Love Hina
Director
Yoshiaki Iwazaki
Production
TV Tokyo, XEBEC, Yomiuri Advertising
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
24 episodes
Year
2000
Love Hina volume 3: Secret Lives
By otaku_kei
2nd Nov 04  The crazy violence. The good-natured loser. The collection of crazy, beautiful girls with mixed feelings for Keitaro. This series is beginning to feel comfortable. It's not groundbreaking, or action packed, it is just pure fun! Whilst the series has suffered from being quite repetitive over the last 2 volumes, this volume does a good job of shaking up things and presenting 4 episodes that each have their own distinct flavour whilst at the same time being exactly what we've come to expect from this the king of harem comedies! So we have here a detective story, a magical girl story, the Japanese pop idol and some good old monster mayhem! So at the end of this volume we end up halfway through the series, and how is it going? Pretty well. These 4 episodes are certainly an improvement on the those from volume 2. As I stated in a previous review this show has several times been in jeopardy of feeling tired and forced, but these episodes have breathed new life into the show. The first show is a detective story that follows the Hinata's residents attempts to find who had lifted the rent money from Keitaro's room. A cheesy cross between Sherlock Holmes and a Pink Panther movie, the suspicion falls on each and every character until they provide an alibi. Whilst the outcome is never in doubt, and the culprit was pretty obvious you shouldnt be watching this show for its tightly plotted suspenseful stories but for the deliciously silly comedy and ridiculous complexity of possible love stories! The second episode is my personal favourite as we get a long-overdue show that focus' on Su, and a mysterious woman who is terrorising the local town who has a striking resemblance to Su! We then have an episode that follows Naru, as she becomes a famous idol singer, with a return by the lecherous stalker Kentaro as her manager! Rounding off this volume is a tale of one of Su's inventions running out of control and threatening to destroy the whole town! All in all these episodes have the show firing on all cylinders to provide a great time for the viewer! Personally I really enjoyed thesse episodes, and I think you can all tell that. This volume has helped get the show back on track on the comedy elements as well as still bringing up the hints of further developments with the Naru-Keitaro-every other girl love triangle that is the basis for much of this show! If you were uncertain after volume 2, and I know I was, then I do suggest you check this out as it is a welcome return to form for this show. Pure fun start to end, so if you want a break from the mecha action this comes highly recommended! ps - just so you all know... Naru and Keitaro still havent made it into Tokyo U. Guess they'll just have to keep trying! 7.5/10
R2 DVD Notes
Features: English 2.0, Japanese 2.0; Character Photo Gallery, interview with the director, and the obligatory trailers from MVM.
Release information: 1st November 2004 - OUT NOW
Notes: Once again the level of production of the disc is flawless. The animation and both audio tracks are perfect. Once again though the extras are pretty waek. Another character gallery and some trailers. But the directors interview was interesting as he discussed his motivations and methods of working. I still get left with the opinion that most UK distributors can do better with the posible extras.
-- otaku_kei 2nd Nov 04
Love Hina Images  
|
