Love Hina/Love Hinaedit
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| Love Hina | |
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Love Hinaラブ ひなRabu Hina | |
| Genre | Comedy, Ecchi, Harem |
| Authored by |
Ken Akamatsu |
| Publisher |
Japan Kodansha |
| Anime series | |
| Directed by |
Yoshiaki Iwasaki |
| Studio |
XEBEC |
| Licensor |
Japan King Records |
| Network |
Japan TV Tokyo |
| OVA: Love Hina – Christmas Special | |
| Directed by |
Yoshiaki Iwasaki |
| Studio |
XEBEC |
| Released |
USA December 25 2000 |
| Runtime |
44 minutes |
| OVA: Love Hina – Spring Special | |
| Directed by |
Yoshiaki Iwasaki |
| Studio |
XEBEC |
| Released |
USA April 1, 2001 |
| Runtime |
45 minutes |
| OVA: Love Hina Again | |
| Directed by |
Yoshiaki Iwasaki |
| Studio |
XEBEC |
| Released |
USA September 2, 2003 |
Love Hina (ラブ ひな, Rabu Hina) is a Japanese anime and manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. The manga won the Kodansha Manga Award for best shōnen title in 2001 and the "Best Manga, USA Release" at the 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 Again OVA. There are also two Love Hina novelizations, both named Love Hina: The Novel and written by the series' anime screenwriters; volume 1 was written by Shō Aikawa (會川 昇, Aikawa Shō) under the pen name "Kurō Hazuki" (葉月 九ロウ, Hazuki Kurō) and volume 2 by Hiroyuki Kawasaki (川崎 ヒロユキ, Kawasaki Hiroyuki). Both novels have been released in the US by Tokyopop, the US publisher of the manga.
The story is a shōnen comedy about a clumsy young man named Keitaro Urashima 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' love, Keitaro is not only initially disliked by the girls, he suffers for a rather prolonged and extended period of time.
The series is most well known for putting humorously absurd elements into an ostensibly mundane universe, such as flying turtles, kami(spirits), and Su's destructive mecha.
The anime was released in North America by Bandai Entertainment, in Spain by Jonu Media, and in Singapore by Odex. As of July 1, 2007 FUNimation announced that they had bought the license to Love Hina from Bandai 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. On August 10, 2007 FUNimation announced it was simply going to re-release the series as is with no modifications.
Contents |
Plot
The story takes place in the Kanagawa Prefecture, and centers on 19-year (20 in anime) 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. 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. 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.
Anime
There were 25 episodes produced for the animated television series. The TV series, movies and OVA were all directed by Yoshiaki Iwasaki and animated by XEBEC with character designs by Makoto Uno and Meiju Maeda (for Love Hina Again) and scripts mainly written by Sho Aikawa. While many of the episodes are based on early chapters of the manga, the anime introduced several minor characters not in the manga and many details were changed in how the events developed. The story is fairly consistent from episode 1 to 24, where it rises to a climax. However, towards the end of the series, the anime deviates from the manga due to the anime catching up on the manga.
After the TV run finished, a 25th episode was released on dvd. 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, along with "Love Live Hina", a live concert including all the (female) seiyū 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.
Due to the success of the series several specials were made for Christmas and Spring, and eventually the final three part OVA series called Love Hina Again. Although Love Hina Again develops Naru's and Keitaro's relationship, it does not bring the story to a conclusion, leaving the story open in animated form. All of these specials have a basis in the manga, although the Christmas special is mostly new material
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.
The Anime storyline finishes at the "Love Hina: Endless love" CD, which was a Drama CD that came with the official Japanese Love Hina box set, released Summer 2005.
OVA
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 go to the annex so that they can be together forever. 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 Hina manga 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, though he may have not considered her, being his sister, albeit adopted. 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 have also taken note of the increase in fan service, with some deeming it excessive.
Characters
- Keitaro Urashima (浦島 景太郎, Urashima Keitarō)
- anime voices Yūji Ueda/Derek Stephen Prince
Keitaro Urashima is a 20-year-old cram-school student who is desperately trying to get into University of Tokyo in order to fulfill a childhood promise he made to a girl 15 years ago. This proves to be very difficult since he has terrible luck, bad studying habits, and can't grasp the material as well as others leading him to fail the exam three times making him a third-year ronin. His grandmother later grants him ownership of the Hinata Inn, a girl's dormatory. His clumsiness lands him into deep trouble with the girls at the Hinata Inn as he is prone to accidentally seeing them naked or tripping and touching them inappropriately. Despite his flaws, he is well-meaning, friendly, and very determined, traits which eventually wins all of the girls' hearts. His developing relationship with Naru is focal point of the story. He confesses his love for her and they start down a rather bumpy relationship. He finally gets accepted into University of Tokyo, keeping his promise to Naru, and travels with Seta on his archeology trips.
- Naru Narusegawa (成瀬川 なる, Narusegawa Naru)
- anime voices Yui Horie/Dorothy Elias-Fahn
Naru Narusegawa is a 17-year-old (18 in anime) student and resident of the Hinata Inn that can be described as "one fuse short of a cannon" because of her extremely fiery temper and tendency to be very physical, mainly with Keitaro whenever she feels he's acting perverted. Of all the girls in the Hinata House, she is victimized the most by Keitaro's clumsiness which often results in her being naked, exposed in some fashion, or lying in very suggestive positions. Throughout most of high school she studied hard and became tops in the nation on the college practice exams in order to get into Tokyo University. Because of her intense study regime, she became majorly short-sighted and has to wear thick "coke-bottle glasses" when not wearing her contacts. She developed feelings for Keitaro, however, was unable to admit it to herself or anyone else for a long time. Despite overcoming this and confessing her love, hitting Keitaro whenever he got "too close" had become involuntary and second nature. Later in the story after a misunderstanding, we find out that she is actually the person Keitaro promise to go into University of Tokyo.
- Mutsumi Otohime (乙姫 むつみ, Otohime Mutsumi)
- anime voices: Satsuki Yukino/Julie Ann Taylor
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 the others as being sisterly, kind and caring, yet a ditz. Like Keitaro, she is a third-year ronin trying for Tokyo University. However, her reasons for failing are because of simple mistakes such as not putting her name on the test or succumbing to her anemia and fainting during the exam. In the manga and anime she, along with Naru, was a childhood friend of Keitaro with whom she promised to go to Tokyo U together. Mutsumi has an affinity for watermelons and turtles and gave a latter one, Tama-chan, to Keitaro and Naru as a gift. Mutsumi has eight brothers and sisters and has a striking resemblance to her mother. She is called the "female version of Keitaro" due to their shared clumsiness. When Kanako begins to run the Hinata house, Mutsumi disguises herself as Keitaro to test the girls on their hostess skills; the resemblance is so uncanny that momentarily even Naru is fooled.
- Shinobu Maehara (前原 しのぶ, Maehara Shinobu)
- anime voices: Masayo Kurata/Bridget Hoffman
Shinobu Maehara is a 13 -year old middle school student who is very shy. She loves to clean and cook and takes care of most of the chores around the Hinata Inn. Despite a bad and embarrassing first start with Keitaro which included him accidentally exposing himself and lying to her she develops a crush on him, calling him sempai as a sign of her admiration and respect. Unlike the other girls of the Hinata Inn, Shinobu is not prone to hitting Keitaro, rather she ends up getting emotional and crying thus making Keitaro feel guilty. In the manga, Shinobu was already a resident at Hinata while in the anime she moves in after Keitaro's arrival due to family strife causing her parents to divorce (in the manga they end up reconciling upon her visit back home). In direct contrast to the other girls of the house, as the manga reached it's close Shinobu developed the habit of hitting Keitaro as well, though by this point in the story the attacks from the others had lessened (aside from Naru).
- Motoko Aoyama (青山 素子, Aoyama Motoko)
- anime voices: Yū Asakawa/Mona Marshall
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 Keitaro 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 Keitaro 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, partially because of her height: she is the tallest person in the house, 4 cm taller than Keitaro. She later becomes more open due to Keitaro's influence. Whatever her feelings for Keitaro happen to be at a given time, she still frequently threatens or attacks him with her sword. In the later volumes of the manga version, she discovers that she has a talent for writing erotic romance stories while she fantasizes about having a relationship with Keitaro. It is implied during the epilogue chapter of the manga during a conversation with Shinobu that writing such stories is how she supports herself during her college years.
- Kaolla Su (カオラ スゥ, Kaora Sū)
- anime voices: Reiko Takagi/Wendee Lee
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 Keitaro), 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. Her country of origin remained a source of speculation throughout the series and manga, as she reveals that she is not East Indian. The manga featured a volume involving a trip to Su's homeland, known as Molmol Island where Su is actually the royal princess. Su's older sister makes an appearance in the series, where it is revealed that she has an older brother (whom it seems she likens to Keitaro, explaining why of all the Hinata girls Su's attraction to Keitaro is the least romantic).
- Mitsune Konno (紺野 みつね, Konno Mitsune), also known as Kitsune (キツネ)
- anime voices: Junko Noda/Barbara Goodson
Mitsune Konno, mostly called by her nickname "Kitsune" (which means "fox" in Japanese), is a scheming 20-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, and bottles can be found hidden all over her room. Her greatest joy seems to be teasing Keitaro, even though she clearly cares for him. She is a school friend of Naru and tries her best (or worst) to make Keitaro 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, (in the English anime, with a Southern accent) which seems to imply a connection between her sly, money-minded personality and a common stereotype about people who hail from that region. Her appearance is even typical of a fox, having slanted eyes that never seem to be open.
- Kanako Urashima (浦島 可奈子, Urashima Kanako)
- anime voices: Natsuko Kuwatani/Melissa Fahn
Kanako Urashima, 17, is Keitaro's adopted younger sister. 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 black cat named Kuro who can fly with his oversized ears. To give Kanako dialogue early on in her introduction while the Hinata girls are still hostile to her, Kanako converses with Kuro, and even practices ventriloquism to hold a full conversation with him.
Original character designs
- Midori (Later became Naru)
- 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. Also similar to Mutsumi is that she was planned to be a clumsy, accident-prone girl, possibly with a more reserved and kind personality rather than the rougher behavior of Naru. Her name was changed many times before the final version of the character, Narusegawa Naru.
- Kaolla Su
- Su's character was originally a stereotypical money-grubbing foreigner. She was older, jaded, and more mature; however this and the money grubber idea were set into Kitsune instead.
- Shinobu Maehara
- Although her personality, the shy, cry baby, yet the most womanly hearted, was settled from the very beginning; her physical form underwent 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 a side ponytail identical to that of Namba Forty from A.I. Love You] was drawn but later taken out.
Reception
The manga won the "Best Manga, USA Release" in 2002 Anime Expo. At Book Expo America 2003, Tokyopop announced that not only had Love Hina been among the top ten graphic novels on Nielsen BookScan's list, but it was also (along with Chobits) the first graphic novel to ever enter the general trade paperback list.
The anime was praised in a review by the Anime News Network 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, 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 criticized for introducing Keitaro's sister, Kanako, described as being "one of the most annoying characters ever created even though she would have been better for Keitaro than Naru" 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 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 inappropriate 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", trends which continued in the author/artist's next series, Negima.