Plot

Love Hina focuses on the life and habits of Keitaro Urashima, a nice guy with hopes of entering the ever-prestigious Tokyo University . Unfortunately, his grades can’t sail him into its gates, and on top of it, his parents kick him out. Luckily, Keitaro’s grandmother gives him a place to live with a job—at a girls’ dormitory in the Kanagawa Prefecture as the new landlord. Although starving-student Keitaro finds that being a landlord is hard, getting along with the many female residents at Hinata House is even harder.

Story in Volume 7

As Keitaro plays landlord, him, Naru, and cutie Mutsumi Otohime study for the entrance exams to Tokyo University . Between the study sessions, Keitaro finds himself torn between the hot-headed Naru and the sweet-natured Mutsumi. While the holiday seasons—New Year’s, Valentine’s Day—come and go, so does Keitaro’s chances to tell Mutsumi the truth; when they were five, Keitaro promised Mutsumi that he would go to Tokyo University for them to live “happily ever after.” Although the promise was secured over the mind of a five-year-old, Keitaro still feels his obligation to Mutsumi despite his feelings for Naru. As the story swirls around random bouts of holiday moments and first-base moments, Keitaro, Mutsumi, and Naru finally realize the truth.

Overall Weakness

Although Love Hina is an affectionately sweet series with humorous turns at every corner, the sub-plots are somewhat cliché and predictable. For example, how did I know that Naru Narusegawa, Keitaro’s love interest, would end up giving Keitaro homemade chocolate when she really planned not to? Numerous plans end up going haywire with the Hinata House residents. Along with that, there is plenty of soft-core nudity, innuendos, and straight-forward perversion that couples with the humor.

The characters in the storylines are also very predictable. All of the characters seem to lack a three-dimensional vibe to their personalities. Their backgrounds may be defined and their behavior goes along the lines of “the usual suspect,” but lo and behold, they are just characters. Because the characters lack substance, it is hard to sympathize to them with genuine emotion. Who knows? Maybe the comedic genre of the manga doesn’t call for three-dimensional characters.

Overall Strength

Despite the predictable predicaments, Love Hina has a way of turning the situations into laugh-out-loud moments (on my part, anyways). With Naru continuously hammering Keitaro into the sky Team-Rocket-style.

Characters

Keitaro Urashima: The “landlord” of the Hinata House, Keitaro is a third-year ronin studying to get into Tokyo University . Because of his living situation, he is pegged as a pervert, trying to use any excuse to see the girls in their nakedness. What’s a virgin 20-year-old supposed to do? Besides dealing with the girls’ crazy moments and Naru’s pummeling, Keitaro is a nice, sweet guy with a relatively large clumsy touch.

Naru Narusegawa: This girl that isn’t next door, but above Keitaro’s room, is rational—unfortunately, not upon the pummeling of Keitaro. Naru, a ronin hoping to get into Tokyo University , is short-tempered and a little pessimistic, but underneath her cool demeanor, Naru is a sweet girl. Above all, she’s probably one of the most normal residents in Hinata House.

Mutsumi Otohime: Another ronin with dreams of entering Tokyo University , Mutsumi is Naru’s opposite. She is meek and ever-smiling. She doesn’t raise her voice or lay a harmful hand on Keitaro. Although her sleep-walking and her clumsiness makes her blond compared to her dark-colored hair, Mutsumi is generally caring and finds optimism even in the most bleak moments.

Minor Characters

Shinobu Maehara: The 13-year-old cook of the house with a quiet, shy attitude.

Sue Kaolla: The weird 14-year-old foreigner with a strange naughty mind and an insane intellect for building machines to match.

Motoko Aoyama: The civil 16-year-old kendo priestess with a noble attitude that goes haywire whenever she catches Keitaro spying on her.

Kitsune Konno- The 20-year-old girl who is always willing to coax anyone into a romantic moment or a party at whim.

Personal Opinion