Love Hina Omnibus 1 [Anglais] [Broché]

I want to give kudos to Kodansha for bringing 'Love Hina' back into print. For the uninitiated, 'Love Hina' is a romantic comedy manga by Ken Akamatsu, best known for his current work Negima (Negima! Magister Negi Magi) and also for on e of my favorites, A.I. Love You (think a manga version of 'Weird Science'). 'Love Hina' is the story of Keitaro Urashima, a ronin (student who has failed his college entrance exam) working to get into Tokyo University. Keitaro, through a series of events, becomes manager of Hinata House, an all-female dormitory, where he is surrounded by a bevy of beauties (only in manga and anime does this happen).

As I said, I give kudos to Kodansha for bringing this omnibus, which collects the first three volumes of 'Love Hina', into print, because this is a title which deserves to have new readers discover it. Unique to this edition ('Love Hina' was previously published by Tokyopop) is a new translation along with a series of translator's notes explaining explaining various cultural references that appear throughout the manga.

That said, there are some disappointing things about this volume. The proofreading of this omnibus leaves a little bit to be desired. For example, the first two translator's notes (which appear in the back and reference the page in the manga to which they are related) refer to items that they say appear on page two. However, the first note refers to kotatsus (a table with a heater underneath) which actually doesn't appear until page 130. The second reference (about kendo) doesn't occur until the sixth chapter, which begins on page 163.

Next, page 3 is incorrectly labeled as page 215. It's a minor thing, but a bit odd. There's a grammatical error on page 112, where Naru (the girl with the iron punch) says to Keitaro "You know, at this rate, you won't make into any university" (it should be make 'it' into any university). As a comparison, the Tokyopop version has Naru saying "You know, at this rate, you won't be able to get into any school, let alone Tokyo U".

There's more (the volume two translator's notes appear to be each off by two pages), but you get the idea. For something that has been greatly anticipated (okay, maybe not greatly anticipated, but I've been wanting it, even though I have the previous release, 'Love Hina' is a favorite of mine), the sloppiness in the editing is a big letdown. I would hope that future editions correct these errors (at least get the page numbering right).

If you already have the previous Tokyopop release, you may wish to forgo buying this one from Kodansha, at least until (when/if) they correct the errors in a future edition.

However, if you're a fan of Ken Akamatsu, or enjoy romantic comedy manga, 'Love Hina' is still one of the more enjoyable titles out there, and is a must-read, in my humble opinion. Yes, it has its detractors; it's been called a poor man's Maison Ikkoku, among other things (some of which are unprintable, at least here on Amazon). Coincidence and luck (good and bad) reign supreme within its pages (along with every cliche imaginable). If you're looking for a literary masterpiece, check out Dickens or Twain. But if you want a fun, entertaining ride, where you can turn your brain off for a while and visit with some amusing characters, then give 'Love Hina' a whirl. For twenty bucks (and probably less) for the first three volumes, it's an inexpensive introduction to a manga classic.

At first I was skeptical about buying the new Love Hina omnibus', especially considering I own the whole Tokyopop release, but after leafing through a few pages at Fanime this year I decided to give it a try. The first thing I want to bring up is how much I've enjoyed the new translations. Just about every bit of speech has been written differently from the Tokyopop release (the most notable being the use of Japanese honorifics), and all the original Japanese sound effects have been kept in with relatively unobtrusive English translations nearby, something Tokyopop changed in numerous ways across all 14 volumes. I'm not going to knock Tokyopop's original run of the series as bad for its sometimes rough translations and heavily colloquialized English because it's one of the principle reasons I even became a manga fan. I also really liked some of the new bonuses at the end of book that I hadn't seen in any of the older volumes.

While others have pointed out the most major flaw with this new release, that it still has grammatical errors or missing words from sentences, I'd say it's pretty forgivable in a 550 page book. And while sometimes the translator notes give the wrong page numbers they're still nice to have.

For anyone that hasn't read this great series I would highly recommend picking up these new omnibus reprints. Yes, in the realm of ecchi rom-com manga it's filled with cliches and heavily relies on coincidences and impossibly bad (or sometimes good) luck, but Ken Akamatsu really knows how to put a lot of energy into each panel and he does a good job of letting the reader get to know all the residents of Hinata Inn, allowing the reader to pick their own favorites. Y'know, even if you're a big fan of the series and still have your 14 Tokyopop volumes I'd still recommend trying out these reprints if just to see it in a new light. You definitely won't be disappointed

Let this review apply to all manga Omnibi, -buses, -bis, -bus... GAH! However you pronounce it. I love buying Omnibuses for my favorite manga series. I get multiple volumes for less than it would be to buy the books individually. Love Hina has long been a favorite series of mine and I highly recommend getting it. the story is awesome, the cast of characters is hilarious, and the art is very unique and well done. 5 stars.