Love Hina Spring Special

Publisher
Geneon / MVM
Country of origin
Japan
Format
OVA
Running time
1 x 45 min
Year
2001

Love Hina Spring Special

By otaku_kei
28th May 05

Love Hina followed the bumbling exploits of Keitaro Urashima as he tried to get into Tokyo University whilst managing an all-girl apartment block with of course the hilarious hi-jinks that ensued. The end of the series we had been left with the impression that everything was really working out for our hapless student and the possible love of his life Naru, but clearly the creators felt that there was more that could be explored for these characters. So dragging along the rest of the Hinata Apartment residents as well as some cast regulars from the series the creators went back and delivered a few TV movies & OAV series. The Spring Special is where these spin-off series start so its time to get back into the swing of things and see if life is still as rocky for poor Keitaro or whether he has finally managed to escape the violent wrath of these girls that he looks after...

Well no not really. Clearly working by the old maxim that 'if it aint broke dont fix it' the creators of Love Hina seem to have trapped these characters in a time warp. Nothing ever really changes for this lot, Keitaro is still struggling to get into Tokyo U, Naru and Keitaro have still not actually gotten together, and all the same plot devices from the series have been regurgitated for this special. The only real difference is that Keitaro hooks up with a girl who looks surprisingly like Shinobu to help her find a missing turtle civilisation that she promised her father she would find. Once again this show tries to lay out exactly how important making and keeping promises is. A laboured issue by this point in the show, anyone watching from the start will already of had 26 episodes of Keitaro whining about the promise he made to a girl when he was only 5 years old.

But whilst this show may not have broadened the scope of Love Hina it still makes for an entertaining 40 minutes of fun. Love Hina has never tried to be smart or clever, simply funny and heart-warming and this OAV still delivers on that. For everyone who has been enjoying this show so far I think you will appreciate this OAV as it still delivers some familiar fun, and some of the Hinata Apartment girls finally come to terms with their feelings for that 'special someone'. Personally having enjoyed the series so much this was a pleasant return to these zany characters, but the fact that nothing new was added to this set-up left me feeling slightly hollow at the end of this show. For fans I think no matter what is said here then you are gonna go check it out, for newcomers to Love Hina this is not the place to start, but for those who felt the series gave them all they really needed then I suggest waiting for this title to appear in a sale.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English Language 2.0; Japanese Language 2.0; English Subtitles; Spring Special Textless Opening; Tv Series Textless Opening & Ending; Episode 24 Textless Ending; Stills Gallery; MVM Trailers

Release information: OUT NOW

Notes: This release may be up to the quality of all of MVM's discs recently, but the extras are a real let down with the main extras being little than a selection of textless opening and closing credit scenes. For the Love Hina series this seems like such a waste as these OAV's to have such pointless extras. In fact this release is quite a let down as the run time of the show being so short makes this release quite an expensive investment for so little return. Perhaps MVM should have considered putting both the Spring and Xmas specials on the same disc...

-- otaku_kei 28th May 05