Customer Reviews

Love Hina, Vol. 4

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Love Hina is definetely a great manga for everyone. It follows the antics of 19 year old ronin (student who fails his college exams) as caretaker of a womans dorm. I own both the Tokyopop version and the existing Kodansha bilinguals, but I think that the Tokyopop version is a bit more of an ejoyable read than the bilingual. For one, the Japanese cultural references are made easier for a Western reader to comprehend, and the dialogue comes across as being much more fluid. However, the bilinguals tend to translate some things that the tokyopop version skips, like sound effects and dramatic asides from characters. If you're looking for an exact translation at the expense of the plot, stick with the bilinguals. But the bilinguals are much shorter than the Tokopop version, so really, #6,7,8 of the bilinguals are just #4-5 on the tokyopop, so don't think you can buy the bilingual to get a jump on Tokyopops stupid release schedule. (One book a month!? don't they know how long that is to wait??) I haven't seen the anime yet, but I hear it compresses a lot of the plot and downplays the character depth, which is by far the best part of the series. No matter who you are, you'll love the eccentric cast of characters and the way the interact with each other. I've read some of the as yet un-published manga online, and it just keeps getting better (and weirder.) Hope this review helped you a lot. All that said, this is the coolest manga ever, and is a great buy for anyone who likes manga or just Japanese culture in general.

The story so far: Keitaro remembers making a promise to a girl about attending Tokyo University so they could live happily ever after together. Unfortunately he doesn't know who this girl is but he thinks it may be the most abusive resident at Hinata House! It turns out that she isn't as bad as she seems when she offers to help him study for the entranace exams since that is her goal too. Naru becomes upset after failing her entrance exams and finding herself a ronin. She trys to runaway but Keitaro follows. As she trys to get away from him they end up running into eachother everywhere! They end up at the same hotel (turns out they're both using the smae travel guide) and the woman there is a room short and puts them in the same room! A Honeymoon Room! Meanwhile back at Hinata House, the residents frantically try to find the two fearing that they may have tied the knot! This thought causes panic in the residents because although they don't want to admit, they have a crush on Keitaro! My favorite of the first three is this one! by far the funniest!
In this volume: Naru's blues about failing the entrance exam catch up to her. Keitaro and Naru's friend Mutsumi turns out to be a major harzard to herself and others. Keitaro now must deal with the turtle that Mutsumi gave them. Keitaro and and Naru go on a hunt to track down Tama-chan because she has left with a watch that belongs to Naru. As they try to follow her it turns out that Hinata House has many secret passages and that the watch is so important to Naru because Keitaro gave it to her last Christmas! So does she really like him? Not even she wants to come to terms with her feelings!

This is the fourth volume in a very funny manga series. But don't start with this volume, start with the first one. This particular volume introduces the characters of Seta, a university lecturer; and his bratty daughter, Sarah. Anyway, it is still as funny as ever, and if you enjoyed the earlier volumes, you will enjoy this one. Oh, one minor criticism about the series in general: sometimes the placement of the balloons makes it difficult to tell who is speaking. Other than that, I have nothing bad to say about the series.

I have greatly enjoyed this anime series. The antics of Keitaro keep getting him into trouble with the girls in his house. Eventually they grow to love him, and you will too. On the other hand, I have read both this version of the Love Hina series and the Bilingual version. While the text is almost identical, the bilingual version translates the in frame descriptions off to the side. Things like "chop chop", "ashamed", etc are only translated in the bilingual. Beyond that, the bilingual version is printed on higher quality materials and features the outer cover common to manga, which the english version does not. Also, all of the volumes are available in the bilingual form, so you dont have to wait until december to get 6, 7, and 8. So, my final summary is that the story is very amusing, but you should get it in the bilingual form, which can be found online for only [$$] more.

Excellent series. Extremely funny. Great artwork. Great storytelling. Recommended for any one who likes manga.

Ken Akamatsu, Love Hina vol. 4 (Tokyopop, 1999)

Oh, Akamatsu-sensei, why'd you have to do it? Here I am all happy that I've found my favorite manga since I discovered Bleach, and you had to go and toss in a super-animal. Worse yet, you had to do so in a volume where the plot seems strained as it is; this is a lot more contrived than earlier volumes (and given how contrived some of the situations get, that's really saying something). I'm not going to stop reading the series, because I still love the characters, but man, I hope this flying turtle fades into the background mighty quick. ***

Beautiful! Excellent! Hilarious! Intriguing! Ken Akamatsu creates yet another amazing volume of Love Hina! Definetly wan't a disappointment! I have nothing else left to say.

This series is grate. Naru realizes(kinda)that she likes Keitaro and before that makes him cry. READ THIS!!!!