| Love Hina is considered by some to be the harem anime that started them all. I'm not sure if that's true for various reasons. One, the Tenchi series may have come out first, and two, when compared to crap like IS: Infinite Stratos and the Rosario Vampire anime, it doesn't strictly speaking seem like a harem anime. When I think harem anime, I think three or more girls pining for the cock of one emotionally retarded dickhead. But when I think Love Hina, I think two emotionally retarded morons caught up in an almost believable drama and the only hint of a harem being one shy naïve dipshit who never does anything and a drunken kleptomaniac who probably lost all interest in the main character before the series was halfway over. Not much of a harem in the anime sense, though considering the main characters situation it would be wrong of me to say there isn't a form of a harem to be had.
But before we begin, a new necessity has come up. Sickness and depravity are part and parcel for these animes, and someone needs to create a scale of just how fucked up these items are, so lady and gentleman I give you the Pyramid Head Perversion Scale which gives a score of 1-5 for how fucked up an item is. At 1 we have Lucky Star and Cardcaptor Sakura, not totally fucked up but we can get some twisted humor out of it when things are taken out of context. At 2 we have Rosario Vampire and Seitokai Yakuindomo where things are really bizarre but played for shits and giggles. At 3 we have things like MM! (I'll review that in three weeks probably) which is depraved but has a level of restraint and doesn't offend most. At 4 we have Kodomo no Jikan which is just relentlessly fucked up and at a point where it's very unpleasant to a sizable chunk of the audience but enjoyable to people who think empathy is a type of noodle dish, and at 5 we have RapeLay where even I go "WHAT THE FUCK, GUYS?!"
Why bring this up now? Well because while most of it is played for shits and giggles I'm going to have to rate Love Hina at 3 on the fucked up scale. The main character constantly being exploited and abused is done for cartoonish effect but there is one segment of the show where I get the serious impression that the youngest character is caught up in an incestuous love triangle. I don't know if that was the intention but here's a lesson Love Hina needs that the casting people at Power Rangers could have used before casting an Asian woman as the yellow ranger: CHECK WITH A GODDAMN EDITOR!
Anyway Love Hina is the original harem anime in the sense that it's an old fashioned harem. Not a love polygon, but someone being surrounded by women. There are some hints that it might have a love polygon focus but it never really amounts to anything beyond a couple of blushes and childish obsessions over the first kiss. And briefly on that subject quit whining Shinobu, I lost my first kiss to a cat trying to eat my lower lip so you have no right to complain that some girl of unknown national origin spoiled your junior high dream of kissing someone seven years older than you!
For the most part though, it's comedy but does pull some things with a straight face to give you juxtaposition to keep the comedy from getting boring, it's kind of like the pale ale to Kodomo no Jikan's imperial stout. Not that there's anything wrong with that, even I want lightness of tone every now and then, and while I wouldn't say it balances things perfectly for the most part Love Hina doesn't get to being too light of tone while being too serious, so no bearded psycho who thinks you serve empathy with soy sauce beating your head in for being boring and no guys with dyed hair and a Glasgow Smile killing you by jamming a pencil into your skull while asking "Why so serious?"
Getting to the sort of plot, a worthless sack of shit named Keitaro is applying for Tokyo University as part of a promise to a childhood friend that he would meet her at Tokyo U, only the problem is that Tokyo U is essentially Japan's answer to the Ivy League, and the main character keeps failing the exam and having trouble keeping his promise to a girl he made it to so long ago he can't even remember what her name is. Yeah, that's healthy, obsess over someone you met 15 years ago before you even knew your balls could drop that you can't even remember anyway. At age 20 after failing multiple times Keitaro is invited to live at the high end Hinata dorms, serving as a supervisor while his grandmother Hina goes off to do Jah knows what. The problem? Well... the Hinata dorms are very selective about their clientele. No, I don't mean rejects people of suspicious background since one character would disagree with me and think empathy goes better with tsuyu and shredded carrots while preaching about an honor code she isn't smart enough to hold up properly, they just tend to reject alumni who have Y-chromosomes.
Yeah, the Hinata dorms the character is staying at is for women only. That's where the whole harem aspect comes into play, the dorms needed a new supervisor desperately because they were at risk of closing, so desperately they let a spastic moron with a dick watch over the dorms. And hilarity ensues!
Love Hina doesn't have much of a plot beyond that, it's more focused on characters. Keitaro is completely worthless but has a good heart (Allegedly) and serves as the generic male protagonist I enjoy seeing get hurt, and Naru serves as the person who hurts him. I actually quite like Naru, it's implied she's intelligent but just unlucky and while the only real romantic relationship does come up between Naru and Keitaro as they both study together with sights set on Tokyo U, she frequently assaults Keitaro whenever an awkward situation pops up. And there is an awkward situation almost every five minutes. Naru's character is also the more developed, and she too is going to Tokyo U for very unhealthy reasons, but you'll have to watch to find out what they are since I won't expand on them here, and because I only got to episode 13 when it's in episode 14 that they expand on it.
The other major recurring characters include Kitsune, an alcoholic with a gambling addiction who serves as sort of a sexy Roman Bellic, frequently letting her vices interfere with the life of the main character. Also she rarely opens her eyes for some reason. Maybe that's why she sucks at gambling, she doesn't actually read the tickets and the odds. Next comes Motoko, the character who is stupid for thinking slivered almonds can't go with empathy. She's part of an old samurai family and has access to a supernatural sword style, and while she mostly acts as comedic foil she does have some character growth revolving around her lightening up some, and she also has a crippling fear of turtles which creates some weirdly hilarious moments when her voice actress tries to do a terrified squeal but her voice keeps cracking. So she's basically a hybrid of Sakaki and Twilight Suzuka. After Motoko comes Shinobu, and while I typically like shy characters she gets on my nerves though in one rather bizarre video game themed episode becomes the first character to have an ass shot. She's also 14. Keeping it classy as always, eh Japan? Oh I shouldn't complain about that, it's not as bad as that scene in Digimon 02 where a 12 year old is almost raped by monsters.
Moving on while you let that image fester in your head, we've finally got Kaolla Su, the girl with unknown national origins caught up in the incestuous love triangle I told you about. It's hard to pin her down, she's for the most completely ignorant of social standards and in one episode jump crotches someone as a form of greeting and later on sneaks into his bed, leading to him getting beaten by Naru who automatically assumes he was taking advantage of her, natch, but then later on almost destroys the world with a mechanized turtle. Consistency is nice! But no, for the most part Kaolla exists for comedy relief and to remind you it's a cartoon and not something to take too seriously, so she's a blond tanned skinned "No questions, damnit!" sign. She's also highly annoying, but does create several instances where you think someone has just gotten killed, so she's tolerable.
And beyond that... not much happens that I can talk about. Some characters like Keitaro, some don't, one secretly wants to fuck him but can't because he isn't competent enough to give consent. Beyond that I can mention that for what I think is a late 90s anime the animation is pretty good and while most of the music sucks, especially one episode where Naru becomes a pop singer because one of her classmates wants to fuck her but never just comes out with it and tries to hatch fantastical schemes that ultimately fail because Naru is a violent psychopath, the ending theme isn't that bad. Coming to the final question of "Is it good?" I must answer...
...I can't answer. I base my opinions mostly on writing quality and while Love Hina isn't exactly The Godfather; but it's closer to a Power Rangers In Space to a To Love Ru, meaning there is camp appeal and it can do drama fairly well for something so silly, and ultimately is an item worth watching simply for the amusing spectacle. I mean while I won't say it blew me away, I do want to keep watching it and can say it will serve as a good example of comedy anime if you aren't willing to try Lucky Star or feel Seitokai Yakuindomo lost too much in translation. The manga is considered a classic, and while I couldn't find any footage of it for this review I may post a second review once I've finished the anime and manga kind of like what I did with Cardcaptor Sakura and give you a more coherent answer to the "Is it good?" question. For now, all I can say is that it's weird shit that doesn't do it for me as well as other items but is ultimately inoffensive and amusing, so check it out if you want.
Empathy: It's an annoying running joke that I'll never make again.
--Pyramid Head
Next Non-Game Review: X-Men Evolution |
| Pyramid Head:
Why bring this up now? Well because while most of it is played for shits and giggles I'm going to have to rate Love Hina at 3 on the fucked up scale. The main character constantly being exploited and abused is done for cartoonish effect but there is one segment of the show where I get the serious impression that the youngest character is caught up in an incestuous love triangle. I don't know if that was the intention but here's a lesson Love Hina needs that the casting people at Power Rangers could have used before casting an Asian woman as the yellow ranger: CHECK WITH A GODDAMN EDITOR!
I assume you mean Sara? From the manga she did seem clingy to her foster father but in no way to an incestious amount. not sure if the anime changed that.
Pyramid Head:
Getting to the sort of plot, a worthless sack of shit named Keitaro is applying for Tokyo University as part of a promise to a childhood friend that he would meet her at Tokyo U, only the problem is that Tokyo U is essentially Japan's answer to the Ivy League, and the main character keeps failing the exam and having trouble keeping his promise to a girl he made it to so long ago he can't even remember what her name is.
And this is where i have to disagree. While he is extremly unlucky, he is in no way "worthless". He puts an insane amount of work into getting what he wants and ultimately succeeds. He had his times where he tried to run away from the results, but those actually helped him find his calling as an archeologist. Even from an harem standpoint he knows what he wants, any confusions are only created by his shitty memory and trying to figure out if his childhood friend was Naru or Mutsumi.
If anything he is probably the least worthless harem protagonist.
EDIT:
The review itself seems more like a summary than a review. You should probably reduce the summary part and focus more on pros and cons. |
| I don't think Love Hina is the kind of anime that needs this level of analysis; it's a light-hearted comedy and I find it hugely enjoyable for it's over-the-top renditions of classic anime tropes.
The only utterly retarded part of the anime was the conclusion where
Spoiler: Click to ViewPHA+TWVsb24gZ2lybCByZXZlYWxzIHRoYXQgS2VpdGFybydzIGNoaWxkaG9vZCBmcmllbmQgd2Fzbid0IGFueW9uZSBoZSBjdXJyZW50bHkga25ldyBhbmQgaGUgd2FzIHByb2plY3Rpbmcgb3Igc29tZSBidWxsc2hpdCwgYnV0IHRoYXQncyBqdXN0IHRoZSB1c3VhbCBmbHVmZmVkIGVuZGluZyB5b3UgZ2V0IHdoZW4gcHJvZHVjZXJzIGhhdmUgdG8gY3JhbSBhIHRoaXJ0ZWVuIHZvbHVtZSBzZXJpZXMgaW50byAyNiBlcGlzb2RlcyBhbmQgYSBmZXcgc3BlY2lhbHMuPC9wPg==
For this reason, the story is better after having read the manga because then you know
Spoiler: Click to ViewPHA+TmFydSBpcyB0aGUgZ2lybCBmcm9tIEtlaXRhcm8ncyBtZW1vcmllcyBhbmQgdGhleSBkbyBnZXQgbWFycmllZCBpbiB0aGUgZW5kLjwvcD4= |
| lapan:
Pyramid Head:
Why bring this up now? Well because while most of it is played for shits and giggles I'm going to have to rate Love Hina at 3 on the fucked up scale. The main character constantly being exploited and abused is done for cartoonish effect but there is one segment of the show where I get the serious impression that the youngest character is caught up in an incestuous love triangle. I don't know if that was the intention but here's a lesson Love Hina needs that the casting people at Power Rangers could have used before casting an Asian woman as the yellow ranger: CHECK WITH A GODDAMN EDITOR!
I assume you mean Sara? From the manga she did seem clingy to her foster father but in no way to an incestious amount. not sure if the anime changed that.
Pyramid Head:
Getting to the sort of plot, a worthless sack of shit named Keitaro is applying for Tokyo University as part of a promise to a childhood friend that he would meet her at Tokyo U, only the problem is that Tokyo U is essentially Japan's answer to the Ivy League, and the main character keeps failing the exam and having trouble keeping his promise to a girl he made it to so long ago he can't even remember what her name is.
And this is where i have to disagree. While he is extremly unlucky, he is in no way "worthless". He puts an insane amount of work into getting what he wants and ultimately succeeds. He had his times where he tried to run away from the results, but those actually helped him find his calling as an archeologist. Even from an harem standpoint he knows what he wants, any confusions are only created by his shitty memory and trying to figure out if his childhood friend was Naru or Mutsumi.
If anything he is probably the least worthless harem protagonist.
EDIT:
The review itself seems more like a summary than a review. You should probably reduce the summary part and focus more on pros and cons.
This is a review of the anime. I looked up a few plot elements of the manga, and--
Spoiler for AnimePHA+VGhlIGFuaW1lIGltbWVkaWF0ZWx5IGRpc21pc3NlcyB0aGUgaWRlYSB0aGF0IE5hcnUgd2FzIHRoZSBnaXJsIEtlaXRhcm8gbWFkZSB0aGUgcHJvbWlzZSB0byB3aGVuIHNoZSByZXZlYWxzIHNoZSB3YXMgdHdvIHllYXJzIG9sZCBhdCB0aGUgdGltZSBoZSBtYWRlIHRoZSBwcm9taXNlIGFuZCB0aGF0IHNoZSB3YXMgYXBwbHlpbmcgdG8gVG9reW8gVSBiZWNhdXNlIHNoZSB3YXMgZGVzcGVyYXRlbHkgY2hhc2luZyBhIGhpZ2ggc2Nob29sIGNydXNoLjwvcD4=
Anyway i'll be redoing this review since from what i can tell there is a significant difference between the manga and anime, and i'll be making a more focused review then. From what i've seen in the anime though, i can't see why you're coming to Keitaro's defense. Everything i've seen so far just paint the picture of him being a generic protagonist with no significant talents or abilities beyond a threshold for pain on par with the guy from MM!. Maybe i set my standards too high in that regard though, but it's still an amusing item because of the utter failures of one of the voice actresses and because i thought Naru was interesting. |
| Pyramid Head:
From what i've seen in the anime though, i can't see why you're coming to Keitaro's defense. Everything i've seen so far just paint the picture of him being a generic protagonist with no significant talents or abilities beyond a threshold for pain on par with the guy from MM!. Maybe i set my standards too high in that regard though, but it's still an amusing item because of the utter failures of one of the voice actresses and because i thought Naru was interesting.
Could very well be that they messed up his character in the anime. Wouldn't be the first time that ever happened. |
Love Hina is considered by some to be the harem anime that started them all. I'm not sure if that's true for various reasons. One, the Tenchi series may have come out first, and two, when compared to crap like IS: Infinite Stratos and the Rosario Vampire anime, it doesn't strictly speaking seem like a harem anime. When I think harem anime, I think three or more girls pining for the cock of one emotionally retarded dickhead. But when I think Love Hina, I think two emotionally retarded morons caught up in an almost believable drama and the only hint of a harem being one shy naïve dipshit who never does anything and a drunken kleptomaniac who probably lost all interest in the main character before the series was halfway over. Not much of a harem in the anime sense, though considering the main characters situation it would be wrong of me to say there isn't a form of a harem to be had.
But before we begin, a new necessity has come up. Sickness and depravity are part and parcel for these animes, and someone needs to create a scale of just how fucked up these items are, so lady and gentleman I give you the Pyramid Head Perversion Scale which gives a score of 1-5 for how fucked up an item is. At 1 we have Lucky Star and Cardcaptor Sakura, not totally fucked up but we can get some twisted humor out of it when things are taken out of context. At 2 we have Rosario Vampire and Seitokai Yakuindomo where things are really bizarre but played for shits and giggles. At 3 we have things like MM! (I'll review that in three weeks probably) which is depraved but has a level of restraint and doesn't offend most. At 4 we have Kodomo no Jikan which is just relentlessly fucked up and at a point where it's very unpleasant to a sizable chunk of the audience but enjoyable to people who think empathy is a type of noodle dish, and at 5 we have RapeLay where even I go "WHAT THE FUCK, GUYS?!"
Why bring this up now? Well because while most of it is played for shits and giggles I'm going to have to rate Love Hina at 3 on the fucked up scale. The main character constantly being exploited and abused is done for cartoonish effect but there is one segment of the show where I get the serious impression that the youngest character is caught up in an incestuous love triangle. I don't know if that was the intention but here's a lesson Love Hina needs that the casting people at Power Rangers could have used before casting an Asian woman as the yellow ranger: CHECK WITH A GODDAMN EDITOR!
Anyway Love Hina is the original harem anime in the sense that it's an old fashioned harem. Not a love polygon, but someone being surrounded by women. There are some hints that it might have a love polygon focus but it never really amounts to anything beyond a couple of blushes and childish obsessions over the first kiss. And briefly on that subject quit whining Shinobu, I lost my first kiss to a cat trying to eat my lower lip so you have no right to complain that some girl of unknown national origin spoiled your junior high dream of kissing someone seven years older than you!
For the most part though, it's comedy but does pull some things with a straight face to give you juxtaposition to keep the comedy from getting boring, it's kind of like the pale ale to Kodomo no Jikan's imperial stout. Not that there's anything wrong with that, even I want lightness of tone every now and then, and while I wouldn't say it balances things perfectly for the most part Love Hina doesn't get to being too light of tone while being too serious, so no bearded psycho who thinks you serve empathy with soy sauce beating your head in for being boring and no guys with dyed hair and a Glasgow Smile killing you by jamming a pencil into your skull while asking "Why so serious?"
Getting to the sort of plot, a worthless sack of shit named Keitaro is applying for Tokyo University as part of a promise to a childhood friend that he would meet her at Tokyo U, only the problem is that Tokyo U is essentially Japan's answer to the Ivy League, and the main character keeps failing the exam and having trouble keeping his promise to a girl he made it to so long ago he can't even remember what her name is. Yeah, that's healthy, obsess over someone you met 15 years ago before you even knew your balls could drop that you can't even remember anyway. At age 20 after failing multiple times Keitaro is invited to live at the high end Hinata dorms, serving as a supervisor while his grandmother Hina goes off to do Jah knows what. The problem? Well... the Hinata dorms are very selective about their clientele. No, I don't mean rejects people of suspicious background since one character would disagree with me and think empathy goes better with tsuyu and shredded carrots while preaching about an honor code she isn't smart enough to hold up properly, they just tend to reject alumni who have Y-chromosomes.
Yeah, the Hinata dorms the character is staying at is for women only. That's where the whole harem aspect comes into play, the dorms needed a new supervisor desperately because they were at risk of closing, so desperately they let a spastic moron with a dick watch over the dorms. And hilarity ensues!
Love Hina doesn't have much of a plot beyond that, it's more focused on characters. Keitaro is completely worthless but has a good heart (Allegedly) and serves as the generic male protagonist I enjoy seeing get hurt, and Naru serves as the person who hurts him. I actually quite like Naru, it's implied she's intelligent but just unlucky and while the only real romantic relationship does come up between Naru and Keitaro as they both study together with sights set on Tokyo U, she frequently assaults Keitaro whenever an awkward situation pops up. And there is an awkward situation almost every five minutes. Naru's character is also the more developed, and she too is going to Tokyo U for very unhealthy reasons, but you'll have to watch to find out what they are since I won't expand on them here, and because I only got to episode 13 when it's in episode 14 that they expand on it.
The other major recurring characters include Kitsune, an alcoholic with a gambling addiction who serves as sort of a sexy Roman Bellic, frequently letting her vices interfere with the life of the main character. Also she rarely opens her eyes for some reason. Maybe that's why she sucks at gambling, she doesn't actually read the tickets and the odds. Next comes Motoko, the character who is stupid for thinking slivered almonds can't go with empathy. She's part of an old samurai family and has access to a supernatural sword style, and while she mostly acts as comedic foil she does have some character growth revolving around her lightening up some, and she also has a crippling fear of turtles which creates some weirdly hilarious moments when her voice actress tries to do a terrified squeal but her voice keeps cracking. So she's basically a hybrid of Sakaki and Twilight Suzuka. After Motoko comes Shinobu, and while I typically like shy characters she gets on my nerves though in one rather bizarre video game themed episode becomes the first character to have an ass shot. She's also 14. Keeping it classy as always, eh Japan? Oh I shouldn't complain about that, it's not as bad as that scene in Digimon 02 where a 12 year old is almost raped by monsters.
Moving on while you let that image fester in your head, we've finally got Kaolla Su, the girl with unknown national origins caught up in the incestuous love triangle I told you about. It's hard to pin her down, she's for the most completely ignorant of social standards and in one episode jump crotches someone as a form of greeting and later on sneaks into his bed, leading to him getting beaten by Naru who automatically assumes he was taking advantage of her, natch, but then later on almost destroys the world with a mechanized turtle. Consistency is nice! But no, for the most part Kaolla exists for comedy relief and to remind you it's a cartoon and not something to take too seriously, so she's a blond tanned skinned "No questions, damnit!" sign. She's also highly annoying, but does create several instances where you think someone has just gotten killed, so she's tolerable.
And beyond that... not much happens that I can talk about. Some characters like Keitaro, some don't, one secretly wants to fuck him but can't because he isn't competent enough to give consent. Beyond that I can mention that for what I think is a late 90s anime the animation is pretty good and while most of the music sucks, especially one episode where Naru becomes a pop singer because one of her classmates wants to fuck her but never just comes out with it and tries to hatch fantastical schemes that ultimately fail because Naru is a violent psychopath, the ending theme isn't that bad. Coming to the final question of "Is it good?" I must answer...
...I can't answer. I base my opinions mostly on writing quality and while Love Hina isn't exactly The Godfather; but it's closer to a Power Rangers In Space to a To Love Ru, meaning there is camp appeal and it can do drama fairly well for something so silly, and ultimately is an item worth watching simply for the amusing spectacle. I mean while I won't say it blew me away, I do want to keep watching it and can say it will serve as a good example of comedy anime if you aren't willing to try Lucky Star or feel Seitokai Yakuindomo lost too much in translation. The manga is considered a classic, and while I couldn't find any footage of it for this review I may post a second review once I've finished the anime and manga kind of like what I did with Cardcaptor Sakura and give you a more coherent answer to the "Is it good?" question. For now, all I can say is that it's weird shit that doesn't do it for me as well as other items but is ultimately inoffensive and amusing, so check it out if you want.
Empathy: It's an annoying running joke that I'll never make again.
--Pyramid Head
Next Non-Game Review: X-Men Evolution