He's not as lucky as it seems.
"Don't touch me! What if I catch bad grades from you?!"
A recent classic in
The Unwanted Harem/romance subgenre,
Love Hina tells the story of klutzy loser Keitaro Urashima, a
ronin who has failed three times to qualify for Tokyo University. (In the Japanese educational system, a student's placement in school, from kindergarten through college, is determined by annual nation-wide standardized tests. Different institutions have different minimum acceptable scores, and Tokyo University is the hardest college to get into in all of Japan.) He is driven to make it into Tokyo U. because of a promise he made to a little girl fifteen years before — they would both go to Tokyo University, get married, and live happily forever after.
It would probably help if he could actually remember who the little girl was, but he has only the vaguest memory of what she looked like, and no memory whatsoever of her name.
His parents are disgusted with his persistent failure and refuse to support him through another year's study and testing. But his grandmother, the owner of Hinata House, a hot springs resort, has offered him a job as the manager there while she goes on a round-the-world trip. Keitaro leaps at the chance.
When Keitaro arrives at Hinata House, he discovers that his grandmother has left already without leaving any instructions, and worse, failed to warn him that the former resort is now a girls-only dormitory. The inhabitants are less than pleased with the incursion of a "perverted male" into their domain, but he eventually convinces them to let him stay, on sufference and with much vigilance on their part against any future misbehavior.
Through the course of the 25-episode series, two movies, and a three-episode miniseries, Keitaro not only wins over the girls of Hinata House, he finds self-confidence, a career, love and his promise girl. Just not all at the same time.
A comedy with a dramatic thread running through it,
Love Hina has a strong ensemble cast that adeptly brings together a wide variety of characters and character types into what can arguably be called a family. As one of the first anime to be produced entirely on computers, the art is crisp and clean and never suffers from the usual loss of quality that can affect traditionally-animated series during deadline crunches. Although Keitaro is subject to a large amount of cartoonishly slapstick violence at times, it is not just a love story but the story of his growth into an adult. A definite winner of a series.
Compare with
Maison Ikkoku. Contrast with
Mahou Sensei Negima (by the same author)
This show provides examples of:
- Accidental Pervert (countless times)
- Adaptation Decay (The rushed plotting of the two movies and the OVAs are considered examples of this)
- Adaptation Expansion : (Siblings and parents only mentioned in the manga show up in the anime; Shinobu's Dad, Suu's brother and sister, and Naru's little sister)
- Adventurer Archaeologist (Seta, and later Keitaro)
- Almost Kiss
- Amusing Injuries (Everyone in the anime series and Manga get at least one of these except for Haruka and Tsuruko)
- Anime Theme Song
- A Twinkle In The Sky (Keitaro)
- Author Avatar
- Beach Episode
- Beautiful All Along (subverted: Naru deliberately "geeks up" her looks to keep from being bothered by guys)
- Bedmate Reveal (Keitaro and Mutsumi)
- Big Ol Eyebrows (A minor case, but Mutsumi's eyebrows are much more prominent than anyone else's. Strangely, this makes her cuter.)
- A case of Author Appeal, too, as Akamatsu admitted he likes designing cute girls with these.
- Kitsune's eyebrows are noticeable thicker than the rest of the main cast as well. Also adds to her cuteness.
- Big Secret
- Blind Without Em (Keitaro and sometimes Naru)
- Book Ends
- Bratty Half Pint (Sarah McDougall)
- Broke Episode
- Brother Sister Incest (stepsister, actually)
- Butt Monkey (if you have to ask...)
- Calling Your Attacks
- Canon Fodder (Whenever a throwaway line of dialogue is need, one of the characters, usually Keitaro, says some variation of "...It had three holes, and I really wanted one." The mysterious object with three holes is never revealed, and is probably an inside joke among the creators.)
- Celebrity Is Overrated
- Censor Steam - Opaque enough for the audience, but apparently not enough to spare Keitaro's hide.
- On a related note, we have, at one point, Censor Suu. This sort involves hanging one strategically-folded Kaolla Su around Motoko's neck, and letting her run around the screen for a few panels before and after to justify her presence.
- Cherry Blossoms
- Childhood Marriage Promise
- Christmas Cake (Subverted Haruka and Seta get married late in the manga)
- Clothing Damage
- Comedic Sociopathy
- Cool Car - Seta's van. Never runs out of gas (unless the plot requires), never breaks down, and will always hold as many people as it needs to. May overlap with The Alleged Car.
- Crash Into Hello
- Cry Cute (Aunt Haruka, Narusegawa Naru and Aoyama Motoko)
- Competence Zone
- The Ditz (Mutsumi, lightly subverted)
- Dojikko (Mutsumi)
- Dropped Glasses
- Dynamic Entry (Su LOVES to do this.)
- Ecchi
- Elegant Gothic Lolita (Kanako)
- Ending Theme
- The Faceless (Kitsune, "hidden eyes" version)
- Fan Preferred Couple (Mutsumi and Keitaro, Motoko and Keitaro, Shinobu and Keitaro...)
- Festival Episode
- First Girl Wins Played with; Mutsumi is initially presented as the "first girl" but ultimately, it's Naru.
- First Kiss
- Foot Focus (Kaolla Su is usually barefoot)
- The Four Gods
- Furo Scene ("This is a girls-only bath!")
- Gadgeteer Genius (Suu)
- Genki Girl (Suu)
- Genius Ditz (Mutsumi)
- Goldfish Scooping Game
- Goldilocks And The Mines Of Moria
- Greek Chorus (The Three Old Men Around Town, who may be ghosts)
- Hair Antennae
- Hexagonal Speech Balloon
- Hilarity Ensues - The wholes series can be summed up as:A man becomes the Land Lord of an all girls dorm, Hilarity Ensues.
- Hime Cut - Motoko and Tsuruko.
- Hot Shoujo Dad - Noriyasu Seta all the way.
- Hot Springs Episode (Pretty much the entire series)
- Idol Singer - Three of them!
- Implausible Fencing Powers
- Important Haircut (Motoko in Volume 13 of the manga)
- Indirect Kiss
- Is That Cute Kid Yours
- I Have This Friend
- I Want My Beloved To Be Happy (SO. MANY. TIMES.)
- Kafka Komedy - Keitaro's horrible luck, especially with the Accidental Pervert moments
- Joshikousei (Suu, and later Shinobu)
- Kewpie Doll Surprise
- Ki Attacks
- Kid Samurai (Early Motoko)
- Lady Of War (Tsuruko)
- Laser Guided Karma: Happens to Motoko who, through most of the first part of the series, constantly belittled Keitaro's attempts to get into Tokyo U. Come the second part, she finding out first hand that its not as easy as it looks. Naru also finds herself on the receiving end of this in the second part when having to deal with Keitaro's half sister and subjected to the torture she put Keitaro through in the first part.
- Latex Perfection
- Love Letter Lunacy (lightly subverted)
- Love You And Everybody
- Meta Guy (Kanako)
- Magical Girl (sort of — Kaolla Suu and her sister Amalla)
- Magic Realism
- Master Of Disguise (Kanako, to the point where she can actually relocate her skeleton to change her body shape.)
- Megaton Punch (Naru Punch)
- Megumi Hayashibara (Haruka, theme song)
- Mood Whiplash
- Moment Killer(Someone count the times this happens)
- My Fist Forgives You (Explicitly done by Naru over the diary incident, but also kind of by implication several other times.)
- My Kung Fu Is Stronger Than Yours
- Naked First Impression
- Nerd Glasses
- Nigh Invulnerable: The only explanation for Keitaro's survival past the first chapter, considering how much the girls attack him. The characters are aware of how odd this is, however: At one point, they're chasing an airplane as its on the runway (long story) and they tell Keitaro "Jump! Don't worry, you're immortal!" Then another time he is hit by a car and gets up with nothing worse than a minor head wound, and all the strangers run away screaming "Monster!"
- Immortal Life Is Cheap as consequence
- Lampshaded in the manga when part of the Budokan falls on Keitaro. He breaks a leg.
- No Fourth Wall (Kentaro Sakata's ironic comments to the audience about the anime, its plot, and his role therein)
- Not What It Looks Like
- Oba-san
- Ocular Gushers: most often Keitaro.
- Odango (Mei Narusegawa)
- Official Couple
- Parental Abandonment
- Petal Power
- Phenotype Stereotype (Sarah)
- Pimped Out Dress (Naru's dress when she and Keitaro marry in the Manga. His aunt also wears a fancy wedding dress in the penultimate volume.)
- Poor Communication Kills (A lot of the incidents in the series could have been avoided had the characters actually bothered to speak up, but then it would not have been as funny)
- Prince And Pauper:(Subverted)
- Puppy Dog Eyes: Shinobu.
- Reset Button (how many times has the inn been destroyed?)
- Subverted in the anime where they go broke due to the amount of times they had to get the inn fixed.
- Robot Girl (Moe-chan)
- Ronin (Keitaro and others, modern meaning)
- Samurai (Later Motoko, plus her sister Tsuruko)
- Schoolgirl Lesbians ( Otohime Mutsumi eventually reveals, if only in the manga, she's as much in love with Narusegawa Naru as she is with Keitaro.)
- Selective Obliviousness
- She Is Not My Girlfriend (the "He Is not My Boyfriend" variant, a Naru speciality)
- Shout Out: As Keitaro's having a Heroic BSOD:
Naru: Hey, who told you to go all
Shinji on me?
- Some of Mutsumi's costumes are based on Aeris of FFVII fame.
- There are also a lot of Star Wars references, Seta's van has a license plate reading "R 2 D 2", and Keitaro gets stabbed by a lightsaber at one point.
- Also, Final Fantasy shows up every once in a while. Such as: a Cactuar on a shelf (Next to a starship) while looking for a job; in Volume 3, page 37, frame 6, you can see Squall and Rinoa sweat-drop at Naru and Keitaro crashing into a shelf of plushies; and in Volume 13, Keitaro mentions copying Motoko's Boulder Cutting Blade as being like "Kimahri's Lancet ability."
- Shrinking Violet: Maehara Shinobu
- Springtime For Hitler
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: "I...I don't want to explore every centimeter of my sister's glistening naked body!" Sure you don't...
- Team Shot
- Thanks For The Mammary - Keitaro and his breast-attracting hands.
- The Ace (Seta)
- Theme Tune Cameo
- The Minnesota Fats (Seta to Motoko, also Tsuruko to Motoko)
- The Vonda Shepard Treatment - The Tanabata episode.
- There Are No Coincidences - Fate, for lack of a better name, is somewhat heavy-handed in the series -a sort of mix of the Xanatos Roulette and The Chessmaster with a dash of Cloud Cuckoo Lander thrown in for laughs. Like the Ancient Conspiracy without the "ancient" and minus the sinister connotations of a conspiracy.
- This And That
- Took A Level In Badass - Keitaro
- Tsundere - Naru, Motoko
- The Unwanted Harem
- We Can Rule Together: Suu, in an unusually literal sense.
- Weddings In Japan
- Wendee Lee (in english dub): Kaolla Su, Amalla Su, and Tama the Turtle
- Won't Take Yes For An Answer(nobody believes it when Keitaro actually succeeds at anything)
- Why Did It Have To Be Snakes (Motoko and turtles)
- Why Didn't You Just Say So (and probably One Side Of The Story and You Know What You Did as well)
- You Must Be Cold: Variant in the manga, with two females.
