Title: Love Hina Volume(s): 14 Creator(s): Ken Akamatsu Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left Publisher: Tokyopop MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Comedy Rated: Older Teen (16+)

While Japanese comics have the usual set of genres that America has such as action, comedy, and romance, the Japanese comics also have particular comics that fall into categories that are similar to a “boy meets girl” genre in America. In Japan we have the “collect them all” comics, the “person/thing from another world/dimension that doesn’t know anything but tries” genre, and then we have the “boy surrounded by lots of beautiful young girls” genre. This was a type of comedy that was introduced when “Tenchi Muyo” came onto the scene. It was a brand new, hilarious series of hijinks and mayhem. And now we have “Love Hina,” a series that resembles "Tenchi" at first, but ends up being much deeper than Tenchi ever was.

Keitaro Urashima has a rough life. Once when he was four years old, he made a promise to a girl that when they both grew up they would go to Tokyo University together because there is a legend that when two people go to Tokyo U they will live happily ever after. However, soon the girl moves, and Keitaro is left with nothing left but her last few words: “Remember, we need to meet at Tokyo U one day! Promise!” So fifteen years later, Keitaro is 19, he has failed to get into Tokyo U three times, he doesn’t remember what the girl he made the promise to looked like (or even what her name was), and on top of that his parents have kicked him out of his house for failing to get into college three times. However, luck may be looking his way when his grandma invites him to stay at her hotel, the Hinata House... only problem is, it isn’t a hotel anymore.

At one point in her life, Keitaro’s grandma turned the hotel into a girls' dormitory and didn't tell him. Another thing she forgot to tell him is that he is to be the dorm's new manager. Well, this doesn’t go over well with the girls who are living in the dorm, especially one girl by the name of Naru Narusegawa, who thinks it’s disgraceful for a guy to be the manager of a girl's dorm. For awhile the girls (named Naru, Mokoto, Shinobu, Su, Kitsume, and Keitaro's Aunt Haruka) hate Keitaro's guts, and do everything they can to scare him away from the dorm. However, the more they get to know him and get used to his antics, the more they realize just how much of an impact he's made in their lives. And a new twist comes up when it’s suspected that Naru might be the girl Keitaro made the promise to of going to Tokyo U with! “Love Hina” starts out with an interesting premise, yet it also starts off painfully kooky and stupid. The first few volumes of this series tend to rely a bit too much on perverted jokes and potty humor. Keitaro will spend a good majority of the time getting stuck in the worst and most embarrassing situations, get stuck in odd poses with girls (mostly with Naru), and because of these things he'll be punched and sent into orbit... a lot.

These jokes are all throughout the series, and even though the jokes are all timed well, you will go through the first two books wondering what Ken Akamatsu (the author) is trying to say. Once we reach book four, we find out. If you can hang onto the series until book 4 comes along, then you will be pleased to discover that "Love Hina" gets really, really good from that point on! Over the course of the books, new twists that you weren’t expecting come up, characters change to the extent that there’s only one character from the ENTIRE cast that never changes; otherwise, every single character by the end of the series is a completely different person than when they were first introduced! The character's relationships to each other are deep and complicated, everyone’s feelings with each other are constantly changing, and there’s even a sense you get a few times that over time, plans may and can change with these characters. In short, Ken Akamatsu has created a brilliant and deep romance comedy.

This series isn’t perfect, mind you, it does have its problems. For starters, the panty jokes get really old at one point, and it becomes harder to laugh at them when the same joke get used more then ten times in each book. Another thing that’s annoying is that events in this comic are insane. There are missiles flying everywhere, people are running and screaming, buildings are blowing up, turtles are flying, and just every crazy thing you can think of happens in this story. This becomes a problem sometimes when something serious is happening that you are deep into, only to have that serious scene be interrupted and go completely crazy. And not to knock the series on a whole, but there’s at least one point where the story almost falls apart because of one new character (but thankfully Ken saved the story before it did fall apart... and the character was used less often from then on).

However, despite these shortcomings, “Love Hina” is an easy recommendation. It’s got a great cast, where even the most unlikable of characters change into someone you could love by the end of the book. It’s got a story that gets very involving and deep, and for 90% of the series, the humor is spot-on! Plus this series is one of the few series to have an ending that is 100% satisfying, and 100% good. When this book ends, all your questions will be answered, you won’t walk away wishing they’ll make more, the ending will satisfy you so that when it ends, you’ll be happy. Some people will be turned off by all the skirt jokes, and some people might even be put off by the cast at first, but I urge you to give it some time as it DOES get better, and when it does get better, the payoff will make you happy you stuck with it! “Love Hina” isn’t perfect, but give it a chance and you may find a new favorite on your list of favorite comic book series.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -