Love Hina

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!!!!

I am a very huge anime/manga fan. since i was a little child i loved watching cartoons. One day I realised Manga existed, my brother use to bring in lots of Manga, and i watched all of them, 18 rated or not. But never have i seen a cartoon series that i have been into so much, love hina is my favourite of all time, and it will stay that way. At my current age, action and destruction isnt all that for me, i need something more. and live hina has it, action, suspence, comedy, love etc...

Anybody who reads this i advise u go out and get urself the collection, u wont regret it, i didnt.

I've seen a lot of anime at various university clubs and rented a lot from local video stores and I rank Love Hina among the best shows. The artwork is good and the stories are varied and clever. It can be argued that the situation of a geeky guy who somehow ends up living with a household of girls has been used before but what matters is whether you care about the characters. With a show like Vandread that is supposed to be good I didn't feel much for people in it. With a show like Cowboy Bebop it wasn't long before I grew to enjoy the oddball characters living in that world. That is also true for Love Hina. We are introduced to the supporting characters and learn their backgrounds gradually. The way they interact with the lead actor Keitaro reveals his personality. It didn't take too many episodes before I realized how good the show was. For example the episode about the forgotten automaton Mo-e was a big surprise. It told a touching story on the importance of keeping promises which is one of the main themes of the series.

I've just seen the TV series and Christmas special released in English and the actors do a very good job on the voices. Matoko sounds serious, Shinobu sounds shy and Kaolla sounds playful just like the Japanese version. This show is well worth watching because the plot advances unlike shows like Ranma where it will take forever for the two leads to confess their love. Warning: Keitaro always blunders into fan-service situations where girls are undressed but Naru is always there to punish him for his transgressions.

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.