Maison Ikkoku

Maison Ikkoku (Japanese: めぞã‚"一刻, Hepburn: Mezon Ikkoku) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Big Comic Spirits from November 1980 to April 1987, with the chapters collected into 15 tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan. Maison Ikkoku is a bitter-sweet comedic romance involving a group of madcap people who live in a boarding house in 1980s Tokyo. The story focuses primarily on the gradual developing relationships between Yusaku Godai, a poor student down on his luck, and Kyoko Otonashi, a young, recently widowed boarding house manager.

The manga was adapted into a ninety-six-episode television anime series created by Studio Deen that ran on Fuji TV from March 26, 1986 to March 2, 1988. A Final Chapter movie, three OVAs, and a music special were also produced, with a live-action movie made by Toei in 1986. A live-action TV special aired in May 2007 on TV Asahi, with a finale aired in July 2008. Both the manga and anime have been released in North America by Viz Media.

Plot

The story mainly takes place at Maison Ikkoku (一刻館, Ikkoku-kan), a worn and aging boarding house in a town called Clock Hill (時計坂, Tokei-zaka), where 20-year-old college applicant Yusaku Godai lives. Though honest and good natured, he is weak willed and often taken advantage of by the offbeat and mischievous tenants who live with him; Yotsuya, Akemi Roppongi, and Hanae Ichinose. As he is about to move out, he is stopped at the door by the beautiful Kyoko Otonashi, who announces she will be taking over as manager. Godai immediately falls in love with her and decides to stay. Godai and the other tenants find out that despite her young age, Kyoko is a widow who had married her high school teacher, who tragically died shortly after their marriage. Godai empathizes with Kyoko and endeavors to free her from her sadness. He manages to work up enough courage to confess his love to her, and it begins to look as if a relationship between them might actually appear. However, Kyoko meets the rich, handsome and charming tennis coach Shun Mitaka at her tennis club. Mitaka quickly declares his intention to court Kyoko and states that he is very patient, and can wait until her heart is ready.

Godai, not willing to give up, continues to chase Kyoko. But through a series of misunderstandings, he is seen by Kyoko and Mitaka walking with the cute and innocent Kozue Nanao. For the rest of the series, Kozue is mistakenly perceived as being Godai's girlfriend (by Kozue herself as well). Angered by this, Kyoko begins to openly date Mitaka. Despite the misunderstandings, Kyoko and Godai clearly have feelings for each other, and their relationship grows over the course of the series. Godai eventually manages to get into college and, with the help of Kyoko's family, he begins student-teaching at Kyoko's old high school. Almost mirroring Kyoko's meeting of her husband, Godai catches the attention of precocious and brazen student Ibuki Yagami, who immediately begins pursuing him. Her outspoken approach stands in stark contrast to Kyoko, which helps Kyoko come face to face with her own feelings for Godai.

Meanwhile, Mitaka's endeavors have been hindered by his phobia of dogs, as Kyoko owns a large white dog named Soichiro in honor of her late husband. He eventually overcomes his phobia, but just when he is about to propose to Kyoko, his family begins to goad him into a marriage with the pure and innocent Asuna Kujo. Feeling the pressure from his family, Mitaka begins to pursue Kyoko with increased aggression, but he slowly realizes that she has actually already decided on Godai, and is just waiting for him to find a job and propose. Mitaka is completely pulled out of the race when he ends up thinking he slept with Asuna and her later announcing a pregnancy. Taking responsibility, he proposes to Asuna, but finds out too late that it was her dog that was pregnant, not her.

As things begin to really go well for Godai, Kozue Nanao makes a reappearance in Godai's life. Kozue tells Godai and the other Ikkoku tenants that she is thinking of marrying another man, even though Godai had proposed to her (which is another misunderstanding). Kyoko, feeling foolish and betrayed, slaps Godai and demands that he move out. When Godai refuses, he wakes up the next morning to find her gone and her room empty. Godai tries to explain himself by visiting Kyoko every day, even though she won't answer the door. After she calms down a bit, Kyoko comes back to check on the house and runs into the other tenants. They try to convince her to return.

The seductive Akemi, sensing that Kyoko is still hesitant, threatens to seduce Godai if Kyoko doesn't want him. She later tells the other tenants that she only said that to threaten Kyoko into coming back. This backfires when Godai is later spotted leaving a love hotel with Akemi (he was only there to lend her money), however, it does result in Kozue resolving to marry the other man. As Kyoko is about to return to Ikkoku, she learns that Godai has ended it with Kozue, but thinks he slept with Akemi. She insults him, tells him that she hates him, and runs away. Godai follows her explaining that the problem is that she doesn't trust him and that despite all the other girls, she never considered one important thing: Godai's own feelings. He passionately tells her that he loves only her, and that from the first moment he saw her and forevermore, she is the only woman in his eye and the two spend the night together. Having cleared his last barrier of getting a teaching job, Godai proposes to Kyoko and, with the blessings of both families, they finally get married. The story ends as Godai and Kyoko arrive home with their newborn daughter, Haruka, and Kyoko tells her that Maison Ikkoku is the place where they first met.

Production

Takahashi created Maison Ikkoku as a love story that could occur in the real world. She originally only wanted to start the series focusing on Kyoko and Godai's relationship before moving on to include the other tenants to have a "human drama," but said the love story attracted her more and took over. She had wanted to draw a story around an apartment complex for some time, as when she lived in an apartment in Nagano during college, there was another decrepit apartment behind it. The strange actions of the people living there served as inspiration.

She wrote the bimonthly Maison Ikkoku simultaneously alongside the weekly Urusei Yatsura. In an interview during its serialization, she stated she usually took two days to create the story and draw rough drafts, and then takes one night to finish them. At the time she had two female assistants, refusing to have males so that they would not be distracted. The series' title utilizes the French word maison ("house") and translates to "The House of One-Moment". The story occurs over a six year period, approximate to the publication period of the series.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi, Maison Ikkoku was serialized in Big Comic Spirits as 162 chapters between 1980 and 1987. The chapters were collected and published into 15 tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan from May 1, 1982 to July 1, 1987. The series has since been re-released in several different editions. A 10 volume wide-ban edition was released between September 1, 1992 and June 1, 1993, 10 bunkoban from 1996 to 1997, and 15 shinsōban throughout 2007.

North American publisher Viz Media originally released the series, adapted into English by Gerard Jones, in a monthly comic book format from June 1993. This release was collected into 14 graphic novels. The images were "flipped" to read left-to-right, causing the art to be mirrored, and some chapters were out of order or completely missing. Four of the five missing chapters were published in Animerica Extra Vol. 3 Number 1 and Vol. 3 Number 2. Viz later re-released the series in its original format and chapter order across 15 volumes. These were released between September 24, 2003 and February 14, 2006.

Anime

Maison Ikkoku was adapted into a ninety-six episode television anime series by Studio Deen and aired on Fuji TV from March 26, 1986 to March 2, 1988. The series was directed by Kazuo Yamazaki for the first 26 episodes, Takashi Anno from episode 27 until 52 and Naoyuki Yoshinaga for the remainder of the series. The production staff had previously worked on the anime adaption of Takahashi's previous work, Urusei Yatsura. After production of that series was completed, the team moved straight onto Maison Ikkoku and the series took over Urusei Yatsura's timeslot. A new HD remaster of the series has been created and released on two Blu-Ray boxsets in Japan. The first box was released on December 25, 2013 and the second box followed on April 23, 2014.

A animated theatrical film titled The Final Chapter was released on February 6, 1988, as a double feature with Urusei Yatsura Movie 5: The Final Chapter. On September 25, 1988, an original video animation that summarizes the story was released. A video titled Karaoke Music Parade and collecting all the TV anime's opening and ending animations was released on November 1989. Shipwrecked on Ikkoku Island was released on January 31, 1991 and adapts a story of the manga, while Prelude Maison Ikkoku: When the Cherry Blossoms Return in the Spring utilizes all the flashbacks of Kyoko's life before she moved to Maison Ikkoku and was released on June 25, 1992.

The anime was licensed for a North American release by Viz Media in 1994, and was put on two-episode VHS dub releases, but Viz dropped the English dub after 36 episodes. The remaining subtitled-only VHS releases went on until volume 32, without finishing the series. Viz released the series as 8 DVD boxsets from June 1, 2003 until June 4, 2006, with the latter episodes newly dubbed. In the newer episodes, Godai was given a new voice actor, as Jason Gray-Stanford was replaced by Brad Swaile. Other characters such as Kozue and Ikuko were also recast.

Live-action

A live-action film adaptation of Maison Ikkoku was released on October 10, 1986 by the Toei Company. Directed by Shinichirō Sawai and written by Yōzō Tanaka, the movie stars Mariko Ishihara as Kyoko Otonashi, Ken Ishiguro as Yusaku Godai and Masatō Ibu as Yotsuya

A live-action TV special premiered on TV Asahi on May 12, 2007. It stars Taiki Nakabayashi as Yusaku and Misaki Ito as Kyoko. A finale to the show was aired on July 26, 2008 and features Akina Minami as Kozue Nanao and Ikki Sawamura as Shun Mitaka.

Other media

Many CDs containing the music featured in the anime were released, including the box set Maison Ikkoku CD Single Memorial File.

A couple video games based on Maison Ikkoku have been released, the first being Maison Ikkoku: Omoide no Photograph (めぞã‚"一刻 ～想いでのフォトグラフ～) developed by Microcabin, which was originally released in 1986 for the PC-9801 and PC Engine before being ported to the Famicom in 1988. Microcabin also created Maison Ikkoku Kanketsuhen: Sayonara, Soshite...... (めぞã‚"一刻完結篇 ～さよなら、そして……～) in 1988 for the PC-9801 and MSX2. Three pachislot video games were also released in 2006, 2009 and 2012.

Reception

Jason Thompson claimed that while Maison Ikkoku was not the first men's love-com, it is "almost certainly the best" and definitely Rumiko Takahashi's best work. Anime News Network (ANN) gave the manga an "A" for its story and an "A-" for its art, stating that the series shows off Takahashi's skill; "with a clear cut and rather simple plot, she is able to concentrate on the characters, using them to drive the story, while at the same time ensuring the proper reader reaction intended for each scene." They remarked that the story focuses on Yusaku and Kyoko's relationship, with the other characters used only "to create conflicts, exposition, and comedic relief." Thompson stated that because the main character is a university student, Maison Ikkoku is "slightly more sophisticated" compared to Kimagure Orange Road.

ANN's Allen Divers wrote positive reviews of the anime, saying "The beauty of Maison Ikkoku is the fact that the entire cast feels dynamic enough that each could be the center of an episode without pulling away from the main idea of the series." and called it a must-see for fans of romantic comedies. Melissa Sternenberg of THEM Anime Reviews gave the show a perfect five star rating, calling the development between the two main characters refreshing and praising the supporting cast for reacting to what happens around them. Although she did point out the music and sound effects might seem dated. She finished saying "There may never be "the greatest anime series of all time," but I would bet a good amount of money that this series would be on most (respected) anime viewers' top five lists." TV Asahi released two Top 100 Anime lists in 2005; Maison Ikkoku came in 80 on the nationwide survey of multiple age-groups, and 89 on the web poll.

References

External links

• Maison Ikkoku at Viz Media
• Maison Ikkoku (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Maison Ikkoku (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia