Rito Yuuki : is a 15-year-old high school student at Sainan High and the main protagonist of the series. His younger sister,
Mikan, comments he is very good at the most "pointless things", like
crane and festival games such as catching fish and squirt guns. Rito is an accomplished florist, gardener, and
horticulturalist. He is extremely kind, selfless, caring, and thoughtful, having a lot of respect for women, though mostly by intention, and not so much by success. It is only by accident that he encounters
Lala Satalin Deviluke, and despite his enduring feelings for
Haruna Sairenji, Rito develops deeper affection towards Lala throughout the story, but is unsure if what he feels is love. At the end of
To Love Ru, he confesses his love to Lala but tells her he loves Haruna more. However, she misunderstands and is happy at the prospect of him being married to both of them. In contrast, polygamy is illegal in Japan. Once he is king of the galaxy, the laws of Earth no longer apply. By the end of
To Love Ru Darkness, Rito earns Haruna's mutual feelings; in addition to Lala, Run, Yami, and Momo. The ending suggests that his love troubles will persist indefinitely. Due to his shyness around girls, he is very clumsy and has great difficulty maintaining his composure around any sort of stimulating situation, which leads him to accidentally molest or grope the many girls in the series. Due to the otherworldly circumstances around him, Rito is always put, along with many different girls, in any and each type of awkward, intimate, and embarrassing situations, such as when he and Haruna were once teleported naked together to the basement of
Mikado's medical clinic because of one of Lala's faulty inventions, or when Lala used the same invention to send them naked to the school. In
To Love Ru Darkness, his clumsiness becomes even more frequent and violating as well as strangely inventive and surreal. He has shown to be able to accomplish difficult feats, such as reaching his hands or various objects into the clothing and undergarments of girls or partially stripped off their clothing, and also grabbed several private parts of several girls all at once, all of which were purely by accident. In a later chapter of
Darkness, Mikado conducts some experiments to gather some data and later interviews Rito. Mikado diagnoses that Rito's frequent godly indecency and unwitting perverted acts manifest because of the way Rito extremely restrained himself with the girls since he never sought the opportunity to get intimate with them and wanted to treat them with kindness, causing his "libido" to accumulate and release in form of accidentally groping girls' bodies and all other perverted stuff happening so far, calling it the "Cataplectic Indecency Syndrome". She also believes that the more he suppresses it, the more extreme and unbelievable the accidents will be. Mikado calls this not a disease, but rather a talent that is beyond an average human. During the first manga series, continuing into
Darkness (and present near the end of
Motto To Love Ru), Rito also seems to suffer from Sexsomnia. This can most often be observed with Momo being on the receiving end of it. When he is turned into a girl, Rito takes on the persona of . She is a beautiful girl (with a physical appearance resembling a tomboy) who gets much attention from men, such as Motemitsu, the principal, and even
Saruyama, Rito's best friend. Later, Saruyama falls in love with Riko and asks Lala to invite her for a date; out of pity, she forcefully changes Rito into Riko so Saruyama can go on the date. After that, Riko only appears for a short number of times on rare occasions. Her last appearance was in Chapter 74 of
Darkness manga when Nemesis changed her sex through boy-girl change-kun.
Saki Hasemi and
Kentaro Yabuki initially imagined
To Love Ru as mainly a comedy featuring Rito and Lala, with Rito only longing for Haruna. But as they had more meetings, this changed to Haruna also being a featured character with feelings for Rito, to emphasize the
love triangle. They took care to make sure that Rito was likeable and that his actions were not unpleasant. Hasemi said that because it ran in a
shōnen magazine, if boys did not like and support the protagonist, then drawing cute girls would be meaningless. Riko, Rito's female form, was thought up as something special for the 100th chapter and to celebrate two years of serialization. They never intended for her to reappear, but she did so very quickly because she was shockingly well received. Rito is one of the most popular characters in the series, coming in fifth place in the manga's first character popularity poll.
Lala Satalin Deviluke is the first princess of Deviluke, whose family rules the
Milky Way galaxy. As such, her hand in marriage is sought from across the galaxy as her husband will be successor to the throne. A rather childish girl, she is naïve regarding the culture and customs on Earth. Lala initially runs away from home, as she does not wish to marry any of her suitors, and randomly ends up naked in Rito's bathtub due to one of her inventions. Upon arriving on Earth, Lala pretends to love Rito to keep herself from getting married but really does fall in love with him after she misinterprets a statement that Rito shouts that was meant for Haruna. Although Lala appears to be somewhat airheaded, she is well known on Deviluke for her genius-level intellect and enjoys making all manners of inventions, often prompting some disastrous effect or another.
Haruna Sairenji is Rito's classmate, and the girl of his affections. Unbeknownst to Rito, Haruna has similar feelings for him, having been attracted to his kind, gentle nature since junior high. Despite her growing love for the boy (which she believes to be unrequited), she usually suppresses her feelings and cannot confess to him because of her friendship with Lala. However, with some encouragement and knowing that she cannot continue to hide her feelings, Haruna eventually tells Lala of her ordeal. Lala warmly accepts Haruna as her rival for Rito's heart, while still remaining friends.
Mikan Yuuki is Rito's independent and reliable 12-year-old sister. With their parents often away on business, she takes care of the housework. In contrast to her brother, she is very mature, but does not hesitate to tease him; calling him a "playboy" for attracting so many girls all of a sudden. Mikan is very perceptive and notices Rito's obvious anxiety around Haruna and
Yui's hidden feelings for him. Mikan also seems to have a certain lack of respect for Rito, rarely addressing him by his
honorific as an older brother. Although she may not show it often, she cares deeply for Rito and misses his company, to the point one could suspect her of having a
brother complex. She also states how she and Rito used to play together before Lala entered their lives.
Golden Darkness , commonly nicknamed , is a dispassionate, withdrawn galactic assassin hired by
Lacospo to kill
Rito Yuuki. Although she can accomplish this easily, after seeing Rito's true nature, she stays on Earth and claims to be continuing her contract to assassinate him. But is really ignoring it because she wants to stay on Earth. Though she maintains she will kill Rito one day, it becomes increasingly doubtful that she will ever do it and actually develops feelings for him instead.
Yui Kotegawa : is an uptight, high-strung girl placed in Rito's class during their second year of high school. Her haughty opinions, quick temper, and habit of speaking her mind often result in her vocally reprimanding classmates. Yui has no tolerance for anything she considers "indecent behavior" and is well aware that Rito and Lala are the most brazen offenders; often yelling her trademark phrase, , in the face of their acts of perversion. Ironically, she begins to secretly develop feelings for Rito after he saves her from a group of delinquents. Though her inexperience with boys leaves her unable to understand her feelings and is continually in self-denial about them. Usually, when Rito asks what is wrong, she says the exact opposite of what she wants to say and then hurts him in some way. Although her nature prevents her from easing her behavior, she slowly warms up to his usual antics. After Celine takes on her childlike form, she becomes close to Yui, even being seen as a daughter-like figure in Yui's daydreams of her and Rito being married together. Yui also really likes cats and, in
To Love Ru Darkness, she realizes that Rito was the young boy she saw rescue a cat stuck in a tree years earlier, an act that defied her belief that boys are rude and salacious. A
running gag in the series is that some characters cannot remember Kotegawa's family name, calling her "Kokegawa" for example. Yui was created as a series regular to celebrate one year of serialization. She was given an abundance of common sense and a serious personality, making her a
tsundere. In a series full of characters who lack common sense, Yui plays the "
straight man" role. Yui was the character that was planned to have the most character growth, as she was the only one who would bring up the perverted stuff Rito does to them. Yabuki, however, said he did not expect her to turn into such a serious love interest. Yui is one of the most popular characters in the series, coming in sixth place in the manga's first character popularity poll.
Nana Astar Deviluke is the second princess of Deviluke. She is the daughter of
King Gid and
Queen Sephie, the younger sister of Lala, and the older twin sister of Momo. Of the entire female cast in the
To Love Ru series, Nana appears to be the least attracted to Rito, although she too eventually develops romantic feelings for him as the series progresses.
Momo Belia Deviluke is the third princess of Deviluke. She is the daughter of King Gid and Queen Sephie, the younger sister of Lala, and the younger twin sister of Nana. Both twins flee to Earth to escape their studies on their home planet Deviluke. While Nana is able to communicate with animals, Momo has the unique ability to speak to plants. Although a recurring secondary character in the original
To Love Ru series, Momo becomes the main female protagonist in the sequel
To Love Ru Darkness, in which she plots to build a
harem of girls around Rito Yuuki, whom she falls in love with.
Mea Kurosaki : is a first-year student at Sainan High who is introduced in
To Love Ru Darkness. She is the classmate of Nana and Momo, and quickly becomes friends with Nana after learning she can understand animals. Known as , she is Golden Darkness' "little sister" and is also a living transformation weapon who can transform any part of her body into weapons. As part of the second generation based on data from Golden Darkness' development, Mea can into other organisms and connect to their minds, learning all of their thoughts in the process, and control their body.
Nemesis, Mea's "master", wants Mea to restore Golden Darkness to her heartless assassin self by killing Rito. After using Psycho Dive on him, Mea becomes interested in Momo's harem plan and shows sexual interest in Rito, much to the shock of Nana. Eventually, through her friendship with Nana and Golden Darkness' encouragement, Mea develops emotions and desires to live her life as she pleases. Nemesis is revealed to have been transfused to Mea's mind and body since they met. But Mea manages to overcome her with help from Oshizu and breaks ties with Nemesis, though she still cares for her.
Nemesis : is Mea's "master", who is behind the plan to make Golden Darkness return to life as an assassin. Nemesis has long black hair, golden eyes, a small and slender body, and dark skin. She is a transformation weapon, but a different type than Golden Darkness and Mea as she is a thought-entity lifeform made of
dark matter, allowing her to become particulate or substantive at will. Her transformation ability is , which allows her to fuse body and mind with flesh-and-blood organisms. Unbeknownst to Mea, Nemesis transfused with her when they first met. Nemesis only reveals herself to Rito and his friends after Mea develops emotions, stating that the "Darkness" in Golden Darkness will awaken without her having to intervene, so she will simply watch and have fun until it does. Nemesis has sexual interest in Rito, but unlike the other girls, hers is often of
dominance and she refers to him as her servant. Momo has an antagonistic personality toward her, but Nemesis actually likes the third princess, although that does not stop her from teasing her. The "Darkness" Nemesis refers to is a prototype transformation hidden within Golden Darkness that has an insatiable thirst for destruction and is powerful enough to destroy planets. By unleashing it, Nemesis hopes to plunge the galaxy into war once again. This goal ultimately leads to a battle between Nemesis and Gid Lucion Deviluke, during which Nemesis is fatally injured. In order to stop her from vanishing, Rito allows Nemesis to inhabit his body, much to Momo's chagrin. After recovering and separating from him, Nemesis comes to fully understand Rito and tries to help him and all the woman around him in love, but in her own way. She says her only reason for living now is to torment Rito and Momo, but she wants Momo to stop hiding her true self and face her for Rito's heart. ==Secondary characters==