Love Hina

This is by far my favorite manga of all time. xD
Ken Akamatsu is a genius and this manga is the reason I even began reading manga.
Not only is it very compatible for guys, what with the fan service and all. But girls will also enjoy it! The story line is hilarious. And every character has a very unique essence to them which may help you relate to them much better. This allows the story to be brought to life fully, and you can easily understand the emotions of all of the characters. The art is very well done, each character looks very beautifully detailed and their appearance really fit their personalities. There's a laugh on almost every single page, and what with the fan service, it is quite a remarkable manga, with one of the most fun plots, filled with random moments that will never bore you. The ending is magnificent and anyone who doesn't enjoy the book must have been spacing out during it! How could you space out with all the beautiful girls on every page. xD This a guaranteed read over at least more than once! If you finished reading it, wait awhile and read it again! It will still make you laugh and love it!

THIS IS MY NUMBER ONE RECOMMENDATION TO ANYONE WHO ENJOYS A GOOD LAUGH A LIL' ACTIONS, and ROMANCE STORIES! MY FAVORITE MANGA OF ALL TIME!

wow!!!
This is my all time favorite manga so far
i love it!!!
It has most of my favorite genres so im happy:]

This one is a keeper. Definitely a manga that imprinted a lasting impression on me. Love Hina is an old but gold story. Although I really hated the anime, the manga is just magnificent. The story of a young college boy trying to study hard and find love is really fun to follow.

Story - 10: Excellent storyline all throughout the manga. I don't think a single chapter was boring. The storyline is very serious at times and very relaxed. It has so many aspects you just don't find in a single manga now. I just can't emphasize how great it is. Please read before I spoil it. I think what I really like about this manga is that it doesn't emphasize on anything specifically. In other mangas, something more ecchi would focus on sex or boobs. This balances everything out perfectly. Not too much ecchi, not too much school life, and not too much stray from the main storyline.

Art - 9: Great artwork. Nothing super special, but it is very nice and clean.

Characters - 10: Unforgettable characters. Their lives and personalities are really good. Although they are cliche, I guess the way they're all put together makes it good.

Enjoyment -10: Thoroughly enjoyed all throughout the manga. Literally from page 1 to page XXXX. It was perfection at its finest.

Overall - 10: Easy 10. I can't think of any other love story that has inspired me and entertained me as much as this one. Also since it is pretty old, I feel like this is a great manga to read. I would recommend it to anyone. Literally anyone.

I've just completed Love Hina a second time. First time I completed it I gave it a score of 6/10. After the second reading completion, I still think that this score is not too low. Why?

[Story: 5/10]
Actually for story, there could be 2 parts: Before chapter 70 and after 70.
To me, the 2 parts represent a [Before very random and draggy situations] and [After very random and draggy situations]. This is especially so for the main love relationships and the never-ending memory issues that seem to keep changing from here on==. Therefore, chapter 70 marks a drastic change in character personalities, story coherence and also art at times.

Before 70, the story was quite smooth, sometimes there were a few unexplainable things and jumps in storyline, but it was still good, at about 7/10 to 8/10. There was a huge focus on romance even if there were harem and ecchi scenes as well.

After 70, the story sometimes was very random, characters changed personalities, doing very weird things, and the ultimate "escapism" character emerges. It was quite painful to read through some chapters, numbering to maybe 10-20 that I almost dropped it but completed it for the sake of completing it.

Still, it was not as bad as Kimi no Iru Machi, but could have had it continued further. But then again, if you think about it, this manga has near no school scenes and very little family history exploration except for a few select characters. Heck, I think 70% of all manga happenings are inside the dorm==.

[Art: 7/10]
Hmm, art is evidently not a very strong point of this manga. Aside from mainly lacking details in some background scenes, the most impt point is the expressions on characters and the character design consistency.

Sure, some characters are drawn well and beautifully, but one issue is that due to the number of panels (there were a lot of small panels), some of the characters might not have looked as consistent as they should have been.

Especially the last few dozen chapters... some situations were drawn with such little detail that I had to think and figure out on my own what the manga was depicting.

And 1 more thing, maybe it has to do with the majority of characters having a smiley mouth whenever ANYTHING happens, on one sense it makes the manga lighter and nor so serious, but in another sense sometimes most of the expressions are the same. So the severity of some scenes were not portrayed that well.

[Character:6/10]
For heaven's sake, character personality consistency and Narusegawa!!!! I have never found myself hating a character so much ONLY during about 40 chapters out of 123 chapters (wow... 1/3...).
I'm not going to divulge a lot of details regarding what she did but honestly, I have no idea why the manga artist would put such a character that would obviously make a great escape artist.

Character personality consistency is the greatest problem of this manga. To say just a few examples, take Sara and Naru for example. Sara's personality was initially very strong and bright, but after a certain chapter.... she was a shadow of her former self. For Naru, I am not exactly sure of her personality as it keep changes here and there but overall, I think she would make a great escape artist. O, and for the last adventure arc, character personality does not matter anymore.

Character development was pretty bad. First of all, very little character past, so I could not really understand the characters. Secondly, most of the situations in Hinata Sou are very simplistic. 1. Dorm 2. Todai examination hall or just the surroundings 3. Japan other cities or outside Japan (But all confined to mainly Hinata-Sou characters). So what makes a character? If I could not see their past that makes the characters then I should see what they do right? With character inconsistency and mainly just interaction with dorm-mates... I think this manga is aiming more for slapstick comedy rather than a real romance... (even the quest for the childhood promise seems slapstick at times).

[Enjoyment: 8/10]
Before 70, I think it was 10/10 but after that, sometimes it went to 3/10 or 4/10 so....

Love Hina is a light manga with a lot of slapstick comedy and accidental pantsu showing. Ecchi harem rom-com I guess.

[Overall: 6/10]
I do wish the mangaka had not tried to drag this for so long if he couldn't, as it made Naru's character look very silly and childish at the last 50 chapters or so.== Well it isn't as bad as Kimi no Iru Machi though and it does have a lot of similarities to To Love-Ru so I would recommend that manga to people who like Love Hina.

this was the first manga i actually completed.
its a very enjoyable manga with a happy ending.
id recommend this to anyone who is looking for a good anime which stands from the crowed.

So this is normally not the type of Manga I enjoy, however Love Hina for whatever reason just hit me the right way. It was super funny but carries great story arcs as well. I really care for all the characters and their arcs as well as their contribution to the main characters goals and story. The humor is really what got me the right way. You could take out all the fan service-esque stuff and leave the humor and I would still love it just as much.

I normally into far more serious Manga. If you want to dive into the genre, I would definitely start with Love Hina. It's far less fan servicey and cringy to me than some other manga out there.

I love the art direction and the extra notes from the author as well!

This was manga was really enjoyable. I heard the anime was mediocre but this is actually a good read. The characters were all different and unique which made you care about them. I loved the interactions between the characters each chapter had me interested. Another thing I enjoyed about the story is that even for a romance and comedy manga, the motivations and dreams change for the characters overtime which makes the plot points fresh.

The MC actually chooses a girl so it makes the manga worth it if you want a conclusion.

It also ends on a good note too and the ending is really cute and wholesome. I definitely recommend it.

It's also by far my favorite manga of all times. I just loved everything about it, the story is fucking hilarious, but at the same time it's so good, plus it's the relation between the characters which i found the best of this manga (although all of this manga is soooo fucking good xD). It never bores, never goes down and it gets better and better, the only harem that i find actually a masterpiece. There's also the plus that this was the first manga that I read online but yeah, it's still a masterpiece, i recommend this manga to anyone, whatever your tastes may be, this manga is liked by everyone, I see that i'm not the one who considers it the best manga they read which makes me glad xD.

The Story and the Characters are his best points, as well as the enjoyment and the art it's much good too,

The Story talks about a man, Keitaro, who wants to enter in the Tödai (which is the abreviation for "Tokyo Daigaku" or "University of Tokyo") becuase when he was a child he made a promise with a girl he doesn't renember, to enter together the Tödai and then marry each other, because as the legend says: "If you enter in the Tödai with someone else you love you will always be together" (or something similar, it's almost a year from the last time i read it xD) but there's an inconvenient: Keitaro is a fool, and he had already failed the last two years for enter in the university and his parents had drop away him from home. Thus, he goes to live with his grandpa, which runs an inn in Tokyo. When he arrives at the inn he found out two things:

1: His grandpa had gone to travel during a year or so.

2: The inn it's no inn anymore, it has been turned in an exclusive dormitory for girls.

Thus, the story begins when he starts to interact with all the girls in the inn and to become aware of them, what it may seem an harem-type manga in a first stance it's turned into a "Comedy Romantic-Shounen" type manga because he makes friends with all the girls but he starts to be interested in one of them...Which name i'll not reveal because i don't want to ruin the story. I'll just say this: Read it, you'll enjoy it, you'll become attached to the excelent characters and you'll Love it.

Story: 10
Art: 10
Character: 10
Enjoyment: 10

Overall: 10

My favorite manga ever.

Love hina, is a story about Keitaro a man who is trying desperately to get in tokyo university to for fill a promise he made as a very small boy, on one fateful day he is told to go to his grandmothers apartment complex, once arriving he take a bath in the open air hot springs, and who should happen to walk in but Naru a girl who is also going to Tokyo university for the same reasons she chases him out of the bath, hyjinks ensue and it is found out that his grandmother has gone on a round world trip and left the apartment complex to be managed by him in her absence. what follows is the story of keitaro trying to get into university, manage an apartment complex and manage a whole house full of girlls who slowly all fall in love with him.

Love hina in short is the most basic of harem storys with each girl giving her own version of fan service to the story, we have the big breasted girl who is provictive and lewd, the lolita moe girls, the international spice energitic girl, a childhood friend who is calm and relaxed the strong tsundra character and the girl who the main guy likes.

The story may drag on a lot but it is interesting and makes you want to know what happens next. it's good for a laugh, for some one just getting into anime or a mild emotion reaction to the plots shallow attempts angst.

Overview:

Today I will look at a case where the manga is WAY, WAY better than the anime! This is actually one of the better comedy mangas ever made in my opinion. It combines the formulaic romantic comedy of the latter 20th century with the slapstick/pratfall comedy of the early 20th century. Sort of like 16 Candles as done by Charlie Chaplin, the 3 Stooges, and Laurel& Hardy.

Plot and Characters 8/10

The series also features a ridiculous cast of characters including: an alcoholic writer, a homicidal, OCD plagued samurai and an Indian princess with an IQ of 400 and ZERO social skills that can built a functioning robot from materials at Walmart, but thinks that kicking people in the head is an acceptable form of greetings. There is also an impossibly clumsy idiot savant that can speak to animals. Screw you Big Bang Theory, Love Hina had a comedy cast of idiot savants and socially awkward geniuses WAY before you did! The plot of the series is that a hapless student keeps failing to get into the college he wants, but won't give up trying. In the meantime, he has to become acting landlord to the most batshit insane girl's dormitory in the world. Shenanegins ensue! Despite all of his falures, Keitaro persists on and accomplishes his dreams. It is a slapstick comedy first and foremost, but it actually has some touching moments along the way.

A brief comparison with the anime:

One major difference is that the characters are MUCH more fleshed out and loveable in the manga than in the anime version. For example, the manga Motoko has a much more distinct personality, whereas in the anime she just becomes Naru with a sword. The most important differnce is that the comedy in the manga is actually fucking funny! The anime simply wasn't able to capture Akamatsu's odd sense of humor. The dialogue in the manga was much funnier and the character chemistry worked better. The anime doesn't have scenes like Keitaro freaking out that Su brought him a gun at the airport for his trip to America, based on her knowledge of American "In the Hood" movies. The anime also doesn't show that Motoko on at least one occasion actually tried to kill Keitaro. Motoko's comedic insanity is much more prevalent in the manga. One major difference that is hard to explain is in how the violence against our man Keitaro is portrayed. In the manga, Keitaro getting punched is somehow done in such a cartoonish and absurd fasion that the reader never questions how painful it would be in real life or what a violent bitch Naru is. It is like watching an old Tex Avery cartoon. We never feel bad for Wile E Coyote no matter how many times he gets blown up or smashed. In the anime, the violence seems to come across as far more mean spirited and nasty. I'm not sure why this is, but I am not the only person I have talked to that feels this way. Perhaps it is because of the panel nature of the manga, wherein if Keitaro is perfectly fine in the next panel, it is like the violence never happened.

Art: 8/10

The art in the manga is actually pretty damn good, whereas the anime looks like crap! Part of this was that the anime used its large budget to try and experiment with some new animation techniques that didn't turn out that well. Early trail blazers often have some stumbles. For example, look at CGI effects from any movie in the mid to late 1990s. They look like absolute shit! The manga is also FAR more bold in its ecchi scenes, which besides just extra fan service points adds to the comedy. If a character reacts with dismay at being seen naked, it is funnier than the character having that reaction to being seen fully covered with a bath towel on. The second scenario is just stupid and confusing rather than funny.

Overall: 8/10

Is Love Hina some kind of masterpiece that you keep on your book shelf between "Fathers and Sons" and "Dead Souls". NO! That is just my bookshelf because I don't have the money right now to buy more than one. Is Love Hina a funny manga that will give you some good laughs? Yes it is. I recommend this goofy early 2000s manga to all that love zany humor and cheesy romance.

While this is an older Manga and it does fit into the Harem category, it is very enjoyable. Most, if not all of the characters are fantastic, the plot is a bit of a hit or miss, but it is still enjoyable. some of the characters CAN become rather annoying at times, as it might seem like they kind of whine over nothing, but can be overlooked. Now, I will say that the manga is not for everyone, as it does have some rather suggestive situations at times, but is not the main focus. Overall the manga and anime both are absolutely fantastic, and the ending is rather wholesome ^^

I love this manga. It was my first read and is still at the top of my list. The artwork lent itself well to anime translation and the writing is outstanding. I really found myself wanting to learn more and more about each of the characters all the way down to the bit-players.

Despite the violence inherent in their relationship, you can see very early on just how much Keitaro and Naru care for one another. Oh, come on...don't tell me you couldn't tell just looking at the covers! I could tell you the end and it'd still be worth reading. Don't worry, I won't...just sayin'.

I love Akamatsu-san's attention to detail. He really takes the time to delve deeper into the supporting characters. Everyone gets a chance to tell their story and give you a glimpse into who they really are.

Loser or not, you gotta love Keitaro. Lady luck just had it in for him from day one it seems...he just can't get a break! Despite all that, he's a decent guy with strong morals and the biggest heart. Of all his shortcomings, he still comes through when it really counts and that's what matters.

I think what gets me is just how well Akamatsu-san conveys the emotions of the characters. Although first impressions give a good deal of information about each of them, they all grow and change over the course of the series and in the end...well, you'll just have to read it to find out.

I know plenty of people who would laugh at a nearly-30 straight male reading something like that, but I don't care. It's a great story, funny as hell, and it really connected with me. I even shed a few tears when...LOL...don't worry. I know better. Just read it, ok?

"NARU PUNCH!"

I LOVED THIS MANGA!!!! I read it back when I was in 5th grade so I really did not appreciate it that much. Then a few years later in maybe 7th grade, I picked it up again and I fell in love with it. At first it was the pretty girls and stuff but I'm a guy...what can I do :]? As I started really getting into it I loved the story. It touched me and in a way I felt attached to it, like I could relate to it. Not him being pathetic and sucks with girls but the things he has to go through. I also go through hardships in education and have other problems he goes through in the manga. Keitaro, who is the main male lead, and I have many things in common. Besides appearence. I feel like I link with his character.
Enough about me, now about the manga. The art that Ken draws is so unique and crisp, this guy knows how to draw. His art develops through Love Hina, you can tell the difference from the start and the end. The characters are also a big thing in Love Hina. They aren't static characters at all, in fact they are very dynamic. They change so much from the beginning to the end. Not only their appearence but also their personality and their character. They develop as the story progresses. And the story brings all of this into one big heart-warming, laugh inducing manga that will never be forgotten. I really need to praise Ken Akamatsu. He is to me one of the best. Actually he is to me the best, right next to Hiromu Arakawa, who is the artist of Fullmetal Alchemist. Ken has incredible art and stories that go along with them that are indescribable with words. His other work Mahou Sensei Negima, which is still ongoing is also another masterpiece. Anyways if you haven't read this manga yet, go to anywhere you can to read it. I guarentee you will enjoy it.

Well, I started to read Love Hina for a couple years ago, in a swedish manga-magazin. But they dropped Love Hina! So I started to buy it on my own...all the volumes, and I still LOVE IT! I think the story is pretty good, because it happens a lot! And the characters is so funny, and original, and I think the fit so good together! ^^ and maybe the art isn't the best, but not the worst either. It's pretty good, I think. And about the story: I think it's very fun to follow Keitaro Urashima all the way: from when he first met al at Hinata, when he's study to Todai, and when he finally marries his dreamgirl! ^^

Before I start my review, let me say I choose to review Love Hina for multiple reasons but ultimately this is sadly much more of a review about its genre mixture, harem-ecchi-romance-comedy or more specifically the harem-ecchi genre. The first is prior to watching another ecchi anime earlier this year, I was very meh about this sort of story, because it has become the norm of what anime and manga is. I hadn't really given it any thought until during a conversation I had with Donwun, I came to the question "what exactly is the Clownshoes rating to me?"

I admit that Love Hina actually was quite funny and entertaining to me when I read it as it was one of the first manga I ever read. However by the third, definitely the fourth harem/ecchi story modeled to be like Love Hina, I started finding myself really bored with the humor and story telling and becoming unable to completely read through them. On a personal level I feel harem-ecchi-commedy or just ecchi humor isn't something that can't make me laugh if it's incessantly waved in my face. It can still be really funny in the right circumstances, but stories based off it are really a dead horse to me at this point. Manga artists complain about people not buying their shit but honestly, they've brought this upon them selves by blowing up the market with mostly this shit. I can tell you right now if you don't like my ratings, I'm probably not the reviewer to follow because the way I feel about Love Hina isn't exclusive to it but rather the whole harem-ecchi-romance-comedy, hell even just ecchi genre. Even if it is the vast majority of what's out there, I don't view it very favorably or lightly for that matter.

I honestly don't even need to use character names to explain this now tired synopsis. Which is sad because Love Hina itself probably deserves more respect than I'm giving it but I refuse to give a toehold in my stance against what it has come to represent.

Dumbass with no real redeeming qualities under unusual circumstances is forced to co-habitat with all (mostly very weird) girls. Said dumbass shares a romantic memory with...we'll call her dumb bitch A at an age of where those in the memory are way too young to be taken seriously or shouldn't even be able to remember for that matter. Despite constant "accidental perverted situations" and "unintentional gropings," which yes, is fanservice, which yes, is all ecchi humor is, dumbass wins the hearts of all the girls, all of which are mostly very weird but are better matches for him than dumb bitch A. Except dumbass has a problem; dumb bitch A must resist her attraction to dumbass. Though failure to recognize this attraction has become a popular meme for some reason. Anyways! In the end dumbass ends up with dumb bitch A. Yay.

This should sound like an increasing number of series since each year Love Hina made its original run (1998-2001). Because of the boom Love Hina has caused, if someone told me this is what they thought of manga while I'd be irritated and try my best to get them to check out other things I actually like or just things that I think they may enjoy, I can't fault them. I really couldn't. Because this is mostly what manga has become and while there may be other series that contributed to the romance-harem-ecchi explosion, I cite Love Hina as the main culprit because it was one of the first I can remember that was especially successful. Actually Love Hina was very successful. Monstrously successful.

Review

Unsurprisingly, I have little to say. If you've never read this sort of thing, which I'd frankly be amazed at at this point even if manga is not your flavor with how over saturated manga has become with this genre mixture, there just isn't that much to say about it. The artwork is not that spectacular, in fact, sub par by today's standards which is a little surprising considering how lazy a lot of manga looks nowadays. But everyone has one expression which like the whole genre mixture Love Hina belongs to is funny at first, but gets boring really fast. They smile. They smile when they're angry, when they're happy, when they're embarrassed, when they're surprised, scared etc. Maybe even when they're hungry, I can't remember. They aren't drawn to represent movement very well despite there being a surprising amount of it in the story. Strangely however, unlike most series nowadays everyone (I think) has a different outfit that makes them different from each other..guess they get a point for that.

The comedy is the same thing. Lame-o accidentally does perverted things and gets hit/hurt by the mostly very weird girls sometimes doing very weird things. Literally that's it. The entire story is centric to that humor while every mostly very weird girl inexplicably falls for lame-o. Just like most manga out there..what a boring disaster this has become.

The characters are mostly two dimensional. From an outsider or mostly beginner's view to anime or manga, how weird they are can be appealing despite being fairly flat personalities. But the more stuff you read or watch, the more just like most anime and manga characters..they're usually just weird in one or two ways, and that weirdness is usually a set up to a repeating joke. In this case dumbass doing something perverted and getting hit or hurt for it.

Recommendation

What is there to say about this sort of thing? I don't want to recommend it to anyone. Ever. But not through its own fault, just what's happened to manga because of its popularity. It did do something quite different and like I said, it was really funny to me going from American humor to this. But over the years, this is mostly what manga has become, and the clownshoe has to drop. Still, I shall try my best to be impartial.

Recommended for: Well, if you've never read any manga before, and you've never seen any anime before, this may or may not be very funny to you. But more than likely that won't last. It didn't for me, I don't think it does for most people. But then again if it doesn't for most, why do they keep pushing this genre mixture so much? Either way, if you're an anime/manga virgin..might be worth checking out. If you've been watching/reading for a while, chances are the synopsis should've sounded pretty familiar to you and this would only be worth checking out to see what really caused the giant leap into harem-ecchi. Otherwise you've probably read or watched Love Hina by accident through reading or watching something else already.

Recommended Against: You're really gonna know if it's not for you through your stance in regard to my review as it's very polarizing. You either hate me and my review and think I'm very unreasonable or dare I say stupid. Or you agree. If you agree with me, don't bother checking it out. And yes, I'm aware I didn't bother with any pics this time. I already spent too much effort not making this entire post just a rant, probably unsucessfully at that, so no pictures. Fine, here's a fuckin' picture.

Fun Trivia

Despite all the bashing I have done on Love Hina, as I've stated earlier it was both sort of groundbreaking (I can't really recollect anything terribly ecchi based prior) and very successful which is does deserve to be remembered for. Wiki or google it, I don't feel much like talking about it. I will mention though that Tokyopop, whom I hate vehemently (but that's a story for another day), was surprised many times with how well received Love Hina was and had found itself understocked on translated copies many times.