Anime/Manga review: Maison Ikkoku

Hello Steemians! Hope that you guys are all doing fine. I am sorry I have not written a post in a long time. I have been going through some difficult times with my Ph.D. I was quite sad and I really needed to take some time off to really deeply think about my strategy, because I have a Ph.D exam that I have to pass in January. I am doing much better now though! :)

Today, I wanted to discuss a manga/ anime that I used to watch during my childhood and that I really liked. It is called Maison Ikkoku. So let’s go ahead and review this anime!

1- What is Maison Ikkoku?

Maison Ikkoku was created by the mangaka artist Rumiko Takahashi in 1980. She is also famous for other manga such as Ranma ½ or Rin-ne [1]. Maison Ikkoku is a romantic comedy anime happening in Tokyo, Japan in the 80s. The story narrates the quite complicated loving relationship between Yusako Godai, a University Student who is struggling with life and money and Kyoko Otanashi, the manager of a modest boarding house, the Maison Ikkoku. Yusako is 2 years younger than Kyoko, and they are respectively 20 and 22 at the time they meet. Both live at the maison Ikkoku, in addition to Hanae Ichinose, Kentaro Ichinose (her son), Mr Ichinose (her husband), Yotsuya and Akemi Roppongi.

Rumiko Takahashi, mangaka author of Maison Ikkoku

Kyoko is a young widow of Soichiro Otonashi, and she was really affected by her husband death. She swore that she would never have a new relationship ever again and that Soichiro would be her loved one forever. This is when she gets the manager’s job and moves in the Ikkoku’s house. While Yusako fell in love with her at first sight, she on the other hand treated him at first like a friend/ younger brother. The story gets even more complicated when soon Kyoko meets her tennis teacher Shun Mitaka who also happens to be very found of her and is quite rich and accomplished in his life, unlike Yusako. Throughout, his years at the Ikkoku’s house Yusako will never give up on his love for Kyoko, and as time goes by they will develop a quite complicated friendship/ platonic love relationship. It gets even more complicated because officially, Kyoko would say that she is in still in love with her ex-husband and that in any event it is very difficult for Yusako to have a serious relationship with her since he does not have a stable job and is still going to school/ trying to find his path in life.

2- The main characters

Kyoko Otanashi

She is probably one of the most complicated character of anime to understand. She struggles between staying faithful to her dead husband Soichiro Otanashi (who she really loves and deeply cared about) and her confusing evolving platonic feelings with Yusako. She is quite smart and pretty. She is a very kind person, but also can be stubborn and doesn’t forgives easily. But she really has a very big heart and really deeply cares about her friends and her loved ones. She is a very faithful person that has high ethics and values in relationships, friendships and life in general. Throughout the anime, two people ambition to marry her: Yusako and Shun, the tennis teacher. Secretely, she really cares for Yusako, but cannot make any move since he does not have a stable job yet. She can also be quite shy.

Yusako Godai

He is a very average University student who struggles with money. He only eats out of cans or ramen noodles because he usually can’t afford to buy fresh food. Sometimes, Kyoko would cook for him. He is a humble person and will do quite a lot of part-time jobs where he will make a lot of friends. He is in love with Kyoko since the first day but he happens to be very shy as well. On top of that, he cares about his friends but is very naive, immature and can be easily manipulable and thus badly influenced. Many times in the Manga, he ends up paying lots of money for his friends who would get drunk (but who wouldn’t pay) or missing dates with Kyoko because he was drinking with a friend. He gets better as the manga evolves though. He is very kind and has a big heart but does not know how to say “no”. He does not know how to say no to his friends or dates that he does not want to go out with. Mainly 3 people have complicated love relationships with him: Kyoko Otanashi, Ibuki Yagami and Kozue Nanao. With Kyoko Otanashi, his relationship will be by far the most complicated and ambiguous. They even have a few fights throughout the show. Ibuki Yagami is that high school student that Yusako met while he was having a temporary teacher’s position in a high school. She is deeply in love with him, but is also a spoiled woman who thinks she is entitled to everything. She will use every single means to get Yusako’s attention, including using her rich dad’s influence to try to get him a stable job so that she could force him into getting married. Despite all her desperate attempts, she never managed to get his heart. Kozue Nanao is that University student who is also deeply in love with Yusako. She is very sweet, cute and girly. She thinks her love for Yusako is reciprocated when it is not. Because of Yusako’s lack of confidence and naivety, he does not know how to say no to her and thus they will go on numerous “dates”. She will even introduce him to her parents, which was a big deal especially in the 80s in Japan.

Shun Mitaka

He is a tennis teacher very fit, athletic, rich, and handsome. All his students are women who all have a crush on him. He is in love with Kyoko, and many times during the show (especially towards the end) he almost managed to become her fiancee, as unlike Yusako he was already well established in his life, was rich and was getting ready to have a family. He did not marry Kyoko though. He ended up with Asuna Kijo, who came from a very rich family.

Hanae Ichinose

She is a middle age woman who always likes to party and who seems to be always happy. She drinks quite a lot and always organizes parties at the Ikkoku’s house. She especially likes to organize partys in Yusako’s room.

Akemi Roppongi

She does not have stable relationships and regularly gets new men. She likes to party a lot as well and is usually very happy. She usually dresses sexy and is not afraid try or explore relationships/interactions.

Yotsuya

He is a very strange dude. There is really little information about him. Nobody knows his age or where he works. He is very stingy. He likes to regularly bother Yusako and since his bedroom is right next to Yusako’s one, he regularly digs a hole through the wall so that he can bother him at will.

3- Relationships

There is a lot of platonic and ambiguous relationships in the manga. There is a lot of misunderstandings . For example, Kyoko many times will think that Yusako is going out with some other women and will get mad, even though she’s never told him that she has feelings for him. Despite the fact that Yusako is very shy, he does end up telling Kyoko that he has feelings for her, but he could have done it much earlier. Because the truth is that he almost lost Kyoko to Shun because he was not getting a stable job and he did not clearly tell her his feelings for her. I think that Yusako and Kozue would have made a really nice alternative couple though. They did go out on “dates” quite a lot, Kozue deeply cared for him and was not afraid to tell him her feelings for him and was willing to wait for a long time. Besides, her parents really liked Yusako.

The fact that Kyoko throughout most of the anime/manga wants to stay faithful of her dead husband is extremely admirable, and shows the values that the characters had in the manga.

It is important to mention that Yusako is in love with Kyoko who is 2 years older than him, which was not quite common. It was thought by some of the characters in the anime as an obstacle between Yusako and Kyoko’s relationship.

4- Context of the 80s

In the 80s especially in Northeast Asia, a man had to get a stable job to even think about getting married with a woman. This is the main problem that Godai has to struggle with, as he is not very goal oriented and mature and will end up having quite a few failures. He does end up getting quite a stable job, after he finds out that his real passion is to educate kids.

Also, it was a period of time where it was not well viewed for two people to sleep together before getting married, especially for a woman. It was different times. Towards the end of the manga, Shun thinks that he slept with Asuna while he was drunk but he really didn’t. Because of that, Shun who is a responsible man will end up proposing to Asuna, even though he originally wanted Kyoko. Also, because of he originally thought he slept with Asuna, he almost ended up having problems with her parents. This shows that it is a period of time when people had strict values.

5- Happiness in the manga

It is one of the most happy manga/anime I know. I think that whenever I watch it I just feel happy and nostalgic of my childhood. The atmosphere is just very happy and despite all the events that happen you can tell that the characters who live at the Ikkoku’s house are almost like a family and are happy to live together. The soundtrack used throughout the anime is also quite relaxing.

I like the combination of regular and filler’s episodes in the anime. I think that it was a good mix. In the filler’s episode, the characters did a lot of things like organizing acting events in Yosuko’s University, going to ski, going to the swimming pool, going to traditional japanese events etc … It was also nice to watch because it helped to get a better understand of the Japanese culture in the 80s. I like the fact that everything is so safe. Like regularly Yusako walks to his house after midnight. When Yusako forgets something on the train, nobody robs it. It was very nice to see that.

6- Evolution of the characters

I like how the characters evolve throughout the anime. For example,, Yusako is extremely immature and naive at the beginning and improves quite a lot towards the end. Kyoko is quite sad at the beginning of the manga because she lost her husband, but is gradually becoming happier as the anime evolves. Ibuki is quite spoiled when she is introduced in the manga, and gradually gets better as a person as the manga evolves.

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maison_Ikkoku

[2] http://maisonikkoku.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Characters

Pictures

Picture 1 was taken from https://goo.gl/92Q1HY

The rest of the images were taken from https://goo.gl/Zsnn6v

juv79505 sincerely thank you for reading this article. Please feel free to comment below in case you have ideas, questions, suggestions or simply want to criticize this article. Stay tuned for more articles on health, environment, artificial intelligence, video games, technology in general, books, graphic novels, geography, history, sports and much more!

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