List of Love Hina characters
This is a list of fictional characters in the anime and manga series Love Hina created by Ken Akamatsu. The character names are listed in Western order, with the given name before the family name.
Note because the story spans over several years, any characters age mentioned below describes their age at the point of their introduction.
Main characters
The main characters are residents of the Hinata Inn, a former hot springs resort that is converted to an all-girls dormitory managed by Keitaro Urashima, the sole male resident.Keitaro Urashima
Keitaro Urashima is a second-year ronin studying to enter Tokyo University. As a child, Keitaro made a promise to a girl, based on a story the children overheard, that two people who love each other will live "happily ever after" if they enter 'Todai'. Keitaro is set on gaining entrance to Todai to fulfill the promise he made to his childhood friend, even though he cannot recall her name or her face. Later, in volume 13, it is revealed that Todai may not even refer to Tokyo University after all.After failing to pass the entrance exams on his second attempt, Keitaro's parents seem unwilling and/or unable to let him continue living at home while he studies. He then receives a call from his grandmother. As a result, he travels to "Hinata Inn", a hotel owned by his grandmother, to find a place to stay and study. Following a misunderstanding where the residents believe him to be a burglar and a peeping tom, Keitaro discovers the hotel is now a female-only dormitory.
To compound the confusion, Keitaro's Aunt Haruka mistakenly assumes he has passed the entrance exams and is already a Todai student; consequently, the residents agree to let him stay. When he fails to correct her, and they discover that he is lying, Keitaro is forced to leave until Haruka announces that his grandmother has transferred the ownership of the inn to him. Keitaro, thus, becomes the new landlord.
Keitaro's name is supposedly taken from manga artist Keitarō Arima. It is also believed to be a pun on the Japanese myth of fisherman Urashima Tarō.
Naru Narusegawa
Naru Narusegawa is a 17-year-old resident of the Hinata Inn, who is about to graduate from high school. She is very intelligent, having placed top in the nation in the college practice entrance exams at their cram school. She is popular and beautiful, but constantly tries to hide this as she studies to gain entrance to Todai. However, she has an extremely fiery temper and tends to inflict violent physical punishment. She arrived at the Hinata Inn as a result of her friendship with Kitsune, who introduced her to Granny Hina. At that stage, she does not remember staying at the Hinata Inn as a very young child.Of all the girls at the Hinata Inn, she is most often the unwilling and unwitting victim of Keitaro's clumsiness, which often results in her ending up naked, partially clothed, or placed in any number of compromising positions. Keitaro invariably suffers as a result.
Despite initially taking a violent dislike of Keitaro, she comes to develop very strong feelings for him. The main part of her character arc is that she has great difficulty in admitting these feelings, both to herself, to the hopeless Keitaro, and the world in general. Due to this, she often becomes annoyed or irritated with Keitaro when she believes he is not taking things seriously. Naru had repeatedly denied having feelings for Keitaro even when asked. Naru while speaking to Mutsumi said, "What could you possibly see in a guy like that? You probably don't know this Mutsumi-san, but he's clumsy, stupid, and a total pervert that has no redeeming qualities whatsoever!". She also says to Kanako she would spy on him or sabotage any dates he did get but finds the idea of dating him herself disgusting. This comment and similar situations are played for laughs. When they do date, she hits Keitaro occasionally. Like Keitaro, she strives to get into Tokyo University for two reasons: the first is a promise she made to her one-time tutor Noriyasu Seta, and the second is the dimly recalled promise made to someone whose name and face she cannot remember.
Mutsumi Otohime
Mutsumi Otohime is a very sweet, gentle, kind, and soft-spoken girl. Naru and Keitaro first encounter her while taking some time off for a brief vacation after the three of them failed on their Todai entrance exam. Keitaro and Mutsumi failed for a third successive time, and Naru failed for the first time.Despite her ditziness, she is very intelligent and empathetic. Mutsumi also has anemia which caused all sorts of situations, but she is actually extremely resilient, having a strong vice-like grip even when she first appeared and just like Keitaro is seemingly able to recover quickly. Naru notices in both the manga and anime the similarities between Keitaro and Mutsumi many times. One such notable time was when they believed they first met Mutsumi on Naru and Keitaro's trip to Kyoto. She has a very sweet and generous personality. Being very empathetic to others, Mutsumi often puts others happiness before herself. She can also be comically clumsy at times, another trait like Keitaro. She lives on a small island off the west coast of Okinawa's main island city Naha with her parents and seven younger siblings before moving closer to the Hinata herself. Over the course of the manga she gradually gets over her anemia to the point that in the latter parts it has left her.
Both beautiful and kind-hearted, Mutsumi shows superlative optimism when faced with even the most difficult of situations. She has a number of unusual abilities, such as being able to speak "turtlese", which she uses to communicate with her turtles, namely Tama; the extreme habit of putting others' happiness before her own; a very strong propensity for watermelons; and sleepwalking on a few rare occasions. Despite her many eccentricities, she is extremely intelligent, scoring full marks in the practice exams. Yet, she still fails to get into Tokyo University because, among other things, she forgets to write her name on the test paper, causing her to obtain a grade of Z, or fainting from her anemia.
In both manga and the anime, Mutsumi is very intuitive and has a keen eye for details, noticing things her friends do not, such as, but not limited to, being the only one to know that Pararakelse island was on the opposite side of the international dateline which meant Keitaro would still be able to send his letter in time to Tokyo U and thus finally be able to attend. In the anime, she is the only one who could instinctively tell Keitaro and Kaolla Su's brother apart and knew which was which at all times, excluding Keitaro and Lamba themselves.
It is revealed in volume 10 that as a young child, Mutsumi spent some time living at the Hinata inn. She had learned of the stories of how if a couple was to attend Tokyo U together, they will find happiness and in turn told Keitaro of the story because she wanted to go to Tokyo U with Keitaro. She then played matchmaker for Naru and Keitaro after it became clear that Naru liked Keitaro. Mutsumi let him go for Naru's sake by deliberately losing a game of rock-paper-scissors to decide which of them would become Keitaro's wife, although she loved Keitaro.
But even after that Naru had forgotten all about her promise to Keitaro, Mutsumi then made a subsequent promise with Naru that both of them would later go to Tokyo University so Naru would remember the promise made to Keitaro. Before leaving Hinata, she gave Naru her Liddo-kun doll in memory of their friendship. She eventually moves to an apartment very close to the Hinata Inn and starts working at the Hinata Teashop for Haruka Urashima, even staying in a spare room at Haruka's Teashop after her apartment burnt down on New Year's Eve. Like Keitaro and Naru, she finally passes the Todai entrance exam, discovering her result just before setting off to rescue Keitaro from the island of Pararakelse.
She studies at Todai, and later is the only one of the group to enter a graduate school. At the end of the manga, she helps out in organizing Keitaro and Naru's wedding, and she brings a plethora of watermelons.
Mutsumi is skilled at cooking and like Keitaro is exceptional at baking cakes and other confectioneries.
Tamago or Tama for short was originally Mutsumi's pet turtle, That she gives to Naru after she and Keitaro help her get back to her home in Okinawa.
But Tama's friendship with her is as strong as ever.
Mutsumi is also the only one of the girls to never intentionally cause physical harm to Keitaro.
She enjoys collecting photo stickers, a hobby she and Keitaro share.
Mutsumi is stated as being very well-endowed, even though her clothes downplay her hourglass figure. Her bust is the biggest of all the girls, which is used for comical effect and fan service many times throughout the anime/manga series.
Tokyopop sometimes misspells her name as "Mitsumi" or "Matsumi".
In the anime television series, Mutsumi is voiced by Satsuki Yukino in Japanese and Julie Ann Taylor in English.
Shinobu Maehara
Shinobu Maehara is a 13-year-old schoolgirl who, after getting off to a bad start with Keitaro, develops a crush on him. Shinobu is a boarder at the Hinata Inn, in room 201. In the anime, she is introduced as a grieving girl who has run away from home due to domestic turmoil. However, in the manga, she is already at the Hinata Inn when Keitaro arrives, and her parents are still together. Shinobu is quite skilled in cooking and household chores, so she becomes the resident cook. Quiet and shy, she contributes to her emotional frailty.She is the first girl to fall for Keitaro, and in the manga, she attempts to avoid him because of this. In both the anime and manga, she holds Keitaro in high regard and is often on the verge of tears when Shinobu believes that he is in trouble or likes someone else.
Shinobu decides to leave home and live at the Hinata Inn because of the marital problems between her father and her mother, whose names are never mentioned. Their marital problems lead to their divorce. Shinobu's parents arrive at the Hinata Inn and argue over whom Shinobu should live with. However, Shinobu decides to remain at the Hinata Inn, which her mother is against as she believes the Hinata Inn is a bad place full of rowdy young girls. They eventually concede, allowing Shinobu to remain living at the Inn.
Four years later, she has since grown her hair out and has become more mature, though she retains her sincere personality. She still has a crush on Keitaro and hasn't given up on her dream of becoming his girlfriend.