In order to make a little more money for the Hot Springs,
the gangs head off to the beach, taking jobs at Haruka’s tea house. There’s sun, surf and girls in all manner of
sexy bikinis. And the Hinata Gang isn’t going
alone. Seta and Sarah are along for the ride as well. And Seta’s about to throw a curve ball that
no one sees coming. Between work,
putting on stage plays, festivals, exorcisms, the sudden appearance of Su’s
older brother (who really does look like Keitaro), will Naru and Keitaro
finally get the chance to deepen their friendship? Knowing those two…probably not.
Ah the beach. It’s
not just a cruel reminder that the days of summer are almost over (for me I’m
actually ok with that), it’s also a staple of most harem Anime. At some point, the man surrounded by
beautiful women will travel to the sandy ocean beaches so his female companions
can run around in bikini’s, looking hotter than normal and get into sexy escapades. In
truth, some of Love Hina’s best moments have come from this little diversion.
Sarah has always been grating in my eyes. Her penchant for causing trouble to protect
her immortal status as daddy’s girl was always more annoying than
anything. So it was great to see the
gang get the one up on her a little bit, be it Motoko’s discipline and Su
setting Sarah up to take the fall for messes.
But thankfully, the brat learned some lessons and now seems set to find
a decent place amongst the Hinata crew.
I don’t know how much more than can do with her character being around
this late in the game but we’ll see what happens.
Motoko also got a great stand out episode, once
again. I am getting a little tired of
her femininity being called into question.
Her fan club seems pretty certain her lightening up around Keitaro is
ruining her life when in fact it’s actually making Motoko a more fun
character. It was great to see her and
Keitaro on the same page when it came to pulling out all the stops to save a
possessed Naru. When Motoko’s
supernatural battles get shuffled in with the plot, it’s always a good
time. I would love to see some side
stories with her as an exorcist. Hell throw
in Su and they’d make a great, destructive team.
What the hell is up with Seta suddenly becoming the
center of everybody’s universe? Not only
is he Naru’s old crush and can go head to head with Motoko in combat…but
Kitsune also has a crush on him and apparently he and Haruka had a thing long
ago? Yeah, I think it’s safe to say once
again that Seta is the future Keitaro: he has the eyes and admiration (sort of)
of all the Hinata ladies, he’s got a job he loves plus he passed his entrance
exams, and he’s immortal (seriously how many car crashes is that now?) Seta’s entertaining and all but forcing him
into everyone elses lives like that was drama for drama’s sake. And in truth it only worked with Haruka, I wouldn’t
mind some background episodes with her and Seta dating.
We didn’t spend all time at the beach. We came back to Hinata for one fun, but
troubled little romp and an episode that didn’t need to happen. The return of Adult Su was a blast and seeing
Su face off against her brother was great (probably one of the few, if only,
times Su has been outwitted and defeated).
And it was amusing to see Su and Sarah have become partners in crime,
Sarah even going without a second thought to help Su get away from her
brother. My problem is with the whole Su’s
brother looks like Keitaro aspect. I
went back and rewatched, but I don’t remember when Keitaro’s skin tone suddenly
changed to accommodate the joke that he and Su’s brother cant be told
apart. It bothered me a lot, more so
than the fact that Mitsune has returned with all of her dimwitted schtick. The second episode was a little more
forgettable: the crew finds an old doll that Keitaro’s great grandfather had as
a friend. There were a couple of feel
moments but overall, it didn’t need to exist at all.
Lastly, forgot to bring up the fact that the beach arc
started with the crew trying to put on a stage performance of the legendary
Journey to the West tale. This story is
pretty much the basis for a couple of popular anime, most notably Dragon Ball
and Saiyuki. The pratfalls of getting
the show off the ground were…ok, not the best.
In my opinion the other two episodes on the beach were better (especially
when all of the girls sang the theme song together during the fireworks scene). We did get to see Naru in a skimpy, Princess
Leia style bikini…but it bothers me a bit that it was Seta’s idea to put her in
the outfit (even if he is, in his own way, trying to push Naru and Keitaro closer
together). BTW if anyone remembers the
TV series “Monkey Magic”…yeah I was thinking about that theme song during this
episode. If you do remember it, more
power to you.
Four parts down, one to go. Can Keitaro win the girl of his dreams AND
get into Tokyo U? Well knowing Mitsune
is around chances are things are going to go to hell in a hand basket really
quickly. Still, the beach episodes were
fun. Now we just need to see if this
show can somehow pull off a satisfying finale.
I’m kind of split to be honest.
Do I want this series to be over?
Sort of, im looking forward to the next couple of upcoming shows. Still, there are some parts of this series I’m
going to miss…but we’ll get to all of that next week when we wrap this up.
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