Maison Ikkoku

Maison Ikkoku is the second TV anime based upon a Rumiko Takahashi manga and aired in Japan in the mid 80’s. It is based on the romantic comedy manga by the same name and unlike her other works ends the way the manga does.

    Yusaku Godai is a ronin, a high school graduate who is working on passing his college entrance exam. He lives in a run down rental property in Tokyo with a number of colorful neighbors. His neighbors; mysterious Yotsuya, flirtatious Akemi and drunken housewife Ichinose, entertain themselves on a daily basis by berating him. During one night-long session of partying and entertainment at Godai’s expense he is driven to his limits and prepares to leave the complex for good. They cheer him on for finally accepting that he is a failure and walk him to the entrance of the building when a beautiful woman arrives to announce that she is the new apartment manager. Godai, instantly smitten with the young woman, welcomes her to the building and turns around to return to his room, determined to stay in his apartment as long as she is there. Kyoko Otonashi is the daughter in law of the man who owns the apartment and has allowed her to take over as its manager as a sign of his concern for her well being. Kyoko, nearly the same age as Godai, is a widow. Her husband, the son of the apartment’s owner, was significantly older than her and died suddenly after their wedding. The grief stricken widow has decided to continue on as a member of her deceased husbands’ family and to aid them in any way possible, determined to remain a widow forever.

    Aside from the heart ache she has endured, Kyoko is a kind, patient and caring person. The residents of the apartment complex quickly welcome her. Godai quickly falls for the woman, not knowing her history at first, and uses his dream of dating her as his motivation to succeed. He convinces himself that he can only ask her to date him once he has graduated college and gotten a solid career, so he can support her and be the strong husband she requires. Along the way he runs into many problems; he has a difficult time getting into school, he has a difficult time once he gets in, he can’t contain his feelings for Kyoko, a rival shows up threatening to steal her away, she cannot move beyond the shadow of her husband, he’s unreliable, etc etc. All through out his journey toward his goal the other residents continue to harass him and threaten to expose his feelings to Kyoko prematurely. Can he make it into her heart or will he slink back to his small town home and live out his days a miserable failure.

    This old romantic comedy is dated. The animation is low quality but sticks to Takahashi’s style. The music and the characters clothing is cheesy. Every thing about it says the 80’s. Regardless of that, this is my favorite romance anime. One of the things I like about this series above all the other romances I have watched is that it is mature. It is one of the few romances not about adolescent love. It is about two adults, in adult situations trying to relate to each other as adults do. The story is well written, with the characters unfolding through out the entire series. The characters are based in reality as are the situations. Godai suffers from the same problems that most male leads in romances do though; shyness, lack of confidence and over active thinking. While Kyoko is quiet, reserved, sometimes melancholy and chooses not to see the truth in front of her. This series tugs at the hart strings every chance it can get and brought me close to tears more times than I can remember. The worst part was saying goodbye to the characters I had watched grow and develop over some 90ish episodes.

    The series is old, but the story and the characters are timeless. If you are a fan of romances and romantic comedies this is one of the best (best in my opinion) stories out there. It is available outside of Japan in both anime and manga version and was released by Viz originally in the mid 90’s in America. Aside from the TV series there were a few one-shot OAV that served various purposes, some recapping the series, one telling a short prequel to the story as well as a movie which features the only resident of the apartment complex not shown in the TV show. The OAV and movie are not worth much time, nor is the live action movie from the late 80’s. In 2008 there was a live action two movie special that overviewed the majority of the story. Aside from the length this live action adaptation was even better then the anime in many ways. There is no word on the recent live action movies being brought to America.