Life in the Hinata Hot Springs has finally found a bit of
balance. Keitaro seems to be getting
along fine with everyone and is getting especially close to Naru. For once, Tokyo U takes a backseat as Pop
Star Idols, Mecha Tamas, the dream of a first kiss and the arrival of an old
acquaintance rock Hinata and everyones dealing with it in their own way. Will Naru go back to dreaming about her old
Tokyo U mentor and leave Keitaro behind?
And what happens when a seventh girl, who despises Naru, is thrown into
the mix and raises Hell for the Hinata gang?
“You never know what you’re gonna find in the Hinata
Hotsprings.” Seta couldn’t’ve said it
better. This week I started to remember
why I think fondly of this show as a guilty pleasure series. Finally we got to some fun stories, some
nonsensical adventures…and a couple of things I don’t particularly care for in
this series but one thing at a time. Let’s
focus on the positives first.
Mecha. Tama. I should just leave it at that but I’m sorry,
I gotta go into how ridiculous the concept it and somehow, it’s the best part
of the series so far. Seeing cute little
Tama is one thing, but a mechanized army of tiny Tama’s plus a Godzilla sized
one? I’ll add that to the win
column. This whole little scenario was
complimented by the insane defense tactics of Su and Kitsune with “Night on
Bald Mountain” playing in the background.
Actually this whole episode gave everyone who wasn’t Naru or Keitaro a
chance to shine. Mostly it was Motoko
coming to terms with embracing her feminine side to unleash her full potential
and defeat Mecha Tama. It was fun to see
a little bit of added development for the little turtle too. Not only do we find out Tama is a girl but
she also crushes on Motoko when she’s wearing cute clothes…weird but ok. It was also great to see Haruka a little
panicked about the destruction Mecha Tama could cause, we haven’t seen her get
nervous about anything yet. And really,
how long before Su builds a weapon of mass destruction and howls with laughter
as it blows everything up? It’s just
bound to happen after all of this.
With the appearance of Mecha Tama and the arrival of
Seta, more on him in a moment, we also got to explore Hinata like never
before. The journey’s through the
underground tunnels had a definite “Indiana Jones” parody to them, right down
to an enormous boulder chasing the gang towards certain doom. Equally entertaining is that all tunnels lead
to familiar rooms or established settings like Haruka’s restaurant. Seriously, any chance to run around this
place and explore new additions is a huge plus on this series for me. Say what you will about my likes and
dislikes, but I freaking love it here at Hinata.
I’ll just call it now, Seta is the future version of
Keitaro. He’s prone to personal injury
but is also immortal. He is a bit
clueless about the feelings of others but has a good heart. Not saying he’s a time traveler or a clone
but Seta is the potential success, if you can call it that, Keitaro could be if
he succeeds at getting into Tokyo U.
Though, we didn’t learn too much about the danger prone professor
besides his being Naru’s former tutor and his unexplained relation to his
daughter “Sarah McDougall.” (Probably adopted).
I’m sure he’ll be sticking around and making Keitaro’s quest for Naru
more difficult. But that also mean his
annoying daughter, Sarah, will be sticking around too. What a freaking brat. She’s just someone this show doesn’t need
right now, especially since she’s destined to be Girl #7 living at Hinata (yes I
count Haruka too). It’s like Sarah’s
been placed there to make everyones lives a living hell...and im not in the
mood for that, her schtick isn’t even that funny.
There was a ton of other filler and personal moments for
the central couple of the series.
Keitaro and Naru seemed to be doing a better, but only a little. Keitaro once again declared he’s behind Naru
no matter what: be it becoming a pop idol (who performs some nice tunes) or
declaring her love for Seta. Gotta give
the guy points for being so freaking selfless.
And while she was still doing a lot of kicking his ass, Naru did show
that she does value Keitaro quite a bit and doesn’t want to lose his friendship
(bumps, bruises and all). Progress is
progress I guess.
As I said above, all of the central cast had their
moments this week. Kitsune had some good
humor attempting to keep Naru from running into Seta, including some very provocative
bearhugs from behind to Naru. The only
character who didn’t shine as much was Shinobu, whose “first kiss” story was a
bit more serious than needed to be. Not a
lot has been done with Shinobu since she got to Hinata. Heck while she hasn’t had a real solo episode
yet, even Kitsune has had more to do and Motoko and Su have had their own
centered episodes too. I guess it was
heartwarming to see Su call Shinobu her best friend and was just hanging out
with another acquaintance to learn more about her.
This wasn’t the worst week for Love Hina and I’m glad I’ve
reached some episodes I really enjoyed.
Even the core couple didn’t annoy me as much as they have been. Just how much Seta and Sarah will shake
things up remains to be seen. But we’re
halfway through the series and starting the final stretch. I imagine some waves will be made before the
end. Until that comes, see ya next week
everyone.
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