Keitaro Urashima has always had one dream: to get into
Tokyo University and reunite with a girl he made a promise to as a child. There’re just a couple of snags: First, he
sucks at studying and is constantly flunking the Tokyo U entrance exams. Second, he cant remember the name of that
girl he made his promise to. Complicating
things more, through a twist of fate, Keitaro ends up the new Super Intendent
of his Grandmothers “Hinata Hotsprings” Apartment complex…home to five
beautiful girls…one of whom may be that girl he’s been looking for his whole
life. Keitaro’s determined to fulfil his
promise…if the girls of Hinata don’t manage to kill him first.
So, stop me if you’ve heard this one. An aspiring student, a flirty drunk, an
exotic mecha fanatic, a kendo warrior and a shy cook walk into a hotsprings…and
that’s pretty much where it all ends.
Much like Bamboo Blade earlier this year, this is a bit of a change for
me in terms of shows to review. Love
Hina is not exactly heavy on action (though there is a bit thanks to one or two
characters) and it’s a harem comedy. For
a better example of this, look no farther than Tenchi Muyo. Love Hina’s a lot like that: one guy living
in a building surrounded by beautiful women…just no space adventures. So it is a little slice of life Anime. But I did say I wanted to try a couple of
different titles this year. So let’s hop
to this one, shall we?
While the animation isn’t anything to really brag about,
the big draw of a series like this are its characters. As stated above, it’s a pretty interesting
and very diverse cast. The stand outs
for me are easily Kaola Su and Motoko.
Motoko’s just a bad ass with a sword, able to perform otherworldly
attacks and providing the series with tiny snippiets of action. Kaola’s pretty unique in her design and
heritage. Of Indian decent, she’s pretty
wild and all over the place and she’s even into mecha. Her tank assault on Keitaro in the first
episode was funny but it was super odd to see her riding a robo horse down the
school hall. Are we sure this girl
shouldn’t just have her own show? Also,
what’s up with the “wolf whistle” sound effect when Kaola shows up
anywhere? Not knocking it, just a
strange choice.
Keitaro is a pretty lucky guy in a number of ways. While I would say it’s mostly because he’s
living under the same roof as five cute girls, its more so because he’s somehow
still alive after being punched, slashed at, punched again, exploded through a
hallway and tossed all over the freaking hotsprings. And while it’s fun to watch the first couple
of times, the first four episodes do seem to fall into the same, repetitive
pattern: Keitaro gets into a massive misunderstanding, is chased and slapped
around the hotsprings by Naru and everyone else, and eventually makes up for it
at the end. At least episode 5 changed
the scenery a bit…but even that lead to a weak story of Naru and Keitaro not
recognizing each other without their glasses but apparently not knowing each
other well enough to know the others voices.
Things could be better overall but we’re just starting off. If we’re still repeating ourselves by episode
10, then we’re in trouble.
I do really like the Hotsprings setting. It’s not as grand a castle as the Bath House
from Spirited Away, but the Hinata Apartment complex feels huge and a place I
could happily get lost in for hours. If
I had a girl like Naru showing me around, id be happier too. For all the rowdiness and chaos that comes
with kicking the crap out of Keitaro daily, I wouldn’t mind visiting or even
staying at a place like this from time to time.
Heck I wouldn’t even mind the three mystic old men popping up to give me
cryptic life notes, don’t ask why but I found them very entertaining.
So after a first few episodes, we got introduced to our
main cast; got one storyline partly resolved, or at least im really glad
Keitaro’s secret of not being a Tokyo U student didn’t stay that way for long
and is out in the open; found some good laughs and some wrinkles that need to
be ironed out. No matter what though,
this is our series of choice to close out the summer. Girls, hotsprings and random robots flying
around courtesy of a tiny mad genius?
Eh, could think of worse vacation spots.
And plus since this series is about one kids journey to get into a
prestigious school and summer is at an end…well I actually just thought about
that, but timing amirite?
See ya next week.
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