Love Hina (Manga 'n Show)

Reenee · 08-02-2006, 01:28 PM

From the various animé I've seen, I almost always get them on a whim.

I watched the show first (and I heard that the "Again" episodes were not great, which is odd seeing as it tries to follow the manga a bit more) and after that, I finished reading the manga. Hands down, the manga is a lot better than the show.

Something irks me a bit: Love Hina tries to have this "out there" factor amidst the realism, namely from the two characters of Motoko and Su. I mean, you can make weird stuff work but I don't think Love Hina did it so well. It does it worse than the manga than in the show since the show doesn't follow the manga a lot. The show adds that egotistical rich-boy-turned-dirt-poor character that really didn't do much and it adds its own sorts of sub-plots which for the most part I think were somewhat rediculous because they dealt with Su's rebellious Mecha-Tama about half the time. When that thing got to the size of the Hinata-sou, it get "ehh". Same with Su's transformations and relations with her siblings. Motoko's abilities were at least kept in moderation enough not to seem way too out there. I did sort of like the bit portion focusing on Sarah. Also, the flow of the story is altered so portions in the manga will appear sooner or later (i.e. the situation with the divorce of Shinobu's parents). It's all just plain frigging weird. If Love Hina garnered enough popularity for a show, why couldn't it run long enough to follow the manga as it was? It wasn't as epic and the last episode is plainly out of place as well.

On the manga, though...I don't know how or why but I simply got a rise out of the thing. You just get that accelerating feeling of enthusiasm in you when you're reading the latter half of the story and the whole deal with Naru and Keitarou was just executed beautifully, IMHO.

Though with all the travelling going around there, you'd wonder where all the finances came from, especially with the situation back at the dorm.

A lingering weak point if you will, considering where they went. At least Su's inventions were not as rediculous as in the show.

Overall, I felt it was worth my time, moreso with the manga. I think it was right with starting with the show first and then moving to the manga. I'm contemplating to watch Love Hina Again and the other specials.

THD5% · 08-02-2006, 01:38 PM

though i have yet to read some of the later mangas (like 7-13 or so), and watch the spring special, and sit down to watch Again, i must say, i really like Love Hina.

regardless of all the random things, the show is still overall very funny, with a tad of romance every few episodes, with the final episodes being really pretty intense.

Reenee, whos your favorite girl and guy?

i love Mutsumi for some reason, just because shes so klutzy, and Seta always seemed to be a really funny guy, always trying to act so much better than Keitaro, though in situations he can really just freak out.

(i have all the episodes limewire'd <3)

Reenee · 08-02-2006, 01:44 PM

Ahh, yes, the funny. I'd say it's around "above average" and "worthwhile" but I still had my share of laughs.

Fanservice is moderately high, probably too much for a lot of people, but I'm a pervert so this really doesn't phase me. If anything, the fanservice is irrelevant to me. X3

*sigh* Silly favorite character poll? Seta and Keitaro on the guys side simply because they have aspects that remind me of me. And besides Mutsumi, I like Kitsune (personality and her appearance XD) and Naru. A little liking to Aunt Haruka for being calm and cool too. Shinobu is mere comedy fodder to me. She's the comic-relief.

THD5% · 08-02-2006, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reenee

Ahh, yes, the funny. I'd say it's around "above average" and "worthwhile" but I still had my share of laughs.

Fanservice is moderately high, probably too much for a lot of people, but I'm a pervert so this really doesn't phase me. If anything, the fanservice is irrelevant to me. X3

*sigh* Silly favorite character poll? Seta and Keitaro on the guys side simply because they have aspects that remind me of me. And besides Mutsumi, I like Kitsune (personality and her appearance XD) and Naru. A little liking to Aunt Haruka for being calm and cool too.

Aunt Haruka always never cared about anythig, thats probably my favorite part about her.

I love the "bonus episode" where Motoko decides to get her act together and becomes somewaht a maid, and when Kitsune goes to drink Sake ends up drinking rice wine.

or the fact of pure irony that Keitaro actually breaks a bone (or sprains his ankle? i forget) in the christmas movie, by falling off of a roof.

Axem Rangers · 08-02-2006, 01:57 PM

Manga- Best lots-of-girls-one-guy story ever. Starts out kind of weak, yeah, but the characters actually do have development (which is unfortunetly uncommon), and most of them don't stay (completely) one-dimensional for long. The love story becomes quite prominent later on, and is sweet and as romantic as the context of the books would allow. It also has a satisfying ending, which is ridiculously rare for series like Love Hina. Cute artwork, likeable characters, wonderful goofiness. One of my (two) favorite manga ever.

Anime- Shitty animation, cut down the depth and the plot, cut out some of the series' best scenes, added things and characters that were completely unneccessary, really not a good show at all. Fun music though, and I thought Love Hina Again was a major improvement.

Edit: Oh, didn't even see those questions.

Favorite male- Bahaha, well, Keitaro and Seta have a lot in common, and they both kick ass and all... But where's the love for Shirai and Haitani? :3

Favorite female- Shinobu. No question. One of my favorite female characters ever.

Monster in a box · 08-02-2006, 02:26 PM

I don't really have much to say about Love Hina other than I like it a lot....well, I do have other stuff to say, but it's rambling unimportant stuff.

Favorite female is Shinobu. That's common sense.

Favorite male... I dunno. They're all cool. Seta is awesome, Keitaro comes around, and you've gotta love Haitani and Shirai. It's a shame they didn't show up more.

Reenee · 08-02-2006, 02:29 PM

Quote:

It's a shame they didn't show up more.

They...don't do much.

THD5% · 08-02-2006, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reenee

They...don't do much.

they were basically Keitaros somewhat comic relief.

theyre still funny when theyre around, however.

Monster in a box · 08-02-2006, 02:33 PM

Well, how could they. They hardly ever show up! Though Axem is right (he didn't say this in this thread, but he's said it to me before...) , if they were in the manga more, they wouldn't be able to make those hilarious 'nobody remembers Haitani and Shirai' jokes. Those are great.

Vangulus The Great · 08-02-2006, 10:28 PM

Save for Love Hina Again the rest of the anime does not do justice for the manga. Weird I mention it cause it was the first manga I really got into and enjoyed. Anything good about it was already said earlier in the thread so I won't ramble on it. As far as favorite characters I would say Keitaro (gotta love the underdog who wins in the end, sort of) and Shinobu (obvious).

Reenee · 08-03-2006, 01:08 AM

Was there really some sort of limited budget going on? Assuming this is going the stereotypical 13-episode-as-a-season type of animé, why couldn't Love Hina go for 39 or 52 episodes to do the manga justice? If nobody can answer, that's fine, but it's odd there's so-called "specials" that were really part of the original storyline for one thing. And I think it's even more apparent with the substitutions (i.e. ego rich boy, stuff not from the manga).

Whoever planned this out seriously fucked things up, that's a given. I'm sure the Love Hina creators felt some amount of disappointment.

Oh, I should have done this: If I wanted to rate the Love Hina media, I'd give the animé a borderline B+ while the manga gets a solid A.

I'll start an Onegai Teacher thread sometime tomorrow after I finish watching it again to re-familiarize with it.

Axem Rangers · 08-03-2006, 01:14 AM

lol, Onegai Teacher. I haven't even seen that. I've seen Twins, though. (It was my birthday, I was getting free stuff from an aunt, the box set with OST was $40 at Best Buy, I was all "why not?" XD)

Vangulus The Great · 08-03-2006, 07:03 AM

Any Negima fans in here, since it's made by the same author? As far as the series is concerned it's the same as Love Hina. The manga is solid and all but the anime leaves you with a mediocre looking dub of something that could have been much, much better. Negi's english voice actor for the dub is just awful in my opinion. Think a bad kid's voice mixed with a brittish accent. Which is what it's supposed to be but they did a bad job is all.

Axem Rangers · 08-03-2006, 09:58 AM

The manga I am in the process of reading (so no spoilers, please). I like it, except for the whole "it's basically Love Hina but not quite as good," aspect. My buddy Dan, though, says it gets a bit more unique/complex later on, so I'm holding out for that. Still, it's a fun read, regardless of qulaity or actual merit, and it still wins because Negi is the cutest shota ever.

lstivate · 08-03-2006, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vangulus The Great

Any Negima fans in here, since it's made by the same author? As far as the series is concerned it's the same as Love Hina. The manga is solid and all but the anime leaves you with a mediocre looking dub of something that could have been much, much better. Negi's english voice actor for the dub is just awful in my opinion. Think a bad kid's voice mixed with a brittish accent. Which is what it's supposed to be but they did a bad job is all.

I'm reading Negima now. There's a second season of the anime but I don't think it started airing yet. First season was so-so to me, could have been better.

Speaking of Love Hina, I felt that the anime (and the specials and Love Hina Again) just doesn't do justice to the manga. In my view the manga's way better than the show, and brings out and develops the story better. Although I did like the anime when I watched it, but after reading the manga, the show just seemed....lousy somehow. The manga had a lot more of the nice 'side plots' which were a good read. In fact I was somewhat disappointed that it wasn't longer than its run of 14 volumes.

My favourite female character is probably Naru Narusegawa. Yeah she's violent when angry and all that but she does have a softer side to her.

No outright favourite male character...probably Keitaro or Seta.