Love Hina, Vol. 6: And the Winner Is... (2001)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Original Story by Ken Akamatsu
Directed by Yoshiaki Iwasaki
Music by Koichi Korenaga

Features:

• Fan art gallery
  
• Character photo gallery
  

Dindrane's Anime Warnings:

• Mild nudity
• Lots of Keitaro abuse
• Some angst
• Broken hearts

Released by: Bandai
Region: 1
Rating: 13+
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Add it to your collection

The final four episodes in the Love Hina saga tie up only a few loose ends, but don't answer some of the fans' desires about the series. It does, however, promise even more character development and interaction than you've seen thus far, plus adventure and good comedy.

These episodes all deal with the mystery of to whom Keitaro actually made his fateful promise as a child, and whether or not it really matters to whom he made his promise, as his heart is engaged to Naru either way. We are introduced to Naru's younger sister, Mei, who feels that her parents love Naru more than her, and that Naru left home to live in the Hinata Apartments to get away from her. She is, of course, entirely wrong, but her scheming and then her eventual change of sides helps move the action forward. Somehow the writers even work on giant mecha, and the plot convolutions are worked out with respect for the craft, the characters, and the audience.

The video quality of this release, like the previous ones in the series, take advantage of the gorgeous art. The backgrounds are subtle, but effective, and important to establishing mood and setting. The audio quality is good as well, and this is one title where the English cast is almost better than the Japanese cast. If you don’t read or speak Japanese, you should be perfectly happy just listening to the dub here, just so long as Kitsune’s "Southern" accent doesn’t grate on you.

The extras are a bit spare here, but still kind of nice and unusual. We have a gallery of the winners of a fan art contest, which is an interesting choice of addition to a disc's features list. There is also a character art gallery for Haruka, who is also the focus of this disc's insert page. The disc also has a reversible cover; the inside shows the series as if it were a fighting game, which is not only insightful, but funny and clever. It would have been helpful to have had a kind of retrospective or a final comparison between the anime version and the manga, but c'est la vie--as is, the disc has four solid episodes and is well worth watching.

If you’ve loved such series as Maison Ikkoku, any of the Tenchi incarnations, or other ensemble romantic comedies, then you will love Love Hina for its clever, funny take on the "goofy boy surrounded by gorgeous women" genre. Do we finally get to find out if Naru and Keitaro will live happily ever after? Or even a hint at her true feelings for him? Do we finally learn the certain identity of the girl to whom Keitaro made his childhood promise? Some of these questions, at least, are answered.