
a review by NaruMembrane

a review by NaruMembrane
Love Hina is a manga centering on Keitarō Urashima and his attempts to fulfill a childhood promise that he made with a girl to enter the University of Tokyo together. However, he has forgotten the name of the girl he made the promise to and hopes to be accepted into the university in order to find her. Having failed the entrance exam twice and with his parents no longer willing to support him, he goes to stay at his grandmother's hotel, only to find out that it has been converted into a female-only apartment. The tenants are about to kick him out when his aunt appears and announces that his grandmother has given him the title to the apartments. Much to their dismay Keitarō becomes the new manager of the family-owned girls' dorm Hinata House and must now balance his new responsibilities in addition to studying for the university entrance exam.
Ken Akamatsu (The Mangaka of the series) had also added elements of his own life experiences for the series, and this was said to have induced a unique feeling to the manga especially for Western readers, whose lack of familiarity with Japanese culture for the most part added to the effect.
The series is one of the founders of the Harem genre in anime/manga.
Side note: I would recommend not watching the anime it's a fine example of how not to adapt an anime, I'm not going to explain why because It'll be unnecessary since this is a manga review not an anime. But here's a manga readers take on the anime if you want to see.
Plot 10/10
As I previously stated the series is about a boy named Keitaro Urashima who want to fulfill his childhood promised by attending the University of Tokyo with a girl, after flunking his entrance exam twice his parents basically kick him of their house where he goes to Hinata Inn when his aunt appears and announces that his grandmother has given him the manager job of the Inn.
The series structure (Mostly) stays the same for about 60 chapters, where Keitaro and Naru (Mutsumi also joins them later on) often go to the entrance exams where they flunk however after chapter 60 the series goes a different path. Keitaro, Naru, and Mutsumi actually passed the entrance exams except Keitaro still believed he flunk, so he leaves Japan and where's he along with Naru get stuck of an island, though they'll later get back to Japan (I honestly don't want to explain much of this arc being I want to talk about the series in general anyways).
Keitaro also earlier on meets Noriyasu Seta is a Tokyo University graduate and professor who specialises in archaeology who was also like Keitaro. After Keitaro goes to America he basically becomes like Seta, similar to how Simon became much like Kamina in Gurren Lagann.
I would also say without slandering any other series is that for a series that's over 2 decades old it's much better written than most harem anime that rather care more about fanservice than plot.
Characters 10/10
Love Hina has some of my favorite cast in anime/manga.
Keitaro is an example of a well written harem protagonist going from a clumsy failure to becoming a more confident character like Seta.
Naru (My Waifu) is an amazing character who started out as an asshole at first but gets more likeable as the series progress.
Mutsumi is a fun energetic character.
Shinobu is one of the best "Notice me senpai" girls in anime/manga.
Motoko is a badass swordsman who starts out as a "Man Hater" but later reveal's her feelings for Keitaro later on.
Mitsune is a pretty funny character.
Kaolla is a pretty fun character.
Haruka and Seta are also good characters as well.
Enjoyment 10/10
I really enjoyed reading this series, after rereading it, it still one of my favorite manga I've ever read.
Though I'm not too fond of the comedy (for the most part), I mostly enjoyed everything else about the series which is the story and the characters.
Overall 10/10
Overall it's one of my favorite manga I've ever read.
I would also say that the series isn't perfect by any means, while I didn't have specific thing I disliked about the series (though some of Keitaro's accidental pervert moments are annoying).
But I'll say this is a prime example on how to write an harem anime.
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