I finally did it. I really did it. I went and got the new Love Hina box set even though I said I hated the show. But somehow in the dubbed version it seems a lot better than the fansub version I watched. Or I could just have a new appreciation of this show.

otou-san probably remembers that I usually lambast this show as being prolefeed, but I saw this before I saw Kamen No Maid Guy, and this classic of harem romance seems to be a lot more innocent than contemporary harem Anime like Kanokon and To Love Ru.

That said, I’m starting to like this show for three reasons.

1: It’s original for its time.

Childhood promises and what not have been done to death, but Love Hina is one of those Anime that does it well. Most importantly, Love Hina has Keitaro faced with actual consequences if he fails to get into Tokyo University or if he accidentally ogles Naru or Kitsune or any of the other girls. In this episode Naru and Kitsune are the most prominent, and I like these characters for their charm and having the ovaries not to put up with sexual harrassment. When I saw the first episode of this Anime the first time I was reduced to Faux-Victorian prudery babble after seeing it, but compared to stuff you see nowadays it’s positively innocent. I have read the first volume of the manga and expected the Anime to be far bawdier than it turned out to be.

2: Keitaro is the bumbling student who isn’t unlikable.

It’s hard to find a balance between sympathetic and pathetic these days in Anime, and sometimes a classic will pull it off better than a recent one. Keitaro I liked, because he tries so hard to get things right, stumbles, yet never stops trying. This gives a much better message to young men than Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion does, and he always apologises sincerely to women if he offends them. He apologises more than Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, and if you’re aware how often Canadian people apologise, you know they do it a lot. Just like poor Keitaro, who’s filled with goodness and yet is percieved as a sexual deviant. The recent harem heroes I’ve seen don’t really have these qualities, because rather than just being percieved as sexual deviants, they ARE sexual deviants.

3: The dubbing on the DVD is good.

Kitsune, the fair-brown haired young lady, is voiced with a Southern accent. Unusual, but then again you have to consider that Osaka from Azumanga Daioh was ALSO dubbed in a Southern accent. Clearly this suggests cultural implications for Osakans in Japan that I’m not entirely aware of yet but so far the Wikipedia article says something about Osakans being moneygrabbers like Kitsune is in Love Hina, a character trait stereotype that was previously unknown to me.

The English dub voice actors do a great job keeping in time with the dialogue, unlike with another favorite show of mine, Speed Racer, and really it’s more entertaining with the voice actors delivering their lines in a language you can understand, but not only that, in a competent manner.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE EPISODE SUMMARY?

Keitaro has lots of dreams, daydreams and flashbacks, including a flashback of the infamous “childhood promise” Anime archetype taking place between him and who I’m guessing from the manga is Naru. There are some pretty sneaky hints about this in this episode, but the scene with Keitaro, the sketchbook, and the first girl he meets on the way to his grandma’s house is most likely a red herring. Basically Keitaro has flunked the practice exam to get into Tokyo U, and risks missing out on the childhood promise he made as a boy, not only that, but his parents are threatening to force him to get a job.

His Grandmother has left Hinata House in his care, and he has many unintentional mishaps with the girls who live there, including an accidental trip to the Women’s Hot Springs, and Kitsune trying to scam money out of the poor man by tricking him into feeling her breast if he’ll pay her rent for a month, unsuccessfully, so she screams, and Keitaro is in store for some beatings.

I liked this episode better than when I first saw it because the dubbing really gives a better feel to the natural flow of the dialogue rather than having to read subtitles. As a maturer man I don’t know what the big problem I saw with this show was, as it was a lot more innocent than I remember it to be. Instead of lambasting it like I usually do, I’ll highly recommend a newcomer to Anime to check this series out.