Love Hina Manga Volume 2

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–> Purchase Love Hina Volume 2 from RIGHTSTUF!

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Just as Keitaro is finding a level of acceptance amongst the female residence of Hinata-sou, Keitaro gets a “D” on his mock exam and decides to give up and return home. However, he’s unable to sneak in, grab his gear, and sneak out as he’s discovered and assumed to be an intruder. It is Naru who realizes that this is Keitaro and after a talk from Haruka, finds Keitaro and brings him back. The two resume studying and eventually take their next mock exam. There, Keitaro actually does pretty well though the residence assume he must have done poorly and attempt to avoid him for a time.

With Valentine’s Day here, Keitaro makes himself a luxury chocolate cake to make it seem like a girl gave it to him. To his surprise, the girls of the dorm give him chocolates, causing Shinobu to be frustrated at not being able to give hers to him. Finally, the day of the exam comes and Keitaro starts freaking after he farts loudly at the beginning of the exam, forcing Naru to shout at him to not give up.

Thoughts/Review:

With volume 2, Akamatsu-sensei decides to lay out the notion that Naru is the girl that Keitaro made the promise to 15-years earlier when he reads an entry in her diary stating that she had made a promise back then. It is a romantic idea because it would have Keitaro finally meet the girl he’s dreamed about for so many years. Of course considering how violent Naru continues to get, if she is the girl Keitaro made the promise to, reality is going to be more painful than the dream.

While Naru’s and Keitaro’s exam preparations, to include mock exams as well as the real McCoy, take center stage through this volume, Keitaro’s acceptance with the other girls within Hinata-sou grows as well. For starters, all of the girls have a party in the onsen (wearing swimsuits) with Keitaro when they think he did poorly on his mock exam. Motoko, who probably has the most difficult time dealing with Keitaro, even gives him a massage.

Later when Keitaro gets sick, various girls attempt to read to Keitaro and to provide him with home remedies. Again, Motoko stands out in this regard and Naru is forced to protect Keitaro from their good intentions. At Valentine’s Day, all the girls give Keitaro chocolate, including Motoko. If it wasn’t clear that Shinobu has a crush on Keitaro, this part of the manga clears that notion up for sure.

Also warming up is the relationship between Naru and Keitaro. While she is more violent to Keitaro, she also gets more friendly with him at times (tsundere for sure).

The story of Keitaro’s illness is one that sticks out in my mind as in the anime, the story is about Motoko having a dream whereas in the manga, the dream is Keitaro’s. It never made much sense to me for the change that was made in the anime but whatever.

I remember when I bought this manga originally in 2003 that I was so happy that Shinobu’s use of “senpai” (spelled “sempai” here) was left. It wasn’t until later that I discovered that if she addressed anyone else as “senpai” or even Motoko’s addressing Naru as “senpai,” this was not reflected in the TokyoPop adaptation. I’m not sure why the English adaptation chose to only have Shinobu address Keitaro as “senpai” and drop it everywhere else.

Strangely enough, a few “oniichan” terms were left in but no other honorifics survive. Since this adaptation was done in 2002 when Japanese honorifics were still seen as pretty scary, I shouldn’t be surprised.

In the end, this second volume of the manga presses the main story of Keitaro’s getting into Tokyo University forward while at the same time establishing the idea that Naru is the girl of promise for Keitaro. As such, I find it to be a good read. I just hope that if the manga gets relicensed in the U.S., it will get a fresh translation to include Japanese honorifics.