Love Hina
Love Hina (ラブ ひな Rabu Hina) is a Japanese anime and manga series written and illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. The manga won the Kodansha Manga Award for best shōnen title in 2001 and the "Best Manga, USA Release" at the 2002 Anime Expo. The manga consists of 14 volumes. The anime is 25 episodes long and is supplemented with Christmas and Spring movies and the Love Hina Again OVA. There are also two Love Hina novelizations, both named Love Hina: The Novel and written by the series' anime screenwriters; volume 1 was written by Shō Aikawa (會川 昇, Aikawa Shō) under the pen name "Kurō Hazuki" (葉月 九ロウ, Hazuki Kurō) and volume 2 by Hiroyuki Kawasaki (川崎 ヒロユキ, Kawasaki Hiroyuki). Both novels have been released in the US by Tokyopop, the US publisher of the manga.The story is a shōnen comedy about a clumsy young man named Keitaro Urashima with an unparalleled amount of personal drive despite having horrible luck. After failing to get into Tokyo U (the college of his dreams), he visits his grandmother's onsen only to discover it has been turned into a girls' dorm. After his grandmother gives him the deed to the building, he has the tough job of being landlord, studying to get into Tokyo U, and dealing with the girls living there, who never pass up an opportunity to humiliate him.
The series falls under the harem comedy genre as well due to the familiar set up of one boy living with a group of sexy but unusual women. One distinguishing feature that sets this series apart from the average harem comedy is that, for a very large portion of the manga series, Keitaro is disliked by the girls. Whereas many of the same genre initially or very quickly place the main male character at the center of the girls' love, Keitaro is not only initially disliked by the girls, he suffers for a rather prolonged and extended period of time.
The series is most well known for putting humorously absurd elements into an ostensibly mundane universe, such as flying turtles, kami(spirits), and Su's destructive mecha.
The anime was released in North America by Bandai Entertainment, in Spain by Jonu Media, and in Singapore by Odex. As of July 1, 2007 FUNimation announced that they had bought the license to Love Hina from Bandai and are planning on re-releasing the series and movies. As of now, Love Hina Again has not been announced as a part of the re-release although it is highly likely that it will be too. On August 10, 2007 FUNimation announced it was simply going to re-release the series as is with no modifications.
