Love Hina/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Here are the characters of the crazy romantic comedy Love Hina. Have fun!

Residents of the Hinata House

Keitaro Urashima

Voiced by: Yuji Ueda (Japanese) and Derek Stephen Prince (English)

The main character, a 19-year-old who has failed the entrance exams for the prestigious University of Tokyo thrice. During his fourth attempt, he is asked by his grandmother to become temporary manager of the Hinata House, a hot springs inn, while she is away on a trip -- except she forgot to tell him that it has since been converted into an all-girls' dormitory.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Naru Narusegawa

Voiced by: Yui Horie (Japanese) and Dorothy Elias-Fahn (English)

The main female character, a 17-year-old top scorer at mock exams and a resident of the Hinata House. While initially disdainful of Keitaro, his poor academics and his accidental perversions, she starts to fall for him, even as she starts to remember that, like Keitaro, she also made a promise with a boy whose name she cannot remember to enter Tokyo U together with him.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Mutsumi Otohime

Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (Japanese) and Julie Ann Taylor (English)

A newcomer to the Hinata House and, like Keitaro, is a 20-year-old Ronin, though her failures stem less from being an academic underachiever than from her clumsiness and tendency to faint at the most inappropriate times.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Adult Child: Mature yet adorable.
  • Breakout Character: She was supposed to be a one-shot character for the first vacation arc, but she proved so popular to fans Akamatsu essentially rewrote her entire Backstory to include her as a main character.
  • Cloudcuckoolander
  • Cool Big Sis
  • Dogged Nice Girl
  • Dojikko
  • Eyes Always Shut: But not as often as Kitsune.
  • Feminine Women Can Cook
  • Fourth Wall Observer
    • Talking to Naru about the letter from Keitaro. Mutsumi:"Don't you remember…I told you about it just a few pages ago."
  • Genius Ditz: She's at least as smart as Naru and didn't even have to study nearly as much.
  • Good Is Not Dumb
  • Hair Antennae: Mutsumi and Naru share this trait.
  • Heroic BSOD: Right after Keitaro broke his leg.
  • Ill Girl: To the point of fainting from anemia. By the end of the manga her symptoms seem to be gone.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: To the max for Keitaro. She does this so many times for Keitaro and Naru, even though Mutsumi has loved Keitaro since they were little. Mutsumi later admits to Naru that she still loves Keitaro.
  • Nice Girl
  • Out of Focus: Particularly jarring considering she is a main character just as Keitaro and Naru are.
  • Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Accidentally with Naru in many scenes, apparently without even realizing it. Turns out she, like Keitaro, did make a promise with Naru to enter Tokyo U together, after asking Naru if she rememberd the promise made to Keitaro (Naru had forgotten) a very young Mutsumi made this promise to make sure Naru remembered to keep the promise made with Keitaro.
  • Ronin: Like Keitaro, she failed her entrance exams two years straight, though not due to poor academics, but due to mishaps (such as failing to write her name) and her condition (fainted just before the exams started). She ultimately passes at the same time as Keitaro and Naru, and breaks the news to both of them in Paraklese.
  • Smarter Than You Look: Rather perceptive and good at reading people. See Ronin, also
  • Supreme Chef: Same as Keitaro by making “dummy” cakes.
  • Three Faces of Eve: She's all three at once. Teasing and boobielicious Seductress, kind and sweet Mother, distracted and clumsy Child.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Watermelons. Coincidentally, they're good for anemia, what with their concentration of lycopene.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend

Mitsune "Kitsune" Konno

Voiced by: Junko Noda (Japanese) and Barbara Goodson (English)

A 19-year-old member of the Hinata House and a freelance writer.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Shinobu Maehara

Voiced by: Masayo Kurata (Japanese) and Bridget Hoffman (English)

Shinobu, the youngest member of the House at 13 years old, decided to live on her own due to her parents' divorce and her refusal to choose between which parent to live with. She and Kaolla are the youngest residents of the House, being the mild-mannered counterpart to the energetic Kaolla.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Motoko Aoyama

Voiced by: Yuu Asakawa (Japanese) and Mona Marshall (English)

A 15-year-old kendo practitioner and member of a family with their own style of kendo.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Kaolla Su

Voiced by: Reiko Takagi (Japanese) and Wendee Lee (English)

14-year-old, Kaolla is an energetic, dark-skinned girl from a foreign country who currently resides in the House.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Others

Haruka Urashima

Voiced by: Megumi Hayashibara (Japanese) and Mari Devon (English)

Matron of the Hinata House and Keitaro's 29-year-old maternal cousin and aunt, having been adopted by their grandmother after the death of her own mother, who was the older sister of Keitaro's mother.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Christmas Cake: Until the end of the manga, when she marries Seta.
  • Cry Cute: While accepting Seta's marriage proposal.
  • Cool Big Sis
  • Covert Pervert: Implied -- whenever one of the girls is wearing a weird outfit, chances are it came from Haruka's closet, which apparently includes a frilly Victorian dress and a Meido outfit. Add to that her skill with (and ownership of) a whip...
  • Generation Xerox: Her rough treatment of her childhood friend Seta is mirrored by Naru towards her cousin Keitaro.
  • Harem Nanny
  • Honorary Aunt: Towards her younger cousin Keitaro. Although, due to adoption, she actually is his aunt as well as his cousin.
  • Insistent Terminology: Dislikes it when Keitaro calls her "aunt", possibly due to being both a Christmas Cake and his older cousin.
  • Smoking Is Cool
  • Victorious Childhood Friend: She gets to marry Seta.
  • Whip It Good: She almost never takes it out, and she's reluctant to even pretend that she'd use it, but she's clearly skilled -- she answers the phone with her whip, from across the room.

Noriyasu Seta

Voiced by: Yasunori Matsumoto (Japanese) and Kirk Thornton (English)

An archaeology professor at the University of Tokyo who Keitaro meets up the steps of the Hinata House after returning from Kyoto with Naru and the rest of the Hinata girls.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Sarah McDougal

Voiced by: Yumiko Kobayashi (Japanese) and Julie Maddalena (English)

Seta's 9-year-old adopted daughter from California and a tomboyish brat to boot.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Tsuruko Aoyama

Voiced by: Miki Nagasawa (Japanese) and Philece Sampler (English)

Motoko's older sister, whose refusal to succeed to their God's Cry School in favor of settling down in a Happily Married life brought some resentment into her younger sister.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Haitani & Shirai

Haitani is voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Japanese) and Steve Blum (English)
Shirai is voiced by: Michio Miyashita (Japanese) and Gene Holliday (English)

Keitaro's friends and, like him, a pair of Ronins.

Tropes exhibited by these characters include:

Kentaro Sakata

Voiced by: Ryotaro Okiayu (Japanese) and Steve Areno (English)

An anime-exclusive character and a hopeless suitor for Naru's heart.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Butt Monkey: And how!
  • Canon Foreigner: He was filler introduced in the anime, and never made it back into the manga.
  • Deus Ex Machina: He shows up whenever he's needed, usually with whatever form of transportation the plot needs (such as a car with a bike in the back, or a car/rocketship thing.
  • Fourth Wall Observer: "Well. I suppose that's all the screen time I'm getting this time."
  • Hopeless Suitor
  • Rich Idiot With No Day Job
  • Romantic False Lead: His introduction, which he lampshades: "I thought about swooping down in a helicopter to pick you up, but that's such a clichéd way to introduce a wealthy rival, don't you think?" Soon after his introduction, he devolves from this into more of a Butt Monkey.

Kanako Urashima

Voiced by: Natsuko Kuwatani (Japanese) and Melissa Fahn (English)

Keitaro's adopted sister with some feelings for him.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Tama

Voiced by: Yukie Maeda (Japanese) and Wendee Lee (English)

A hot springs turtle given to Naru by Mutsumi after helping her return to Okinawa.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

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