Love Hina Magazine Novel #1 Review

The magazine novels are books that contain more stories of the adventures at Hinata Inn. There are currently 2 magazine novels out, with a third one coming in the fall of 2002. The covers I have above are all from the first magazine novel of Love Hina. The Japanese book is contains two complete stories and while it was released as one book, the English translations were released as two separate volumes. The books are mostly text and sprinkled lightly with a few pictures here and there. The one volume Japanese novel is a typical sized book (~7x4in, 182×118mm) but the translated books are like "cute-sized" novels (4x6in, 105x148mm). These translated books are intended for Japanese speakers learning English and have a very comprehensive English-to-Japanese glossary in the appendix. As such, they're probably not going to be in bookstores outside of Japan.

This first book is written by Kurou Hazuki, who is the same person who did the screenplay for the TV anime series. These stories DO NOT happen in the manga, but as he was writing it, he mentions that he checked out all the information with Ken Akamatsu to make sure that he got the story as consistent as possible for the fans of the manga. Chronologically, these stories happen after the end of the TV series, but before the specials and OVA. These stories are good reads if you want to have more Love Hina, but I admit, these aren't really quality pieces of literature (translation faults aside).

First Story: Secrets of Hinata Lodge

The real title of this chapter is "Don't Wear a Towel in the Bath!"

First off, before any mention of the plot, I have to say that this story was EXTREMELY TRASHY and not for the faint of heart. This is definitely something that can't be put on a TV or manga. Here's an excerpt from the beginning of the book.:

In my dream, it was panic-stations time. Any further down from there and things could go badly wrong. Any further down and I might end up becoming the "only man ever to have climaxed thanks to a hot-spring turtle." My name flashed in front of me -- Keitaro Urashima -- on the pages of the "Guinness Book of Records."

All I needed to do was shift my body slightly to drive Tama off, but for some reason I couldn't do it. Tama kept on going down. I felt something hot and moist down there and prayed that it was Tama's secretion (and not mine!).

Finally Tama started rubbing her smooth, wet nose on an unmentionable part of my anatomy. All I could come up with was an unspeakable pun, "The hot-spring turtle's going for my geni-turtles (genitals)." In my imagination it was the headline of the next morning's paper.

"Tama, you've got to stop!"

I grabbed the elastic waist of my pajamas, pulled them down violently and surveyed the scene.

Naru was down there!

Brief non-spoilers summary: For the first half of the book, all the Hinata girls wants to see Keitaro naked. Sarah and Su try to get him during his sleep. Kitsune walks in during his bath and inspects him. Motoko takes Keitaro up to the roof where she commands him to take off his clothes (threatening with her sword, of course). Naru tells him to take off his clothes, too. Shinobu almost does it... We find out that Kitsune had received a phone call from Grandma Hina. Grandma told Kitsune, thinking that she has Haruka, that there was something very important hidden and she wanted to let her know where it was. However, the most Kitsune heard before she was cut off was "It's in Keitaro's secret..." Thus, Kitsune instinctly thinks it's some hidden riches so she tells everyone (except Keitaro) about what she has heard, and so they all go searching in "Keitaro's secret..."

I feel like this story was mostly written for it's profuse risque situations. Story-wise, it good in that it does add another piece of evidence for the building relationship between Naru and Keitaro. However, it would have been a lot better if it wasn't so racy.

Second Story: Mystery Guests at Hinata Hotel

The official title of this chapter is "Don't Fondle the Female Staff, Please!"

This story is the better of the two included in the first novel and does give a little more insight about the Haruka. It's not as replete with sexual innuendos as the first.

Before Hinata Inn was a girl's dorm, it used to be regular hotel that had frequent guests. A lot of the guests came because of Grandma Hina, who was known back then as the "Belle of Hinata Inn." So after she converted it to a girl's dorm, she still told those guests that she would revive the hotel every few years. This is one of those years. So the girls have to dress up and run the Inn for a weekend as a hotel (of course, the old guests don't behave themselves properly). Among the guests that come is one person in particular, Sojiro Natsuki, whos seems to be fascinated by Haruka, he'ss never in his room, and he is usually seen with dirt underneath his fingernails. Another guest, Takeshi Kodaira, comes and woos all the girls leaving Keitaro extremely jealous. Mr. Kodaira says that Mr. Natsuki is up to no good and is probably digging around Hinata Inn trying to find a treasure...but the real crook is....