Love Hina
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| ==Storyline== | ==Storyline== | ||
| - | The story is a shōnen comedy that takes place in the Kanagawa Prefecture, and centers on Keitaro Urashima, in his attempts to fulfill a childhood promise that he made with a girl to enter Tokyo University together. However, he has forgotten the name of the girl and hopes to be accepted into Tokyo university in order to find her. Although he has already failed the entrance exam twice, He becomes manager of the family owned Hinata House (日向荘, Hinata Sō?, also known as Hinata Apartments) which is now an all girls dorm, and must balance his new responsibilities with his attempts to pass the university entrance exam and find the girl he made the promise with. | ||
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| - | Being an all girls dorm, there is initially some strong objection to Keitaro becoming the manager and he is disliked initially by most of the residents, however he eventually wins their respect and eventual affection. However Keitaro is often involved in misunderstandings and is often physically and mentally punished for comedic effect. 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 their own mistakes and misunderstandings, the other residents and daily events. | ||
| ==Characters== | ==Characters== | ||
Revision as of 02:39, 13 January 2009
Labeled as a harem anime, Love Hina follows the trials and tribulations of an aspiring college student, Keitaro. The young man's dream to gain entrance to Tokyo University is complicated by his lack of housing. His grandmother offers to let him stay in her inn-turned-girl's-dormitory if he fulfills the duties of manager. Love Hina (ラブ ひな, Rabu Hina?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from October 21, 1998 through October 31, 2001 and was published in 14 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha. The series details the daily life of Keitaro Urashima as he attempts to find the girl he made a childhood promise to and enter Tokyo University. The manga is licensed for an English language release in North America and the United Kingdom by Tokyopop and in Singapore by Chuang Yi.
A twenty-four episode anime adaptation of the anime series, produced by Xebec, aired in Japan from April 19, 2000 on September 27, 2000. It was followed by a bonus dvd episode, two television specials, and a three episode original Video Animation (OVA) entitled Love Hina Again. The anime series, special, and OVA was licensed for release in North America by Bandai Entertainment. In July 2007, the license was acquired by Funimation Entertainment, and will be re-releasing the series and movies using Bandai's original English language dubbing and subtitles.
Two novelizations of Love Hina, written by two anime series screenwriters, were also released in Japan. Both novels have been released in North America by Tokyopop.
Contents |
Storyline
Characters
Keitaro Urashima
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 dormitory. 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 both the promise he made with Naru during their studies together and his childhood promise, and travels with Seta on his archeology trips.
Naru Narusegawa
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 was actually the person Keitaro promised to go with to University of Tokyo.
Mitsune Konno
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 Keitarō, even though she clearly cares for him. She is a school friend of Naru and tries her best (or worst) to make Keitarō 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.
Motoko Aoyama
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 Keitarō 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 Keitarō 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 Keitarō 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.
Shinobu Maehara
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 Keitarō, rather she ends up getting emotional and crying thus making Keitarō 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).
Kaolla Su
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 Keitarō), 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 South Asian. 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).
Mutsumi Otohime
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 Keitarō 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.
Kanako Urashima
Kanako Urashima, 17, is Keitarō'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.
Anime
Love-Hina was made into a twenty-four episode anime series. The series was first aired in Japan, on April 19,2000 to September 27,2000. After great success, they followed the series by a bonus episode, two television specials and a three episode OVA, called Love Hina Again. In July,2007 Funimation Entertainment (they have dubbed animes such as Ouran High School Host Club and Full Metal Alchemist) acquired the license to dub it in English.
