Love Hina Manga Volume 4 Review

Love Hina Manga Vol. 4<--BUY FROM AMAZON!

*SPOILERS!!!*

With volume 4 of the manga, Akamatsu-sensei moves things forward by having Naru graduate from high school. Indeed, while the manga had indicated her high school status, this is the only time we saw her attend high school or give any real indication of her high school status. I always thought that was a tiny bit strange, but it really doesn't have any major impact on the manga. Now we know that Naru no longer has to attend high school and thus has all the time in the world for adventures with Keitaro. ^_~

After a little adventure with the turtle Tama-chan, Akamatsu-sensei gives Motoko some lead time by having Keitaro counter one of her attacks and thus lose a bet. Now she has to dress in a more "girly" fashion and has to deal with that. It is a nice story that helps develop Motoko's character and what makes her my favorite character of the manga. It also establishes that on some level, Motoko respects Keitaro.

Keitaro's job hunting story slides in next as Akamatsu-sensei properly introduces us to the character of Seta and his adopted daughter Sarah. Sarah is a real brat, breaking things and causing Keitaro all sorts of troubles while pretending to be innocent. Her having to spend time at Hinata Inn gives her more opportunity for mischief. Having painted her into an uncontrollable corner, Akamatsu-sensei gives himself an out by giving Sarah a panda-shaped birthmark that becomes known to Keitaro and Naru, thus beginning to change her from a huge, annoying brat character to a more fun and tomboy-cute character.

Since Seta is Keitaro's boss and Seta was Naru's first real love as well as her tutor, his unexpected arrival causes Kitsune to panic and to get the other girls to agree to keep Naru and Seta separated for Keitaro's sake. This ends up being a fairly amusing story despite the fact that normally, such a story would cause me to cringe with all of the "near misses" and desperation to keep Naru and Seta from seeing each other.

To wrap up this volume, Naru and Keitaro take another step in their relationship as Naru ends up saying that she doesn't hate Keitaro. In true Akamatsu style, the crash-arrival of Seta's vehicle interrupts the couple as they are about to kiss. This provides another love-triangle of sorts for Keitaro as Naru had a huge crush on Seta and still finds him attractive. Keitaro does what most nice guys do and is going to give up so that Naru can be with Seta even though she tries to state her feelings for Keitaro. Keitaro decides to confess Naru's feelings for Seta on his own but Akamatsu-sensei then effectively removes Seta as a rival for Keitaro by having Seta tell all the girls and Keitaro that he likes them all.

So there is a lot of fun in this manga in addition to the arrival of Seta and Sarah to the cast, some minor advancement of the Naru-Keitaro relationship, and some nice development of Motoko's character. I read this and I think of just how much better the story as a whole plays out over the anime adaptation. I need to rewatch the anime sometime.

Anyway, I hope that Del Rey or someone can license-rescue this manga title (providing they retranslate it from scratch and do it right). It would be a shame to let such a classic harem manga title disappear from American markets.

Urusei Yatsura - 129

うる星やつら episode 129 (TV anime)
Urusei Yatsura Ep. 129 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Sugar, Ginger and Pepper are each reminded of their inferior feelings with it comes to their senpai's Benten, Oyuki, and Lum. So, the trio decide to get a Benten by sabotaging her bike, but it backfires on them. Then they try to nail Benten in her house, but she blasts them. So, the trio head to nail Oyuki by causing a giant icicle to fall on her as she goes for her daily walk. Unfortunately, that backfires on the trio, so they challenge her directly and demand an apology. She gives them one while freezing them in a block of ice. Having failed here, the trio decide that if they can defeat Lum, it will be the same as defeating all three women.

On Earth, Lum is punishing Ataru. Ataru convinces Lum to let him do as he will for three days as he bets she can't control her temper. If she controls it, he'll go on a proper date with her. Even though she knows this is an attempt by Ataru to flirt with other girls, she agrees. As a result, Ataru goes completely overboard to chase every girl in school. Lum has to go off to let off some steam and electricity which results in the thwarting of the trio's plan. When they attempt to get protection from Lum's electricity, her next release causes damage that thwarts the trio. As Lum's frustrations grow, her "Darling no BAKA!" screams and subsequent releases of energy cause more and more damage around the city.

At the end of the three days, Lum comes to collect on her date but when Ataru feigns ignorance, he pays the price. Lum literally drags him on the date and when confronted by Sugar, Ginger and Pepper, she makes them pay dearly for daring to interrupt her happy date day with Ataru.


Thoughts/Review: This was another episode that started out rather slow and in a manner that did not interest me. Seriously, I could care less about Sugar, Ginger and Pepper wanting to get at Benten, Oyuki, and Lum. So their schemes against Benten were a waste as far as I was concerned. Their demands that Oyuki apologize were amusing to me in that Oyuki's apology came with a price. You just don't jack with Oyuki, who looks sweet and calm and speaks softly, but that just masks the power within. *lol*

Where the episode picks up is Lum's bet with Ataru about not going off on him for at least three days. Ataru's actions are played so over the top that it comes off as funny, especially since Lum knows he's doing it on purpose to tick her off. Naturally, no girl will have anything to do with Ataru, not that this stops him. Shinobu's cameo helped add a little spice to things.

Lum's growing frustration and larger bursts of electricity to blow off her anger were funny too, especially with her "Darling no BAKA!" screams. The fact that Sugar, Ginger and Pepper seemed to always get caught in the collateral damage was just extra icing on the cake. Lum doing what she did was funny enough without that.

I did like Lum getting her date though I couldn't help but think, "Man, that has to be some kind of love to put up with Ataru, to say nothing of having to drag him on the date." Yet, her expression is one of pure happiness. Kinda sad at the same time that it is amusing.

So in the end, a pretty good and funny episode once things shift to Lum and Ataru.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - 42

Hagane no Renkinjutsushi - Fullmetal Alchemist Ep. 42
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Episode 42 review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: Al's armor body is taken apart and carried to an abandoned building where Mei uses Scar's brother's notes and unlocks the hidden code contained within. Kimblee discovers Sloth's tunnel and encounters Pride, who takes him off his mission to find Scar and tells him to put a Blood Crest on Briggs as Sloth completes work on the tunnel. Miles makes it back to Briggs and lets Buccaneer know about the missing Ed and Kimblee. Falman has a phone conversation with Breda (stationed in the west), where they discuss the worsening conditions with the fighting in the south (where Kain is stationed) as well as the fighting in the west.

Meanwhile, Hohenheim arrives at Lior and after a meal, he inquires about the cult that started the riot. Rose and her boss lead Hohenheim underground, where the water has become poisonous. Having Rose and the man wait, he makes it to the tunnel that Sloth built and encounters Pride, who immediately attacks. Hohenheim retreats to the tunnel he created to get there and discovers this homunculus is limited to the giant tunnel and the center of Central City. After a brief chat, Hohenheim tells Pride to let Father know that Slave 23 is coming, something relayed immediately to Father.

At Briggs, the forces of Drachma march on the fort and are aided by Kimblee, who lets the Drachma general know that his men will turn on the Briggs troops and cause chaos. Elsewhere, Zampano calls Central and reports to Envy that Marcoh is hiding in the city of Asbec.


Thoughts/Review: Well now, well now. I didn't expect to see Rose again but it was nice. She seems so confident now despite all of the bad stuff she's been through with the exposure of Father Cornello as a fraud and the subsequent riots that happened which seriously damaged Lior. She wasn't lugging some baby around either, which I seem to remember in the first anime series. I wonder if Rose plays a bigger role in the future or if this was just an extended cameo role.

Regardless, Hohenheim's trip to Sloth's tunnel showed that Pride has limits. He can travel around the tunnel with his shadow form and he can move about in parts of Central City (if I understood correctly). Well, now we know why Pride hasn't unmasked some of the conspiracies against Father -- he's limited. Heck, not being able to leave the tunnel means he cannot monitor what transpires in Briggs or anywhere else. I would guess that his threat on Riza is legit though.

Still, why has it taken Hohenheim so long to take any action against the homunculi? He is the most powerful alchemist there is as far as I can tell with his ability to transmute at will without doing anything obvious to cause the transmutations. Granted, as a living philosopher's stone, he's going to be more powerful but I didn't expect him to have a walkway created under his feet as he walked down the underground waterway. That's pretty impressive.

Of course if he battles Father, it would be an even match as best as I can tell.

It was interesting seeing the Drachma forces. The people from Xing seem Chinese to me and the Drachma seem Russian. I'm guessing this is on purpose to emulate Earth.

Anyway, I can't help but think that the people of Briggs may have already prepared for dealing with Kimblee's men turning on them. I suppose it really doesn't matter if Briggs repells the attack from Drachma or not since it is blood that has to be shed for the transmutation circle to be completed. It is interesting that Kimblee already had contact with the people of Drachma and apparently enough influence to get them to attack Briggs.

Well, it seems my initial suspicions about the Chimera and their rapid conversion were well founded. I know, I know. Last episode, I had decided to go ahead and trust them but hey, I can't always be right. ^_~ Well, the two with Ed may be OK, but with Zampano having a direct line to the Führer's office to squeal, he certainly doesn't seem OK. Still, in addition to playing trickery with the audience, it is nice to see Envy brought back into the mix.

Finally, there's Mei Chan's solving of Scar's brother's notes. Take them apart and make a transmutation circle out of them.

What?

OK, I know that certain keywords like "gold" were used to group papers together but how do you sort them as they did? I'm completely lost on that one and it smacked rather convenient that by spreading the papers of the notebook out in a certain way, somehow linking certain keywords to help make the arrangement, one could get a transmutation circle. Further, how twisted was Scar's brother to come up with this insanity? This is the most complex puzzles I've ever seen because the notes had to be written so that someone would figure out spreading out the papers in an overlapping, specific patter, then flip everything over to reveal the true solution to the riddle.

*_*

My head is spinning. Maybe I shouldn't have watched this when tired. ^_^;

All that aside, I get the notion that Scar's brother figured out that Amestris was being turned into a giant transmutation circle. So, when I remember that Father had no control over alkahestry when Mei Chan and Scar used it in his lair, it stands to reason that an alkahestry circle might counter whatever Father is planning. Question is, if I'm right, how do they go about making these changes?

One more thing -- at least an explanation was given as to the removal of the dirt from Sloth's tunnel. *lol*

There's a lot happening on multiple fronts and this anime series continues to be very good. ^_^