Love Hina Again

By Dani Moure     February 19, 2008
Release Date: January 28, 2008



What They Say
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Hot Spring! Keitaro and Naru have finally begun college life at Tokyo University! After a long period of studying, bizarre happenings, random trips, and misunderstandings upon misunderstandings, their dream has finally come true! However, their feelings for each other are still a little... muddled. And with a newer, stricter manager to run the Hinata Apartments - Will anyone survive Hinata Boot Camp? It's Love (Hina) Again. Welcome back....


The Review!
The last of the Love Hina anime finally arrives on UK shores after an extraordinarily long wait, but is it worth it?

Audio:
Having heard the series in its entirety in Japanese, I opted for the English dub again for this special, and my opinion remains the same. The performances were a little better, but still sounded off in places and again I can only put this down to the direction because there are some great actors in the cast. The volume level is also low; far more so than the Japanese track, and sounds a little bit tinny at times. It's disappointing as this show's dub could've been a real riot if it'd been handled better.

I did spot-check the Japanese track, and the performances continue to be enjoyable. It sounds very good (at a decent volume level), and I noticed no dropouts or distortions during regular playback.

Video:
I didn’t notice any compression problems with this disc, and really it looked like a very good transfer. Colours come out well, nice and vibrant, and there’s no noticeable aliasing. Once again though since we get a credit roll in kanji, there are no translated credits anywhere on the disc itself.

Subtitles are in a nice yellow font, and are a good, clear size. I noticed no spelling or grammatical errors that stood out throughout the episodes.

Packaging:
No packaging was included as this was a check disc.

Menu:
The main menu has a pink outline with selections running across the bottom, while pictures of the main characters fade in and move across the screen in front of Hinata House, while the main theme from the OVA plays. Sub-menus are all static with no music, and access times in general are fast.

Extras:
The only extras here are a collection of the 3 textless endings, the textless opening and two art galleries.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Love Hina TV series was a very mixed bag; a fairly typical harem comedy whose saving grace throughout its 24 episode run was the endearing cast of characters. At the time of release though, the series was extremely popular both in Japan and the US, and it spawned several specials. The previously released Spring and Christmas outings were the highpoints of the animated series for me, but neither finished the story (at least to where Ken Akamatsu’s manga finished). And thus, Love Hina Again was born. A three-part OVA series designed to wrap up the animated saga, it’s both the same as the TV series yet different, and in a good way. And if all you want to know is whether it actually concludes things, the answer is... yes!

It all starts in familiar fashion, and you’d be forgiven for initially thinking this is just going to be another, typical outing of Love Hina, albeit one that looks nicer. With Keitaro and Naru finally accepted into Tokyo U, they go together at the start of term, only for Naru to hit Keitaro and him inadvertently break his leg. This leads to him missing the first term and going off on a trip with Seta, leaving Naru behind and without him. As she gets lonely, a new girl turns up to wreak havoc at Hinata House – Kanako, Keitaro’s sister.

With Kanako’s arrival things get a bit frustrating both for Naru and the viewer, as she is purely there to drive a big fat wedge between Keitaro and Naru, since she has feelings for her brother, and she even works to drive the other girls away. She dresses up as everyone else as well to try and play all the girls off against each other with their feelings for Keitaro. And it works to a point, at least until Keitaro comes home. Then attentions turn to the strange annex at the back of the house that is said to bring true love to the two people who spend the night there together. This means that there’s more of Naru being forced away from Keitaro and Kanako, the latter truly having her finger wrapped round her brother thanks to the spiritual forces at work.

Alas, true love conquers all in the end, and you’ll be forgiven for thinking this doesn’t sound much different than the rest of the series. But the main difference that made it work for me was that it’s Naru who becomes the bumbling fool unable to work out her feelings, while Keitaro is driven and even manages to overcome all the adversity thrown at him to reaffirm his feelings for Naru. Their roles are almost reversed, and it was watching Naru finally realise once and for all just how much Keitaro is worth to her that made the thing worth watching.

The other characters all get their moments, particularly when the other five girls all get to show their support for the main couple in the final scenes in the annex, and it’s actually quite nice to see them all again, as they were always the series’ main charm. Kanako is not quite so welcome, though. Her whole purpose is to be annoying and drive the characters apart, and she succeeds in both. But even if that is why she’s there, she does far too good a job of being irritating and often becomes grating.

Of course, that’s always been one of Love Hina’s drawbacks, and like many of the series’ other worst traits, it’s in full force here. It would be foolish to try and suggest that the many problems that plagued the series aren’t here in some form, from the pointlessness of a lot of it to the annoying over-physicality, the reliance on stupid and completely unrealistic plot devices and of course, the extremely frustrating will they, won’t they, lets pull them apart over and over again style that the series has always had.

Thankfully, the animation is really good and a notable step up in quality over the TV series and even the other two specials, while the music is as typical as ever. It’s worth noting the same problems with the English dub of the rest of the franchise still exist (most notably, the horrible accents), but that was to be expected.

In Summary:
If you’ve had enough of Love Hina or hated it to begin with, this finale is never going to win you over. It’s produced purely for fans as a way to provide an animated form of the final chapters of the manga. In that sense, it succeeds and most fans will probably enjoy it a great deal. It’s been a long time coming, and it’s limited in appeal, but for fans it’s worth a purchase.

Features
Japanese Language (2.0),English Language (2.0),English Subtitles,Textless Opening and Endings (3),Art Galleries

Review Equipment
Philips 28" Pure Flat Widescreen TV, Pioneer DV-464 code free DVD player, JVC gold-plated RGB SCART cable, standard stereo sound.