The thing was, in 2001, Slice-of-Life anime was functionally unheard of in the US. Everything on Toonami was fantasy/scifi, everything on pretty much any other anime source was similarly fantastical. I wanted something grounded and realistic, something that took place in modern day Japan. Anyway, Love Hina ended up being this in a big way for me. It was sort of providential that I got the subs when I did because later that year the manga started coming out in the US.
Now the manga. That's a whole new can of worms. Suffice it to say it quickly became my favorite manga of all time. Grant it, I had only read a small handful at that point, but still. The anime was good, the manga was 1000x better.
Love Hina is a pretty by the numbers harem comedy where the twist is that the ladies by and large hate the guy (at least for a while, they come around). Usually in a harem you have a dude surrounded by ladies who fawn over him while he flusters or is mostly aloof. Keitaro, our protagonist, on the other hand, is a lech and a creep, and is constantly punished for his bad behavior. Due to manga plot circumstance, he finds himself manager of an all girls dorm (converted from a very fancy hot spring inn). He's got the ususal childhood friend motivation, supposedly if two people who love each other get into Tokyo University together, they will be together forever. He remembers making this promise with a girl when he was a child and has clung to this until adulthood, even though he can't remember the name or really the face of the girl. Unfortunately Keitaro is kindof a dumbass and has failed multiple times already to get into Tokyo U. So here he is, managing a girls dorm and trying to study, meanwhile maybe the girl he made the promise to years ago is closer than he thinks.
Where the manga excels, in my opinion, is its mix of comedy and heart. Naru is a really gd good character. She should just be a stereotypical tsundre but she has a lot more depth than that and really carries the series. Keitaro goes through an interesting evolution, too, though he is a somewhat weak protagonist, given that so much the comedy relies on his doofy pervyness. The other characters are good, too. They each start out as pretty stock but grow quite a bit as the series goes on. But aside from all that touchy-feely crap, the comedy is often really where it's at. Akumatsu Ken is just such a funny writer/artist. His timing is so often on point, dropping hilarious panels right in in unexpected moments. And while the story does start to feel a bit strained by the end, he does manage to inject enough new characters, situations, and evolutions from time to time that it manages to stay fresh.
