Manga Mumbles: Lets Talk Love Hina

Years ago, when I was a young Lass, I discovered manga and the choices back then was very limited and to make things even more fun, there was even less choices of where to find them and even worse if you don’t aim to travel to the city just for Manga. Back then I also use to be a weeb, into anime, worshipped Japan and thank the lords, I grew out of it, so the city was a frequent visit and back then, I wanted to read Love Hina but I delayed it for other series, like Battle Royale or Chobits.

Recently, I procured my partners 12 volumes of the series and read them all. I don’t look forward to the ending since I am in two minds about what I read to this point.

Let’s start with the first 8 volumes.

I did not like them. It was the same themes and, to be honest, abuse but in different areas and the story was not just going anyway. Sure, I love series that try and establish the goal and characters but I felt like it took 8 volumes to get anyway. The harem concept was a joke cause it’s super predictable that Naru, who constantly beats up Keitaro, is going to be the girl he marries. Another thing about Naru is the constant attacks on the guy, even when she is at fault. After the first few falls which results in tit grabs and garments being taken off, it loses its humour and becomes annoying cause it doesn’t stop.

I honestly wish I could talk more about the other characters but half the time, they are just in the background or props for more shit to be dished out on the somewhat boring and useless main protag. 

I get that when it was released, this use to be the best thing in Manga but reading it over ten years from it’s prime time, it’s not that great.

In my opinion, the first 8 volumes are just one giant filler.

Now, volume 9 started to garner interest from me cause it feels like the story was actually going somewhere. The characters seem to finally have a reason for being there besides props for the main two characters. The plot seems to make sense since they are now in Tokyo U and everything seems to finally mean something to the reader, it means progress.

Then, another character comes in and throws the story into a spin. I mean, at this point, why bother? 

Just means more work for both creator and reader but this addition brings in the whole incest thing which is beyond creepy in my opinion but I do admit, with her in the mix, it gave a spice to the story which also makes Naru pull her finger out her arse and do something about her feelings with Keitaro, which took nearly the whole series to get to this stage which should have been done when Mutsumi proposed herself as a love interest as Keitaro. No, we have to drag out an already dragged out series.

Normally I would rant and rave till the cows come home about how cliché and boring this series is and wonder how this actually got popular if it didn’t have the fan-service and harem themes that usually brings all the hormone driven males to their shores. I am still disappointed that it took 8 mangas to get somewhere interesting. I admit, I kept reading cause I love Tama-chan.

Now, I shall actually talk about the manga themselves.
For an older manga, the art style is still lovely but sometimes it gets really busy and overwhelming sometimes but at least they are utilising all the space.

The story is bland at best but it only really gets interesting after 8 volumes of filler work under the guise of story establishment. I mean, how hard is it to establish a story of a guy wanting to get into Tokyo U to fulfil a promise while living in luxury with a harem of gorgeous women, debatably with underage ones too, and then finally fulfilling that promise and marrying the girl of his dreams? 

Apparently with 8 filler volumes and 7 volumes of actual story where shit gets done.

Now the characters are not that great at first. The progress best when the story actually started to get interesting. Why won’t I say more on this or anything? All I can say is boring, bland and cliché. That’s this series in a nutshell and it’s quite sad. I bet if they remade it with all the good parts, I would probably have bought the series. I kind of glad that I never bought it originally, otherwise it may have ended up being a series I regret buying and would dump it on my friends who gets it up for the harem/fan-service/empty mangas like this.

I do apologise that this is not as positive as I would have liked but that would be lying. I actually struggled to read this series as a whole and I rarely take more than a few hours, let alone two weeks to read twelve volumes of a manga series. This says a lot about the series if anyone knows what I am like with a good manga. Spoiler: I read mangas in an hour or so cause I love a good story and I absorb it so much to the extent I regret finishing it, like I did with That Wolf-Boy is mine. Actually, I’d recommend that more than Love Hina and it could have done more with story.

Ken Akamatsu is a fascinating mangaka since I prefer some of his other series more than Love Hina, such as Negima and UQ Holder which are of the fantasy and supernatural themes but also have a reverse harem thing too. I also like the fact that he is a creator to the J-comi site that distributes digital versions of out-of-print manga. As much as I don’t like Love Hina, I feel that Ken did his best since this was his second series to garner much attention after A.I. Love You. If you are like me and can’t travel to local stores, you can purchase copies of his mangas from sites such as Book Depository.

Volume 1: $25.39aud (https://www.bookdepository.com/Love-Hina-Omnibus-1-Ken-Akamatsu/9781935429470?ref=grid-view&qid=1529977609622&sr=1-1)
Volume 2: $22.09aud (https://www.bookdepository.com/Love-Hina-Omnibus-2-Ken-Akamatsu/9781935429487?ref=grid-view&qid=1529977609622&sr=1-4)
Volume 3: $25.05aud (https://www.bookdepository.com/Love-Hina-Omnibus-3-Ken-Akamatsu/9781612620206?ref=grid-view&qid=1529977609622&sr=1-2)
Volume 4: $25.03aud (https://www.bookdepository.com/Love-Hina-Omnibus-4-Ken-Akamatsu/9781612620213?ref=grid-view&qid=1529977609622&sr=1-5)
Volume 5: $19.85aud (https://www.bookdepository.com/Love-Hina-Omnibus-5-Ken-Akamatsu/9781612620220?ref=grid-view&qid=1529977609622&sr=1-3)