Manga Giveaway: Love Hina Giveaway Winner

And the winner of the Love Hina Giveaway is…Ikari!

As the winner, Ikari will be receiving the first omnibus of Ken Akamatsu’s manga series Love Hina as published by Kodansha. Love Hina was one of the first harem manga that I ever read. And so for this giveaway, I was interested in learning what other harem manga people were reading and enjoying. Be sure to check out the Love Hina Giveaway comments for everyone’s favorites. And, because I like making lists, I’ve used those recommendations as a basis for a list of harem (and reverse harem!) manga that have been licensed in English. This is only a small selection of the titles available, but it’s not a bad place to start.

Ai Yori Aoshi by Kou Fumizuki
Alice in the Country of Hearts written by QuinRose and illustrated by Soumei Hoshino
The All-New Tenchi Muyo! by Hitoshi Okuda
Chobits by CLAMP
La Corda d’Oro by Yuki Kure
Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya
Fushigi Yûgi: The Mysterious Play by Yuu Watase
Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution by Hiroyuki Tamakoshi
Hayate the Combat Butler by Kenjiro Hata
Hot Gimmick by Miki Aihara
Iono-sama Fanatics, Volume 1 by Miyabi Fujieda
Love Hina by Ken Akamatsu
Oh My Goddess! by Kosuke Fujishima
Negima: Magister Negi Magi by Ken Akamatsu
No Need for Tenchi by Hitoshi Okuda
Ouran High School Host Club by Bisco Hatori
Ranma 1/2, Volumes 2-14 by Rumiko Takahashi
Rosario + Vampire by Akihisa Ikeda
Sakura Wars by Ouji Hiroi
Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi by Yū Minamoto
Strawberry 100% by Mizuki Kawashita
To Heart written by Leaf and illustrated by Ukyō Takao
The Wallflower by Tomoko Hayakawa

See you again next month for another giveaway!

Manga Giveaway: Love Hina Giveaway

Did July pass by quickly for anyone else? Before I knew it, it was time to announce the next manga giveaway here at Experiments in Manga! So, here you go. This month I have a new copy of the first Love Hina omnibus published by Kodansha. The omnibus collects the first three volumes of Ken Akamatsu’s manga series Love Hina. And, as always, the contest is open worldwide.

Ah, good ol’ harem manga. My introduction to the genre was through Kou Fumizuki’s Ai Yori Aoshi, followed closely by Ken Akamatsu’s Love Hina (back in it’s Tokyopop days). For me, harem manga tends to be a guilty pleasure. This is not to say that there isn’t good harem manga out there. But in my limited experience, as fun as harem manga can be, it can also frequently be a bit sexist. This goes for reverse-harem manga, too. Still, while I recognize some of the genre’s potential problems, I am not here to condemn harem manga. As I’ve already admitted, I even enjoy it from time to time. Often ridiculous and frequently unbelievable, harem manga, when done well, can be quite entertaining. (Who knows? Maybe I’m just jealous and want my own harem filled with attractive and likeable people.) Love it or hate it, harem manga seems to be a popular genre and will probably be around for a while.

So, you may be wondering, how can you win Love Hina, Omnibus 1?

1) In the comments below, tell me about your favorite harem or reverse-harem manga. If you don’t have one or have never read a harem manga, just mention that.
2) For a second entry, name a harem or reverse-harem manga that hasn’t been mentioned yet by me or by someone else.
3) If you’re on Twitter, you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).

It’s as easy as that! You can earn up to three entries for this giveaway. As usual, there is one week to submit your comments. If you have trouble leaving comments, or if you would prefer, you can e-mail me your entries at phoenixterran(at)gmail(dot)com. The winner will be randomly selected and announced on August 1, 2012. Best of luck to you all!

VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address, link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.

Contest winner announced—Manga Giveaway: Love Hina Giveaway Winner

Love Hina, Omnibus 1

Creator: Ken Akamatsu
U.S. Publisher: Kodansha
ISBN: 9781935429470
Released: October 2011
Original release: 1999

A few years ago I read about half of Ken Akamatsu’s manga series Love Hina, but for some reason never finished it. At the time, Tokyopop had published the fourteen volumes between 2002 and 2003; Love Hina was a very successful series for the company. Love Hina was also successful in its native Japan. Serialized between 1998 and 2001, Love Hina went on to inspire anime, light novel, and even video game adaptations. In 2001, Love Hina also won the Kodansha Manga Award for the shōnen category. Love Hina was selected for the September 2011 Manga Moveable Feast, although for various reasons we held it in October, to coincide with Kodansha Comics new English release of the series. Kodansha was even kind enough to send out review copies of the new omnibus edition, collecting the first three volumes of the series, to some of the participants. I figured it was a good opportunity to give the series another try.

Keitaro Urashima is a second year rōnin. He has applied to the prestigious Tokyo University twice and failed entry both times. It’s really not that surprising though if you take a look at his atrocious test scores. Regardless, he is determined to make it in because of a promise he made to a childhood friend (a girl) who he hasn’t seen or heard from in fifteen years. Unfortunately, Keitaro’s parents are fed up with the situation and have kicked him out of the house. And so he hopes his grandmother will let him stay at her inn. What he doesn’t know is that Hinata Inn has been turned into an all-female dormitory. Finding his grandmother away and himself suddenly the manager of the property, Keitaro has a lot more to worry about than just his entrance exams. The poor guy has very little experience with women, and the residents of Hinata Inn are not going to make it easy on him.

Much of the humor in Love Hina involves Keitaro unintentionally stumbling upon the girls in various stages of dress or undress and subsequently being declared a pervert and getting pummeled by them for it. I’ll admit that I find this rather amusing, but it does get somewhat repetitive, something that even the characters notice. The resulting fanservice caused by these incidents tend to be fairly mild, more imagined than shown, although there are still plenty of panty shots and the like to be found. I’m actually not all that bothered by the fanservice in Love Hina because it serves a legitimate purpose to the story—there are narrative reasons for it to be there. But much like the repeated gags to which it is so closely tied, the fanservice, too, becomes fairly monotonous over time.

While I don’t actively dislike Love Hina, I’m not finding myself particularly engaged by it, either. I’m not really sure why, because there are parts I really like. I appreciate the fact that all the young women living at Hinata Inn have distinct personalities that are, for the most part, independent from Keitaro. It is fairly clear from their interactions with one another that the household has an established rapport and that Keitaro has simply been added to the mix. Unfortunately, once the characters have been fully introduced, there isn’t much further development in these early volumes. At this point, I also feel that the narrative flow is somewhat disjointed. Love Hina isn’t exactly an episodic series, but some of the transitions between chapters, or lack thereof, can be jarring. Still, there are some genuinely funny moments in Love Hina amongst the silliness and I’m glad that I gave the series another look.

Thank you to Kodansha for providing a copy of Love Hina, Omnibus 1 for review.