The story takes place in the [[Kanagawa Prefecture]], and centers on 20-year old Keitaro Urashima, a young man desperately trying to be accepted into the prestigious [[Tokyo University]] in order to fulfill a childhood promise he made with a girl he now regards as the girl of his life.
The story takes place in the [[Kanagawa Prefecture]], and centers on 20-year old Keitaro Urashima, a young man desperately trying to be accepted into the prestigious [[Tokyo University]] in order to fulfill a childhood promise he made with a girl he now regards as the girl of his life.
His obsessive pursuit of this dream is one of the few shining spots of optimism in his otherwise unlucky life. He becomes manager of the {{nihongo|'''Hinata House'''|日向荘|Hinata Sō|also known as ''Hinata Apartments''}}, property of his family and now an all-girls' dormitory.
His obsessive pursuit of this dream is one of the few shining spots of optimism in his otherwise unlucky life. He becomes manager of the {{nihongo|'''Hinata House'''|日向荘|Hinata Sō|also known as ''Hinata Apartments''}}, property of his family and now an all-girls' dormitory.
Love Hina (ラブ ひな, Rabu Hina) is a manga and anime series by author Ken Akamatsu. The manga won the "Best Manga, USA Release" in 2002 Anime Expo. The manga consists of 14 volumes. The anime is 25 episodes long and is supplemented with Christmas and Spring movies and the Love Hina AgainOVA.
There are also two novels from Love Hina, both named Love Hina: the novel (both written by the series' anime screenwriters, volume 1 by Sho Aikawa (as Kurou Hazuki), volume 2 by Hiroyuki Kawasaki), which have been released in Japan and have been released in the US by TOKYOPOP, the US publisher of the manga.
The story is a comedy of the shōnen genre about a clumsy young man with an unparalleled amount of personal drive despite having horrible luck. After failing to get into Tokyo U (the college of his dreams), he visits his grandmother's onsen only to discover it has been turned into a girls' dorm. After his grandmother gives him the deed to the building, he has the tough job of being landlord, studying to get into Tokyo U, and dealing with the girls living there, who never pass up an opportunity to humiliate him.
The series falls under the harem comedy genre as well due to the familiar set up of one boy living with a group of sexy but unusual women. One distinguishing feature that sets this series apart from the average harem comedy is that, for a very large portion of the manga series, Keitaro is disliked by the girls. Whereas many of the same genre initially or very quickly place the main male character at the center of the girls' lusts, Keitaro is not only initially disliked by the girls, he suffers for a rather prolonged and extended period of time. Keitaro often experiences falls or is simply beaten to a point that would probably kill a normal person, so it is a running joke throughout the series that Keitaro is immortal.
The series is most well known for putting humorously absurd elements into an ostensibly mundane universe, such as flying turtles, ghosts, and Su's destructive mecha.
In America, the Love Hina anime was dubbed and distributed by Bandai Entertainment. Many American fans were appalled by what they called a "half-assed" and poor talented dubbing job. Love Hina has since become famous as one of the biggest disappointing dubbs in anime history.
As of July 1st, 2007 Funimation announced that they had bought the license to Love Hina from Bandai Entertainment and are planning on re-releasing the series and Movies. As of now Love Hina Again has not been announced as a part of the re-release although it is highly likely that it will be too. However Funimation has not said if they'll will redubb Love Hina or just re-release it as is.
Plot
The story takes place in the Kanagawa Prefecture, and centers on 20-year old Keitaro Urashima, a young man desperately trying to be accepted into the prestigious Tokyo University in order to fulfill a childhood promise he made with a girl he now regards as the girl of his life.
His obsessive pursuit of this dream is one of the few shining spots of optimism in his otherwise unlucky life. He becomes manager of the Hinata House (日向荘, Hinata Sō, also known as Hinata Apartments), property of his family and now an all-girls' dormitory.
After much tribulation, he wins their respect and eventual affection. From the beginning of the series, he suffers physical damage and abuse, which continues and increases as the series goes on. (In the anime the girls are openly shown being less hostile towards Keitaro, many fans have seen this as a weakness, saying that because of this the emotional scenes – particularly those between Keitaro and Naru – don't stand out as much as they do in the manga.)
Keitaro's primary (and usually exclusive) interest is in Naru Narusegawa, though all the other girls have different sorts of affections for him (including close friend, a playmate, and non-threatening crush object). Keitaro and Naru's relationship is complicated by several girls falling for him, or girls Keitaro promised a future relationship with while he was younger.
There were 25 episodes produced for the animated television series. The TV series, movies and OVA were all directed by Yoshiaki Iwasaki and produced by TV Tokyo, Yomiko Advertsing and XEBEC with character designs by Makoto Uno and Meiju Maeda (for Love Hina Again) and scripts mainly written by Sho Aikawa. The story is fairly consistent from episode 1 to 24, where it rises to a climax. Episode 25 begins anew the second half of the story. However this episode is the final episode of the television series. Most viewers feel confused about the newly-began-and-left-unfinished story arc, and also confused about why there was no true resolution to the earlier portion of the series.
While the 25th episode may seem an unexpected and unnatural adjunct to the plot, it is because it was meant to be the first episode of another series of 24, which would have generally rounded out the story of the series. The reason that no more episodes beyond 25 were produced is because the production company unexpectedly ran out of budget to continue it.
In Japan, a special 26th episode ran after the recording of Love Hina, a concert including all the seiyu who participated in the successful run of the series. The 26th episode was only an entire overview of the previous 25 episodes packed into one.
Some time later, as profits from the completed episodes came in, several movies were made, each of which took leaps and bounds in the plot in an attempt to bring more of a close to story. This culminated into the Christmas Movie, the Spring Movie, and the final three part OVA series called Love Hina Again which generally brings the animated story to some kind of resolution. The story covered in the animated television series and movies uses some elements of the manga story arc, but does not cover all of it, even leaving out some very colourful details, some side stories. It also utterly ignores one of the major recurring themes of the entire series, viz the depth and complexity of the relationship between Keitaro, Naru and Mutsumi and its connection to Keitaro's childhood promise. As a result, most fans find that reading the complete manga, in its fourteen volume entirety, is a much more satisfactory experience.
However, the story had not ended at the OVA, for those who had purchased the Love Hina Again Original Soundtrack, there were drama tracks at the beginning of the CD, which is in fact, the OVA episode 4. It is entirely in Japanese, but it takes place where the OVA episode 3 left off. And it ends similarly to Naru's dream sequence in the train in Volume 14 of the Manga.
Love Hina Again (ラブひなAgain, Rabu Hina Agēn) is a three episode OVA that takes place after Love Hina: Spring Special, and thus expands the Love Hina anime story. Of special note is the art-style and risque humor of the OVA more closely resembles the manga than the anime, which can surprise some fans. In fact, it seems to follow the storyline of the manga more so than it follows the anime, as the story in Love Hina Again is loosely based on volumes 11 and 12 of the manga.
Keitaro Urashima has been accepted into the University of Tokyo and his adopted sister, Kanako Urashima becomes the new manager of Hinata Inn. The denizens are not pleased with Kanako's rather intrusive and sneaky methods and wish for Keitaro's return. When he does reappear however, Kanako reveals that he had made a promise with her to run an inn together. Though Keitaro thinks of her only as a sister, she does not see him as a brother; her goal is to win his love. (In anime, fictional adopted sister relationships are dramatic or humor fodder and generally not treated as incest.) Naru and Keitaro are nearly torn apart by her efforts, but manage to win out in the end by destroying the cursed Hinata annex, following which Naru finally declares her true feelings for Keitaro in front of the other girls.
Although the Love Hinamanga is generally regarded as superior, many fans in particular feel the total 90 minutes of the OVA are inadequate to cover the introduction of Kanako, a character who in many ways is already easy to dislike. Kanako, created mid-storyline herself, also contradicts some established canon. Keitaro had previously mentioned no girl had ever been nice to him. On the other hand, if he had forgotten the promise he made to his childhood love, and even her face, it is possible that he might not have remembered something this important. Critics and fans (mainly those who haven't read the original manga) have also taken note of the increase in erotic fan service, with some deeming it excessive.
Voiced by: Yuji Ueda (Japanese); Derek Stephen Prince (English)File:Keitaru2.gifKeitaro Urashima
Keitarō Urashima is a 20-year-old juku (cram school) student at the start of Love Hina, who is trying to get into Tokyo University, usually called by its abbreviation, Tōdai. Keitarō fails the entry exam to Tōdai three times before he is accepted, is awkward around girls and has a disastrously-timed clumsiness that usually earns him the wrath of one or more residents of Hinata Inn. Despite his flaws, he is a well-meaning and friendly person, traits which eventually wins all of the dormitory inhabitants' hearts. Keitarō is also known to be very logical and gives great advice that most of the people at the apartment lack. Despite this, he is also known to make some of the most irrational decisions out of all of them.
Naru Narusegawa is a 17-year-old student at Keitarō's cram school with an extremely fiery temper (which is described as "one fuse short of a cannon", by the official website). She will often violently hit someone (mainly Keitarō) for many irrational reasons and misconceptions. Such reasons often revolve around the false idea of Keitarō being perverted or a much deeper root of jealousy. At the beginning of Love Hina, she is a high school student who is also studying to enter Tōkyo University, and was the number one candidate in the nation for acceptance. This studying however has dominated much of her high school life. It also supposedly damaged her eyesight. This causes her to rely on "coke-bottle glasses" to read, which she avoids having to wear when she can.
Mutsumi Otohime (乙姫 むっみ, Otohime Mutsumi)
Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (Japanese); Julie Ann Taylor (English)File:Mutsumi03 06.jpgMutsumi Otohime
Mutsumi Otohime is a gentle, frail, clumsy and soft-spoken 21-year-old girl who lives in Okinawa. Mutsumi is prone to catatonic fainting spells that makes her appear as though she has died. She is also described by other characters as being both "sisterly" and a "ditz". Keitarō Urashima and Naru Narusegawa meet her while taking some time off for a brief vacation after flunking their entrance exams (in the anime, Keitarō has a brief and near-fatal encounter with her on his way to the entrance exam). Like Keitarō and Naru, Mutsumi had just flunked her entrance exam for Tōdai, and was also taking a trip to get a hold of herself again. She bears an unusual resemblance to Keitarō in that she shares similar hobbies, is clumsy and is also a third-year ronin. In the anime, Naru wonders aloud whether they might be related. It is revealed that she is Keitarō's distant cousin but this is not portrayed in the manga. By this token, she often unknowingly acts to bring out Naru's romantic jealousy over Keitarō. She gave Keitarō and Naru the flying turtle Tama-chan as a gift.
Shinobu Maehara is a 13-year old shy schoolgirl who, after a bad start in which Keitarō lied about being in Tōkyo University and his subsequent failed attempts to make it up to her, develops quite a crush on Keitarō (or sempai – a Japanese term for a senior student – as she calls him). Unlike most of the other residents of Hinata Inn, Shinobu is not prone to fits of violence against Keitarō, rather she cries, unintentionally making Keitarō feel guilty. She also takes care of most of the cooking and clothes-washing at Hinata Inn. In the manga, Shinobu was already a resident of Hinata-sō when Keitaro first arrived. In the anime, she moves into the House at the encouragement of Keitarō as a means of escaping the emotional pressures of her parents' separation.
Motoko Aoyama is a 15-year-old high school girl who is very formal and into kendo, to the point that her room resembles that of a samurai's (complete with a suit of armor). She claims lineage to a school of demonslaying swordsmen and also displays a prodigious competence with her katana. She can often wreak great damage to boulders or other objects using nothing more than her wooden practice sword (and even decks Keitarō and two of his friends with an umbrella). Motoko is very terrified of her sister, Tsuruko, whose skill far exceeds her own, and has a phobia of turtles that is left unexplained for the majority of the series. In one of the later episodes, it is suggested that her fear of turtles was due to being attacked by a demon in the form of a monstrous turtle while assisting her older sister in combat as a child. She disapproves of Keitarō early on, on the basis of him being a letch and a weakling, but later develops a grudging respect and eventually a hidden affection for him (much to her chagrin). She is at first uncomfortable with her femininity, partially because her sister left her sword for a husband, but later becomes more open due to Keitaro's influence. Whatever her feelings for Keitarō happen to be at a given time, she still frequently threatens or attacks him with her sword.
Kaolla Su (カオラ スウ, Kaora Sū)
Voiced by: Reiko Takagi (Japanese); Wendee Lee (English)
Kaolla (sometimes written 'Kaora') is a 13-year-old foreign transfer student. She is very playful, inattentive, and shows absolutely no signs of maturing. Her childlike spirit, when combined with her boundless amounts of energy, sometimes yields downright abusive results (usually on Keitarō), though she usually maintains an indestructible air of innocence. Despite her immaturity, she is a genius technician, capable of whipping up the most outrageous devices in a jiffy – including various robot versions of Tama-chan called Mecha-Tamago and a vast array of weapons. During certain times – red moon phenomena – she transforms into a more adult version of herself. She can usually be found with Sara, the only cast member as hyperactive as she is.
Mitsune Konno (紺野 みつね, Konno Mitsune), also known as Kitsune (狐)
Voiced by: Junko Noda (Japanese); Barbara Goodson (English)
Mitsune Konno, mostly called by her nickname "Kitsune" (which means "fox" in Japanese), is a scheming 19-year-old freelance writer (and is conspicuous in her lack of writing). A model example of a parasite single, Kitsune lives to enjoy the easy life, and frequently scams others by any means possible. She is frequently drunk, a sake drinker, and bottles can be found hidden all over her room. Her greatest joy seems to be teasing Keitarō, even though she clearly cares for him. She is a school friend of Naru and tries her best (or worst) to make Keitarō and Naru get married. In order to maintain her finances, she often bets on horse races. In the anime, Kitsune speaks with an Osaka accent, which seems to imply a connection between her sly, money-minded personality and a common stereotype about people who hail from that region. She was given a Southern accent for her English voice.
Haruka Urashima (浦島 はるか, Urashima Haruka)
Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese); Mari Devon (English)File:Lh haruka005.jpgHaruka Urashima
Keitarō's 31-year-old "aunt". Haruka helps Keitarō manage Hinata-sō and provides sound advice. She is most commonly referred to as Keitarō's aunt; however, in Love Hina: the novel volume 1, the author Kurou Hazuki (with "illustrator" Ken Akamatsu) specify that she is daughter of Hinata Urashima's (late) elder daughter Yoko Urashima, but in order to run Hinata-sō for her grandmother she was "adopted" as her daughter. Therefore, Haruka is biologically Keitarō's cousin and legally his aunt. Keitarō started calling her "Auntie Haruka" (Haruka-obasan) as a child, to which she always pummeled him in response. Neither have yet to stop doing so.
Tama-chan (卵ちゃん)
Voiced by: Yukie Maeda (Japanese); Wendee Lee (English)File:Tama-chan.jpgTama-chan
Tama-chan, whose full name is Onsen Tamago ("Hot spring Egg"), is a small flying hot springs turtle (Onsen Kame) and the housepet of the Hinata House. Tama-chan first entered the picture when Mutsumi gave her to Keitaro and Naru as a parting gift following their first misadventure together, and since then has become something of a "family dog" to the inhabitants of the Hinata House. Tama-chan communicates through a cat-like mewing sound, and appears to be able to communicate with Su, Mutsumi, Seta, and (later in the series) Keitaro, who all respond verbally. Despite being an object of loathing by Motoko, who is deathly afraid of turtles, and hunger by Su, who makes repeated attempts to cook her (though her seriousness in pursuing this endeavor is questionable, and may just be done to provoke Shinobu), Tama-chan can usually be seen happily hovering around the heads of the residents of the House, mewing like a kitten all the while.
Seta is professor of archeology at Tokyo University and a globe-trotting adventurer, a parody of Indiana Jones. Like Keitarō, he was a third-year ronin. He's clumsy (especially with women), a terrible driver, and an exceptionally skilled martial artist (even better than Motoko, as he defeats her multiple times in the manga), all partly due to his complete lack of self-preservation. He hires Keitarō as his assistant and has romantic entanglements with both Haruka and Sara's late mother, a difficulty which is only exacerbated by his adventurous nature. He is the object of Naru's crush and an early motivation for her studying to enter Tōkyo University. Keitarō later develops a strong resemblance to Seta, partially due to Keitarō's rising interest in archeology but also because he shares a personality similar to Seta's.Not to mention that Keitaro eventually gets the same glasses as Seta
Sara McDougal (sometimes written "Sarah"), age 9, is Seta's adopted American daughter – her mother was a close friend of Seta and Haruka – and initially delights in making Keitarō's life miserable. However, like most of the girls in the story, she eventually warms to him, even if she still calls him a dork. She is usually seen with Su, whom she emulates. Sara probably varies more than any other character when comparing the manga to the anime; for one, she appears much younger in the manga, although she is still 10. It is also implied in the manga that her parents were killed during an adventure, leaving Seta to look after her, while in one of the more confusing scenes of the anime it seems to be implied that her parents are not only alive but also physically abusive.
Kanako Urashima, 17, is Keitarō's adopted younger sister who appears in "Love Hina Again". She traveled with her grandmother for some years, and returned to Japan to fulfill her promise to her adopted brother (with whom she is in love), and to change the girls dormitory back into an inn. She is very adept at bondage and disguising as other members of the Hinata apartment – except when it comes to imitating Naru's smile – and also has an intense dislike for sweets. In addition, she also bears something of a resemblance to Motoko, as they have a similar hair color, eye color, measurements, the two can jump outstanding distances, and they both can generate "ki." Additionally, she has a talking black cat named Kuro who can fly with his oversized ears.
Midori was the original name for Naru. In the original concepts, Midori was supposed to fall through a hole in the floor (naked), bump her head on the main character (Keitaro) and lose her memory. This was later scrapped completely except for a similar event that happened to Mutsumi. Her name was changed many times before the final character, Naru.
Kaolla Su
Kaolla's character was originally a stereotypical money grubber foreigner. She was older, jaded, and more mature; however this and the money grubber idea were set into Kitsune instead.
Akamatsu has hinted that Su's current design and attitude was inspired by Cowboy Bebop's Edward.
Shinobu Maehara
Although her personality, the shy, cry baby, yet the most womanly hearted, was settled from the very beginning; her physical form underwent probably the most extensive redesigns before finally settling on its current version. At one point she was as old as Motoko and was supposed to go to the same school as her, but that was scrapped and she became a Junior high student with Su. At another point she was supposed to have black hair with a side ponytail (similar to Kazumi/Misty's from Pokemon). Her final form and facial features made her famous with her very cute and "hypnotic" big blue eyes. This was later even more exaggerated in her Anime version.
The manga won the "Best Manga, USA Release" in 2002 Anime Expo.[2] At Book Expo America 2003, Tokyopop announced that not only had Love Hina been among the top ten graphic novels on Bookscan's list, but it was also (along with Chobits) the first graphic novel to ever enter the general trade paperback list.[3]
The anime was praised in a review by the Anime News Network[1] for being very intriguing and for mixing "drama, romance, and slapstick comedy in a pleasing combination". The music was also commended for being "incredibly cute" and used in a way which contributed to many of the dramatic effects in the anime.
Others, however, like Anime News Network's review on the Love Hina Again DVD [2], have criticised the continuity from Love Hina to Love Hina Again, claiming it reversed the plot from the 25-episode anime before finally confirming Narusegewa and Keitaro's romantic feelings for each other (she had already confessed her love for Keitaro in one of the special episodes of the series, but in Love Hina Again, she stills struggles to confess her feelings to Keitaro in person). Love Hina Again was also criticised by some fans for introducing Keitaro's sister, Kanako, described as being "one of the most annoying characters ever created" and also for failing to reaching the same entertainment level as the 25-episode anime series.
The manga was in a review by the Anime News Network[3] commended for being very funny and combining each of the main characters with their own key personality (eg: shy, energetic, smart, and strong). The manga, however, was in the same review stated to be inappropiate for persons under 16 years of age, due to many of the comical jokes involving sexual innuendo. The art drawing was praised for successfully managing to represent the qualities of the characters, and for "drawing such beautiful women".
Trivia
The small mascot animals such as Tama and Kuro represent the four Saint Beasts of Japanese Mythology, Suzaku (Tsuroko's bird), Genbu (Tama), Byakko (Kuro) and Seiryu (Ema's Chameleon).
Kodansha
TOKYOPOP
