Review of Love Hina: Vol. 4

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 4 of Love Hina contains four more episodes beginning with…

Ep 13. The First Kiss Tastes Like Lemon? Marshmallow? Grown Up.
With everyone evincing an interest in just what Keitaro and Naru are getting up to when they should be studying, Shinobu`s attention turns to that first kiss moment. Her own crush on Keitaro is embarrassing enough, but when it seems that her friends at school have already experienced their first kisses, the tension between staying young and growing up becomes almost unbearable. Fortunately Kaolla Su has invented a kissing robot.

Ep 14. Reunion? Naru`s Crush is a Tokyo U Professor: Turning Into Love?
After one too many parties, the Hinata apartments residents are broke, and bills need paying. As an emergency measure, they all have to get jobs to make ends meet. In one of those inevitable coincidences, they all end up working at Tokyo U. Keitaro gets a job as an archaeology professor`s assistant, although he is constantly harangued by his daughter Sara, who happens to be a Bruce Lee fan. Kitsune recognises Professor Seta as the tutor that Naru had a crush on years ago, and she decides, in the name of romance to stop the two from meeting again.

Ep 15. I Love You! Romantic Confession Inside A Cave: Tall Tale
Professor Seta is exploring some caves, leaving Keitaro to baby-sit Sara. The resulting mayhem at Hinata is only interrupted by Professor Seta`s reunion with Naru. Naru gets uncharacteristically tongue-tied and Keitaro gets depressed. When they join Seta`s search for the ancient Turtle Civilisation, Keitaro realises it may be time to finally confess all to Naru.

Ep 16. Monkey Performance at the Seaside Teahouse Hinata: A Kiss?
It`s summertime, and for a change of pace everyone goes to the seaside. It`s no holiday though, as the seaside teahouse needs renovating, and there also is the traditional theatrical performance to put on, retelling the legend of Son-Goku.

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. The original language is still the way to go in my opinion, as the dubbed version definitely loses something in the translation.

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 Kaolla Su running to 8 pages. There is a 7½-minute making of featurette that focuses on how the English cast accomplish the ADR for the series; it`s a nice addition to see how ADR works in the digital age. There is the trailer for Love Hina, and finally there are trailers for Chobits and Trigun.

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. Love Hina manages to find that elusive balance between teen-angst and comedy perfectly, without lapsing into schmaltz. The first episode on this disc is a prime example of that, showing Shinobu`s conflicting feelings about her imminent adolescence, with a healthy dose of tongue in cheek humour. The comedy in the subsequent episodes is relentless, and the final episode on this disc is sheer joy, told in a theatrical style and with an in-joke familiar to everyone who saw the Monkey serialisation in the 70s.

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, it`s fun and it just keeps getting better, and I find that I am unable to fault it in any way. I can`t wait for more.