Love Hina Part 2 Episodes 6-10

Keitaro may be settling in to his appointment as manager of the Hinata Apartments but life is far from perfect.  Of the five female tenants he lives with: one doesn’t trust him, one is too shy to talk to him, one will not stop flirting, one wont stop until he is killed in her mecha antics, and the final may or may not be a girl he made a promise to years ago.  As Keitaro endeavors to win Naru’s heart, he must contend with a handsome rival, a ditzy girl who doesn’t know how chaotic she is, video game fantasies and a bevy of daily injuries.  For love, for good grades, Keitaro will brave it all…hopefully.

I know some people have been wondering why I decided to cover this series.  And, to be honest, im wondering why myself sometimes.  Love Hina has always been a bit of a guilty pleasure, a way to mix things up a bit in my Anime watching life.  The girls are cute, the story doesn’t follow the most logical approach and, at the end of the day, it’s just a little silly.  It’s just that, now that im looking at it from a critical approach, im seeing more scratches in the cute armor than id like.

As cute a potential couple they are, Naru and Keitaro can get pretty aggravating sometimes. They like each other and they establish this in these episodes more than before.  Keitaro wants to get to know her better but ends up being beaten over the head in many different ways.  By the way, is Keitaro immortal?  He’s been sent flying into the air, punched, blown up, slashed at and various other manners of physical abuse by nearly everyone in the Hinata Apartments.  It almost makes one wonder if besides the cute style and fashion sense and good looks, is Naru really worth it all?

Not helping Keitaro’s quest much is new addition Mitsune, an air head who seems to do whatever she wants no matter how destructive or ridiculous it might be.  Her schtick got old for me super quick and even the world wind journey across all of Japan couldn’t warm me up to her.  Keitaro’s more handsome counterpart, KENtaro, was a little more amusing, if only because everyone either kept forgetting he existed or kept mixing his name up with Keitaro. 

Where this set did get a bit better for me was in its second half.  We actually got to focus on something other than Naru and Keitaro for a bit and looked at the other characters.  Motoko’s Final Fantasy dream was great and every single reaction the straight faced Motoko gave the increasingly hilarious situation was great.  We got mashups of fantasy, magical girl and even the Legend of Zelda (giant transportation turtle Tama).  We also got a good Su episode, with a little more Magical Girl cause…it’s needed?  Su’s always been one of the most entertaining parts of this show.  She’s like Ed from Cowboy Bebop with her unpredictability and riddle like phrases.  But she’s probably the smartest girl living at Hinata…well maybe not as smart as prankster Kitsune, who’s mischief causing false robbery gave us a great tour of the Hinata complex.  I always said this place feels big and man is it.  Oh and Su’s room is a jungle…take what you will from that.

I’ll end it on the note of us also getting our own little cute mascot, Tama the Turtle.  “She” flies, can be cloned through Magical Girl powers (she’s kind of Su’s spirit animal even if she threatens to eat her) and just has the cutest face ever…well as far as Anime Mascot’s go.  Here’s hoping Tama survives the hotsprings more than living with Mitsune, how the hell did she keep Tama alive that long with the way she is.

It’s not perfect, I know it’s far from it.  But there’s a weird sense of comfort that comes from watching this show.  Will it get better in the next few episodes?  Well, like me, you’ll know when I get the review posted.  Til then, catch ya later.