The story is endearing. A man named Godai becomes a new tenant to a boarding house knows as Maison Ikkoku and is greeted by the beautiful widow known as Kyoko Otanashi. Throughout the series spanning 6 years, they develop and grow into terrific characters, aswell as the other troublesome and loud tenants.
The art and sound design compliment each other very nicely. The art may be your standard 80's style but the use of colors paired with beautiful backgrounds, character designs and locations, makes this very nice to look at for it's time. The sound/music is comforting and makes you feel at home watching the characters blossom.
The characters and their development are near-perfect in my eyes. The tenants add a dynamic to make Godai's life more of a pain but it helps him develop and grow up. All characters fit perfectly into this world that has been created. Godai, Kyoko, Coach Mitaka, Kozue, Yagami, and more all fit in so well. With the introduction of Yagami around episode 50, this show shot right up to being fantastic. She wasn't annoying or just there to slow the plot. She is a perfect addition to add to the story and the drama side of things. There wasn't a dull moment with her around whatsoever.
Enjoyment/Overall:
It's not very often where I can say this show is a 10/10 in my opinion. Sure, there are predictable situations and plot developments. Sometimes the tenants become a little annoying and you want them to go away for a while. Sure, there's some characters added to spice things up when things are going all too well. That's Takahashi's trademark it seems, "Misunderstandings". To me though, that isn't enough to strike the show down too a 9. I believe that no matter what show you see as a solid 10, there are still little flaws here and there. No show is absolutely perfect, but to me this is a slightly flawed masterpiece. I loved it very much, the amount of pros outweigh the cons immensely. It took me almost a year to finish this show, and the ending is absolutely perfect. For 96 episodes, it's not too much to digest and I think the filler is kept too a minimum, except for a really stupid episode about an egg? Yeah I want to forget about that episode completely. Anyways, if you're into rom-coms with endearing characters with a fantastic story you will enjoy it. This is an anime that stood the test of time.
A flawed masterpiece for sure.
10/10.
