Posted: 11/27/2011

Love Hina: The Complete Series

by Amber Burnham

Available Now from Funimation Entertainment

Love Hina is a slice of life romantic comedy. It centers on Keitaro Urashima, a boy who is trying to get into the prestigious Tokyo University because of a promise that was made to a girl fifteen years prior. The two promised to go to Tokyo University together and there they would fall in love and live happily ever after. There are just a few problems with this promise. Keitaro does not remember what the girls name is and has failed the entrance exams to Tokyo University two years in a row. While working on his next attempt he gets a summons from his Grandmother to come to her home, where she works as a manger of a hotel. When Keitaro arrives his Grandmother is gone and he finds out that she is now the manager of an all-girls dorm and has left him in charge. Keitaro can barely handle living at his parents and studying for his exams, never the less managing a dorm full of head strong beautiful women, he consistently finds himself in compromising situations with the girls in the house thus distracting his studies further.

The comedy in Love Hina stems from Keitaro being completely inept at dealing with women since the only girl that has ever liked him is the girl from fifteen years ago when they were only children. He is constantly getting himself in trouble with the girls, even when it is obviously no fault of his own. With the exception of one, all of the girls in the house deal with his incapability in much the same way; by beating him up and telling him how inept he is. Despite this, Keitaro and the girls become friends and they all admit that their lives have become happier since Keitaro came to live with them. At times, the gags become obvious and overused. There is only so many times that Keitaro can walk in on one of the girls in their towel and consequently get hit before it is no longer comedic.

Love Hina is so close to being a really terrific anime. The character designs and locations are great, there are some really funny dialogue thrown into the mix, and the situations that some of the characters are in are realistic and down to earth. But at the same time, the personalities of many of the characters, particularly the girls in the dorm, are seemingly cut from an anime guidebook. Between the five main female characters, you get what you would expect but not much else. This is not to say that they are completely uniform and without merit, it just shows how close the show comes to being really great but falls a little short.

Love Hina is worth a watch, and with a huge fan base it would be a shame not to experience it at least once. It is easy to fall in love with the characters and thus you want to learn how it all works out for them. As a potential romance, I feel this anime does a great job; as a comedy—-it offers some chuckles here and there but not many laugh out loud experiences, the problem being that some of the situations do not translate from the manga form as well because of creating an anime that is viewable for more people. While watching, just have fun and let yourself focus on the parts that you find most appealing and you will enjoy the experience.

Along with textless songs and trailers, Love Hina: The Complete Series, contains a bonus episode, “Motoko’s Choice Between Love or Swords: Don’t Cry.”

Amber Burnham has a BA in Early Childhood Education from Kendall College. She is also a regular panelist on Kichicast, the all-girl, Chicago-based podcast devoted to anime, manga, and Japanese culture. You can listen to Kichicast at kichigi.com.

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