I’m always amazed at the stuff that I can come away with from a Comic Convention. I mean my buddy Rob came away with more anime than me, as per usual, but I came back with the truly charming romantic comedy Love Hina.
Love Hina was originally a manga written and drawn by Ken Akamatsu and tackles familiar territory, the story of the ronin. Understand, I’m not talking disenfranchised samurai here. Oh no, I refer to those who have completed high school in Japan and now struggle to pass the rigorous college entrance exams. What college you go to rely entirely on what your entrance exam scores are. The highest scores usually end up going to Tokyo University while lower schools end up at local less prestigious schools. Some people have been known to take the exams 3 or more times in the hopes of getting to the school of their choice.
The tale of the “School Ronin” is not unfamiliar territory to manga and anime as series such as Leijii Matsumoto’s Otoko E (I Am A Man) and Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikoku (The House Of One Moment) both had main characters trying to overcome their struggles with the college entrance exams, and in the case of Maison Ikoku also had a romantic comedy to tell.
Love Hina’s main character is Urashima Keitaro, a 20-year-old ronin, and he has a very unique reason for wanting to pass the entrance exams to get into Tokyo University. It seems that 15 years ago he made a promise to a little girl who he played with at his grandmother’s house. The girl related an old story that if 2 people in love go to Tokyo University (affectionately called Toudai) together then those 2 people will always know happiness. The girl then extracts a promise from Keitaro that the 2 of them will attend Toudai so they can live happily ever after. That is good and all but soon after making the promise the girl moves away and to make matters worse Keitaro forgot her name (D’OH!)
To top it all off Keitaro just failed his college entrance exams for the second time. Sick of supporting their hopeless son, Mom and Dad decide it is time for the chick to leave the nest and kick him out. Luckily for Keitaro his Grandmother owns a Ryoakan outside of Tokyo named Hinatasou (The Hinata Inn, catchy, isn’t it?). Keitaro figures he can stay at the Inn while he studies for his third attempt at the entrance exams. There is one little wrench in Keitaro’s plan though, it seems Hinatasou has been turned into a women’s dormitory and his Grandmother retired and left only moments before he arrived.
Could it get worse?
Sure it could, for Keitaro doesn’t know that Hinatasou is a girl’s dorm and walks in while nobody is home. Tired from his trip he decides to relax in the hot spring that Hinatasou provides. It is here he meets Narusegawa Naru, who at first mistakes him for her best friend Kitsune (who also lives at Hinatasou). It seems Naru is practically blind without her glasses and when she gets close enough to discover that Kitsune isn’t Kitsune, well things get ugly.
From there Keitaro is introduced to the residents of Hinatasou. Narusegawa Naru, a high school Senior who is also trying to get into Toudai and is about to take her first set of entrance exams. Mitsune Konno, Naru’s best friend and her senior by at least a year, a mischievous girl who loves practical jokes (thus everyone calls her Kitsune which is Japanese for fox). Kaolla Su, a foreign exchange student in Junior High School, a weird girl who converted her room to look like a jungle so she could feel more at home, weirder still is that she is a wiz at electronics and robotics.
All 3 girls are ready to pummel Keitaro but are stopped by Keitaro’s Aunt Haruka. Haruka still lives near by and runs the Hinata Tea Shoppe. She informs the girls that Grandma Urashima wanted Keitaro to take over Hinatasou as manager while she went off searching for love. Haruka tells the girls that Keitaro is honest and most importantly a student of Toudai. Kitsune accepts Keitaro as manager after tricking him into groping her (1 grope = 1 month of Keitaro doing Kitsune’s homework or she tells everyone he’s a pervert). Kaolla likes Keitaro because he is goofy and she has someone to pummel now. Naru, outvoted, grudgingly accepts Keitaro as manager and thus begins the Keitaro’s true struggle to get into Toudai and find the girl he made the promise to when he was 5.
 

James Speaks

This show is just wacky fun. It takes pretty much the same premise as Maison Ikoku (i.e. Ronin struggling to deal with romance, school and fellow boarding house mates) and tones down the off wall humor in favor of Keitaro trying to find his true love. Heck to of the key characters aren’t even living at Hinatasou yet (well, one is but is away training in swordplay). There are times when the show is about Keitaro and how he bonds Naru, who they hint just might be the girl of his promise, while other times we get the bizarre (When Kaolla builds the mecha sea turtle and it tries to destroy Hinatasou). Overall it is about Keitaro and Naru. Sure you get attached to certain characters (Kitsune and later Mutsumi Otohime, a girl who keeps passing out because of anemia, somehow she always seems to end up passing out near or around Keitaro). The show is down right fun and charming without getting sappy or overly romantic. I mean Keitaro is a good guy that you really do want to cheer on to get into school and get the girl. Add to this some better than average animation (much better than your average TV quality animation) and a solid soundtrack (including the hyper kinetic opening song “Sakura Saku” by Uber-seiyuu/J-pop star Hayashibara Megumi.
I can honestly say this show is a welcome change from the gritty brutality of Berserk or insanity of Dragonball Z. Love Hina is simple and down to earth (wellll… ok maybe not down to earth as it has it’s wacky moments…) but it is a definitely worth checking out. Lucky for us Americans that Bandai U.S. announced they bought the rights to release this series in the states and plan on an early 2002 release. SIGH I’ll be eagerly waiting for this and Excel Saga from ADV.

Love Hina Info? Go To Hinatasou!