Ask John: Why Was Love Hina Cut Short?

Question:
Why was Love Hina cut short? There was plenty of more manga too. Sigh… just like Fruits Basket.

Answer:
A close examination of trends in Japanese television anime broadcasts should answer your question. Even a show like Love Hina, which was tremendously popular among Japanese fans, is largely only popular among Japanese fans, which is why it isn’t popular or successful enough to last more than a single season on Japanese television. Typically the only types of anime television series that last more than 26 episodes are family shows like One Piece, Detective Conan, and Crayon Shin-chan; children’s anime like Legendz, Doraemon, and Anpanman; and shoujo magical girl shows like Pretty Cure and Pichi Pichi Pitch. These types of shows attract mainstream Japanese viewers and therefore support the extended television broadcasts. (Gundam Seed is an exception because the Gundam franchise is such an established franchise in Japan that it attracts viewers outside of the normal niche market for robot anime.)

With a series like Love Hina or Fruits Basket that only draws “otaku” anime fan viewers, there aren’t enough people watching these shows in Japan to convince corporate sponsors to continue financing their production and broadcast for more than a single season. Furthermore, with a title that becomes a breakout hit like Love Hina, producers realize that continuing the franchise in OAV format is a wise move because a direct to home video release still appeals to the same audience that was watching the TV broadcast, and these viewers will pay 5,000 yen or more per episode to buy and watch the direct to home video releases.

With long or continuing manga series like Love Hina or Fruits Basket, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to condense the manga story into a single season of TV episodes, so inevitably some aspects of the manga story will be excluded from the anime. Fans can partially judge the quality of an anime adaptation by judging how skillfully the anime adapts the original manga. American fans should also realize that shows that seem very popular in the fan community are often only popular in the fan community, and may not be nearly as popular among the mainstream Japanese viewers who are necessary to sustain long Japanese television broadcasts.