By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

When I reviewed the first omnibus of Love Hina, I noted that one of its major faults was that, compared to the pacing of the end of the series, it seemed glacially slow. Now we’ve gotten to the final volume, and I’m starting to see the opposite problem. Akamatsu has discovered he can do fast chases well, so after an entire volume spent chasing Naru to the north of Japan, we get another one devoted to chasing Keitaro around the MolMol Kingdom, with all the wacky hijinks that entails. Indeed, reality, which always had a tenuous hold on this series anyway, seems to mostly go out the window here.

As you can see, Kodansha spoils the entire volume on its cover (I have this image of Angry Naru haters replacing her head on the cover with Motoko or Kitsune or whoever and giggling). Yes indeed, the series does end with a wedding. But before that, we have to run through the pick of the best of some of Love Hina’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. Which means archaeological ruins, chase scenes, the girls all trying to stop Keitaro and Naru simply because the plot requires it – indeed, Su basically admits she’s only doing this for fun. Speaking of Su, turns out she’s MolMol’s princess, which probably gives some justification as to why she acts the way she does. Motoko gets a lot of stuff to do at the start of this omnibus, even if most of it is a repeat of a previous volume (notice a pattern?). Shinobu less so, but at least she gets out a confession. And Seta and Haruka get married, in one of the fastest weddings you’ll ever see, barely giving Haruka a chance to turn red.

As for Keitaro and Naru, well, life continues to conspire against them. A popular fan theory is that the universe LITERALLY does not want to see them together, and constantly sends disasters their way just to prevent it, and you see a glimpse of this sort of thing here. Things aren’t helped by Naru, who clearly loves Keitaro, wants to become more intimate with him (she takes him to a love hotel here)… but still has issues that lead to disaster and Keitaro getting whacked. (I’m a huge foe of the “Naru is insane and needs therapy” fandom block, mostly as it rarely comes from sympathy, but I will admit I do wonder if something in her childhood happened that led her to be this twitchy.) As for Keitaro, by now he’s accepted his lot in life, freely admitting his supposed immortality and going with the flow provided the flow takes him back to Naru.

The title ends with an epilogue showing the Hinata Inn four years later, with the arrival of a new girl who’s heard it’s legendary for helping hopeless students get into Todai. She’s essentially a female Keitaro, so it’s no surprise that she runs into the residents of the inn (now older) naked, accidentally screws something up, and ends up in a giant chase scene. And if she’s Keitaro, then who does Keitaro get to be? I think most of the “Keitaro turns into Seta Mk. 2!” fan displeasure came from this epilogue, where admittedly he pretty much does act like Seta. But then again, a relaxed Keitaro who’s resolved his Todai and love life issues may very well go in that direction… we’ve seen how Seta and Haruka parallel Keitaro and Naru to begin with. More likely, he was Seta’d up to make the situation funnier, because this is still a manga.

And so in the end I think I have finished unleashing all my inner fandom demons at Love Hina, and can appreciate it for what it is; an intermediate work of Ken Akamatsu’s, filled with memorable characters, sweet moments and a lot of humor, but also poorly paced, about 5 volumes too long, and over-relying on physical comedy. His next series, Negima, gets better at all of these, but still has the same essential weaknesses. Luckily, his strengths also get even stronger there. So let’s leave Keitaro and Naru, married now, living at the Hinata Inn and no doubt spawning a new generation of comedic misunderstandings that could be worked out if only anyone would stop for two seconds.

By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

I admit I put this volume on the back burner for a while. If ever there was a series that reminded me how much one can change and grow in 10-12 years, it’s Love Hina, which has lost a lot of the luster it originally had. This is an omnibus of three parts, appropriately since it covers three volumes. The first is the best, as Mutsumi helps to draw Naru closer to Keitaro and he heads off to America for a sabbatical. The second volume is all about introducing Kanako, Keitaro’s adopted sister and reader identification figure. Lastly, Keitaro returns and everything goes south for Naru, as the final volume is a chase of epic proportions to try to get Naru to admit her feelings or die. Die being what she’d prefer, really.

I tend to defend Naru a lot, mostly as the people who hate her tend to use sexist, horrible imagery in that hate, like many of the worst bashers in any fandom. Their hate is summed up by “she needs to be more nice to me… I mean him” and multiple uses of the word ‘bitch’. That said, Naru is certainly at her most frustrating here, dragging out the ‘do I really love him’ question to appalling lengths. Naru’s terrified of the future and things going wrong, and I completely identify with that. But add in Akamatsu’s comedic exaggeration and you want to cry at how much she can run away from her own problems. The end of this volume has her literally running away until there is no land mass left, to the northernmost tip of Japan.

Things are not helped at all by Kanako. I’ve mellowed a bit on Kanako over the years, and can see the appeal of a character who is designed to come in and call everyone out on the crap they’ve been giving Keitaro the last few years. Her naivete and hero-worship of her brother comes through quite well, and I liked the bond she forms with Naru (no surprise there, given Naru and Keitaro’s similarities). And given this was written in the late 90s rather than the early 10s, the incest subtext is meant to be creepy and wrong, for once. Kanako also gives us my favorite joke of the volume, where she dresses Mutsumi up as Keitaro to test everyone’s love… complete with ‘attachments’, so to speak. (“My brother’s would be at least that big.”)

I was reading this volume on public transport, which could be awkward at times. After a while, all the fanservice in Love Hina tends to mesh together so much you don’t notice it anymore, which is surprising given it’s everywhere. Characters are nude or near-nude through all three volumes of this, reminding me once more that Magazine skews much older than Jump or Sunday. And that’s not even counting the goth-loli Kanako, or everyone dressed as maids, or the Halloween costumes, or all the other service that’s here. Akamatsu works hard to please his audience, but you feel a little guilty about it all.

Honestly, any chance to read more Mutsumi is always welcome for me, but Love Hina is a classic example of what should have been a nine-volume manga dragged out to 14. Luckily, that means the next omnibus (only two volumes) is the last, and should wrap everything up for Naru and Seta. Oops, I mean Keitaro. Yeah, best save that little issue for Vol. 5’s review…

By Ken Akamatsu. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

Things are beginning to pick up a bit in this third volume of Love Hina. Yes, there is still a lot of Keitaro seeing people naked and Keitaro getting hit, but it’s far less than in the first few volumes. Akamatsu is finding he can indeed do things other than ecchi comedy, and is also starting to realize something important: he has no idea where to go with this once his heroes achieve their goal.

Yes, surprise, Keitaro, Naru and Mutsumi all make it into Todai in this collection. Admittedly, it takes 2/3 of the omnibus for this to happen, including a visit to another turtle-infested South Sea island. The reason for this being that Keitaro, convinced he failed, has run away. Except… he didn’t fail. He’s in… provided he submits his paperwork on time. This is what drives most of the comedy here, a fast-paced race against time chase with increasingly ludicrous situations. Something that should be very familiar to Negima readers. Yes, Ken can still bring the ecchi comedy, but the difference between this and the start of the series is the *pacing*. The first volume is glacial, and you only realize how much after seeing these volumes.

Speaking of realization, as I noted, Akamatsu has realized he does not really want Keitaro in college stories. This is what leads to the broken leg that keeps him sidelined most of the last third of the book. And kudos to Akamatsu for lampshading this heavily, given the amount of abuse he’s taken from Naru. Everyone jokes that they had thought he was immortal. Admittedly, making him physically vulnerable does undercut the ‘comedic sociopathy doesn’t hurt’ rules of this universe… I suppose I should be lucky he didn’t get the broken leg via a Naru punch. Anyway, getting back to my point, Keitaro as a hapless college student, worrying he and Naru are growing further apart is kinda boring. But Keitaro the competent archaeologist, using his bad luck for good rather than for evil? That works. Keitaro on the island is the most likeable we’ve ever seen him. (Akamatsu will go too far with this, but we aren’t quite there yet.)

On the romance front, Keitaro has at last confessed to Naru. Who takes her own sweet time in answering him, mostly as she’s just as bad as he is in most respects. This gets contrasted with Seta and Haruka, who not only turn out to have dated when they were students, but also have many similarities to the current Keitaro and Naru. In fact, Haruka’s enraged beating of Seta after embarrassing her one too many times could easily have been a typical Keitaro/Naru farce. It’s a really sweet chapter, though, and one hopes that they can resolve things soon… especially as our heroes seem to realize the parallels with their own situation.

Motoko and Shinobu also get some short arcs towards the end. Shinobu proves to be a fairly mediocre student, and most of her story is spent trying to teach her to study properly while showing off her crush on Keitaro. (Naru doesn’t help by still being in the ‘who likes that idiot?’ phase of her life.) And Motoko’s sister, Tsuruko shows up, supposedly to test Motoko’s allegiance to her sword art, but in reality to try to make her mature more and get over some of her worst hangups. Of course, this being Love Hina, Tsuruko goes about this via some tough love. This gives us an iconic image of Motoko dressed as a maid, determined to become the perfect feminine woman since she can’t please her sister by her sword mastery. The anime would take this and run with it, I seem to recall.

So things look almost ready to wrap up here. Keitaro and Naru aren’t together, but both know their feelings for each other. And they got into Todai. Looks as if this series is ready to wrap up. Of course, it’s not. There’s 2 more omnibuses to go. Join us next time when we introduce the second most controversial character in all of Love Hina (Naru being first, of course.)