ラブひな

LOVE HINA

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
14
RELEASE
October 31, 2001
CHAPTERS
123

DESCRIPTION

When Keitaro Urashima fails his entrance exams to get into Tokyo University for the second time, he's officially an unemployed and uneducated slacker. To make things worse, his parents have kicked him out of his house. Fortunately, his grandmother owns the fabulous Hinata Lodge and has agreed to take Keitaro in as caretaker. What he doesn't know is that the lodge is actually a girls' dorm and he's the only guy around! Most guys would kill to live with five sexy ladies, but if Keitaro's not careful, this job will kill him.

(Source: Kodansha Comics)

CAST

Naru Narusegawa
Motoko Aoyama
Shinobu Maehara
Mitsune Konno
Keitarou Urashima
Kaolla Suu
Mutsumi Otohime
Kanako Urashima
Haruka Urashima
Tamago Onsen
Sarah McDougal
Tsuruko Aoyama
Seta Noriyasu
Ema Maeda
Nyamo Naamo
Mei Narusegawa
Masayuki Haitani
Natsumi Otohime
Kimiaki Shirai
Mrs. McDougal
Hinata Urashima
Mecha-Tama
Kuro

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO LOVE HINA

ANIME ComedyLove Hina

NOVEL ComedyLove Hina

Cover Art for Love Hina: Special Project

ONE SHOT ComedyLove Hina: Special Project

REVIEWS

SamuraiBunny
100/100
My Favorite Harem series in all of Anime and Manga
Love Hina is a manga centering on Keitarō Urashima and his attempts to fulfill a childhood promise that he made with a girl to enter the University of Tokyo together. However, he has forgotten the name of the girl he made the promise to and hopes to be accepted into the university in order to find her. Having failed the entrance exam twice and with his parents no longer willing to support him, he goes to stay at his grandmother's hotel, only to find out that it has been converted into a female-only apartment. The tenants are about to kick him out when his aunt appears and announces that his grandmother has given him the title to the apartments. Much to their dismay Keitarō becomes the new manager of the family-owned girls' dorm Hinata House and must now balance his new responsibilities in addition to studying for the university entrance exam.

Ken Akamatsu (The Mangaka of the series) had also added elements of his own life experiences for the series, and this was said to have induced a unique feeling to the manga especially for Western readers, whose lack of familiarity with Japanese culture for the most part added to the effect.
The series is one of the founders of the Harem genre in anime/manga.

Side note: I would recommend not watching the anime it's a fine example of how not to adapt an anime, I'm not going to explain why because It'll be unnecessary since this is a manga review not an anime. But here's a manga readers take on the anime if you want to see.

Plot 10/10

As I previously stated the series is about a boy named Keitaro Urashima who want to fulfill his childhood promised by attending the University of Tokyo with a girl, after flunking his entrance exam twice his parents basically kick him of their house where he goes to Hinata Inn when his aunt appears and announces that his grandmother has given him the manager job of the Inn.

The series structure (Mostly) stays the same for about 60 chapters, where Keitaro and Naru (Mutsumi also joins them later on) often go to the entrance exams where they flunk however after chapter 60 the series goes a different path. Keitaro, Naru, and Mutsumi actually passed the entrance exams except Keitaro still believed he flunk, so he leaves Japan and where's he along with Naru get stuck of an island, though they'll later get back to Japan (I honestly don't want to explain much of this arc being I want to talk about the series in general anyways).

Keitaro also earlier on meets Noriyasu Seta is a Tokyo University graduate and professor who specialises in archaeology who was also like Keitaro. After Keitaro goes to America he basically becomes like Seta, similar to how Simon became much like Kamina in Gurren Lagann.

I would also say without slandering any other series is that for a series that's over 2 decades old it's much better written than most harem anime that rather care more about fanservice than plot.

Characters 10/10

Love Hina has some of my favorite cast in anime/manga.

Keitaro is an example of a well written harem protagonist going from a clumsy failure to becoming a more confident character like Seta.

Naru (My Waifu) is an amazing character who started out as an asshole at first but gets more likeable as the series progress.

Mutsumi is a fun energetic character.

Shinobu is one of the best "Notice me senpai" girls in anime/manga.

Motoko is a badass swordsman who starts out as a "Man Hater" but later reveal's her feelings for Keitaro later on.

Mitsune is a pretty funny character.

Kaolla is a pretty fun character.

Haruka and Seta are also good characters as well.

Enjoyment 10/10

I really enjoyed reading this series, after rereading it, it still one of my favorite manga I've ever read.
Though I'm not too fond of the comedy (for the most part), I mostly enjoyed everything else about the series which is the story and the characters.

Overall 10/10

Overall it's one of my favorite manga I've ever read.
I would also say that the series isn't perfect by any means, while I didn't have specific thing I disliked about the series (though some of Keitaro's accidental pervert moments are annoying).
But I'll say this is a prime example on how to write an harem anime.
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Shellshock
20/100
Considered A Classic For Romance Comedies
Classicly shit that is. Actually it's completely fucking awful.

Love Hina is the story about a Ronin who wants to get into Todai the no.1 university in Japan. So he joins the Hinata Inn which is now a girls only dormitory. His grandmother own's the dormitory but now gave the ownership to her grandson the MMC, The Ronin. Now he has to live with like 6 girls including the FMC. And since the author is such a master writing character personalities she has the absolute unique personality of being a Violent tsundere. I know never been done before. I think this is the first series to even try something as bold as this. Guess what else. The main character has no redeeming value whatsoever except he's kind of a hard worker and incredibly debatably nice. Both very unique and never been done before.

Lets talk about what i liked about the series first.

Now lets talk about the garbage aspect of this series which is everything. The side characters are complete trash. Every single of them are the most generic boring pieces of garbage ever. The main heroine however, get this, Is actually the worst one. Amazing i know. It's not just the violent tsundere problem or the fact that the main character is used as a punching bag. They are literally 2 dimensional garbage tier heroines. You can usually forgive the side character in other romance series because they don't have the spotlight often but in here the main heroine is garbage. Tsundere's are really the most garbage tier laziest heroine's in existence this really solidified by feeling that violent tsundere are trash. The only decent character was the 12 year old shy girl who had a crush on the MMC in the series but she's basically just a pointless side character.

The main character isn't better either. Now about 60% of the time i'd say he doesn't deserve to get his ass beaten. But this character is unbelievably stupid. This man has no understanding of personal space. Constantly he is entering the woman's bathroom or going inside woman's room. This guy is beyond dumb no wonder he was a ronin for 2 years holy shit. Their are other series out there like sora no otoshimono where the main character deserved the ass beaten he got but that made the relationship more equal. It felt sexy to see the naked girls and satisfying to see his ass get beaten. Here he's just a punching for an ecchi manga that doesn't even deserve called an ecchi manga.

Another thing this series has no understanding for serious moments. I laughed 7 times throughout this series. btw im counting a snigger as a laugh which happened 6 times of the 7. The comedy in this series is dog shit repetitive and ruins any serious moment this series had. Last time i read a romcom which a crapton of jokes was Jitsu wa watashi wa and that series sucked massive balls too. Not everything, every moment needs to be a fucking joke. Pace yourself for fucks sake.

Don't worry though their are moments where you are like oh they are going a step forward. But don't worry any sort of attempt of actually making this series interesting is thrown directly into the garbage can for more garbage tier slapstick comedy. What the fuck is wrong with this series.

I do like the fact that the author really did the show don't tell really well tbh. I liked that part. Like the author show'd how the main heroine fell for the MMC. The answer was obvious the entire time.

She's Dumb AS FUCK

After that her personality made more sense. Why she acts like she does. Why she falls in love with a guy who constantly falls into her boobs and ass and has no sense of personal space. Like i'm tearing into her character but Honestly the main character is also just complete ass. This is like the tv series friends. 2 of the most incompatible people on the fucking planet end up together. What a shit show of series, What a shit show of character development.

Another thing i enjoyed was so many people stating that they loved the ecchi-ness of this series. Now imagine my surprise when i saw the abhorrent amount of 5-13 year old naked in the series. I'm glad the pedophiles find themselves comfortable in expressing themselves especially the author.

This is an ecchi series without any of the fun. This is a harem series without a proper ending. This is a romance series without any of the romantic interactions. Almost every single time it is a complete shit show. This is one of the most pathetic excuses of a series i have read. Their are 7 panels, 4 pages ,and half a chapter of decent moments. I know because i counted thats how fucking bad it was. This series was awful from chapter 1 and got worse. I guess i can include another masterpiece that belong in the fucking trashcan.

TLDR: Domekano was better. 2/10
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BunnyTaiga
65/100
Good first half, it goes downhill from there.
I want to start this by saying that Love Hina was my first "Harem". I saw the Anime adaptation on Tv, it aired at night and I remember waiting patiently for the next episode every day, I really loved it. That was nearly 20 years ago. Recently I got back into manga, and saw a Box Set of Love Hina with all the volumes in nice 2 in 1 editions. As you can guess, driven by nostalgia and the fact that the anime wasn't the complete story, I bought it. It took me about a month to go through it and honestly... I think the anime, or at least my memories of the anime, were better.

Fair warning, this review contain spoilers.

For about the first half I was enjoying it quite a lot. I think the comedy still holds up and the cast is really lovable. But right around the part where Keitaro finally approves the Todai entrance exam, the series takes a nose dive and, sadly, it never recovers from there. What happens after that and until the last Volume is, I'd say, 80 to 90% filler. Reused jokes, reused scenarios, reused situations, reused dramas. You have one volume completely dedicated to exposition about the promise Mutsumi, Naru and Keitaro made when kids and discovering who was the girl, which, to no one's surprise, was Naru. By the way, after that, Mutsumi as a character become 100% irrelevant to the story, only appearing, out of nowhere, here and there as a deus ex machina to save the cast from X situation.

When Keitaro is about to enter the Todai, on the entrance ceremony, everything bad that could happen, happens and in the most absurd way. Literally cars rain down the sky to crush him, the whole thing culminates with the top of a building falling into him, breaking his leg and thus forcing him to miss school for about 6 months. This is the chapter/volume on which things started to go downhill for me, as it is painfully obvious the Mangaka is just padding the series. Entering the Todai was Keitaros main goal and driving force for half the series, so having it robbed from him in the most bullshit and absurd way actually pissed me off. From there on, like I said, is a repeat of everything from the first half but in a worse way. It all culminates in the worst last 4 manga Volumes I've read so far. Now, don't get me wrong, in the last 4 volumes there are scenes and chapters that are good, however its those are really small compared to the bullshit that plagues them. Starting in Volume 11 Keitaros sisters appear, a character not even once was mentioned nor hinted until then, and guess what, she has a s sister complex, wants to marry Keitaro, and of course, they are not blood related. Now, I don't care about incest in anime/manga, I really like Oreimo (except the end) and KissxSiss (is a guilty pleasure), but the one in Love Hina pissed me off because it comes out of nowhere, serves literally 0 purpose and it is handled in a really garbage way. With Keitaro literally showing no signs of seeing Kanako as anything more than a sister, telling everyone he loves Naru, to suddenly having wet dreams about Kanako just because he saw her half naked in the bathroom. 2 Volumes are devoted to that garbage. In those same Volumes, the mangaka decided that making Naru the most indecisive piece of trash was also a good idea. At this point, we are 85ish% into the series. Keitaro has confessed to Naru easily like 5 times or more, have reassured her over and over that he loves her. So, what does Naru do? Escapes. Runs away, goes on a trip because she can't decide if she loves him or not. I need to add that, by this point, Keitaro has been waiting on Narus answer to his confession for about 3 to 4 months. Anyway, the only saving grace about Volume 11 and 12 is the last chapter on which Naru finally tells him she loves him and then they kiss. Okay, with 2 volumes left we can finally get ready for a nice happy ending, right? ... right? Nope. Volume 13 is one giant detour to Kaolla's home country on which is revealed she's a princess and wants to marry Keitaro, oh, but at the end is also revealed that the whole thing was a set up so that Seta and Haruka could marry. Worst thing about this Volume is how all the girls say over and over again how much they support Naru and Keitaro, only for them to try to force him to marry them because of some letter Keitaro's Grandma wrote. Plus there's a really awful scene on which Keitaro has to choose who to walk with to the altar in the Todai ruins (yeah, apparently the legend about walking with your lover to the Todai and living happily ever after referred these ruins and not the University) and Keitaro, for some bafflingly stupid reason, is about to choose Shinobu. I say stupid, because, again, we've know that he loves only Naru since halfway into the series. During this whole adventure he's been trying to go to the altar with Naru to fulfill their promise, so why the flying freaking hell is he about to choose Shinobu? Oh right, so that we can have pathetic attempt at a emotional moment where all the girls guide Keitaro's hand to Naru. Just, awful. With this done, and only one volume left we can finall- Nope. Volume 14 has a extremely forced and downright moronic drama about who was the girl Keitaro made the promise to go to the Todai. With Naru going full on depressed because "I¡m not the girl she made the promise with so he doesn't love me and he will be better of with that girl". It was already stablished that Naru was the girl back in the exposition Volume in Mutsumi's home town. Not only that, but it was already stablished before that that Keitaro no longer cares about who was the girl of the promise, his goal was to fulfill the promise he, as an adult, made to Naru about going together to the Todai. He literally tells that to Naru 2-3 times across the series, so again, why the flying freaking hell are we having this bullshit drama right now? and it ends exactly how everyone already knew, Naru was that girl. AFter that chapter, we have the epilogue. And, again, that's the only saving grace of Volume 14. Seeing all the girls 3 years later, all grown up, changed and fulfilling their dreams was great, same with watching Naru and Keitaro marrying.

So what else can I say. If the series was about 10 volumes long instead of 14, it would have been great, sadly, that's not the case. What started really good ended up as something mediocre in my opinion. Yes Naru's confession scene was good. Yes, the epilogue was amazing. But those are just some shiny, clean spots on a really dirty floor. The extremely forced and dumb drama, the massive amounts of repetitions, all of that almost killed the series for me. I am giving it a 6.5/10 only because of the first half and those handful of nice scenes/chapters after that. If it wasn't for the epilogue the I would be giving it a 5/10 or maybe even lower. This review or maybe rant was already too long and there's stuff I didn't touch upon, like how some characters serve no purpose for the overall story and are just there for the sake of being there. Like Sarah, Kitzune, Kanako and Mutsumi after the first half. So that's it for me.
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