Love Hina, Vol. 4 (Paperback)

by Ken Akamatsu (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Flying turtles, an all-girl dorm, 20-somethings falling in love (or at least in and out of crushes), hot tub escapades-these are only a few of the elements that Akamatsu throws together with the enthusiasm of a teenager whose hormones are running amok. The plot revolves around the exploits of Keitaro, an earnest, bespectacled kid who runs a traditional Japanese-style estate that doubles as an all-girl dorm. Dubbed Hinata House, Keitaro's living situation comes equipped with a cast of female characters ranging from cute love interest Naru to the hard-drinking sex addict Kitsune. This setup of a single boy in a house full of girls is not as volatile as it might seem, though: in keeping with the book's target audience of preteen girls, this series' humor tends to be only marginally provocative. One of the book's running gags features Keitaro accidentally falling against or groping one of his female friends, for which he is inevitably knocked silly, but that's as risqu‚ as things get. This heavy reliance on sitcom-type humor helps sustain the frothiness of the proceedings, reinforced by Akamatsu's clean, expert drawings. But despite its occasional, fanciful forays into magic realism, the book never moves beyond the predictable. This in itself would not be a problem-it's the rare mainstream manga that deviates too far from standard tv plot lines-but the book also lacks the quirkiness that can be mainstream manga's saving grace, though missing the imaginative sizzle of a truly innovative or even truly engaging manga, this should nevertheless be comfortingly familiar to readers who want nothing more than what's expected.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
The Hinata house is about to get some new tenants. Naru’s old tutor and secret crush, Seita Noriyasu, stops by with his adopted daughter Sarah, a spunky 7-year-old American. With Naru’s affections drifting to the charismatic older Seita, Keitaro is in danger of losing his one true love. As if things aren’t crazy enough, there’s a new pet in the Hinata House as well -- a flying sea turtle named Tama-chan, who loves to chase the girls around.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: TokyoPop (August 20, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591820154
• ISBN-13: 978-1591820154
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #497,775 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great manga, definetly a must read, October 10, 2002

By	"chimara27" (Southeast USA) - See all my reviews

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, July 31, 2003

By A Customer

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!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You will believe a turtle can fly, October 6, 2004

By	Johnny Heering "trivia buff" (Bethel, CT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.