Ask John: What is Love Hina & Will It Be Translated?

Question:
Recently I’ve heard quite a bit about a series called “Love Hina.” What exactly is this series about and what are the chances that someone will license the show for an English language version?

Answer:
Quite simply, Love Hina is a combination of Tenchi Muyo and Maison Ikkoku. It’s popular among fans for its large cast of cute girls and its often bizarre, off-the-wall humor. The story of Love Hina revolves around a young male “ronin” (the Japanese name for a high school graduate attempting to pass the college entrance exams) who becomes the manager of a hot-spring resort that doubles as a girls dormitory. Romantic comedy comes from ronin Keitaro’s indecisiveness in expressing his attraction toward tenant Naru Narusegawa, and his confusion over who exactly he’s actually in love with, Naru or the mysterious childhood sweetheart he shared a promise with. Bizarre comedy comes from typical sit-com events such as Keitaro walking in on the girls while they’re changing clothes or in the bath, and from such utterly strange events as cameo appearances by Love Hina creator Ken Akamatsu, video game parodies, magical girl transformations, mecha, over-the-top cartoon violence and an entire lost civilization of intelligent turtles.

Love Hina consists of 24 broadcast television episodes, a special home video exclusive episode 25 and two television specials that conclude the TV series storyline. Bandai Entertainment has confirmed that they will be releasing the 24 broadcast Love Hina TV episodes in America next year, but at the present time plans there are no plans for an American release of episode 25 or either of the hour long TV specials.

The Love Hina manga is (currently) 12 volumes long, (currently) 8 of which have been re-printed in Japan in bilingual English and Japanese format intended to assist Japanese speaking citizens master English. There is no official American translation or distribution for the manga at the present time, though.