Love Hina Christmas Special: Silent Eve

STORY
8/10
The Christmas special is by far better than any of the Love Hina television episodes. It concentrates more on the characters and their interactions with one another, rather than overdone slapstick comedy, though that also finds its way into the release. It can easily be said that this one release has more emotion in it than all of the episodes combined, making it a very worthwhile view for Love Hina fans everywhere. Within its one hour run time, it manages to focus on Naru and Keitaro, while still exploring the feelings and thoughts of the other characters. Interestingly, while it has, by far, the ... most emotion of all the episodes, as well as a plot line that is stronger than the entire series combined, it also has the most fanservice shots. These shots occur often and plentifully, from breast shots, prolonged implied nudity, to panty shots. While sometimes they seem too forced and overdone, they don't detract from the release, whose main focus remains the story and the strong emotions felt by the characters.

ANIMATION
7/10
The animation in the special is just as choppy on occasion as the television series, but with all of the action occurring on the screen, it's not too noticeable. The art, also, is nothing extraordinary, but serves its purpose well. The characters and backgrounds are clear and largely uncluttered, which allows it to be free of any unnecessary line distractions. Another aspect of the art that has always been commendable is the successful way that facial emotions are shown in all of the characters. Coupled with the emotional scenes that appear near the end, this enhances the effect of the feelings that the director tries to portray. There is one particularly disturbing aspect of the art, though, and that is the way snow is drawn. Most of the times, it's shown as just balls of white fuzz drifting from the sky, which is nice, but on occasion, the camera will attempt to show zoomed-in snowflakes. These appear as large popcorn-esque chunks of white material, which can invoke a rather puzzled feeling from viewers who aren't used to seeing balls of styrofoam rain from the sky.

MUSIC
8/10
Another characteristic especially pleasant about the Christmas special was the music. The soundtrack ranged from catchy JPop tunes to slow melodic instrumentals that fit the spirits of the scenes perfectly. The only complaint is that sometimes the cheerful holiday music in the background combined with the background noises clutters the dialogue tracks more than they have to. Given the fact that some of the scenes take place in the middle of Tokyo around Christmas time, this is understandable, but on occasion, it can be slightly distracting. Nevertheless, the JPop is sure to win some fans over, as they are infectious and perfect for Christmas karaoke parties.

CHARACTER
9/10
The characters are excellent, especially Narusegawa Naru. Characters like her are very difficult to pull off believably. It's too easy to want to make these girls too perfect (Belldandy in the Oh My Goddess OAVs) or too over-the-top (Ryouko AND Aeka in Tenchi Muyo). Naru is not so perfect that female viewers might feel alienated or intimidated by her - you know girls like her, you've probably gone to school with girls like her, you may even be related to her. She's sort of an EveryWoman. And so you end up rooting for her to hook up with Keitarou just as much as you root for Keitarou to hook up with her, because she in her own way is just as much of a loser as Keitarou. And if you don't see them as the Destined Couple of the Series, well, you just haven't seen enough anime.

ENJOYMENT
8/10
The Love Hina Christmas special is infinitely better than any of the Love Hina television episodes, and Bandai definitely does this release justice.
Love Hina is a very intriguing series. It mixes drama, romance, and slapstick comedy in a pleasing combination. The music is incredibly cute, and also has some gorgeous slow pieces that create a very dramatic effect. If you like romantic shows, or just shoujo anime, then you should definitely see Love Hina Christmas Special. If ever you have the chance to watch Love Hina, do yourself a favor; sit down, relax in the hot springs of Hinata Sou, and experience the magic of Toudai.

A compilation review of the HTWA! Hope you find it handy!

"I loved Love Hina because it was one of the first anime i watched.
I think that what makes it great is that it doesnt take place at school for once and even if the characters could have been improved (especially Keitaro), it remains awesome.
A special place in my heart for this one :)" - benjee

"Well, Love Hina was pretty unique for it's time.. wasn't it? I'm sure it was many people's first or one of their first Anime. It wasn't my first Anime but it was defiinitely something I watched in my earlier years of ... enjoying Anime. Around that innocent age. :]" - kissbang

"It was pretty good i must say. An prime example of a series when the echii doesn't ruin/degrade it." - thestatement

We hope you have enjoyed reading through the opinions of your fellow MAL peers! ^^

Let's get down with the review.

-This is probably the most well animated episode by Love Hina standard. You can see the excessive frames around the beginning of the episode. But then it stagnates a little bit around the middle but still good.
-This time it's Keitaro who do the sulking when he taught Naru was cheating on him. He also don't get beat around too much.
-Naru confessed her affection to Keitaro on national TV in the end but moments later she's back with her normal abusive attitude towards Keitaro. Okay.

The drama feels better in this episode. If only they kept the drama this good throughout the ... series.

I must say, Love Hina Chirstmas Special: Silent Eve is an enjoyment to watch! Still as same as Love Hina, but let me tell you, you won't be disappointed by watching this special.

Story: 7/10
The special concentrates more on the relationship between Naru and Keitaro. It is still as same as Love Hina's "stupidity", but slightly the story is better than the TV series although the special is given a short period of time.

Animation: 7/10
Same as the TV series, the animation is executed pretty good since it's 2000! Also the artwork is good, too, although it's not that special. But overall, the animation and the artwork ... are executed well.

Sound: 8/10
Nothing's special with the music and song, but also nothing's wrong with them, too. The seiyuu are doing a well-done job. They really define their characters.

Character: 9/10
The characters are fun to watch, to be honest. While the anime is about a loser guy who is loved by several girls, they execute the characters brilliantly. They are memorable for me, not boring, and unique for a romantic-comedy harem anime.

Enjoyment: 9/10
I didn't feel the 46 minutes while i was watching the special! I was really, really stunned by the special, since I didn't have high expectations from it. Trust me, if you enjoy Love Hina, you'll enjoy this special as well.

Overall:8/10
Overall, the special is a very good special episode. Rarely have special episodes done better than their TV series. Thank you for reading, and this is my first review, and why am I making my first review for this special? I got really happy just after I watched this. Don't know how but my heart told me. Again, thank you for reading~

8 months and countless shows since watching Love Hina, I've gotten hold of the specials, and it's review time.

Story

It's Love Hina, and it's christmas time, so we have to have some holiday romance.

The story is nice, especially the end, though I found too much of it to be predictable. Relationships move a bit, but I didn't really gain any new perspective on any of the characters.

Animation/sound

... Not really anything noticably different from the series.

Character

If you've watched the original, then there aren't going to be any surprises here. They're all given an appropriate part in the story, but as I said above, I didn't feel any new depth to the characters.

Enjoyment

Well, personally, I watched the original Love Hina for the comedy, and the romantic comedy, rather than straight romance. However, this extended episode contains little humour, only a few bits worth mentioning, and with the predictability of the story, I was left feeling just a little bored.

Overall

I guess what really matters is what you watched through the original series for. If it was the humour and silliness, then this extended episode won't give you a good fix, and you'll probably be somewhat bored. If it was for the romance, then you'll probably like this extra bit, though it might depend on how predictable you find it.

Short review, certainly, but it's only a short show.

The characters of Love Hina celebrate the season to the fullest in this special, which features elements from the main series as well as new ones brought in with the season.
The story centers around, as the premise of the series itself, on a rumor that states that if you make a wish on this 'special christmas eve' at midnight it will come true. It zeros in on the romance between Keitaro and Naru, yet features each of the characters, a fact which cannot be forgotten. You see the truer sides of all the characters and see them interact more in one episode then is really ... seen in any normal episode of the series: between Matsume and Keitaro, Shinobu and Keitaro, the girls towards eachother, and even a glimpse at Kitsunes past love towards Seta.
The story ends in what some may call tear jerking, others sickeningly cute, and Naru even (sort of) confesses to Keitaro.
It is a special that I would definately reccomend, and is definitely in the Christmas Spirit!

A lot better than the series proper, this holiday movie manages to draw a lot more emotional depth than any of the series episodes tend to. With some real emotional investment, the way it becomes a big throwdown about gifts and affirming love at the end reminded me of the final two episodes of the 'Oh My Goddess!' OVAs which also involves a Yuletide confession of love and gift-giving that had a lot of emotional gravity. Naru become almost likeable in the course of the film, but sadly shows little growth despite the meaningful lessons she received in the Christmas Special, as evidenced in the ... following animation.