THEM Anime Reviews
Home Reviews Extras Forums
AKA: N/A
Genre: Harem / romantic comedy
Length: OAV, 55 minutes
Distributor: Currently licensed by FUNimation.
Content Rating: PG-13 (fan service, animated violence)
Related Series: Love Hina, Love Hina Episode 25, Love Hina Christmas Movie, Love Hina Again
Also Recommended: Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2, Tenchi Muyo, Happy Lesson
Notes: This is the second OVA after the TV series (not counting episode 25) after the Christmas Movie, and is based on volumes 7-8 of the Love Hina manga by Akamatsu Ken.
Rating:

Love Hina: Spring Special

Synopsis

After the joys of the Christmas season, it's back to studying for Keitarou, Mutsumi and Naru. This time, they take the entrance examinations for Tokyo U. Being unusually overconfident in his crucial English paper, Keitarou falls asleep throughout. Thinking that he will fail to enter Tokyo U again, he runs off to a faraway island. Will the rest of the girls be able to find him? Will they get into Tokyo U? Will they stop making anymore Love Hina and leave us alone?


Review

When you're driving and reach a red light, you stop. When you reach the end of a 100-meter sprint, you stop. When you've just made a great movie like the Love Hina Christmas Movie and you know that it will be hard to top it, what do you do? You keep going. Behold, another sorry mistake in the business of anime production.

Prepare to bash your head against the wall in frustration as the story goes on and on with more of the same stuff that's in Love Hina. And to make matter worse, all the reality and actual romance that was the Christmas Movie is now crumpled up, burnt, and tossed out the window to frenzied piranhas in the swimming pool. The story takes us from the streets of Hinata town to a faraway island called Pararakerusu or something like that, with flying turtles, singing native girls, and no sanity whatsoever. Yes, it's based on the manga with the exact same storyline, but the manga was more developed and didn't have the serious Christmas story in it.

To me it seems like a desperate attempt to finish off the Love Hina storyline (for the anime) - the animation, art and overall quality drop to levels way below average, and the character development is about as believable as telling you that your fly's open right now.

...made you look.

The story feels rushed; as too much manga is compressed into a measly 45 minutes and important things like Seta and Haruka's relationship are mere afterthoughts here (while they were key side plots in the manga). What's more, the relationship between Keitarou and Naru hardly develops as they run around the desert.

Music is the usual Love Hina soundtrack with a new song sung by the cast, but other than that there's nothing new.

And if you've seen any Love Hina before, you'll know what to expect - fan service, hot springs, Naru-punches and other mindless violence that would make even Tom and Jerry cringe in agony.

If anything, this can be called a conclusion to the "Getting into Tokyo U" part of Love Hina. If you're interested, you should read the manga instead - it's a lot more than what the Spring Special is.

This is one spring you won't want to remember. Only for die-hard Love Hina fans who haven't read the manga. If you have, by all means don't watch the anime version. However, if you haven't watched any Love Hina before, then don't even look at the cover.Enoch Lau

Recommended Audience: The fan service isn't for most kids, so this title is generally for teenagers (who would enjoy this kind of comedy the most). There's no nudity but some violence here and there. If you let your kids watch Love Hina, then this title wouldn't be any different.



Version(s) Viewed: R1 DVD, Japanese with English subtitles
Review Status: Full (1/1)
Love Hina: Spring Special © 2000 Ken Akamatsu / Kodansha / Love Hina Onsen Association / TV Tokyo
 
© 1996-2015 THEM Anime Reviews. All rights reserved.