Love Hina
Director
Yoshiaki Iwazaki
Production
TV Tokyo, XEBEC, Yomiuri Advertising
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
24 episodes
Year
2000
Love Hina volume 1: Moving In
By otaku_kei
27th Oct 04  A geeky, clutzy no-hoper fool that for some unfathomable reason every hot bit of skirt in town has a crush on. Does this sound familiar? Well entering that hallowed hall of anime fame is Keitaro Urashima a consistently failing student and newly appointed manager at an all girls dormitory. We follow Keitaro as he has to take on all his new responsibilities, as well as attempt to get into Tokyo University to make good on a promise he made to girl 15 years previously. Now what would a series like this be without the bevy of beaties for Keitaro to lust after? The all-girl Hinata Apartments that Keitaro starts to manage in this volume and just about every girl in their ends up having some feelings for our inept hero! There's Naru: the beatiful, excessively violent object of most of Keitaro's desires; Motoko: a samurai warrior who has decided to be the guardian of the dormitory against Keitaro's advances; Mitsune: the buxom laid-back, gambling addicted floozy of the apartments; Su: a crazy ball of energy who invents a variety of weapons, clearly a child with Attention Deficit Disorder; and lastly Shinobu: the shy, quiet girl of the apartments that has a rather obvious crush on Keitaro from almost the first moment they meet. Each of these girls provides their fair share of fanservice, so if thats your bag then i'm sure you're gonna end up with your own favorite hot springs bath babe! So what about the quality of the disc? MVM have provided a solid offering with this show, the animation is bright and colourful, and the audio tracks are fine. The sub (for those of you who must) is fine but i think the dub in many ways adds to the comedy of this series - Mitsune's Texan drawl being a particular attraction! The opening and closing songs also deserve deserve a special mention here - the closing credits are played over by a slow, soulful song that isnt really in keeping with the tone of the series. But the opening track on the other hand is one of the catchiest j-pop tracks on any UK release at the moment? All up-beat tempos and catchy rhymes - this song gets stuck in your head for days, I think that I'm gonna have to track down the composer and kill him for cursing me with this irresistably peppy tune! The extras on the disc are OK, Keitaro's sketchbook that gives a brief synopsis of what happens in these 4 episodes, a character gallery, and trailers for MVM's future releases. It's a pretty light amount of extras, no worse than what ADV offers but certainly better than any of Manga Entertainment releases. So what do I like about this series? Well pretty much everything at this point. Its funny, heart-warming, the production is quality, whats not to like? But whilst I'm still cracking smiles at the screwball slapstick comedy, I'm not sure whether this series has the steam to stretch into 24 episodes without suffering from malaise. Here's hoping I'm wrong! 8/10
R2 DVD Notes
Features: English 5.1; Japanese 2.0; Character Photo Gallery; Keitaro's Sketchbook; MVM Trailers
Release information: Already available
Notes: No transfer problems that i could find. The sub doesnt have any lag time when viewing. All in all perfect.
-- otaku_kei 27th Oct 04
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