Back in 2000 Love Hina was released and took the anime world by storm. It wasn't something that was entirely new (thanks to the familiar concept) but it had enough personality and charm to rise above stereotypes. After the 24 episodes were over fans were looking for more and three OVAs were released to meet the demand. These have been previously available on DVD before but Bandai has released them once again as part of a Movie Collection.

In case you haven't seen the actual anime itself, or it's been a while, let me give you some background for the show. Keitaro Urashima finds himself in the unsavory position of being manager at the Hinata Apartments. I say "unsavory" because he is quickly branded a pervert because the only tenants that live there are girls. As you'd imagine each of the residents gradually fall for his goofy charm and the show quickly turns into a harem series. While each of the girls (Mutsumi, Shinobu, Motoko, Kaolla, and Mitsune) is endearing in their own way the series tends to force Naru and Keitaro together. They both have feelings for each other but Naru doesn't accept hers as easily so it tends to result in Keitaro getting injured in some fashion.

I'm not going to get into any more detail about the series in case you're checking out this review and you haven't seen the show. All you really need to know is if you enjoyed stuff like Tenchi, Saber Marionette J and DearS you'll like Love Hina. As far as the "movies" are concerned all three of them are included in this boxed set.

Based on production and continuity the first one is the holiday special entitled Love Hina: Christmas Movie, though the previously unreleased with the series, episode 25 is included as well (as an extra). Released in the latter part of 2000 I'm fairly certain you can figure out what this OVA is all about.

Christmas is coming up and all of the characters are working hard at school and forgetting what the holiday season is all about. A rumor begins to circulate around town that if you confess your love to someone on Christmas then you'll live happily ever after and all that jazz. This type of plot is so stereotypical when it comes to anime with Christmas/New Years episodes that chances are good you have seen something like it before. In typical Love Hina fashion though there is enough charm to make it work and feel like something more than generic. The ending also leaves the door open for the other OVAs, Spring and Again.

In Love Hina: Spring Special everyone gets ready to take the big test to get into Tokyo U, but in typical Keitaro fashion he screws up. Through some twists of fate he winds up on a tropical island with Seta doing archeological stuff instead of pushing for school. Naru goes to find him to knock some sense into that thick skull of his and everyone follows suit. The story here isn't particularly strong by any means and in my opinion is the weakest aspect of this release. Sure there are some funny and touching moments but when the plot is so thin there's not a lot of satisfaction to be found.

Love Hina Again is the meat and bones of the Movie Collection. This OVA is broken up into three episodes and features a more involved story than either of the seasonal specials did. Now that they have finally made it to Tokyo U everyone has some reason to celebrate but Keitaro feels the need to go off with Seta on another dig. Naru feels like it was she that drove him away due to the way she expresses herself. When Keitaro's younger sister Kanako shows up at Hinata things take a turn for the worse.

It would seem that Kanako wants Keitaro all to herself since she is apparently his "promised love" as well. With Keitaro away Kanako takes control of Hinata and tries to get all of the girls to leave. Things just get crazier from there and when Keitaro comes back they don't lighten up either. In the end Again is entertaining but basically feels like a regurgitation of the series. It's funny and enjoyable enough on its own though I couldn't shake the feeling that I've seen this all before.

Naturally this collection will be solely enjoyed by those of you that have already seen the entirety of Love Hina the series. Since these take place after the events of the show they are not a good starting point. As far as what each of these OVA offers the quality varies greatly. The Christmas special was entertaining by kind of generic, the Spring special was fairly skip-worthy and the three part OVA was good, but more of the same. If you can't get enough of Love Hina then by all means check this out, otherwise start with the series and see how you feel when you're done.

With production dates from five to six years ago the image quality in this movie collection varies slightly. For the most part the picture is very clean with some sharp resolution and very little to complain about. The 1.33:1 does however feature some grain at parts with a few hints of aliasing here and there but it was nothing to mar the experience. I've always enjoyed the art direction for the series and was glad to see the same quality hold true for the OVA.

The audio presentation for these OVAs gives you a stereo track for both English and Japanese. The sound quality is decent though the audio range isn't as diverse as you'd get from a surround selection. Dubbing is generally decent but I felt he Japanese track was definitely the better of the two. Overall the sound is nothing that will blow you away; it just gets the job done. English subtitles are optional here as well.

There's quite a bit of bonus material in this collection, though the best is probably the Christmas special's inclusion of Episode 25. This unaired episode takes place after the series but is basically a continuation of it and involves Motoko's older sister coming to Hinata. Apart from that the Christmas disc features textless animation and some trailers. The Spring special offers more textless animation for both the OVA and the show. On the Again disc there are three textless endings and an opening, some trailers and outtakes. I was excited when I saw that outtakes were included but when I realized that there were only 18 seconds worth I was naturally disappointed.

If you enjoyed Love Hina and haven't had a chance to check out the OVA released after the series then by all means do so. The content isn't the most original but there are some decent scenes here and the inclusion of the 25th episode helps round things out. Some of you may have already picked up the 2003 release and if that's you then there's no reason to bother with this collection. The discs here are the exact ones that were released three years ago, right down to a 2003 calendar included with the Christmas special.

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