Love Hina: Spring Special

Having enjoyed the slapstick romantic comedy of the Love Hina TV series, this “Spring Special” OVA was something of a fun curiosity for me.
50 minutes later and I’m not surprised to be reporting my disappointment; this turned out to be nothing more than a quirky, but ultimately mindless hour’s worth of rubbish sing songs, repetitive jokes and none too obvious female “fan-service” (skimpy clothes a plenty!) that has managed to retain every fan-favourite cliché character trait but also done away with anything approaching the involving relationships and drama that had me gripped during the latter stages of the aforementioned series.
Basically, this one off OVA is a missed chance that should have given the creative staff behind Love Hina a chance to show their talents free of the financial restraints of mainstream TV; however, what we end up with instead is another throw-away adventure that will appeal only to those who truly loved the sometimes surreal, usually larger than life antics that dominated the mindless, emotionally bereft mid-section of Love Hina.

This OVA starts seemingly one year on from the conclusion of the TV series with Naru, Keitaro and Mutsumi confidently preparing for their latest and greatest Tokyo University entrance exams. In fact, so confident is Keitaro that once he gets into the exam hall and reads the question sheet, he falls into another of his typically romantic day dreams – as always, involving his perpetually violent sweet heart Naru.
Of course, he is shocked to wake up to find he has basically slept through 90% of the exam and now only has 10 minutes left to finish it! He does as best he can, but when the exam time is finally up, Keitaro, reeling from another supposed failure, is stricken with feelings of shame and grief and haplessly runs away; eventually ending up on a boat headed for a desert island and determined to put his old life behind him.
Days pass and it turns out that Naru is missing Keitaro more than she is making out and so when she receives a phone call to say he has been spotted wandering around in some far off foreign land with another young girl, it’s not surprising to see an angry and confused Naru is soon rushing after him.

This “Spring Special” actually starts out fine, throwing us straight back into the everyday mishaps of Keitaro and the Hina girls and even pushes the story a little further from the end of the TV series, but then it all quickly spirals downhill once everyone resolves to hunt down Keitaro on his hot-as-hell tropical island. Su whips out her latest mechanical monster and the samurai-lite Motoko comes across as thick headed as ever; you get the idea, this OVA takes everyone of your favourite (or as the case may be, least favourite!) characters and gives them their few minutes under the spotlight. Forget character development or realistic drama, we have busty females in bikinis!
Amidst the chaos is also a bizarre but smile inducing cameo from the famous author of the popular Love Hina graphic novels – Ken Akamatsu; looking a little too like Keitaro for his own good!

It would be fair to say I was horror-struck by the time the shy Shinobu breaks out into a random, ear-piercing song, typically teaching us about the value of friendship and believing in yourself. As much as I dislike having to criticize a story with it’s heart in the right place, the many life lessons dictated to us by this OVA are handled in a very heavy handed, rushed and condescending manor. I got the feeling I was watching a kids show, but then, a kids show wouldn’t shove scantily clad, large breasted young adults on the screen every few minutes.

In Summary

I get the feeling I liked Love Hina for all the wrong reasons because this 50 minute “Spring Special” OVA defines the phrase “fan service”. Generic and over-flowing with filler, I can’t recommend this to anyone but the most devoted of Love Hina fans.