Anime: Maison Ikkoku

PLOT
You have Godai who is trying to get in University while staying at small appartement complex called Maison Ikkoku. The other tenants are:

• Yotsuya: a man of mystery who makes a hole in the wall between his room and Godai so that he can always slither in Godai’s room. Speaks either in a formal manner or with poetry

•  Akemi: a waitress in a bar in the neighboorhood. Is usally scarcely dressed while walking in the appartment complex.

• Misses Ichinose: the small, corpulent mother of Kentaro. Her love to gossip and eavesdrop is only superceded by her love for alcohol.

They all love to invade Godai’s room to party and drink every night. Not an ideal environment for someone trying to study. One day, a young Kyoko Otonashi arrives and announces that she will be the new appartement manager. It turns out that she is a young widow. A year before her arrival, she just married a man called Sochiro. Unfortunately, he passed away just 6 months into their marriage. Godai is immediately smitten by Kyoko. He finds out though that it isn’t easy winning over someone’s heart when you have to live in the shadow of a deceased husband who still holds an important place in her heart. Not to mention that he isn’t her only suitor.

GOOD POINTS

•  Yagami: she is a high school student who has the hots for Godai (who was a student-teacher when they met). She brought something new to the episodes, she was a bit of fresh air as she went very aggressively after Godai. She resembles a young Kyoko in a way. They both fell in love with a temporary teacher and wished to marry him. The only difference is that Yagami is way more aggressive than Kyoko.* Most of the episodes starting from episode 53.
  

BAD POINTS

• Yotsuya, Akemi, Mss Ichinose: They constantly barge into Godai’s apartment and hold drinking parties there while he has to study, have jokes at his expense, belittle him, are never supportive, spread half truths knowingly just for the chaos and fun (for them) it will create, force him to pay for their drinking parties. Yotsuya and Akemi aren’t above stealing his food. Yotsuya frequently blackmails Godai into buying food for him to keep secrets, Mss Ichinose alone, I could cope because she is sometimes helpful. The 3 of them together only appear as bullies in my eyes. I’m going to refer to the 3 of them as “the Leeches”. 

• Godai’s stupidity: I know it is a trope in the comedic love story genre that the main male character is weak willed, gullible, wants to please everyone and has a heart of gold but he is sometimes really the cream of the crop. He trusts what Yotsuya, Akemi and Mss Ichinose say (and their advice) way to much, although he should know better. I don’t think I’ve ever met a main character in this genre that gets so walked over by others as him.He also has a habit of lying to Kyoko when things don’t go his way. It’s his reaction to hide the embarrassing situation he is in and gives Yotsuya the opportunity to blackmail him.I’ll just mention his stupid daydreaming that ends up with him running into something. This figure gets used almost every episode in the beginning of the anime and becomes stupid really fast. Luckily, when we pass the goofy episodes, it never occurs again.

• Confession plot hole: very early in the anime, Godai confesses to Kyoko that he loves her, the same episode that Mitaka (= his love rival for Kyoko) was introduced. After that, nothing happens and that event is never mentioned again. Kyoko never responds to his confession, he never gets teased for not getting an answer by the other tenants. You should know that they tease him with every other little thing. It is like nobody wanted to talk about that elephant in the room again. 

• Kozue-Godai relation: Kozue is a girl who, like Hikaru in Kimagure Orange Road, goes on dates with Godai and kinda single-sidedly starts dating him. She is a bit childish but unlike Hikaru, she is annoying. She was introduced to counterweigh the Kyoko-Mitaka relation. Yet, she doesn’t appear frequently enough to function as a rival for Kyoko and they even become friends quite rapidly so the early feelings of jealously from Kyoko (which were funny and should have been used more) quickly vanish. Her appearances often result in Godai being inconvenienced. Still, he goes along with whatever she has planned despite knowing that he doesn’t love her. This relation was lackluster and should have been handled differently.
  

MY PERSONAL OPINION
This is an anime that, for me, has a bad part and a good part. The only anime that I ever encountered which gave me the same distinct feeling of a hard split was Eureka Seven. A constant line throughout the entire anime is that a lot (if not all) of the problems are caused by a misunderstanding due to a lack of communication. It has that in common with Kimagure Orange Road. Weirdly enough, some issues also get resolved because of misunderstandings.

Eps 1 -> 52: The lay-out of these stories is basicly the same. These episodes mainly focus on the comedic part and there is close to zero character development. Basicly: the Leeches see an opportunity to cause some discord or doubt (in Godai) and watch chaos unfold but never get blamed for anything. It gets rather boring and frustrating to see them constantly bully Godai (and in a lesser extent Kyoko) for nearly 52 eps in a row. As I was watching these episodes, I was really wondering why so many people liked this series. There were a lot of annoying characters (Leeches), there was no character development and the plot of the stories was repetitive. I didn’t really see the appeal. If I were to rate the anime based on these 52 episodes, I would say that it was either weak or not really good.

A few things stuck with me though:

• Kyoko was a bit cruel towards Godai and considered him possibly as a pervert in the beginning (an image created by the Leeches). A specific moment that stays with me, is when Godai invited her to a restaurant. She got the names mixed up and went to the wrong place. A lot of running around happened. In the end, she wound up at the correct place, 3 hours late though. She and Godai went home, while it was raining heavily and they got under an umbrella. Then the Leeches swooped in and hide with Kyoko under the umbrella so that there was no place for Godai left. He had to walk the entire time in the rain, she felt a bit guilty about it but did nothing. Just as they reached the gate of Ikkoku, the Leeches ran towards the door and then she insisted that Godai got under the umbrella. He refused (since he was already drenched and those last 10 meters wouldn’t make a difference) and said he wasn’t angry about it and smiled kindly at her. They had a moment, he tried to kiss her to which she slaps him and says he just wants to take advantage of her. She didn’t have to let him kiss her, but slapping him and making that accusation were a bit too much when you look at her own behaviour.

• Kyoko is not really consistent. She knows how Godai feels about her, never gives him an answer and then goes on dates (though she only called it a date once) with Mitaka. Yet, she’s not happy when Godai goes out with other women (or thinks he’s going out with other women).

Now, not every episode is bad. Episodes in which the Leeches don’t appear (much) are enjoyable. I’m not gonna say that they are good but they are enjoyable. There is an episode where Kyoko finds a stone that was once given to her by her late husband. She asks Godai to find out more about the stone. That was really a nice episode and showed signs of character development. The episode where Godai and Kyoko participated in a puppeteer play was also nice.

Eps 53 -> 96: As bad as the first 52 episodes were, so good became the 44 following episodes and I really (finally) started to see why people liked this series. We started to focus more on the Kyoko-Godai relationship, we had character development and the story was starting to move forward. It all started with the introduction of Yagami who aggressively pursued Godai. It shook things up a bit. She was more a rival for Kyoko than Kozue ever was and often forced Kyoko to think about her feelings for Godai. We could see more and more signs that Kyoko choose Godai over Mitaka. Towards the end, Mitaka became a real douche, admitting that he wanted to marry Kyoko and that it didn’t matter how she felt about it. He tried to force her into marrying him with support from her mother. In hindsight, he probably was thinking that she would eventually come to love him, he just needed to push her now. That way, he could escape his marriage with Asuna (a rich girl Mitaka’s uncle tried to set him up with). He put his own problems above the feelings of Kyoko and that made me dislike him quite a bit. I never was a big fan of this rich smooth talker but I really wanted to punch him sometimes or was hoping that Kyoko slapped him a few times because he really deserved it.
What was a bit disappointing was how the Kyoko-Mitaka relationship was resolved. She could never openly say she didn’t love him and because of a misunderstanding between Mitaka and Asuna, Mitaka got engaged to Asuna and decided to give up on Kyoko and focus on his marriage with Asuna. I do believe that he really loves Asuna and that they are both happy in their marriage. Kyoko should have, just a Godai, not been so wishy-washy and be more clear about her feelings towards others. When Mitaka took her to a hotel-restaurant in Yokohama to get her away from Godai, she clearly didn’t like it and wanted him to stop the car, yet he talked her out of it. I’ve seen Kyoko as mostly a strong character and seeing her so weak-willed was really disappointing.

The Godai-Kozue relationship also came to an end by a misunderstanding. At least, Godai ended it on the best positive note by getting the situation cleared up and saying to Kozue that he loved another women.

I read a post by someone to read chapter 149 of the manga because it was very sweet, so I did. Though the anime is quite true to the manga, I really wished that they added the love hotel part of Kyoko and Godai in the anime. It would also have been nice that their mutual night together in Ikkoku wasn’t more explicitely shown. I suffered through the first 52 episodes, I deserved something better than just an implicit suggestion. At least the manga was tastefully explicit.The love hotel scene gave more background on the insecurities that lingered within Godai. Namely, did Kyoko still thought of Soichirou even though they were about to make love. It was handled a bit differently in the anime and a bit too rushed compared to the manga.If I were to rate this 2nd part of the anime, I would say it was good to very good.

I wrote very extensively this time because I got invested in the characters, don’t know if it is a good thing or not to do that about fictional people and situations. But I think everyone can decide for themselves whether or not Maison Ikkoku will be something for them or not. The first is mostly annoying, the second half is really good with drama and romance.

The first time i've heard of Maison Ikkoku, i kinda thought "well, if it's like any other Rumiko story, than probably it will be much like Urusey Yatsura and Ranma1/2...". One has to admit there are clear similarities between works (the characters, and the incredibly long episode numbers[refering, of course to the anime]and the Romance/Comedy theme).
But one must also understand when watching anime, that an artist will always have their signature style, and the animation studio that takes their work will also have a tremendous impact on the anime.


With this little introduction i shall now turn the atention to the anime itself:

Maison Ikkoku tells a story of a Young Ronin named Godai, that lives in a 6 tatami room on an old residential building with it's crazy tenants.
As poor Godai as enough troubles as it is trying to pass the university acceptance exams, the tenants drive him crazy with random Drinking parties in is room, peeping, leeching, and seducing on a dayly basis.
As poor Godai decides too leave the place ("Ikkoku Kai" by the way), a new manager introduces herself, the beautiful young Otonashi Kyoko. Godai imediatly falls in love, thus setting the stage for what will be one off the funniest, and most well arranged dramatic Anime you will ever see.
The Series is 96 episodes long, wich should'nt scare you, because although being an Anime from the 80's, it has the qualities to trap you into a nervous anticipation of "what comes next"

Animation wise, one cannot expect it to be awesome, beign in the 80's style of anime and all, but it suits the story well, the caracters look comical and extrimely expressive in other situations as romance, embarassment and Sadness.

Some may say the soundtrack (especially the openings and endings) are poor... Well, they're wrong. The music was well selected for the anime, and the voices are so "natural" that one would think the characters are real people.

The story is good, although it can get frustrating (96 episodes), the stories are well connected and chronologically placed, giving a continuous and pleasant linearity to the anime.

Before the Romance/Comedy anime you have seen ever existed, the artist who made it had to have an influence of some sort, inspiration... etc.
Well , from analysing Maison Ikkoku and comparing the animes i've seen i concluded:
- Honey & Clover: Morita's Behaviour is actually the same as Yotsuya in Maison Ikkoku (see for yourself), the student living in an old residential and the relation between characters are almost subtle, but none the less easly comparable with Maison Kokkuki.
- Love Hina: the main character is in the same initial situation as Godai, as is the living in a Residential inn, and Hinata's feeling for a professor.


Simply turning the Review short:
There's no reason "NOT" to watch this anime, it's a classic, and i can say that it is one of the most pleasant to watch anime ever created... It's worth the whole week to see it!
f you think this is "cliche" and that you had enough of the same crap (sorry about the language), then you don't know what you are missing.

Its always enjoyable to watch. This what Maison Ikkoku is. Created by Rumiko Takahashi, the creator of Ranma 1/2 and Inu Yasha. I guess this was her best work.
Classified as Romance, Comedy and Drama, Maison Ikkoku tells the story of a tenant "Godai" who falls in love with the "Kanrinin". A typical story one might think. Thats why something had to be made. And thats why we find that the Kanrinin is a widow who refuses to get into new relationships since she is really faithful to her dead husband. So now we end up having a one sided love story. Maybe, But as the story develops, the kanrinin starts to have feelings for the tenant. This is accompanied by the introduction of the tennis coach, who also falls for the kanrinin and the love triangle starts to develop.
Where is the comedy? well, this is introduced by the other tenants "Specially Yotsua " picking up on Godai.

I really love 80's style of Animation. thats why I had no trouble watching this series. Compared to other shows produced in that period of time "Kimagure orange road" and "Dirty pair" for example, Maison Ikkoku was much better animation wise. Still, One can notice frames skipping the animation but it was not bothering. The environment was detailed and nicely drawn. Also, Rumiko Takahashi was successful in creating a unique atmosphere for each of the characters in Maison ikkoku, so if someone tries to remember them, He/she will rememeber them in that particular atmosphere " For ex. Yotsua barging into Godai's room, Kyoko Sweeping the entrance with her broom, The neighbours celebrating... etc".

The soundtrack was nice and lovely to hear. And I have found that they have hired Anzen Chitai "which was a popular band then" to perform one of the openings for the show "Suki Sa". Voice casting was superb. One thing that I liked about the voice acting is that they used Akira Kamiya - who did Ryo Saeba of City Hunter "my favourite character" - for Mitaka "the Tennis Coach". This guy is really talented.

Story Wise, Maison Ikkoku had two problems. First, they wanted to create a long show, and thats why we see this amount of fillers. Those fillers were nice, but they were just too much. Second, the slow pacing of events over 96 episodes. Sometimes this was really frustrating.

As for Characters development, we see a lot of that in Maison Ikkoku, specially for Kyoko and Godai. And this is really a good point in Maison Ikkoku. We follow Godai from high school, college and untill he finds a job after graduation. We see kyoko slowly adapts with her new life and feelings.
Other characters did not show much development, but their contribution to the story was really good.

Value and Enjoyment: Hmmm.. As I said, Maison Ikkoku is always pleasant to watch. One problem though, it is a long series. As for rewatchibility, well, I guess one day I will.

I utter silence through out thy day to see thy smile on her face. I ain't thy happy till I do, whats up captian tootaloo.

I very much enjoyed this anime.

Kyoku is the new Mangager(Kanririn or w/e) and Godai has already fallin in love her (sap). He
finally finds out that she is a widow, and in
initial response the biotch sets out on a Rambo 4 mission to get some pussy! No I'm just kidding hes quite the small time character... He trys his best, but will he win against a stagey faggot tennis couch? I won't spoil it for you! Watch Masion Ikkoku!

One Of The Best Animes, Manga's To Ever Exist!


HOOOP TO DOOO DAAAA LOOOOO



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I very much enjoyed it mister, won't you try a bite?

-Mister: No Ma'm!

Thats a damn shame!


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"Maison Ikkoku?" -- is likely to be your initial response to this masterpiece, and that, in itself, is quite tragic.

Why is it tragic? Well, first of all, this, in my opinion, is the epitome of the "romance" genre; a story so endearing that it will leave you with a profound sense of loss upon its completion.

You will watch the characters grow up and mature before your very own eyes. Take Godai-san for example: he starts off as a downtrodden, capricious student, often the unwilling target of other residents' jokes and pranks, but, towards the end of the series, he blossoms into a respectable member of society; one worthy of praise.

One of Takahashi Rumiko's earlier works, Maison Ikkoku set a precedent for others to follow.

Animation: Quirky, abeit somewhat antiquated character designs. This, however, does not detract from the anime; if anything, it actually brings a touch of realism, and brings Rumiko's world to light. Simply put, you cannot envisage the characters looking anything other than they do.

Sound: Perfectly complements the animation.

The 80s anime with 96 episodes is a long watch, but if you can bear watching them all in that good old 80s style, then you might actually enjoy this series.

The animation is pure 80s style, which means that it's not outstanding, just mediocre. Still, if you can appreciate this kind of style, then you won't be disappointed. And besides, Kyoko looks adorable at times. A nice 7-pointer, ignoring the flaws of all the 80s animation.

The sound is done well. Although the OP/ED aren't exactly my taste (I guess the music isn't really too old to fit my taste), they aren't bad.
The voiceactors did a splendid job; the voices fit the characters, and you should really appreciate the voices of the other tenants which were chosen as if they were born for this role. Too bad the music is too aged to be giving a really huge mark for this one.

The story is done very well. Unlike Kimagure Orange Road, which looks a lot like this one, this one actually contains a good sense for chronological episodes. Although most of them are seperated episodes, they still hold enough of a storyline to be able to see them in a specific order. After the first episodes, I believe when they introduce Yagami, the episodes start appearing as 2episodes-stories, which means that a substory uses 2 episodes.
At the end, the last 20 episodes the series becomes a lot more serious, with less jokes. Unfortunately, they end the series a bit rushed - at least, that's what appeared it to me. They did give a nice summary of what happened to most people in Ikkoku-kan, and that's what pleased me.

The characters differ; while Godai, Mitaka and Kyoko slowly evolve throughout the story, characters as the other tenants are just there to give the series the comical aspect. They don't evolve, they don't have to, just because they aren't meant to do that. They are just there to make the series funny, and they do that very well. The points I give for this are mainly for the choice of characters rather than character development. Although it's worth mentioning that the previously named 3 characters do have a decent development.

96 episodes and in 80s style; you have to choose for yourself if you consider it worth keeping. For me, I thought that, even though it's a nice series, it wasn't really good enough for me to keep it burned, especially since mine were hkdvd-rips.

Did I enjoy it? Yeah. But to me the series didn't start as fun since I didn't like the other tenants. It's not like they aren't fun, but it's almost always the same: they enjoy torturing the main character by not letting him allow to study. Perhaps it's my personal feeling, but I didn't enjoy seeing that. The series started to become more interesting when the main focus wasn't on the study anymore, like when they introduced Yagami and Kozue, or Godai's part-time jobs. I started liking this series especially near the end, with the last 20 episodes, when it gets more serious.
In the end, I still disliked all other tenants, just because of their behaviour. I did like the romance-part, since I really am a sucker for that kind of stuff ^-^