Customer Reviews

Maison Ikkoku, Volume 1

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Can you believe the talent of this woman? She's done it to me again! Another series for me to get addicted to *sigh*. In 'Maison Ikkoku' Takahashi uses all of her powers of characterisation to weave a marvelous story about real people. And let me tell you, some of the characters are so real it's scary. Maybe part of the reason I want Godai to be more responsible is because I want to become more responsible myself. This is Takahashi at her subtlest, which may turn some people off. You're not going to get any martial arts duels to the death, or flying aliens or demon dog-boys. As always, though, Takahashi is free with the laughs, but at times they are bittersweet. I mean, Godai can be so pathetic it's funny, but you still 'feel his pain'.

I recomend this manga to all Takahashi fans. While I prefer more action oriented manga, I still liked Maison. Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha remain my favorites, but there is room in my heart for this work. It's funny, poignant and satirical, and as always, we are granted Takahashi's unique insights into the human spirt. Definately worth admission.

"Maison Ikkoku" has been called a heartwarming romantic comedy, a brilliant soap opera, an emotional roller coaster, funny, thoughtful and moving, and screwball romantic comedy at its finest. It is all this and much more.

Covering 14 volumes, "Maison Ikkoku" is a masterpiece of international literature, showing off Japanese culture and societal conventions, by telling the comic yet romantic story of a young man in love for the first time, a young woman who is learning to love again after becoming a widow, their romantic rivals, and, especially, their interfering neighbors. Although set in Japan, the story is one of universal appeal.

Rumiko Takashi has had great success writing on all manner of outrageous subjects, ranging from the comically interfering aliens of "Lum*Urusei Yatsura", to the gender-bending martial arts hi-jinks of "Ranma 1/2."

But in "Maison Ikkoku", the focus is on real life. Like real life, there is comedy, sadness and romance. Ms. Takahashi blends these elements quite well, although the comic elements are more strongly in the forefront in Volume 1.

Maison Ikkoku is a run down boarding house in Tokyo. Student Yusaku Godai, Resident of Room 5, has had enough of the teasing he gets from his neighbors, and is threatening to move out, for the 3rd time that month.

His neighbors are quite a handful: There's Mrs. Ichinose, a hard drinking, hard partying, hard gossiping mother who lives downstairs in Room 1 with her young son Kentaro. Akemi Roppongi lives next to Godai in Room 6, works nights as a bar hostess at local hangout ChaChaMaru, and goes about wearing a see-through nightie. Last, but definitely NOT least, there's Yotsuya, a man of mystery who lives in Room 4, who likes to bash through Godai's wall so that he can peep on Akemi, and so that he blackmail, steal and/or mooch food from Godai. These 3 view Godai as their personal toy, and hold their drinking parties in his room, when Godai is trying to study.

Godai's thoughts of leaving slam to a stop when walks the new manager of the building, the beautiful and young Kyoko Otonashi. Godai falls head over heels for Kyoko, and our romantic comedy is off to the races.

Maison Ikkoku focuses on the kind-hearted, decent and struggling student Godai, who's wishy-washy and a bit irresponsible, and Kyoko, who is beautiful, kind, and sweet, but is most definitely the jealous type. You really feel for Godai, as his love for Kyoko matures, and for Kyoko, who's coming to terms with the loss of her beloved husband, and is learning to love again. One story will have you in hysterics, while the next story might tug at your heart.

Volume 1 spans the first year with Kyoko as manager of Maison Ikkoku. We meet Kyoko's dog, Mr. Soichiro. Godai discovers that Kyoko is a widow, and realizes that his quest to win the love of a woman who became a widow after only 6 months of marriage is not going to be an easy one.

We meet the two main rivals for Godai and Kyoko. There's the rich, suave, handsome, and assertive tennis coach, Shun Mitaka, so perfect even his teeth glint. Mitaka has just one problem, a major fear of dogs! He becomes Godai's rival for Kyoko. We also meet cute, sweet, innocent, and naive Kozue Nanao, who becomes Godai's girlfriend by accident, and has no clue that her platonic boyfriend really loves Kyoko.

Volume 1 introduces most of the the key locales, the local bar, ChaChaMaru, and the tennis court, which can also be thought of as gossip central.

We also meet supporting characters who will appear throughout the series: Sakamoto, Godai's college buddy; kindly Mr. Otonashi, Kyoko's father-in-law and the owner of Maison Ikkoku; mischevious Ikoku, Kyoko's niece, Mr. Otonashi's grandaughter, who Godai ends up tutoring; Ms. Kuroki, with the college puppet theatre Godai joins; and the manager of ChaChaMaru.

Although a few things are lost in translation, e.g., an inside joke with all the characters in the boarding house having their name correspond to their room number, even Kyoko, whose manager's room doesn't have a number, the humor and romantic aspects of this book are of immeasurable enjoyment. This is a great start to this series, which only improves with each volume.

Maison Ikkoku is not your average boarding house. Oh, on the surface it is, but the tenants are the most insane people you'll ever meet. There's Mr. Yotsuya, who constantly breaks holes in walls to peep on other tenants; Mrs. Icinose, a constantly drunk housewife; her young (and kawaii!) son Kentaro; Akemi, a flirtatious barmaid who runs around in a see-through nightie; and Yusaku Godai, a struggling college student. When Maison Ikkoku gets a beautiful new manager, the widowed Kyoko Otonashi, Yusaku falls for her, and chaos, romantic comedy, and love triangles ensue! This is a wonderful story that no one should miss, by everyone's favorite female comic artist, Rumiko Takahashi.

Maison Ikkoku is my favorite manga series, hands down. It is very character driven, with lots of laughs and some very touching moments. The personalities of Maison Ikkoku change over the course of the series, and are very well rounded. This is a nice change from "one-joke" characters and plots. The full story is a very rewarding read. Godai and Kyoko 's feelings are true and deep. This is by far the most honestly romantic manga I have read.

This first volume introduces all of the main characters and sets up some of the running jokes. A house full of happy drunks keeps the comic from becoming too sappy, and their are plenty of romantic rivals for everyone's affections. The book takes off in full soap opera swing with wacky hijinks and misunderstood intentions. Is bumbling ronin Godai and challenge for the glinting teeth of wealthy Coach Mitaka? I sure hope so.

Rumiko Takahashi is one of the most popular manga (comic) artists in the world and she is also one of Japan's richest women. Maison Ikkoku is about Yusaku Godai, a ronin (failing college student) who falls in love with the apartment manager of Maison Ikkoku, the widowed Kyoko Otonashi. But fellow student Kozue Nanao falls in love with Yusaku, and rich tennis coach Shun Mitaka falls in love with Kyoko! When Yusaku isn't trying to figure out a way to break up with Kozue or tell Kyoko how much he loves her, his roomates, Yotsuya, Akemi, and Mrs. Ichinose, are having a party in his room--while he's studying! You'll fall instantly in love with the residents of Maison Ikkoku

If you've ever read the interviews of the author on her rare trips to the states, there are two things that stand out. One, she had trouble understanding why Americans would like something like Maison Ikkoku, based so much on the typical Japanese life style. Two, she (Rumiko Takahashi) created this to be a comedy, that about the life of a bunch of weird characters in a rooming house. Her normal actions (based on what she did with LUM: Urusei Yatsura) would be to continually introduce dozens of new characters and probably tenants to build the story around. This didn't happen, as the story developed an unexpected focal point, an unusual romance between two of the original characters.

As for the first observation, while it is true that the culture depicted here is Japanese, and some things may be confusing to an American audience, a part of that originality is what makes it interesting. Romance and comedy are universal concepts to nearly all cultures. We may eat differently, may have a different educational system, and do many other things in a different manner, but our actions and reactions are basically the same.

The second observation is what makes Takahshi such a great author. It would have been easy to ignore fan reactions, and just make another episodic, sitcom. She instead must have listened, and presented her audience with an epic romance, comedic, thriller, that encompasses possibly the most complete story ever presented in serialized manga. There are fourteen volumes of the Viz compilations of this work.

One more important point is worth considering. I'd advise buying the volumes soon as possible; Viz is going to the smaller size on almost all their series. Since these are already shrunken down art frames from the original manga. Shrinking them more is just wrong, but Viz has determined they can't sell most graphic novels at the higher price mark, and they are heavily discounted. I've gotten some of the new size, and they just are not as good.

I've read and collected manga for most of my life, in both English and Japanese. This ranks amongst the very best, and is Rumiko Takahashi's most mature work. The story fixates on that period of time when most young people first experience true independence, and live out both the embarassment and excitement of infatuation. If you feel that you've outgrown giant robots and ongoing science fiction epics, and would like a dose of light hearted romantic comedy, this is the manga to read!

I am not a big fan of comic books in English or Japanese, but I enjoyed this fifteen-part series by Rumiko Takahashi. It is touching and charming. It reminds me of the apartments I lived in and the down-and-out people I knew in Japan twenty years ago.

The graphics are not quite as good as the original Japanese edition. They are little blurred in places, which is a shame, because the artwork and the small details are so much fun.

Others here on Amazon have described the contents, so let me make a few comments about the translation. I bought six of the English books and I had a delightful time comparing them to the originals. The translators, Jones & Morimoto, have done a bang-up job. Very impressive. This is a bold, free-form rendition, which sometimes strays far from the literal text. And why not? It is a comic book, after all. In places they invented witty or telling English dialog which was not in the original. That makes up for the unavoidable losses in translation. The delightful nuances of Japanese grammar are sometimes captured by using completely different words, as in this exchange between two women in a bar:

"Yotte iru 'n desyo'"

"Yotte ru wa yo."

. . . is rendered:

"You're drunk, aren't you?"

"Yup. Got a problem with that?"

In Japanese, the character Yotsuya often speaks with exaggerated politeness and formality inappropriate to the situation. In English, this is rendered by having him speak in pompous, archaic, or technical terminology instead of ordinary conversation. It isn't quite the same thing, but it works.

I would recommend the combination of this translation and the originals to an intermediate student of the language. I have heard it has been made into a television series in Japan, so you have a lot of good reinforcing material.

Maison Ikkoku by Rumiko Takahashi is one of the greatest series ever made.
Chapter Summary:

WHAT ARE ALL THE NEIGHBORS DOING?
Yusaku Godai is a depressed, flunking college student, who is constantly bothered by fellow tenants in the apartment building he lives in, Maison Ikkoku. As he's about to leave out of frustration, he comes face to face with the new manager of Maison Ikkoku, Kyoko Otonashi, who he immediately falls in love with.
MY NOTES
First chapter. Establishes all of the tenants (besides Mr. Ichinose in graphic novel 6, and Nozomu Nikaido in number 9).

MR. SOICHIRO
Yusaku realizes Kyoko has a boyfriend named Soichiro, when she mutters it in her sleep. He then finds out her dog is named Mr. Soichiro.
MY NOTES
Learn Kyoko's dog's name.

SPRING WASABI
Godai accompanies Kyoko's family to the anniversary of someone's death. That someone: Kyoko's dead husband, Soichiro!
MY NOTES
Yes, we find out Kyoko's deep, dark secret.

SOICHIRO'S SHADOW
Yusaku gets a job tutoring Kyoko's niece, Ikuko. And he learns Ikuko isn't the model student.
MY NOTES
I believe this has the first of anyone's visions of Soichiro.

ALCHOL LOVE CALL
Godai gets drunk one night and shouts to the whole neighborhood that he's in love with Kyoko.
MY NOTES
Yes, Godai admits his love, however, thinking he begged Kyoko to look at him naked when he was drunk, he tells her it was a joke. So Kyoko gets mad at him for lying.

DON'T FENCE ME OUT
Kyoko and Mrs. Ichinose start taking tennis lessons under the local housewives tennis coach, Shun Mitaka.
MY NOTES
First appearance of Shun Mitaka, the handsome tennis coach. And yes, he falls in love with Kyoko too, however he's much more mature than Godai.

"LOVE" MEANS NO SCORE GODAI!
The Ikkoku tenants and Mitaka go out for lunch, and something so simple proves to be a hazardous event.
MY NOTES
Godai tells Kyoko that he wasn't lying when he told her he loved her.

DOG DAZE
Godai offers to take Kentaro to the beach. Mrs. Ichinose, not feeling safe with Godai looking after her child, invites Kyoko to go with them. Kyoko accidentally mentions it to Ikuko and she insists on coming, then Mrs. Ichinose invites Mitaka to drive them. However the kids sneak Mr. Soichiro into the car...
MY NOTES
Godai and us find out Mitaka's fear... of dogs!

A SALTY DOG
Mitaka doesn't go in the ocean because of Mr. Soichiro, and eventually the adults all take a canoe ride.
MY NOTES
None.

MEMORIAL COOKING
Kyoko cooks dinner for Yusaku.
MY NOTES
Kentaro has a crush on Ikuko.

ONE ENTANGLED EVENING
Much to Godai's dismay, he gets a full time girlfriend named Kozue Nanao.
MY NOTES
Kyoko's whole date with Mitaka is spent with her thinking angry thoughts at Yusaku. Poor Mitaka! Also, the first appearance of Kozue Nanao.

1-900-TROUBLE
Godai gets calls from lots of different woman, aggravating Kyoko.
MY NOTES
Godai joins the Puppet Club Theater.

WITH A LITTLE NONCHALANCE
It's Kyoko's anniversary of working as manager of Maison Ikkoku and Godai gets enough courage to ask her out on a date.
MY NOTES
A year goes by EXTREMELY quickly, however the other years do not go by as fast.

CAMPUS DOLL
Kyoko accidentally gets dragged into being the princess in a puppet play, while Yusaku's already assigned to play the prince!
MY NOTES
A really funny chapter.

This is the beginning of the Maison Ikkoku saga, an absolutely wonderful romance story by Rumiko Takahasi. This book will let you know all about the characters and how the love relationship between the main characters develops in the beginning. This is a must buy book for the fans of Maison Ikkoku.