Love Hina

I saw every episode of Love Hina subbed, and it was very entertaining. It's about a 20-year old loser named Keitaro who is a 2nd year ronin (meaning he failed to get into college after high school twice). Keitaro's grades are not good enough to get into Tokyo University, which is the only college he wants to get accepted to. When Keitaro was little, he promised to get into Tokyo U with a girl. She was the only girl that liked Keitaro, so he's dying to keep his promise and see her again...although he can't remember her name.

Keitaro's parents refuse to support him any longer, so he gets a job at his grandma's inn, which recently became an all-girls dormitory. Keitaro becomes the kanrinin (manager) and for the first time in his life, he is surrounded by women. The residents, ranging from a shy junior high girl to a sword wielding kendo master, either like or dislike Keitaro at first, but he soon gains their friendship, despite the fact they think he's a pervert and they kick the living crap out of him at least once each episode. There's also a romantic relationship that evolves between Keitaro and Naru, who deep inside really likes the guy (she kicks the most crap out of him, by the way).

Later in the series, a love triangle develops between Keitaro, Naru, and another girl...and she might be the girl from Keitaro's past! It's very funny and the story is interesting. If you liked the romance aspect of Tenchi Muyo!, I highly suggest Love Hina.

The manga was better. Now this is not to say that the anime was not good. It was hysterical. It's just that the manga is that much better, and fans who have read it first should not expect to be blown away. However, if you haven't read the manga, you will be beside yourself with laughter for the first several episodes, and you will find yourself pulling for the characters throughout the series. And then when you read the manga (you won't be able to resist), you can repeat these feelings all over again.

However, there are some downsides. This series is crammed full of filler, and can only be matched in that aspect by Dragonball Z (which, by the way, is 291 episodes long). Also, if you're going to watch this, subtitles are a must. This is one of the worst - if not the absolute worst - dubs I have ever seen. Kitsune for the most part sounds like a drunk Dixie Chick, and Su has some sort of accent that sounds like an unnatural blend of Russian and Indian. Motoko sounds like "Izzy" from the Digimon dub, and Shinobu and Naru, while having voices that relatively fit their characters, are acted adequately at best. All this is amplified one hundred times when you take into account that the original had such a stellar voice cast, in fact one of the BEST in anime. Keitaro is probably the best in the English cast, but still can't hold a candle to Ueda Yuji. No one can squeal like this guy!

So all in all, I highly recommend this series to anyone, anime fan or just a fan of good laughs. Just make sure you read fast.

Ever since his first love disappeared from his life when he was a small child, geeky Keitaro has striven to be accepted at Tokyo University, where he strongly believes he will find his long-lost love again. Unfortunately, Keitaro's strongest assets (if he has any) aren't his grades, and he ends up being the student with the 27th worst grades on the school. Looking for a job and a place to live, he ends up at the all-girls dorm Hinata Inn where he quickly becomes the caretaker, despite the protests of Naru Narusegawa, who, to put it mildly, isn't Keitaro's biggest fan. Violent and hilarious comedy ensues as Keitaro must deal with his own extreme bad luck, angry girls, and an ever increasing sense that the world is against him.

This is in no way fine art, but that doesn't stop the show from being absolutely impossible to stop watching. This adaptation faithfully brings the essence of the manga to the TV screen: horny teens accidentally getting into awkward situations, lots of goofy humour, lots of violence (in 99% of the case directed towards poor Keitaro), lots of hot girls, a heart of gold and a generally surreal atmosphere. It's over the top, absurd and repetitive at times, but never boring. Some minor changes have been made from the source material but the show never suffers from it. In my opinion, this is as great as an adaptation of the wonderful manga can possibly be. I love it.

You cannot say anything bad about Love Hina without first proving yourself a liar. It's part of one of the greatest modern artforms and is definitely worth buying. The series is, without a word of a lie, one of the most moving, sweet and beautiful series I have ever seen. It has definitely brought many people (myself included) much closer together, which is a testament to its emotional power. It's also one of the most accessible of the new series, being available for the princely sum of £20 (animation) on eBay, or available from many good book shops (in manga form). It's won awards for reasons. I implore anyone reading this to go forth and become a Love Hina fan! Go NOW!! NOW!!!!

What can I say, I'm a writer. Don't get me wrong, I love Love Hina; it's quickly become one of favorites - but in comic form. Like I said, the show is respectable, but taking a 14-volume comic and turning into a 26 to 36 episode TV show really doesn't work for me. Ken Akamatsu's writing is incredible - each chapter is religiously 18 pages long, save for about 5 here and there, and his style is such that each of those chapters could easily be turned into a 23 minute TV episode. Admitadly, you could probably cut out a good portion of volumes 10 through 14, considering that the comic started to lose it around there, but that still leaves over 100 chapters available, meaning there could have easily been over 100 episodes. I love anime, but my one complaint with most is that they are too short. Most animes are about 26 episodes; this, most of the time, leaves very little room for character and story development as it should be (this isn't the case with a select few, like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun); this especially applies for shows based on comics, where the characters develop slowly over time, and you enjoy every minute of it.

I still recommend seeing the show, but I also, even more strongly, recommend reading the comics; the show's for laughs, the comics are for everything else.