I have decided that for manga that have been released in english and a few years old, I have decided to make this new segment of the blog “First Volume Manga” which is mainly for new people to the manga side of otaku and want to get some good classic manga that is often fully released, thus allowing the person to get the whole storyline in a relatively short amount of time, and hopefully encouraging you to read more manga!
The first manga I have decided to do is the second manga I read all the way through, Love Hina which currently has 14 volumes of manga, a 26 episode anime series, two special season episodes, a 3-part OVA, numerous soundtracks and several Japanese games. This isn’t a bad feat for a manga.
Artwork: For its time, the quality of the graphics are very good, even up there with the standard expected from todays style of anime. Ken Akamatsu in my opinion has always been an exceptional manga artist, even when doing AI Love You, the artwork has always been done to an exceptional standard. All the normal ecchi, bathscenes and violence in the series are not done to a level which would push it over the OT rating (16+) and does so in a manner that is passed as being comical and nothing more than that, for example, Keitaro being beaten up by all the girls after walking in on them in the hot springs.
Characters: All the characters nay Keitaro are female. Which you may think “Great, another generic one guy, all girl storyline” which I was first hesitant about however it soon dawned on me that it was more than that. Whilst each character in the series gets a decent amount of character development, development of only Keitaro, Naru and Shinobu are present in this volume, so if you do have favourites already, hold on just a bit longer. The characters are all likeable and have all different personalities such as the serious Naru, the timid and shy Shinobu to the crazed Su.
Storyline: The storyline starts off with the ronin (Masterless Samurai – A name used for students who fail university entry exams) Keitaro having a dream about a promise he made with a little girl when they were both younger. They had a promise to meet each other in Tokyo University when they grew up. It then goes on to show him entering the dorms and meeting all of the girls in a less than usual manner… that is right… having the crap beaten out of himself.
The storyline when proceeds to add new characters and soon afterwards to humour continues. In my opinion, they do rush into the storyline a bit too fast and you can get confused until a bit later on when they unveil more of the storyline, but overall, it is still a very good story.
Extras: There are the following extras in this volume, which if I remember right, carry onto the other volumes as well.
- Original Character Designs by Ken Akamatsu
- Original Character Descriptions by Ken Akamatsu
- Next Volume Preview
- Advertisments
I really do love the designs and all that added to most of Ken Akamatsu’s work. Shows how hard he works to produce the top quality mangas.
The rest of the series: The rest of the series only gets better from here. Introducing several more characters alongside much more character and storyline development, it is hard to go wrong with this series.
Overall Score:
Artwork: 4.5 (A)
Characters: 4.5 (A)
Storyline: 4.5 (B)
Extras: 5 (A)
Rest of Series: 5 (A)
Overall: 4.7 (A)
Manga Information:
Total # of Chapters: 6, not including extras
Total # of pages: 198
English Publisher: Tokyopop
Publisher Website: http://www.tokyopop.com
Producer: Ken Akamatsu
Rating: OT – 16+
Description: When Keitaro Urashima fails his entrance exams to get into Tokyo University for the second time, he’s officially an unemployed and uneducated slacker. To make matters worse, his parents have kicked him out of his house.
Fortunately, his grandmother owns the fabulous Hinata Lodge and has agreed to take Keitaro in as caretaker. What he doesn’t know is that the lodge is actually a girls dorm and he’s the only guy around! Most guys would kill to live with five sexy ladies, but if Keitaro’s not careful, this job will kill him.
Ah yes. Ive read this manga but the 1st volume only.. I forgot to read the remaining.. :3