The said anime series may arguably be Ken Akamatsu’s best work, aside from his other hit creation, Negima! Magister Negi Magi.
The anime adaptation, which ran for 24 episodes and followed up by a special episode and an OVA (Original Video Animation) sequel, proved to be a world wide crowd pleaser.
It shows the typical characteristics of a harem anime , where the protagonist Keitaro Urashima, gets into several, often comedic situations with most of the female characters who are also in turn have their individual stories, in one way or another, become entwined with that of the show’s hero. Generally though, it is a genre of shounen anime
Although Love Hina's popularity may stem from the humor and at times, the fan service, it is still clear that the main focus of the whole series is Keitaro’s conviction to fulfill his childhood promise.
In the past, Keitaro made a promise with a girl to enter into Tokyo University together. For Japanese, getting into a prestigious university is a great honor, and both children believed that if they are able to pass through the entrance exams together, it would become an unbreakable foundation for their relationship and thus, they would never be separated. One day, they parted ways and in time, Keitaro has forgotten the girl’s name, and even if he wanted to search for her, it would be difficult to identify how she would look like after fifteen years.
Even so, Keitaro decides to push through with his promise of entering Tokyo University, hoping that somehow, he might actually meet that girl at that school. Unfortunately, he has failed the exams twice and as a result got ousted from his residence by his parents and ends up in his grandmother Hina’s care. She then decides to make him the acting manager of the family hotel business that has also been converted into an all girl’s dormitory, without his knowledge of it – thus getting a rude first visit.
It is here that he meets all the other female characters of the show: the serious kendou expert Motoko Aoyama, the eccentric princess from a foreign land Kaolla Su, the mischievous freelance writer Mitsune Konno, and the shy schoolgirl Shinobu Maehara, among many other interesting characters.
But among all of them, Naru Narusegawa and Mutsumi Otohime are the more significant female characters tied to Keitaro. He meets Naru on day one at the dormitory and discovers that she too is trying to get into Tokyo University. And since she topped the mock entrance exams, Keitaro decides to have her help him with his studies. They get to know each other a little bit more every day they spent time with each other as study buddies – and after having read a snippet of Naru’s diary, Keitaro begins to suspect that she might actually be that girl he made a promise to years before. His suspicions are erased though after Naru herself tells him that she doesn’t remember making any promise to any boy before.
Mutsumi on the other hand meets Keitaro after he takes a brief vacation following his third failed attempt at the entrance exam. He finds out that Mutsumi is like him as she also failed the exams for three consecutive times – but due to different reasons. She is often times too aloof and airheaded that she always forgets to place her name on her exam sheets – not to mention she also gets a lot of anemic attacks. But despite all her shortcomings, Mutsumi is kind, gentle, and selfless and she also has an extremely positive outlook in life. There are times that Mutsumi is suspected to be the girl in Keitaro’s past whom he made a promise to.
In the end, it is finally revealed that it actually IS Naru Narusegawa who made a childhood promise with Keitaro. Mutsumi Otohime was also there with them the moment they shared the promise together. As it turns out, she used to be good friends with the both of them and both she and Naru had feelings for Keitaro – but Mutsumi decides to let both of them be together in order to keep her friendship with Naru in tact.
The three of them finally pass Tokyo University’s entrance exams and Naru and Keitaro finally were able to make real the promise they made as children.
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