We all have had that special someone in our life who just makes us melt, someone who we'd do anything for, someone that acts as our second half. Love is a complex and indescribable thing that nobody can fully understand in a lifetime, and the fact that this is a good feeling as well just makes it even better! Yes, love is an amazing thing, but it's not easy, and no other cartoon in recent memory illustrates the struggle, rewards, and devotion demonstrated in relationships better than Love Hina.
Now, for those of you reading articles from my site for the first time, lemme level with you on two key things to note about the circumstances of this review:
This is the first Romance-style Anime I've ever watched. You could call Sailor Moon rather Romance-heavy, but I don't remember a lot about that series. Other than my distant memories of that show, Love Hina is the very first Anime I've ever watched that is heavy on romance, relationships between characters, and fanservice. I know that there are other Romance Animes, such as Fruits Basket, Angel Beats, and...ugh, Clannad...
Anyway, with all of that now out of the way, onto the review!
Alright, so, Love Hina is a show about an all-girls dormitory named Hinata ("Hina" for short) that all of these girls live in. Run by an old lady, she decides to go touring around Japan to sit in a bunch of famous hot springs, I guess (Based on how absolutely retarded that is, I don't know if I was dreaming that plot point or not). This leaves all the girls distressed - with no apartment manager, they have nobody to handle the rent payments and manage upkeep on the building! What should they all do?
Enter Keitaro Urashima, the biggest, dumbest deadbeat loser with the most laughably dorky voice you'll ever hear (Despite the voice, I am deeply ashamed to admit that he looks and acts almost the exact same as I do)! Keitaro, at 20 years old, has yet to be accepted into his dream school, Tokyo University. Even after failing the entrance exam twice already, Keitaro still has full intentions of pushing ahead and continuing his studies to get in. Why is such a stupid, hopeless dolt like him still giving a shit about this school rather than just going to a different university (one that doesn't require an entrance exam, maybe?)?
Well, Keitaro may be an utter failure in nearly all aspects of his life, but he certainly is a man of his word! 15 years in the past, at the age of 5, Keitaro has incredibly hazy memories of making a promise to a little girl while playing at a playground with her. He promised her, on their last day playing together, that they would get through school without any slips and then go to Tokyo University together, reunited. C'mon, that one plot point alone is adorable, and while it's pretty out-of-character for two 5-year-old kids, it's still a pretty heartwarming backstory. Kinda weird, but excusable, as it plays into an epic plot thread later in the series.
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| How Keitaro views his relationship with the girls. Dohohoho, he's so funny! |
Keitaro becomes the new manager of Hina Hotel while his grandmother is out being an irresponsible old lady, and while living in a dorm full of girls may sound like a dream come true for most guys, this is a borderline-nightmare for him. Allow me to give quick rundowns on the girls who live in these apartments:
- NARU NARUSEGAWA is a girl who is also trying to get into Tokyo U, and with a perfect score on the practice exam, it'll be easy for her! Although she is very level-headed and friendly, she becomes a very anal-retentive person when she feels threatened or uncomfortable. Poor Keitaro will always get himself into an incriminating situation with Naru, whether it be accidentally groping her breasts to falling under her skirt, which leads to her becoming embarrassed and delivering painful punches to him.
- MOTOKO AOYAMA is a High School student that is working on mastering some Japanese sword art that is used to slay demons. She is an extremely uptight, arrogant feminist who was taught that having males in one's life weakens the soul, and therefore, does not get along well with Keitaro for quite some time. Her sword techniques are powerful harnessings of the elements that are manipulated into dangerous phenomena. Ask Keitaro all about it.
- KITSUNE KONNO, a 19-year-old freelance writer, is one of the more laid-back members of the group. Her carefree attitude leads to her not physically beating on Keitaro - so much as "toying" with him (in the first episode, she forces him to grope her. When Naru barges in to see them together, Kitsune accuses Keitaro of harassing her). Her flirtatious behavior and heavy drinking habit usually leads to her making the most direct sexual innuendos. She is also incredibly greedy and cheating, trying to find a way to get easy possession of objects or money however she can.
- KAOLLA SU is a young, hyperactive 14-year-old who comes from a fictional island and a foreign culture. I like to call her the "Pinkie Pie" of the group, as everything about her is upbeat, positive, and most of all, batshit insane. This girl's room is literally a jungle, she is a genius and can invent fully-operable, toy-sized tanks, and has a spiritual power on a specific day of the year. She's really weird, but she's the most energetic of the group, so that's always nice!
- HARUKA URASHIMA is Keitaro's aunt, and is probably the dryest character in the group. All she does is slump around the apartments and act as a sort of co-manager. she's always smoking a cigartte, and she just doesn't give a shit. She hates it when Keitaro calls her by, "Aunt", and even she beats on him for it. Calm but cynical, she adds that negative air to the Anime without being one of those stereotypical goth-types or angsty.
- SHINOBU MAEHARA is a character that didn't live in the apartments right from the first episode. She's a 14-year-old girl who hails from a dysfunctional, divorced family. Her parents are fighting, trying to nab custody over her, but in the end, she somehow manages to override child protection laws and stay in an apartment without parental supervision. Japan's weird, alright? Anyway, she's a naive young sweetheart who means nobody trouble or ill. She also has a crush on Keitaro.
- SARA MCDOUGAL pops up late into the Anime (15 or 16 episodes in, at least). She's the adopted daughter of Seta, who seems to have a history with the girls at the Hinata Hotel, as well as being Keitaro's boss once he gets his job as the assistant in Archaeology. Violent, short-tempered, and an all-around bitch, Sara takes borderline-Masochistic pleasure in torturing Keitaro and watching him suffer. She eventually befriends Shinobu and Su, completing a triad of kids in the dorm.
And except for Shinobu, they all beat on him at some point! On top of the novel Romance aspect thrown into this Anime, there's a huge chunk of slapstick comedy thrown into it as well. It gives this odd, exagerrated cartoon feel to the show! Keitaro gets punched, kicked, thrown, sliced, shot at, hit by a car, and subjected to explosive rockets from tanks. Yeah, it's an absolute wonder this guy's still alive. There's a lot of creative slapstick in this comedy, and with Anime playing to its strengths with its camera angles and wide storyboard shots, it gives the slapstick a lot of shoulder room to crack its knuckles and do its thing, and it's hilarious!
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| Complimentary pillows? This inn is the best! |
The music in the series is good! This is the first Anime I've watched that has had musical numbers and actual vocal songs in the running of the show, so it was kinda cool to see it happen for the first time! Looking back at it now, I'm about half-and-half on the musical numbers - they were pretty hit-or-miss. Most of them are overly whimsical and pretty annoying. Without a 100% spot-on performance, musical numbers are completely unnecessary, so I shouldn't have suspected it'd be all good. The theme song is great (I won't lie, I had to find guitar chords for it online to play. I liked it that much!); it's an overall fun, positive, and uplifting tune with a really cool and swerving singing progression in the chorus. It's so bouncy and happy! However, the closing song is forgettable for me - you can love it or hate it, but it just didn't grab my attention. There's a different variation of the theme in the form of background music, and another variation sung by the female cast in the form of a lullaby, and I really liked those as well. The lullaby got me completely teary-eyed.
The voice acting is fantastic, if you ask me! Being dubbed into English in 2007, I was surprised to see such a variable cast! No 4Kids dubbers, no Jamie Marchi, no DBZ cast members - I was surprised to see all actors and actresses I've never heard of before, and I was very impressed with their performance! Su sounded adorable and unique with her pseudo-Indian-Arabian accent, Haruka's calm and collected tone suited her perfectly, Shinobu sounds quaint and nervous, and Keitaro's nasally stammering accompanied by youthful hollers and yells brings the whole environment to life (As well as making the slapstick just plain hilarious)! It was a rather unorthodox cast, but they certainly delivered a swell performance! If I had any complaints, it'd be only two things, really: Kitsune's voice actress put on a really shrill southern accent. It wasn't fun to listen to in large doses. Secondly, Sara's actress was just plain. Not good or bad, but just...really average.
SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE ON OUT.
Now, I managed to cover the slapstick, but just like in my Tales of the Abyss article, I have to cover the main romance in this show, because it was really pulled off well. The main romance, of course, is between Keitaro and Naru, and through many writing conventions and rising actions placed extremely well, this romance performed very well - it was compelling, it was easy to relate to and sympathize with, and with the romance carried a moral that was shockingly deep and thought-provoking. Many relationship aspects, such as jealousy, misinterpretation, shyness, and even the developing crisis from inferiority complexes all play parts in developing the plot for many episodes, for emulating the relationship between these two, and advancing them forward.
There are some really notable points regarding the romance between these two characters: one is that the relationship is shown in its entirety - nothing is overly played up for the sake of Hollywood-like appeal, and all details between these two are shown to the viewer; the good, the bad, the awkward, the mean - there's no fluff or sugar-coating while watching Love Hina, and several times while watching this, you're going to see from a mile away that either Naru or Keitaro are going to royally screw things up, and you're going to start getting knots in your stomach from it.
The romance is also very believable. No matter how much of a crush you have on a guy, would you just let him fall in front of you with his head between your tits? No, of course not, you're going to call him a perverted pig and haul off on him. That's where this Anime succeeds where even Tales of the Abyss failed to fully deliver: this is a very genuine-feeling relationship (Y'know, given the circumstances that this show is under, complete with flying turtles and giant robots). Naru and Keitaro have their goals and fears, and these influences are always kept in mind when they make decisions, whether they may hurt their relationship or not. They also have their personal boundaries, which most Animes never bother setting. For example, Naru hates perverts, and Keitaro is a wimp - it's as simple as that, but the writers take two unlike features and engineer situations for their opposite beliefs and intentions to clash and create conflict, and then get fixed to strangthen their bonds. Love Hina takes a realistc set of characters and throws them into an adventure - something that isn't real, and it's interesting, fresh, and fun!
Lastly, to wrap up this talk about the romance, let's talk about this scene.
Alright, so why the hell did I decide to show this? Because Naru admits her love and it's cute and sweet? Well yeah, that's all fine and good, but would it really be worth showing just for fanservice? No, not really. Let me tell you why I put this scene right into the article: This scene is beautifully structured and is a masterpiece. Ahh, it's times like these that I realize that not all Anime is obnoxious and full of itself - I don't get why I've never seen this scene broken down before - from a symbolic and artistic point of view, this is amazing for a year as early as 2001! Allow me to count the ways in which this scene is amazing:
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| Set in the evening, glasses of soda emptied during this foreboding scene... This show is chalk-full of symbolism! |
The romance is also very believable. No matter how much of a crush you have on a guy, would you just let him fall in front of you with his head between your tits? No, of course not, you're going to call him a perverted pig and haul off on him. That's where this Anime succeeds where even Tales of the Abyss failed to fully deliver: this is a very genuine-feeling relationship (Y'know, given the circumstances that this show is under, complete with flying turtles and giant robots). Naru and Keitaro have their goals and fears, and these influences are always kept in mind when they make decisions, whether they may hurt their relationship or not. They also have their personal boundaries, which most Animes never bother setting. For example, Naru hates perverts, and Keitaro is a wimp - it's as simple as that, but the writers take two unlike features and engineer situations for their opposite beliefs and intentions to clash and create conflict, and then get fixed to strangthen their bonds. Love Hina takes a realistc set of characters and throws them into an adventure - something that isn't real, and it's interesting, fresh, and fun!
Lastly, to wrap up this talk about the romance, let's talk about this scene.
Alright, so why the hell did I decide to show this? Because Naru admits her love and it's cute and sweet? Well yeah, that's all fine and good, but would it really be worth showing just for fanservice? No, not really. Let me tell you why I put this scene right into the article: This scene is beautifully structured and is a masterpiece. Ahh, it's times like these that I realize that not all Anime is obnoxious and full of itself - I don't get why I've never seen this scene broken down before - from a symbolic and artistic point of view, this is amazing for a year as early as 2001! Allow me to count the ways in which this scene is amazing:
- NARU STOPS IN PLACE TO TELL THE TRUTH. This scene takes place while the gang is running through a desert, and when Naru is avoiding the question at first when talking to Shinobu, Naru's running represents her longing to deny her true feelings. Within this metaphor, Shinobu is the truth that Naru's dancing around from a fear of rejection or things changing.. When Naru finally starts to admit her true feelings, she stops in place and stops running, symbolizing that she isn't going to run from her problem anymore, in a manner of speaking.
- "REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLYYYYYYYYY...!". This one's pretty obvious! Naru sounds all angry and frustrated while slapping on those really's, but of course, that's a red herring; at the last second, Naru comes out with it: "Love a lot!". A beautiful string of confusing lovestruck emotions! The dialogue may not be creative or complex, but it doesn't have to be - the voice actress really delivered here.
- AERIAL ZOOM SHOT AFTER NARU CONFESSES. After Naru finaly admits her feelings, the camera shot starts to zoom out from the desert, rapidly speeding up, zooming out of an island, out a goldfish bowl, out of the Hinata Inn, etc. This, of course, is supposed to symbolize something as well - that feeling we all get in a relationship; a feeling of freedom, as if our life knows no bounds.Naru and Keitaro's love is supposed to seem bigger than life with endless bounds of possibilities, and this shot illustrates it well!
- THE PETALS. Cherry Blossom petals are found all over the place in Spring, and both the season and the petals are symbols of something that's just sparked into life; a new beginning, if you will. Now that Naru and Keitaro are on the same page with their feelings, this really is like a Cherry Blossom: the budding beginnings of something new and beautiful!
This is the impression I got from this particular scene, and if you ask me, this was an absolutely perfect way to end the series - seriously, I wouldn't have rather had it any other way than what was shown here! And while this whole article's been praising the series so far, let's move into my main gripe with Love Hina, the undeniably largest problem with this entire serie: a three-part add-on to the main series called Love Hina Again. This three-episode saga revolved around Keitaro's sister, Kanako, growing creepy, romantic feelings for him. She tries to pull him away from Naru and take him as her own, even though Keitaro's bought a wedding ring to propose to Naru with. Then this whole weird, random plot thread with this magical building that comes to life and tries to force couples together who spend the night inside of it...it's really weird.
This whole saga didn't need to happen, and y'know why? It's because we'd already hit the main climax that the series was building up - in the Spring Special, Naru finally confesses her love to Keitaro, after Keitaro had pretty much done it a million times before without any real reaction from her. The main goal and motivation for both the main characters and the viewer watching had been met beforehand, so there's no climax left to reach for. This makes the entire three-part series underwhelming, boring, repetitive, and ultimately, is a really stupid supernatural curve taken in the series that didn't need to exist.
I understand that Kanako does make an appearance in the manga, but nothing about this magical building is referenced in the manga itself, from what I've read online, so you know what this is supposed to be? A fanservice-infested, sellout add-on series to milk a franchise that was beautiful enough as is when it ended on that beautiful scene I showed above. Love Hina Again wasn't originally scheduled to be in the original show's running, and because this whole series felt tacked on and was a continuation of the actual series, this was the real ending to the Anime, which throws the basic structure of a good story off-course, now that the climax and denouement stages have been changed. It turned the series from a modest Romantic Comedy with a beautiful, sweet, and vague-but-well-met ending, into a...whatever it's supposed to be now. With a shit ending. Great.
Why did they have to do this? Was it entirely necessary for Production I.G. (animators for the Tales series, mind you) to create three more episodes for Love Hina, just to touch upon a bunch of one-time characters and plot devices that ultimately had no impact on the series as a whole? With the ending of the series in place already, and Keitaro's implications of wanting into Tokyo U and marrying his dream girl, was it too much for us viewers to either, A) buy the manga and read through the original story to see how it ends canonically, or B) Fill in the blanks ourselves, and assume that Keitaro and Naru eventually get into Tokyo U together, have lunch outside, play tennis, and get married later in their life? Does the writer of this damn mini-series know anything about subtlety and the effectiveness of partial closure? You can vaguely close a story and still have it be good - we don't need fucking Anime DLC to tell us how it ends; we can buy the manga or imagine it ourselves. Either method would've worked better than this piece of shit.
In conclusion though, Love Hina is an emotionally significant, passionate series with central themes of keeping promises, following your dreams, and holding onto love. The show indirectly tackles several ideologies and philosophies, as well as displaying a genuine and very convincing romance between two characters. Throw in some entertaining side characters each with their own small story arcs and motivations, hilarious and lighthearted slapstick, a fun and interesting setting for all these stories to take place in, musical numbers and other awesome tracks, a great voice cast, and very fluent and natural animation to boot, and you have a fully-watchable series that is begging to be watched and adored!
Love Hina is a love letter to people who simply like to watch something harmless and endearing. There's no Anime angst or epic, drawn-out battles, but this show will scratch your Anime itch in a less saturated field: it will make you shake with anticipation, laugh until your gut busts, and maybe even shed a tear or two. I may not know how the lasting appeal of Love Hina will really be, but it sure made me go through the motions rather easily - I played right into its story and emotions, and that made the whole experience that much more enthralling!
~WILL
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| ...Love Hina Again, Ladies and Gentlemen. More like, "Love Hina...Again?". |
I understand that Kanako does make an appearance in the manga, but nothing about this magical building is referenced in the manga itself, from what I've read online, so you know what this is supposed to be? A fanservice-infested, sellout add-on series to milk a franchise that was beautiful enough as is when it ended on that beautiful scene I showed above. Love Hina Again wasn't originally scheduled to be in the original show's running, and because this whole series felt tacked on and was a continuation of the actual series, this was the real ending to the Anime, which throws the basic structure of a good story off-course, now that the climax and denouement stages have been changed. It turned the series from a modest Romantic Comedy with a beautiful, sweet, and vague-but-well-met ending, into a...whatever it's supposed to be now. With a shit ending. Great.
Why did they have to do this? Was it entirely necessary for Production I.G. (animators for the Tales series, mind you) to create three more episodes for Love Hina, just to touch upon a bunch of one-time characters and plot devices that ultimately had no impact on the series as a whole? With the ending of the series in place already, and Keitaro's implications of wanting into Tokyo U and marrying his dream girl, was it too much for us viewers to either, A) buy the manga and read through the original story to see how it ends canonically, or B) Fill in the blanks ourselves, and assume that Keitaro and Naru eventually get into Tokyo U together, have lunch outside, play tennis, and get married later in their life? Does the writer of this damn mini-series know anything about subtlety and the effectiveness of partial closure? You can vaguely close a story and still have it be good - we don't need fucking Anime DLC to tell us how it ends; we can buy the manga or imagine it ourselves. Either method would've worked better than this piece of shit.
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| Negateev opin-yuns?! Securah thah perimitah! |
Love Hina is a love letter to people who simply like to watch something harmless and endearing. There's no Anime angst or epic, drawn-out battles, but this show will scratch your Anime itch in a less saturated field: it will make you shake with anticipation, laugh until your gut busts, and maybe even shed a tear or two. I may not know how the lasting appeal of Love Hina will really be, but it sure made me go through the motions rather easily - I played right into its story and emotions, and that made the whole experience that much more enthralling!
~WILL
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