Ask John: How Much Love Hina Is There?

Question:
How much Love Hina is there in terms of both the anime and the manga? Is there any more of it that has been licensed for future release such as TV episode 25 and the X-mas and Spring Special episodes? From what I understand, the creator Ken Akamatsu concluded the storyline in the manga version and recently released the Love Hina Again OVA episodes. I’ve also heard rumors that he may be releasing a few more OVA episodes in the near future.

Answer:
The Love Hina manga by Ken Akamatsu premiered in the pages of Shonen Magazine Weekly in 1998. After roughly 3 years and 12 collected tankouban volumes Akamatsu-san concluded the Love Hina story by writing a resolution to the relationship between Keitaro and Naru. At the request of Kodansha Publishing, though, after a short break Akamatsu re-started the manga story and penned an additional 2 volumes worth of manga, tying up loose ends involving Motoko and her sister Tsuruko, and Haruka’s relationship with Seta. The 14th and final volume of Love Hina manga premiered in tankouban format on January 17th, 2002. Between October 2000 and July 2001, 8 volumes of bilingual Love Hina manga were also released in Japan as a teaching aid for Japanese studying English.

The Love Hina animation premiered on April 19, 2000 and broadcast 24 episodes, concluding with an unresolved ending. Three months after the final broadcast episode, the animation story continued with the broadcast of the 34 minute long Christmas Special on Christmas Day. The story was then continued in the 45 minute Love Hina Spring Special broadcast on April 1, 2001. The following month, the final volume of the Japanese Love Hina TV series home video release included a never broadcast 25th TV episode that focused on Motoko and her sister and was a side-story separate from the continuing story from the rest of the animation. The main plot of Love Hina that had begun in the TV series and continued through the Christmas and Spring Specials concluded in the 3 episode Love Hina Again OAV series that premiered on January 26, 2002.

In late 2001 when the Love Hina OAVs were first announced, the Xebec production studio stated that the Love Hina Again series would be the final Love Hina anime. Rather than create more Love Hina anime, Ken Akamatsu and Xebec are currently at work on a new anime TV series titled Rikujyou Bouei Tai Mao-chan (Ground Defense Force Mao-chan), scheduled to premier at 2:35 AM on July 3rd on TV Tokyo.

Although the Love Hina animation story doesn’t reach its conclusion until the ending of the third Love Hina Again OAV, Bandai of America has not yet announced any plans to release Love Hina TV episode 25, the Christmas or Spring Specials or the OAV series in America. As the release of the broadcast TV series nears its conclusion in America, we may hear of new plans from Bandai. But then again, maybe we won’t.