Maison Ikkoku

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Japanese: めぞん一刻

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 15

Chapters: 162

Status: Finished

Published: Oct 14, 1980 to Apr 6, 1987

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Theme: Adult Cast

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Big Comic Spirits

Authors: Takahashi, Rumiko (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.16¹ (scored by 5,319 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #469²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1037

Members: 17,200

Favorites: 726

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Wikipedia

8.16

Ranked #469Popularity #1037Members 17,200

MangaBig Comic SpiritsTakahashi, Rumiko (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /15

Chapters: /162

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Synopsis

In the town of Tokeizaka stands the old, worn-down boarding house known as Maison Ikkoku. For the last few years, the building has been home to a rambunctious group of tenants, including 20-year-old college applicant Yusaku Godai, its most recent resident. Recently, however, Yusaku has grown impatient with the noisy shenanigans interrupting his studies and has decided to move out. However, as he is preparing to leave, a beautiful woman named Kyoko Otonashi introduces herself as the new property manager. Falling in love with her at first sight, Yusaku changes his mind and decides to stay to court Kyoko instead.

Though he initially believes he is making progress with Kyoko, Yusaku soon discovers that she is a widow still mourning the loss of her late husband. Despite her growing feelings for Yusaku, Kyoko states that she has no intentions to remarry or even date, as she still loves her late husband. Empathizing with her, Yusaku seeks to free Kyoko from her sadness with the help of the other inhabitants of Maison Ikkoku—all in the hope that she will one day see him as more than just another tenant of the building.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Maison Ikkoku was published in English by VIZ Media from October 24, 2003 to February 14, 2006. It was published in Spanish by Glénat España from May 2004 to January 2013.

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Adaptation:

Maison Ikkoku

More characters
Characters

Otonashi, Kyouko

Main

Godai, Yuusaku

Main

Yotsuya

Main

Roppongi, Akemi

Main

Ichinose, Hanae

Main

Ichinose, Kentarou

Main

Mitaka, Shun

Supporting

Souichirou

Supporting

Nanao, Kozue

Supporting

Yagami, Ibuki

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 14, 2023

AGiantWeeb

Recommended

There were times I loved this story, and times I hated this story. You can say I have a love/hate relationship with this story, because honestly, the characters are some of the worst humans to exist, and the best. This manga is a paradox, it is both bad and good. It's a slog that you can't stop reading.

I don't like Shoujo, but I read it because it's a famous manga. I don't regret having read it, and now that I have I hope to purge it from my memory and never think about it again. It's a story that's worth reading once. Never again tho.

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Jul 16, 2022

DemarcusJerome

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

Subjectivity matters most to me when rating anime. As a result, despite a lot of high praise and beloved ratings, in my eyes, this manga is only a 6/10. Due to its lack of character development and characters with much likability, lack of a satisfying build up of the main couple's relationship, and its nature to take an unnecessarily long time to reach a conclusion which could have been brought much sooner amongst more reasons, I could not help but notice these things and not enjoy it as much as every one else did. This works better as a slice of life manga than a ... romance, all things considered.

First off, this manga did have its good points and, to a degree, I agree with many of the praises given to this work. It handled the romance aspect well, it generally had the knack of being somewhat comedic with its misunderstandings and its main heroine is a character with a backstory which the readers could care for. The art of this manga is also pretty decent for its time, the details convey what they meant to and the characters are not ugly. Furthermore, this manga is one of the most influential works of its time, as it went on to influence many future works of other artists within this genre and brought upon many more beloved works to the industry which clearly resemble this original work to a certain extent. One of my favorite romance manga's ever was obviously inspired by this work, with many of its ideas clearly being borrowed by the creator and implemented onto their own. I have reasons to respect and appreciate this manga.

While the romance was handled well here, the main characters' relationship lacks convincing development and at some point gets repetitive. During the first 60 chapters of the manga, the buildup of their relationship was not done great. Godai meets Kyoko, and he instantly falls in love. For the rest of the manga, Godai was not given any development in regards to his love for Kyoko. Kyoko, on the other hand, only for the first 60 chapters gets any sort of romantic development with Godai. Even so, it was not convincing and without many reasons to believe that she has developed feelings for him, she later gets jealous when he is with other girls. From that point on, their romance gets repetitive and is still absent of any convincing development. Godai either gets into a misunderstanding with a girl, or is seen by Kyoko with someone else, and Kyoko gets jealous. Godai doesn't do or have to try much in an effort to win her, but eventually, she grows feelings for him anyway. The buildup is lackluster, and therefore, it did not give me the sense of satisfaction that would otherwise merit it a better score after I had read the conclusion. I agree, this series has a great conclusion, though it would have been much more satisfying had the relationship been done better.

Another major downside is in regards to its characters. None of these characters get much development, and there are not many reasons to fall in love with them either. Godai is the protagonist, and he bothers me because he is the same spineless, weak guy from beginning to end. However, through meeting Kyoko, he became a more hardworking man who is more worthy of her and I was happy to see it. This was nothing majorly redeeming, as it is the very least this character could grow and make him somewhat tolerable. Kyoko, similarly, is an undecisive character who is majorly responsible for stretching the series for so long. Also, as mentioned, she is unreasonably jealous and this is the case for most of the series. The only change to this character is that she eventually accepts that she can move on from her past relationship, and she loves Godai. Still, this took way too long, and I wished the author had done more to show that she learned to move on. The main characters aside, there is not much to love about the other characters, and the only one you should sorta feel bad for is the love rival of Godai. This guy is a much better man than the main character, and he is genuinely a good person. He also makes efforts to make her fall in love with him, unlike the protagonist. Other than that, the side characters do not get any development or are well written; they serve either to provide comedy, or to influence the main characters in some way.

All in all, this series works better as a slice of life than a romance. Along with the points mentioned above, this series is more comedic than romantic, and it's centered more around the characters' lives than anything else. Out of respect for its influence on future romantic comedies, I give this series a 6.

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Apr 3, 2020

jculture9318

Not Recommended

This was my first experience of a Rumiko Takahashi work. And boy, what a disappointment this was.

Maison Ikkoku is a failure of a slice-of-life/comedy about indecisive love interests and a band of friends who makes things worse for everyone - because it is supposed to be ''funny''.

(For most parts) Everyone in this series is a selfish jerk, and I mean everyone!

Yet, these same characters are tightly tied together by the notion of being a community. Perhaps, this was how we were back then (maybe still are) as a society - forgiving everyone's shortcomings, even if their whimsical actions & indecisiveness constantly hurt others. However, ...

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Poll: Maison Ikkoku Chapter 48 Discussion samsince04 - Nov 17	0 replies	by samsince04 »» Nov 17, 10:40 AM
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Poll: Maison Ikkoku Chapter 41 Discussion samsince04 - Nov 17	0 replies	by samsince04 »» Nov 17, 9:55 AM

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