Surely several of you remember Inu-Yasha by Rumiko Takahashi (and maybe you are reading Rin-Ne). Maybe some of you remember Ranma ½ by the same author. But Maison Ikkoku is generally regarded like her masterpiece.
Maison Ikkoku is a seinen manga spanned a ninety-six episodes anime series, one movie and three OVAs. The history is a comedic romance about a group of (mostly crazy) people lives in a boarding house (named Maison Ikkoku).
The male main character is Yusaku Godai. He is a ronin (a college applicant has failed his/her college entrance examinations and continues studying to try to pass them) lives in the boarding house as he studies in order to pass the entrance exam at last. He is an honest and well-intentioned person, but he is also gullible and weak-minded, and his crazy and mischievous neighbours are constantly picking on him and taking advantage of him. Often he feels tempted to leave the madhouse is stuck in.
One day he decides he has got enough and is about of leaving when a young and beautiful woman called Kyoko Otonashi shows up and announces she is taking over as manager. Godai suddenly decides he is staying (as the other tenants roll their eyes up). He has completely fallen in love with her.
Kyoko is a nice, mature, hard-working and compassionate but somewhat melancholic woman (and she is downright scary when she gets angry). Quite soon the Maison Ikkoku tenants learn another thing about her: she is a widow. Her husband died shortly after their marriage. Her father-in-law suggested her working as a manager in the boarding house he owns in order to get over the hurt and move on. She took up the offer and she is not in a hurry for getting married again (however it doesn’t stop nearly everybody –her parents, her father-in-law, her tenants, the whole neighbourhood and several would-be suitors- of telling her she should get married again before she becomes an old maid. Yusaku is the only has never pressured her about it, and it was an epic moment when he suggested several of them shutting up and thinking of how Kyoko feels).
Throughout the whole manga, Yusaku is constantly trying winning Kyoko’s heart over as he struggles for becoming a better person, passing the entrance exam, graduating and finding a job so he can become a person Kyoko can trust and rely upon (as he survives his neighbours). Needless to say, the coming of suitors to Kyoko and to HIM will complicate matters.
Some of the main characters are:
Hanae Ichinose – She is a middle-aged housewife whose hobbies are getting drunk, partying, gossiping and getting in everybody’s business. She is loud, meddlesome, nosy, clever and sharp-witted (she can read anyone like if that person was a book… to everyone’s chagrin). However she is surprisingly tender and understanding with her husband. Her pest- son fervently wishes growing up soon so he can run from his family. Her family lives in Room 1.
Mr. Yotsuya – This middle-aged man is one of the weirdest characters has created Rumiko Takahashi. Nobody knows his complete name, his age or his work. But all know his hobbies: annoying and taking advantage of everyone, pulling juvenile pranks he deems funny, blackmailing, spreading false rumours, spying on other people (mainly women), stealing food… and he does all of it as he keeps an appearance of dignified, polite person. He lives in Room 4 (and he is permanently pestering Godai through a hole in the wall. That hole has been repaired several times, but he ALWAYS brings the wall down again. Usually ramming the closed gap with a log).
Akemi Roppongi – Young waitress of the bar everyone usually hangs on. She is brash and carefree and she likes seeming oblivious –and behaving how if she was-, mocking people –mainly Godai- and gossiping. She is good friends with Mrs. Ichinose and often they hang together (to the Kyoko’s chagrin). She lives in Room 6.
Shun Mitaka – He is a young tennis teacher (but he isn’t a Maison Ikkoku tenant). He is older than Godai, more charming than Godai, more handsome than Godai, richer than Godai, he also is in love with Kyoko, he is determined to conquer her and he thinks Godai is simply irritating and he doesn’t understand why he has to compete with an incompetent, stupid child. He also is deadly feared of dogs. And Kyoko owns a huge, white dog. Usually, hilarity ensues.
Other secondary characters include: Kozue Nanao (an innocent girl is in love with Yusaku and doesn’t know he is in love with Kyoko), Kyoko’s parents (her father doesn’t want Kyoko gets married ever married because NO ONE is good enough for his –twenty-two years old- little girl and her mother wants she gets married again as soon as possible and at the beginning she was constantly plotting schemes in order to get her out of her job), the Otonashi family (unlike the most of the characters they are normal, uncrazy people), Ibuki (a schoolgirl has decided Godai is her life’s love and tried seducing him for several chapters), Nikaido Nozomu (he shows up late in the manga, he becomes Room 2 tenant, and he is so oblivious as dense. Getting some through his incredibly thick skull and in his head is a long, torturous and often fruitless process)…
This story is comedic –but not the comedy is not overtop- and romantic, and unlike what happens in most Takahashi mangas, the characters are allowed to grow up and evolve, the story never drags out (which is the main trouble of Ranma and Inu-Yasha), and the ending is extremely good –and very touching- and it closes the story perfectly.
And it personally has one of the most emotive scenes I remember having read in a manga:
I recommend it if you like comedic romances, whether you like Takahashi works or not.
The manga originally ran from 1980 through 1987 and it is fifteen volumes long. It has been published by Viz, but you can read it online here:
http://www.anymanga.com/maison-ikkoku/ . The anime has been licensed by Viz Media (I think).
