Yūki Rito

Rito Yuuki is the main male protagonist of To Love-Ru. He is a normal 16 year old student of Sainan High, has orange hair, and he has a big crush on Haruna Sairenji. He attempted numerous times to confess to her but has met with failure each time, usually by being crushed, or trampled on by an out of place object, or animal. Rito used to be on the soccer team in junior high and was quite good, but quit because he was constantly helping his father with his mangaka duties, thus did not want to leave his little sister Mikan Yuuki 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 numerous useless little things Rito is good at, he is also an accomplished florist, gardener, and horticulturalist.

Rito's nature is borderline clumsy, where he always ends up ogling or groping the many girls in the series (though mostly unintentionally). He is generally kind and thoughtful and has a lot of respect for women, though mostly by intention, and not so much by success. Due to his shyness around girls, he is very clumsy 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 on his own clumsy enough to trip over absolutely nothing, and possesses an extraodinary skill in accidently reaching his hands or face into the breasts or panties of any girl within reach when he is falling.

It is only by accident that he encounters Lala, a troublesome character who at first pretends to show affectionate feelings for Rito at the beginning of the story. But despite his enduring feelings for Haruna, Rito shows signs of developing deeper affection towards Lala. As the story progresses, he starts to show affections for Lala, but is unsure if what he feels is actually love. This is shown again when he couldn't help but think about Lala, even though he was naked with Haruna. It is recently revealed that he is in love with Lala, but he is also in love with Haruna. In the end of the series, he confesses to Lala, but tells her he also loves another person (Haruna), yet she is happy on both parts. He is confused as polygamy is illegal in Japan, but Lala replied that once he is the king of the universe the laws of Earth no longer applies. Then, she forces him to go tell Haruna (strapping a jet pack to his back). Right before he was about to tell her, she moves out of the way, just like when he confessed to her very early in the series, leading him to state "I love you" to all of the female cast with the exception of Momo, Mikan, Golden Darkness, and Haruna herself.

Personality
Rito is humble, caring, and a gentleman (in principle), and is willing to help out almost anyone when they need it. He is also courageous enough to risk his life to protect his friends, like when he protected Lala from her strong bodyguards or the hitman Black, saved Haruna from Ghi Bree and stood up to his deceptively monsterous form, and traveled to a dangerous planet to find a cure for Celine when she was sick. For these reasons, Lala stated that he's the most dependable person in the Universe, but lacks dependancy towards himself.

His personality as a kind and loyal friend makes him quite charismatic, and enables him to sway and befriend other people, particularly girls. He managed to change Yui's belief that all boys are shameless, and helped her open up to a chance for love. He managed to comfort and cheer up Nana when she was deeply upset, which lived up to Lala's positive expectation of him. And he was able to change the hearts of Yami and Mea, who were both cold and trained killers, and helped them open up to friendship; a trait which Nemesis has taken notice of. He is a very charismatic person, always trying to make people feel better and understand others' points of view.

He also 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 sex and pleasure so much that he's arguably scared of them, and he easily loses his composure around even slightly provocative situations. As a result, he has grown to become very clumsy and shy around women, often looking away (if he can) when faced with erotic situations. His own clumsiness does very little to help him escape perverted situations with other girls, and is often to blame for them. For these reasons, he is either regarded by other girls as an innocent boy and suitable love interest, or an insolent boy and pervert.

History
Before Rito met Lala, it was stated that Rito had difficulty talking to girls (which would lead to his lack confidence and clumsiness around them). His only friend was Saruyama. However, because of Lala's friendliness, and Rito's close relationship with Lala, all of Lala's girl friends became Rito's too, like Haruna Sairenji whom Rito could not even talk to prior to Lala's "descent".

As a child, Rito always helped with his father's manga then would take Mikan to a shrine nearby to play. One time, during his fifth grade, Rito climbed a tree to help a cat who was stuck. This is the time that Yui first met Rito (although it was a few years later during a deja vu that Yui remembered this event and Rito's being in it. Rito probebly isn't aware that Yui was that same girl, it's unknown if he still remembers her). The cat that Rito saved was the same cat that Yui was trying to save prior to Rito's coming to the shrine. However, Yui was not able to climb the tree and save the cat. She tried to ask some of the boys from her class to help her. However, since the boys hated Yui's leadership as the class representative, they ignored her and decided 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 boys are bad.

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). It was also during this time that Haruna began to like Rito. Haruna says that it was because of Rito's affection for the plants in the school (Rito would always refill the water in the flower vase while no one else cared) that Haruna began to notice him. Rito has also been in love with her when she was the only one who believes he wasn't the one responsible for damaging several plants in the school garden. He also displayed his strong determination during his eighth grade when his class was lagging behind the other classes during a school competition, where he never gave up, and ended up winning the trophy for his class.

Powers and Abilities
As a human boy of the most ordinary kind, Rito has no superhuman abilities of any kind, and no other physical skills that truly impress other people. As his sister mentioned, he's only good at basically useless things, such as games. Among some of his minor talents are gardening, sports, and manga illustration, the latter skill he uses to assist his mangaka father. Haruna mentioned that he is good at archery and is a very fast runner (To Love-Ru Chapter 32). It was mentioned that he was also good at soccer.

As far as physical skills go, Rito has good resilience to physical attacks; a very useful characteristic for a boy regularly harrassed by troublesome characters around him. Even though he gets punched and hit continuously, he was seen dodging more life-threatening attacks, such as Zastin's attacks from his sword and Yami's sharp bladed transformations, even when she was still serious about killing him. Comically, Rito can also become a very effective weapon for Haruna when she panics in fear and blindly attacks whatever scares her, using whatever, or whoever (Rito) she can grab.

But above all else, his most extraordinary and infamous "skill" is his ability to accidently grope and molest any girl within his reach. Rito is often a victim to a near endless stream 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 loses control of himself, he never fails to accidently reach his hands or face into the breasts or other private parts of any girl in close proximity to him. While it's not exactly a true skill which he would ever be proud of, it's nonetheless become his trademark characteristic, the frequency and coincidence of which are nothing less than extraordinary.

Nemesis notes that he has some "technique" on pleasuring women, in her case, massaging, though she could be exaggerating.

Relationships with Other Characters
As the the main character of To Love-Ru, he has relationships with several characters and he has his ups and downs with a lot of them. Most of whom are females who are in love with him, others, however have shown slight interest in him and it's unknown whether they have feelings for him too. The female characters' impressions of him are quite polarizing, as some find him to be truly kindhearted and innocent but clumsy, while others find him as a misbehaving and shameless pervert. They either love him, hate him, or actually both.

Lala Satalin Deviluke
At the beginning of the series, Rito was already having love troubles with his crush Haruna, and when Lala suddenly appeared to him, she only brought him much more trouble. But as the series progresses, he becomes very good friends with Lala, and even falls for her romantically. Rito even states that he feels uneasy when Lala is not around. Rito started out very shy, inexperienced and incompetent around women, even to the point of practically being scared of anything sexual, until being forced to get used to the troublesome and shameless Lala greatly helped him become more comfortable around Haruna and women in general.

A lot of times, Rito is willing to risk his well-being for Lala. For example, when Black, a hit man, pointed a gun at Lala, Rito stood in front of Lala and refused to move away.

At the end of the original series, Rito confesses his love to Lala, while also telling her that he loves Haruna as well. Lala is ecstatic about this, however, noting that once their marriage is official, Earth laws will no longer matter, and he will be free to marry both Lala and Haruna. Rito is shocked by this, stating that Lala is "too open-minded" (Chapter 162).

At first, it appeared that Lala was quite childish regarding her love for a generally unreliable boy, but as the series progressed and Rito gradually matures and shows his kinder side, it would appear that Lala was somewhat right about him and truly did see something special in him. When Rito goes to comfort and give advice and encouragement to a heartbroken Nana, Lala notices that Nana has cheered up, and she states that it's as expected of Rito (To Love-Ru Darkness Chapter 21).

In To Love Ru Darkness, Rito still loves both Haruna and Lala. While his main objective is to confess his love to Haruna, he does show his love for Lala. As the series progresses, Rito considers Lala and Momo's Harem idea; however, he quickly shakes it off.

Haruna Sairenji
Haruna has been the girl of Rito's affections since before the start of the series. She essentially represents the most normal and peaceful relationship Rito could have had among his love interests. In many ways, Haruna would have made the perfect girlfriend for Rito, as she is similarly shy and modest, understands and loves Rito's kind and gentle nature, is very patient and forgiving of Rito's perverted clumsiness, and has also harbored affectionate feelings for him. But because Rito was far too shy, incompetent and clumsy to successfully confess his love to her, he never found the romantic relationship that he long desired with her. Although Rito owes much to the bold and extroverted Lala for the friendship he now enjoys between himself, Lala and Haruna, he now has both Lala's growing place in his heart and Haruna's loyalty and friendship to Lala to add to his indecisiveness.

Haruna secretly enjoys Rito's closeness, like when she was turned into a cat by one of Lala's inventions and Rito found her (unaware that it was Haruna) and started playing with  her, which she claims it's like being in heaven and didn't mind being his pet, but quickly shakes it off (To-LOVE-Ru Darkness Chapter 13.5). Another example is when she was drunk from Deviluke herbs and she couldn't help but cling on to Rito (half naked and wet) and says that he's all her's for the moment (To-LOVE-Ru Darkness Chapter 26). Sometimes she even has romatic fantasies of him and her kissing.

Yui Kotegawa
Being a strict, high-strung and no-nonsense girl with little tolerance for unacceptable behavior and an impression that boys are generally shameless, it is no surprise that she often has a negative impression towards Rito. In addition, she is often a target of Rito's perverted clumsiness, being caught in many provacative situations with him, much to her dismay. Although she will likely never stop believing that boys are always shameless, with Rito being no exception, overtime, she comes to accept that Rito is different from most boys. As she gradually understands and appreciates Rito's kindness and accepts that Rito is still shameless but not a bad person, Yui warms up to him and grows to like him.

While Rito does not have any romantic feelings for Yui, and thinks that she is always angry at him, any romance between them is generally seen from Yui's perspective. She has grown to understand Rito well enough that she trusts him not to take advantage of her. Her growing love for Rito surprises even herself. However, being inexperienced with boys and being a typical tsundere, she has difficulty opening up to Rito and often hides her shyness with agression and anger.

Ironically, despite outwardly hating sexual pleasures, she seems to desire doing such shameless things together with Rito, as seen when she imagines herself being married to him and being pregnant to his child, and when she offered herself to him in bed on the condition that he only does shameless things to her. Though Rito resisted the temptation, Yui came to love him even more for not taking advantage of her, but she was further perplexed with her actions and her own feelings.

In some ways, Rito is good for Yui. He is a kind person and a loyal friend and, despite repeatedly molesting them by accident, is respectful to women. Rito is the only boy Yui knows is far too kind and too cowardly to take advantage of her sexually. He is apparently the kind of boy who can make Yui open up to love. Yui's older brother, Yuu, can easily read her poorly hidden feelings, and is eager to see his sister become more open to romance through Rito.

Momo Velia Deviluke
Rito is not as romantically attracted and attached to Momo as he is with her older sister, Lala, and he notes that Momo is more mischievous and cunning compared to Lala. Rito does grow to trust her and consider her a good and dependable friend.

Much like Lala, Momo has a strong attraction towards Rito, but more lustful than her innocent and childlike older sister. While she, at first, had a strong sexual attraction toward Rito, she grew to truly be in love with him.

By the start of To Love-Ru Darkness, she has become greatly attached to him and has fallen deeply in love with him. But she knows that if Rito had to choose to love one girl, it would likely not be her. Much of the plot of To Love-Ru Darkness revolves around her "Harem Plan", her plan to bring out the "carnivore" in Rito and make him open to the idea of falling in love with and marrying all of the girls who are in love with him, herself included.

Momo often sneaks into Rito's bed at night to sleep with him. Although Rito is not intentionally a pervert, his bad sleeping habits would cause him to fondle with Momo and play with her tail, which she greatly enjoys.

Mikan Yuuki
Mikan is Rito's younger sister. As children, Rito and Mikan were very close, and Mikan still called him "Onii-chan". Because their parents were not often at home, Rito looked after Mikan and they spent their time together all the time, walking and playing outside together. Unlike Rito, who has grown up to become very clumsy, awkward and anxious, especially around women, Mikan has become hard-working, confident, and good with housework, far surpassing her older brother's maturity and reliability. She stopped calling him "Onii-chan" and doesn't quite look up to him and respect him the way she had before.

Nevertheless, the two of them are still very close. Rito always considers Mikan as his one and only precious little sister. And Mikan is happy taking care of Rito at home. Until Lala's arrival, it was still only the two siblings together at home, and at one point, she felt a little lonely from not spending time with Rito lately. At first Mikan enjoyed seeing how Rito's love life with Lala and Haruna would play out, but later, she would occasionally wonder how she still fits into Rito's life.

She may not show it, but she really cares for Rito and misses his company to the point of perhaps having a brother complex. She even joked that they were not blood related. Her possible brother complex may be the reason why she doesn't call him "Onii-chan", less than a lack of respect and more of a sign her wish that their relationship was something other than that of brother and sister. In the manga she blushes when a character mentions him, and whenever he worries about her, she outwardly brushes off his worries, but deep down, it makes her very happy.

Golden Darkness (Yami)
She was initially hired to kill Rito by Lacospo (one of Lala's suiters), but after learning that Rito is not at all what Lacospo described him to be, she turned on him and spares Rito, but still claims that she will kill him eventually and will stay on earth until her mission is complete (even though the job is technically over). Later she confirms to him that her mission is only an excuse to stay on Earth and warns him not to make her too angry. Yami probably knows that Rito isn't a pervert like everyone thinks and just hates it when he sees her naked (Chapter 77), and she doesn't hesitate to use her powers to give him a powerful punch in the face, despite it not being his fault.

Yami appears to have love-hate feelings for Rito. She convinces him, and perhaps herself as well, that he is still her target. Like other female characters, his kindness slowly grows on her, like when she was feeling sick from overusing her powers and he carried her to Mikado's clinic, and when he protected her from another assassin sent by Lacospo, and when he refused to take advantage of her while she was uncontrollably infatuated with him under the influence of Celine's pollen. She calls him an idiot for showing kindness to an enemy, but also makes it clear that she doesn't hate idiots, sometimes showing a sweet smile that is rare to her. She also notes that being around him makes her feel safe, a feeling she does not often experience in her unhappy life as assassin (and notes that it reminded her of her life with Tearju). Rito is the only person she has opened up to about her past.

In the beginning, Rito always seemed afraid of Yami whenever she was around, but as the series continues, Rito's fear of Yami seems to have lightened (although he still shows fear of her sometimes) and has shown to care for her. He would get mad for her sake and even worry about her well being, despite him being her target, something she finds strange about him,.

Run Elise Jewelria
Run first fell in love with Rito when they accidently kissed each other (in her male form). Since then, she considered Lala her rival for Rito's heart and has tried many methods to get his attention that would lead to curtain misunderstandings (occasionally running towards him and landing in an awkward manner) which greatly annoys him.

In To-Love-ru Darkness, Run is now a famous idol. She has also greatly matured around Rito and becomes closer to him on their date. During their date, Rito realises that he hardly knows anything about her. Rito is aware of Run's feelings towards him, but she is saddened with the fact that Rito would never see her as a real girl while sharing the same body with Ren. This was the case until Run and Ren reached "adulthood", causing them to split mind and body. Since then, Run is determined to try harder to gain Rito's affections.

Nana Aster Deviluke
Nana is one of the few girls who does not have romantic feelings for Rito. As a matter of fact, her view of him and his relationships with so many girls is quite negative. She thinks of him as a pervert and she is widely known for calling him a "beast". However, she doesn't genuinely hate him, but rather she can't seem to understand what's so special about him. She has, however, said that he can be very kind sometimes. As the series progresses, she starts to develop feelings for him as well (but still dislikes him for being a pervert).

When she found out that her friend Mea was a transformation weapon like Yami, and when Mea told her that their friendship was nothing but a lie, Nana was shocked and heartbroken. Rito offered advice and encouragement to help her out, and when that didn't work, he hugged her in his arms to console her, and it gave her the courage to confront and reconcile with Mea. Nana noted that being hugged by Rito felt good, and she subsequently snuck into his room to sleep next to him (only to find Momo already sleeping next to him, much to her anger), but is still grateful to him for giving her the courage to confront Mea.

As time goes on for her, Nana eventually begins to have slight romantic feelings for Rito, like fantasizing feeding him food, although she tends to snap herself back to what she thinks to be real and continues to dislike him. While she doesn't fully give into these thoughts, she tends to have a somewhat shy and flustered reaction to them. Whenever she's scared of something, she tends to hide closely behind him.

Mea Kurosaki
Mea is interested in Rito especially when Nana called him a beast. Mea seems to find pleasure in being licked, and has a deep desire to have Rito lick her body, which she playfully teases him about, by asking him to do it despite being around other people.

When Rito spoke to her and questioned if some things she learned from her Master Nemesis could be wrong, Mea punished him by controlling him with her psycho-dive ability, forcing him to lick and molest her body, and at the same time sharing the sensations with him, which she believes he finds very uncomfortable. However, she unintentionally shared with him her deeper feelings of being uneasy, lost and lonely, which she angrily continued to deny, still convincing herself that she is a weapon.

Rito wants Mea to embrace her humanity, which she refuses at first, but as the series progress she slowly comes to accept this. It's unknown what she then feels towards him, but she at least continues to feign sexual interest in him for fun.

Mea was at first opposed to Rito's desire to reunite Yami with Tearju so that they could be happy together again. But recently, after speaking with Rito, she decided to help him persuade Yami to attend classes and see Tearju again, grudgingly accepting Rito's insistance that Tearju sees them as her little sisters and the importance of filling the gaps between them.

Celine
Celine was Lala's gift for Rito's 16th birthday. Originally Celine was a multi-story, carnivorous, sentient sunflower kept in the backyard of the Yuuki residence. Although seemingly monstrous, Rito cared for her deeply and considered her as family. When Celine seemed to have contracted a deadly disease, Rito was fully dedicated to finding the Luckberry to cure her. With the help of his friends, he journeyed to an S-level-danger class planet of Misletoe to retrieve the antidote, only to return to find Celine all dried up. But in reality, she was germinating, and from her single seed, she emerges in the form of a human-like infant girl with a flower on her head.

Celine shows parental love to Rito, even calling him mama, and because of her love for him, whenever she gets drunk (off cola), she sprays pollen out of the flower on her head, causing anyone nearby to fall in love with Rito. Celine often causes trouble for Rito, such as when she jumps on him, causing his head to land into some girl's breasts, and when she plays with Lala's inventions, making it even more troublesome for him.

Nemesis
Nemesis is a sadistic and demanding girl who planned for Yami to return to being a cold hearted assassin again, starting with killing her target, Rito. Recently, that doesn't seem like the case anymore as she tries to become friends with Rito (in her own erotic way) to observe their lives more closely. She says that he is a fool for trusting people, but despite this, she is very (sexually) interested in him and finds his nervous expressions towards her arousing.

Because of Rito's ability to bring the transformation weapons, Yami and Mea, closer to humanity, rather than leaving him alone she wants him all to herself as her servant, making him do things like massaging her shoulders, commenting and exagerating his technque on pleasuring women, and even sneaking up on him in the bath. Wanting Rito all to herself as her servant, she essentially set herself up as an enemy to Momo's harem plan for Rito, telling her to give up on the plan.

Tearju Lunatique
Tearju temporarily became Rito's home room teacher when she heard that Yami had been staying on Earth and was attending his school. Tearju seems to understand Rito's kind nature and trusts him completely, even pointing out it's like him to notice when something is troubling someone. Rito would like to see Tearju and Yami together and be happy like they used to be.

Kenichi Saruyama
Kenichi Saruyama is Rito's perverted male friend. They have been friends for a long time. Saruyama is aware of Rito's crush on Haruna since before the start of the series, and he also understands Rito's incompetence around girls well enough that he wasn't at all surprised that Rito failed yet again to confess his love to Haruna. Saruyama has made some attempts to help Rito get together with Haruna.

Although they are friends, they both have certain dislikes towards each other. Rito doesn't like how other students see them grouped together when Saruyama starts acting and talking like a pervert. And Saruyama envies Rito for being close to Lala and many other girls, even though Rito already has feelings for Haruna.

Saruyama has a crush on a girl named Riko Yuusaki, who, unknown to him, is actually Rito, transformed into a girl by Lala's inventions. Saruyama is no less a pervert and a loser around "Riko" as he is any other time when he talks about girls, which disgusts Rito.

Ren Elise Jewelria
Ren sees Rito as his rival for Lala's love, so he tries constanly to prove to her that he is more manly than Rito by challenging him to completely pointless challenges (which Rito doesn't care about and Lala isn't even aware of). During one of their squabbles, Ren accidently kissed Rito, infuriating both boys, and causing Ren to hate Rito even more. Consequently, the kiss also caused his (yet-to-be-introduced) female alter-ego to fall in love with Rito, which Ren also blames him for.

As of To Love-Ru Darkness, Ren seems to no longer make any effort to try and impress Lala, perhaps due to being featured less frequently in the story. It's unknown if he has accepted Rito as the one Lala loves or still tries off-scene to impress her. He does still care about Lala. Ren seems to have since matured from what he was before, and put most of his animosity towards Rito behind him. However, he still dislikes Rito's recent indecisive feelings towards Lala and other girls in his life. He reminds Rito how kind Lala truly is, and questions Rito if he is keeping her as insurance in case his love for Haruna doesn't work, something that Rito knows he needs to think about.