Review of Love Hina: Vol. 3

Introduction

Love Hina is one of those anime that eschews uber-action and hyper violence for something a little more sedate, relationships. Of course these are the kind of relationships that only happen in anime like Fruits Basket or Tenchi Muyo. A shy clumsy unworldly teen somehow ends up living with several beautiful girls, all of whom in some way fall in love with him. Realism isn`t exactly a priority in these stories.

In Love Hina, Keitaro Urashima is the hapless young boy, who fifteen years earlier made a pact with a girl to both attend Tokyo University. He soon lost touch with the girl, unable even to recall her name, but he remained determined to attend University just as he had promised. Unfortunately he`s not that academically gifted, and after twice failing the entrance exams, his family urged him to get a job to support himself. Which is how he ends up manager of an all girl dormitory, living with five girls with wildly differing personalities. He`s still determined to get to University though and find the girl he knew all those years ago.

Volume 3 of Love Hina contains four more episodes beginning with…

Ep 9. The Case of the Missing Hinata Apartment Money: A Mystery
The rent money goes missing in the Hinata apartments from under Keitaro`s nose. Everyone`s a suspect and it`s fortunate that Kitsune has been watching loads of detective movies. Meanwhile, Naru has lost something precious and she doesn`t want to share the loss, making her a prime suspect.

Ep 10. Who is the Beautiful Woman Wandering in the Moonlight? Transformation
There is a mysterious woman terrorising the denizens of Hinata, an enigmatic figure playing mystical Eastern music and friends with an albino alligator. Meanwhile Kaolla Su is behaving oddly when the moon is red, and is dreaming of her elder brother.

Ep 11. The Idol Shooting for Tokyo U is a Prep School Student: Sing
After winning a talent contest, Naru becomes a pop star, and Keitaro`s rich rival Kentaro is her manager. Keitaro begins to feel left out when it appears that Naru won`t be going to Tokyo U with him.

Ep 12. Changing After The Wedding? Swordmaster Motoko`s Sunday Best: Feminine
Motoko`s fear of turtles causes problems when her regular wardrobe is left ruined by Tama, the hot springs turtle. She is horrified to have to wear feminine clothing, and soon her Samurai prowess begins to wane. Then the turtle starts to steal belongings from the Hinata apartments.

Video

The picture for Love Hina is presented in a 4:3 ratio, reflecting the original television broadcasts. The image is clear and sharp throughout, and the animation is crisp and well accomplished. Like most modern anime while the initial sketches are done by hand, the colouring and animation is done on computer resulting in a pristine animation. Love Hina is certainly dynamic in style and is visually very effective.

Audio

You can listen to Love Hina in dubbed English DD 2.0 or the original Japanese track, again in DD 2.0. As always, I opted for the original language and found the dialogue to be clear and the on screen action adequately represented. There are two subtitle tracks on this disc; the default translates the various signs and captions that appear in the episodes, while the dialogue subtitles are translated rather than reflecting the dub. I must mention the title music, which is somewhat akin to an exploding arcade game, yet foot-tappingly addictive in its cacophony. I had a listen to the dub, and found it to be quite atrocious, one of the worst I have yet heard. It`s noteworthy that in the English version of Episode 11, Naru`s songs are kept in the original Japanese and subtitled, rather than being dubbed.

Features

Extras are a little light on this single layer disc, though they are appreciated nonetheless. MVM certainly impress when it comes to authoring anime titles, and Love Hina is no exception, looking delightful. There`s the usual jacket picture that displays when the disc isn`t spinning and the animated menus display over that odd theme tune. You`ll find a Photo Gallery for Motoko Aoyama running to 8 pages. There is a 5-minute interview with series director, Yoshiaki Iwasaki, the trailer for Love Hina, and finally there are trailers for Yu-Yu Hakusho and Serial Experiments Lain.

Conclusion

I`m not one to often use words like `zany` but it is certainly applicable to Love Hina. The show has a certain charm to it that is remarkably endearing. I found myself chuckling through all the episodes, and was on occasion startled into some hearty guffaws, despite most of the in-jokes going straight over my head. If anything I enjoyed Volume 3 even more, with some great entertainment and some enjoyable stories. There is another Sailor Moon homage in episode 10, which if anything is even more hilarious than in the previous volume. The characters are wonderfully written, and it is the interplay between them that makes this show so wonderful. The stories are a little madcap to say the least, but there is an underlying intelligence to them that is universally appealing.

If you think that anime is just big fights and power-ups, with an occasional helping of blood and gore, then Love Hina will go a long way to correcting that misapprehension. Love Hina is charming and it`s fun, and I find that I am unable to fault it in any way. I want more.