possible by accident. While his unique clumsiness is not exactly a true skill which he would ever be proud of, it's nonetheless become one of his trademark characteristics, the frequency and coincidence of which are nothing less than extraordinary.

During his sleep, molesting Lala and Momo in the process.

Mikado called his act Cataplectic Indecency Syndrome, not a disease, but something else entirely. Currently, according to her, it is incurable nor can it be treated, but instead, she suggests that it could be a "talent" and encourages him to put it to good use.

Hobbies and Interests
Rito has a wide variety of hobbies. When he was younger, he would often play soccer for fun and competition, but has since moved on, making it a side interest of his. Rito's also fairly in touch with playing video games and watching TV, typically Magical Kyouko and whatever Lala, Nana, Momo, or Mikan have already put on. It's possible he may enjoy books, as suggested by going to the school library to get one on plants.

In the anime, Rito seems to enjoy watching the Magical Kyouko show, although in the manga he claims he doesn't watch it.

As an average human boy, Rito is not particularly talented and does not really excel in most of his interests and hobbies besides the rather insignificant ones, such as video games and festival games. He is, however, highly accomplished and connected with horticulture, plant care and planting in general.

Transformations
A running gag in the series is that Rito is constantly getting transformed into different shapes or things, whether they be animals, objects, or different sizes due to Lala's inventions; whether or not it was a malfunction or an accident. Occasionally, instead of being transformed, he would instead be transferred into another body. Among the numerous things Rito has been turned into, some more notable ones include:
 * A girl (Riko)
 * Maron (OVA 3)
 * A dog (Mind Switch)
 * Sairenji Haruna (Mind Switch)
 * Peke (Body Transfer)
 * A Toilet (Darkness Chapter 35 4-Koma Comic)
 * A Hamster
 * A Tiny Version of Himself (Multiple Occasions)
 * A Baby (Adverse Results of "Gigantification Gas")
 * A Body Sponge
 * Panties
 * Thermometer

Etymology

 * Yūki means "tie, bind" (結) (yū) and "castle" (城) (ki).
 * Rito means "pear" (梨) (ri) and "Dipper" (斗) (to).
 * The Yūki siblings were named after fruits:
 * Pear (梨) and Orange (柑) for Rito and Mikan respectively.
 * Comically, their mother's name was after a fruit (apple).

Trivia

 * Rito has similar traits to Hazumu Osagari, the protagonist of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl. Both are shy, enjoy gardening, and both have been transformed into females by aliens (in Hazumu's case, it's permanent).
 * Rito's hair design is similar to Sousuke Futagami's in his "ID" form, from the one-shot manga Futagami Double, authored and art by Kentaro Yabuki, the illustrator of the To LOVE-Ru series.
 * Rito has a similar appearance to Sorato Kenzaki from the manga Trans-Boy, also authored and illustrated by Kentaro Yabuki.
 * Oddly, the character's life changes when he meets a strange girl.
 * There are nine people who are known to have seen his 'beast'. The first is Mikan, the second is Momo, the third being Mea, the fourth is Nana, and the fifth is Yami, the sixth is Nemesis, the seventh is Yui ,the eigth is Lala and the last is Haruna. Two out of nine had a chance to 'taste' it; Momo and Yui.
 * Rito has seen practically the entire cast of naked girls.
 * Rito has seen the lower lips of some girls Lala, Momo, Nana, Sephie, Nemesis, Yami, Mea, Mikan, Yui, Rin and Haruna. He has also opened and seen the inside of those of Yui and Momo.
 * Rito has kissed the special place directly of Lala, Momo, Nana, Sephie, Mikan and Nemesis. Also Lala has been the only one whose special place was thoroughly savored by Rito.