Love Hina 1 - Moving In

Based on the popular manga by Ken Akamatsu, the 26 episode television series that is Love Hina is a derivative, yet hilarious, romantic comedy aimed at awkward teenagers. Indeed, despite smacking of the familiar (adherence to tried-and-trusted formulae being the mainstay of anime), Love Hina delivers its laughs with a deft balance of teenage angst and hilarious slapstick.

Keitaro Ureshima is a shy, clumsy 20 year-old who, seeking to fulfil a promise made to a girl when he was young, dreams only of studying at the prestigious Toudai (Tokyo University). Keitaro's problem, however, is that he just doesn’t have the academic muscle to pass the entrance exams. After two failed attempts, his hopes look like going unfulfilled, and even his parents are getting frustrated with his lack of success. It's increasingly likely that they'll soon throw his arse out on the street.

However, there’s a change in store for Keitaro. Summoned by his aging grandmother Hina to an inn that she runs on the outskirts of Tokyo, Keitaro (rather embarrassingly) discovers that the inn is actually an all-girl dormitory, filled with high-school and college-aged beauties, and that he is to be the new manager! Of course Keitaro’s lack of skill with the ladies and his blundering-in where he’s not welcome, (the female baths for instance) leads to all sorts of highly embarrassing hijinx.

Episode 1: All Girls Dorm With Outdoor Bath - Hot Spring
We are introduced to Keitaro and his sad and sorry life; his failed attempts to get into Todai, and the promise he made to a little girl all those years ago – a girl whose face or name he can’t even remember. Calling at the Hinata Apartments and learning of his new job, Keitaro bumps into one of the residents – Naru – in the bath. Embarrassed by his incursion, Naru beats the living piss out of him, and soon the rest of the dorm's residents get in on the act.

Episode 2: The Hinata's New Resident, Shinobu - Arrow Signs
Shinobu is a young, quiet high-school girl with no friends who’s stuck in the middle of an emotionally charged custody battle. When she comes into accidental possession of Keitaro’s sketchbook, she finds herself back at Hinata Apartments; a place of sanctuary for her as a child. With a little kindness from Keitaro, she decides to stay; Hinata gaining a welcome cook in the process.

Episode 3: Kendo Girl In Love? - Swordplay
Motoko, a shy high school girl and master swordsman, returns from a school kendo camp to find a man encamped in the girls dormitory. Things certainly don’t look good for Keitaro as an enraged sword-wielding Motoko pursues him around the compound. But could it be that Motoko’s rage stems from these unfamiliar feelings she’s having? Could this be her first crush? Or is that just Keitaro's head?

Episode 4: The Tokyo Promise From 15 Years Ago - Diary
With a condition of his continued residency at Hinata being that he should pass the Todai entrance exams this time around, Keitaro’s position is looking shaky indeed. Although he has tons of study to do, he seems to be continually busy scrubbing, fixing and cooking. God are these girls needy! In the midst of his turmoil, there seems to be something developing between himself and the violent Naru. She sure does remind him of someone..

OK, so the setup is typical of the genre. All five female protagonists alternate between beating the crap out of poor Keitaro (and beat they do) and, in their own curious way, falling madly in love with him. And although these first four episodes really only succeed in introducing Keitaro’s predicament and the Hinata’s bevy of beauties, there is a hint of a wider bunch of plot lines to be followed by the series. And exhibiting a widely distinctive group of personalities amongst the ensemble of teenage characters, (some stereotypical and some less-so), the series is sure to remain interesting. Sure, there are some real groaner moments – there’s Japanese romantic themes here after all - but the slapstick violence and super-deformation reminiscent of Ranma ½ (and others) makes up for it. And anyway, the awkwardness of any and all romantic moments typically means that they end in violence; violence of the most amusing kind!

In terms of the quality of its animation, Love Hina is typical of its more mature-oriented sub-genre; being just a touch above average for anime produced for television. Free of the more obvious Saturday morning nasties, the all-important character animation is fluid, backgrounds hold a reasonable amount of detail and, on the most part, cost-cutting techniques are limited to panning stills. The series sports a fine array of contemporary character designs and, despite the use of the aforementioned and much loved super-deformation, brims with luscious anime-babes.

And what is there to say about Madman’s latest anime transfer? Well, free of even the minor macro–blocking and chroma-noise blemishes that can be seen in even the best of their previous efforts, this first volume of Love Hina is absolutely perfect!

A luscious, richly coloured production, Love Hina's myriad of hues, reproduced in all their vivid glory, are supported by deep solid blacks. Beautiful and sharp without a hint of film-to-video artefacts such as aliasing, as I hinted above the image displays nothing in the way of compression artefacts. Basically, the first volume of Love Hina looks absolutely stunning; the equal of anything Madman has produced in the past. Cue the applause!

With no battling mechas, thundering space craft or the crack of munitions fire to keep it occupied, Love Hina’s soundtrack is a low-key affair that is dominated by its dialogue and signature Jpop theme (one of the best anime themes ever). Never venturing far from the front channels, the soundtrack’s dialogue is delivered clearly and distinctly throughout; moving somewhat across the front soundstage to follow the various characters. While ambient sound is minimal, an almost constant stream of cheaply made electronic muzak is delivered from the front channels. On the odd occasion the muzak subsides and we are treated to a catchy Jpop tune! At these times the surround channels fire up and receive a nicely balanced proportion of the sound. As you might expect, despite Keitaro receiving regular beatings, the subwoofer has little to do here.

Be eternally thankful that Madman have shipped Love Hina’s original Japanese soundtrack in addition to the obligatory English dub, as the English voice actors employed here by Bandai are annoying to say the least. While the English script itself does not deviate too far from the original, the voices are so annoying (almost comparable to those in Burn-up W) that anime fans will seek respite with the original Japanese version – no bad thing! As usual, the English subtitles are clear and easy to read.

Some nicely animated menus, pumping to the sounds of Love Hina's ultra-catchy Jpop theme, provide access to a limited number of extras. Although they're typical for a Madman release, it's doubtful you'll be back for a second viewing...

• Character Photo Gallery: Presents a little backstory on Naru and Keitaro, names their Japanese and English voice actors, and provides seven character images apiece that have been taken from various episodes.

• Keitaro’s Sketchbook: Eight ‘manga within an anime’ images that appear in Keitaro’s sketchbook throughout these four episodes are displayed here, each with an English translation of its Japanese caption.

• Madman Propaganda:Presents the trailer for Love Hina itself, as well as full-frame trailers for four other Madman releases targetted at a younger audience: Sailor Moon, Orphen, Mobile Suit Gundam and Cardcaptors.

I loved Love Hina. It’s light, and contains some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. While the animation is relatively typical of the sub-genre, I’m a real sucker for super-deformation and comic book violence, and these first four episodes deliver them in spades. Certainly, if you enjoy other violence-filled romantic comedies such as Ranma, you'll definately get a kick out of Hina. Rated PG and containing no explicit material or nudity I highly recommend it to anime fans of all ages.