Love Japanese Style! The Lovefest of Love Hina

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Title:	Love Japanese Style! The Lovefest of Love Hina
Creator:	Skyrocket
Date(s):	September 29, 2002
Medium:	online
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External Links:	Love Japanese Style! The Lovefest of Love Hina
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Love Japanese Style! The Lovefest of Love Hina is a September 2002 essay by Skyrocket.

It was part of this fan's series of columns at Fanfiction.net titled "Tsunami."

It serves as a fandom primer for the show Love Hina, one the author describes as a "nice romantic comedy anime."

This essay also include several fic recs.

Excerpts

The story of Love Hina starts when five-year-old Keitaro Urashima is asked to make a promise to one of his playmates. Said playmate, which happens to be a girl, tells Keitaro that if two people who love each other attend the prestigious Tokyo University together they’ll live happily ever after. Later, as the moving van carrying the girl out of his life rolls down the street, Keitaro chases after it promising to meet the girl again someday at Tokyo U.

Now flash forward fifteen years. Keitaro is a luckless loser who’s never had a girlfriend since the one he made the promise to. In fact, after so much time he’s even forgotten her name and face, but not the vow they made. Keitaro’s also just failed Tokyo U’s entrance exam for the second time and has been kicked out of the house by his parents.

With his prospects looking dim Keitaro leaves Tokyo for Hinata City where his grandma owns a hotel. Since grandma owns the place Keitaro figures that he can crash there for a while studying for another shot at getting into Tokyo U. But Keitaro is shocked to discover that his grandma’s hotel has now been converted into an all-girls dormitory called the Hinata Apartments. No men allowed!

Of course, things are never that simple. After arriving and causing an embarrassing incident with one of the female residents in the hotsprings bathing area, a dejected Keitaro is ready return home and grovel to his folks to be let back into the house. But then Keitaro’s aunt Haruka appears with a letter from his grandma. It seems that grandma has left Japan to enjoy her old age by going on a world tour. And she’s left Keitaro in charge of the Hinata Apartments.

So like it or not, the Hinata’s female residents are going to have to get used to living with a guy. Those residents being:

[descriptions of the six characters that comprise Love Hina’s core cast]

In terms of voice acting I was surprised to discover that Love Hina’s American cast seemed to have more experience than the Japanese does.

Of all the Japanese actors who provide the voices of Love Hina’s main characters only one of them seemed to have what I’d call extensive voice acting experience. That person being Yuji Ueda, the voice of Keitaro. He was also Sanosuke Sagara in Rurouni Kenshin, Akito Tenkawa in Martian Successor Nadesico and Takeshi/Brock on Pokèmon.

While not as extensive, two other actors from Love Hina’s original version did work that caused me to take notice. Yu Asakawa, Motoko, was also Priss Asagiri in Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 and Sheris in Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. Yui Horie, Naru, played Toru Honda in Fruits Basket and Multi in To Heart.

All the other primary cast members had done other work, but little of it would be familiar to American anime fans. As always, if you want more information visit the Internet Movie Database (http://us.imdb.com).

However, two of the shows supporting characters were played by people very much of note. None other than Japan’s most famous voice actress, Megumi Hayashibara, voices Haruka Urashima. Fans know her as the voice behind such favorite characters as Rei Ayanami in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ai Amano in Video Girl Ai, female Ranma in Ranma ½ and Lina Inverse in Slayers. She also sings Love Hina’s catchy opening theme song "Sakura Saku".

Our other Japanese actor of note, Yasunori Matsumoto, can be found playing the role of Seta . He’s best known as Gourry Gabriev in Slayers and Dick Saucer in Dragon Half.

On the American side of things English dub also sports some impressive talent. Dorothy Melendrez (Meryl Strife in Trigun and Kaoru Kamiya in Rurouni Kenshin) handles Naru. Ruby Marlowe (Melfina on Outlaw Star, Fuu Hououji in Magic Knight Rayearth and Miaka Yuki in Fushigi Yugi) does Shinobu. Georgette Rose (Kasumi Tani in Handmaid May and Kiki Rosito in Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team) voices Kitsune. Wendee Lee (Faye Valentine on Cowboy Bebop, Suzuka on Outlaw Star and Vanessa Leeds on Robotech) is Kaolla Su.

Mona Marshell, who plays Motoko, has the most interesting resume. In addition to playing several anime roles she’s also the voice of Sheila Broslofski and Wendy Testaburger on South Park. Yes, that South Park.

Despite having such an experienced cast I was rather let down by the dub of Love Hina. The main problems being the accents used for Kitsune and Su. In the Japanese version Kitsune speaks with a *very* stereotypical Osaka accent. In the English version this was played as a wild Southern accent. Every time I hear Kitsune in English I instantly think of Blanche from The Golden Girls. It’s that kind of accent.

Su, on the other hand, is given a strange Hindi accent. Which isn’t a terrible idea given her character design. But the way she speaks makes me think of Apu from The Simpsons. I almost expect her to say "Thank you! Come again!" at the end of each of her sentences.

While not as big a problem as the aforementioned, I was also disappointed by Mona Marshell’s take on Motoko. In Japanese Motoko speaks with a highly formal Kyoto accent. A cultured British accent would be a close equivalent in English. But in the dub Motoko tends to speak in a way I find way too casual for her character.

But the dub does have its good points. I wasn’t too happy when I found out Dorothy Melendrez was playing Naru. She’s a good actress, but she works best when playing older female characters. I found her performance as seventeen-year-old Kaoru Kamiya in Rurouni Kenshin to be a bit of a letdown. Since Naru was also seventeen I was worried. It takes her several episodes, but eventually Dorothy manages to get comfortable with Naru and starts turning out some really good work.

Ruby Marlowe does a great take on Shinobu that manages to sound quite a bit like the Japanese voice. Credit should also be given to Jane Alan for her excellent work as Haruka.

There is one final gripe I have with the Love Hina dub. In the English dialogue some of the show’s more hormonal humor was toned down. I don’t want to spoil the series for anyone by giving specific examples, but if you turn on the subtitles and watch the dub you’ll see what I mean.

In terms of animation I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Love Hina. The animation was handled by Studio Xebec, who also worked on shows like Martian Successor Nadesico, Sorcerer Hunters and Gatekeepers. Since Love Hina aired in Japan back in 2000 the animation looks great. The show also sports some of the finest color work I’ve seen in any anime. The bright palette used for the show very much enhances Love Hina’s cheery and upbeat nature.

How much Love Hina is there?

There’s the Love Hina TV series, The Love Hina Spring Special, The Love Hina Winter Special and the OVA series Love Hina: Smile Again. At this point only the TV series and Winter Special have been licensed for US release. But given that Love Hina is a hit in America the rest is bound to be picked up sooner or later.

What objectionable content does this series have?

No much. There’s a fair amount of sexual humor, but not really anything you couldn’t get away with on primetime. There’s also a bit of swearing and Keitaro getting beaten up a lot. Nothing really above a TVPG level.

The Love Hina manga is pretty much the same, only there the girls flash quite a bit more skin and the humor is somewhat raunchier. But in terms of actual nudity all you’re going to see is a girl’s butt from time to time. I’ve actually had a friend who’s an art major in college marvel at Love Hina creator Ken Akumatsu’s ability to come up with ways to cover a girl’s vital areas and not have it bog down the art.

The manga is rated OT: Older Teen 16+. This seems a little excessive to me. That 16+ rating is what TokyoPop (the company that releases the Love Hina manga) also gives to its release of the Sorcerer Hunters manga which is far more deserving of that sort of rating. As long as you’re not horribly offended by hormonal humor and an occasional butt I’d say the manga is fine for anyone over fourteen.

What are the chances of seeing this show on TV?

Don’t bet on it. Love Hina makes no bones that the show is set in Japan. I think it rather unlikely that mainstream America is going to go for a comedy set on the other side of the world. Plus, Love Hina’s lack of action makes it unlikely that Cartoon Network, or any other channel that shows anime, would take an interest.

In what formats is this show available in?

If you only have a VCR you’re out of luck. Love Hina is a DVD only release. As of this writing volume four of six had been released.