Love Hina

The story begins with a young boy named Keitaro who once made a promise to a young girl: that they would one day get into Tokyo University together, and live happily ever after. Eventually the little girl moved away, and even the girl's name escaped Keitaro's memory. Years later Keitaro fails in his second attempt to pass the Tokyo University entrance exams. All his life, he has never had a girlfriend. He can't get into Tokyo University. And the last thing he wants to do is to return home to his family in disgrace. So in order to sort things out in his life Keitaro decides to visit his grandmother's Inn which is (sort of) nearby. It's his hope that he can stay with his grandmother and try again next year to get into Tokyo U.

That's when Keitaro's life is thrown into total chaos.

It turns out that his grandmother's Inn was converted into a girls dormitory some time ago. Eventually Keitaro was not only allowed to stay at Hinata Inn, but became the manager! Keitaro also found that living with a bunch of girls is a lot harder than he expected. But one girl he found he had something in common with, and she too was trying to get into Tokyo University. Naru however wasn't so particular on Keitaro at first, but as the two studied together, her feelings eventually changed... But of course things are never so simple...

Will things work out for Keitaro and Naru?

Will Keitaro get into Tokyo University?

What about that girl he made the promise to?

What will Keitaro do if he actually gets into the university?

Side note: Japanese University entrance

For those who are unfamiliar with the higher education system in Japan, it works a bit different than in the west. In Japan you have to pass an entrance exam in order to attend a university. Not a generic scored test like the ACT or SAT, but a specific exam for each respective university. Depending upon the university, the exams range in difficulty - but many of the more prestigious universities have very tough exams. Tokyo University is one of these. In some ways high school is a sideshow to preparing for college in Japan. Many students attend additional schooling after regular school hours in order to "get ahead". Most students take a few different exams for different universities they wish to attend. In Love Hina Keitaro only takes the exam for Tokyo University, which is stupid since it's one of the hardest university exams, and his score was always pathetic to begin with...

Students who fail their entry exams sometimes wait, and try again next year. The term often used for these students is rounin. The term rounin is actually used regarding a wandering samurai. In feudal Japan as a samurai you were expected to have allegiance to somebody, but due to some circumstances a samurai sometimes ended up without anyone to serve. These samurai would wander the country side looking for a new master, or just general work. In other words, they didn't belong anywhere. One inferred joke is that if Motoko, the girl who lives by the code of the samurai; fails the exam once she graduates high school, she'd be a rounin in two ways.

Author & Info

  Name:          Ken Akamatsu
  Age:           34
  Blood Type:    B
  Sign:          Aquarius
  Height:        168 (cm)
  Measurements:  (classified)
  Occupation:    artist

Love Hina is authored by Ken Akamatsu. His first moderate success in manga was A.I. Love You, but Love Hina has proven to be his biggest success (thus far).. Mr. Akamatsu considers himself to be a shounen artist; although the story of Love Hina has a much more broad appeal. One story also has it that he attempted to get into Tokyo university himself at one time, but failed. His favorite character in the series is Motoko.

Love Hina is published as a serial in Shonen Magazine Weekly. Quite surprising is the fact that Love Hina is a very big success, but is in fact NOT one of the flagship titles of the magazine. Yes, that's right - it's included in the lesser knowns "other stuff" section. The serials are compiled into collections (tankoubon) which span a total of 14 volumes. The publisher, Kodansha; has also released bilingual translations (English/Japanese) of Love Hina, which are of extremely good quality. Tokyo Pop has acquired the rights to print Love Hina as an English comic series. Depending upon your taste for Japanese culture, the Tokyo Pop versions lack a little bit of the charm in the bilingual version, but are still quite good.

Love Hina has thus far been translated to a 24 episode anime series that aired on TV in 2000. There are also a few TV specials, and a OVA series called Love Hina Again

Thoughts & Other Junk

Love Hina is probably my favorite manga series I've read. So it's strange that I'm so indifferent about the anime. Well, maybe not. The problem is that the manga just didn't go well into anime form. But as I write this page I can actually see part of the problem. I mean the harem formula is really simple. The gimmicks seem really simple. The story is simple (in theory). The thing is, that the manga gets such a perfect balance of everything and packages it in a way that is just extremely fun to read. Unfortunately, it's hard to even describe that certain quality that really makes this series good when it doesn't seem to differentiate itself much.

But proof is in the pudding I guess. Out of all the similar series I could have made a web page on, I chose Love Hina because it's one of my favorites. I highly recommend picking up a volume of the manga and checking it out for yourself. Hopefully Tokyo Pop won't sue me into oblivion or anything, but here are some simple manga examples. These are fan translations by the way. I'm sort of... hesitant to mash and bend up my own cherished manga and these were already scanned. Quality is a bit lacking and translation is a bit armature, but you get the idea.

Read right to left.