Maison Ikkoku (めぞん一刻 Mezon Ikkoku) is a manga and anime by Rumiko Takahashi. The title literally means 'house of the moment.' Maison Ikkoku is sometimes considered the prototypical comedy of a college age student living with other odd tenants, a situation which later featured heavily in many bishōjo series, famously Love Hina. A page from the Marmalade Boy manga, volume 1 (Japanese version) Manga (漫画) is the Japanese word for comics and/or cartoons (not necessarily animated, this includes print cartoons); outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. ... This is the current Anime Collaboration of the Week. ... Rumiko Takahashi (高橋留美子 Takahashi Rumiko, born October 10, 1957) is a Japanese manga artist. ... The bishōjo style of cartooning uses large, limpid eyes for increased cuteness, as in the character of Nyuu from Elfen Lied. ... Love Hina manga, volume 1 (North America English version) Love Hina (ラブひな Rabu Hina) is a popular manga (and anime) series by author Ken Akamatsu. ...

It is a bitter-sweet comedic romance involving a group of madcap people who live in a boarding house in contemporary Tokyo, written during the early 1980s. It is primarily the story of the blossoming relationship between a poor student down on his luck, Yusaku Godai and the young, recently widowed, boarding house manager Kyoko Otonashi. Maison Ikkoku has been translated into English and fourteen volumes spanning the series are available from Viz Communications. View of Tokyos Shibuya district Long a symbol of Tokyo, the Nijubashi Bridge at the Kokyo Imperial Palace. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Viz, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, California, is a major American manga publisher. ...

The TV series of Maison Ikkoku ran for 96 episodes and included some new story arcs not covered in the manga version. The television series is notable in that it is the only one of Rumiko Takahashi's four long-running series wherein the television series ending corresponds to the manga ending. There was also a Final Chapter movie, two OVAs, and a music special. Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. ... In episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books and comic strips a story arc is an extended or continuing storyline. ... A page from the Marmalade Boy manga, volume 1 (Japanese version) Manga (漫画) is the Japanese word for comics and/or cartoons (not necessarily animated, this includes print cartoons); outside of Japan, it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. ... A human ovum An ovum (loosely, egg or egg cell) is a female sex cell or gamete. ...

Characters

Names are in Western order, with the surname after the given name. All of the tenants' names involve a pun on the character's room number. With the exceptions of Mr. Yotsuya and Mrs. Ichinose, main characters tend to refer to and address each other informally with their given names; however Yusaku Godai, while usually referring to her by her given name, almost always addresses Kyoko Otonashi with her job title of "manager." A family name, or surname, is that part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ...

Major Characters

• Kyoko Otonashi (音無 響子 Otonashi Kyōko) - A beautiful young woman who takes on the task of managing a broken-down rooming house. Early in the series, it is revealed that Kyoko was recently widowed only six months after her wedding, and she is very hesitant to enter a new relationship because of her continuing feelings for her late husband. Generally friendly and likable, she develops affection for Yusaku, and has a tendency to dote over Yusaku (the other tentants ridicule her for acting "like a good wife") and sometimes becomes "inexplicably" jealous around him (though she denies it is jealousy). She lives in the manager's room, which does not have a number.

• Yusaku Godai (五代 裕作 Godai Yūsaku) - Yusaku begins the story as a ronin who is studying for his college entrance exams after failing in the past year. He does eventually get into a college (with Kyoko's help), although a second-rate one. He has a tendency to get pushed around by the other tenents of Ikkoku, who tend to use Yusaku's room as a communal gathering place for nightly drinking binges. Yusaku falls in love with Kyoko at first sight. During the course of the series Yusaku matures into a honorable man who becomes worthy of Kyoko, just as his love for her grows from an infatuation to a lasting and devoted love. He lives in apartment 5 (Go)

• Hanae Ichinose (一の瀬 花枝 Ichinose Hanae) - A middle-aged lady who is rarely seen sober. Her wage-slave husband seldom appears in the manga and is completely unknown to the other tenants until he gets temporarily laid off. She enjoys joining in with the other tenants to stir up trouble for Yusaku and Kyoko, but she occasionally acts with good intentions for the two, especially Kyoko, whom she sees as a "younger sister" (willfully ignoring the difference in their ages, as the other tenants point out). However, even when she is acting with the best of intentions, her way of doing things often leave Yusaku, Kyoko or both in worse situations than if she hadn't gotten involved. Mrs. Ichinose is also an incurable gossip who relishes her room's proximity to the communal telephone. She lives with her husband and her son Kentaro in apartment 1 (ichi)

• Kentaro Ichinose (一の瀬 賢太郎 Ichinose Kentarō) - Kentaro begins the story as grade-school-aged brat, generally seen trying to get between his mother and her bottle. Initially, he is antagonistic towards Yusaku, but events soon see him to look upon Yusaku as an "alright guy." He is also very fond of Kyoko, especially because he sees her as the only sane person in the building other than himself. He develops a crush on Kyoko's niece Ikuko, reminding Yusaku of himself (although Kentaro resents the comparison).

• Akemi Roppongi (六本木朱美 Roppongi Akemi) - A boozy bar hostess who is usually known to lounge around wearing skimpy lingerie while hanging around Ikkoku; Mrs. Ichinose occasionally complains when strangers are around, but generally the tenants have gotten used to her ways. She lives in apartment 6 (Roku) and works a short distance away in a bar named Cha-Cha Maru, where the tenants gather to drink when not in Yusaku's room. She is known to let some of the bar's male patrons buy her too many drinks, and often comes home from work drunk. She is generally aloof towards both Yusaku and Kyoko, but she is not above joining Mr. Yotsuya in tormenting Yusaku. Her surname (which means "six trees") is also the name of a famous red light district in Tokyo, Roppongi.

• Mr. Yotsuya (四谷) - A mysterious man who finds enjoyment in mooching, voyeurism, and generally tormenting his next-door neighbor Yusaku; he is famous for breaking a hole through the adjoining wall in order to be with "young Godai" (and to use Yusaku's room to peep into Akemi's). He is usually seen dressed in a business suit or similarly formal attire and tends to speak in a very formal manner (even while drinking and partying with Akemi and Mrs. Ichinose), but what life he may have outside of Maison Ikkoku is a complete mystery to everyone. Mr. Yotsuya claims to have a job (but is not above stealing Yusaku's food) and comes and goes at odd and changing hours, keeping a schedule known only to himself. He torments Yusaku directly and Kyoko indirectly, as it is her job to repair the damage done by Mr. Yotsuya. He lives in apartment 4. Yotsuya, which means "four valleys", is the name of a district in Tokyo associated with a famous ghost story.

• Soichiro - This name actually properly belongs to two characters, Soichiro the dog (惣一郎さん, Sōichirō-san), and Soichiro Otonashi (音無惣一郎 Otonashi Sōichirō), Kyoko's late husband.
  • The dog - A large, white, "mangy" dog, found as a stray by Soichiro Otonashi. He was originally named "Shiro" ("Whitey"), but he only responded to the name "Soichiro" and so Kyoko insists on calling him "Soichiro-san" in memory of her husband. Other than providing comic relief, he serves to remind both Kyoko and Yusaku of the man he was named after, and serves as a foil to Shun Mitaka. Kentaro enjoys playing with him and considers him his pet.
  • The husband - Kyoko and Soichiro met during high school when she was a student there and he was a temporary teacher. They eventually married, albeit with great opposition from Kyoko's family. Soichiro died of an unspecified cause (accident is implied), leaving Kyoko a very young widow. As a running gag, his face is never shown in the series (usually to Yusaku's frustration), always either in shadow or otherwise obscured in photographs. Soichiro's family, especially his father, is still very close to Kyoko, who still holds on to the Otonashi family name.

• Shun Mitaka (三鷹瞬 Mitaka Shun) - Shun, in sharp contrast to Yusaku, is wealthy, educated, and hails from an elite family. Mitaka works as a ladies' tennis coach more out of love for the sport than any need for financial support. He is young (though older than both Yusaku and Kyoko), handsome, and his teeth have a trademark sparkle whenever he smiles. Kyoko begins to take tennis lessons from him early in the series, and Shun begins to court her. His biggest obstacle in the beginning is his morbid fear of dogs, which makes it difficult for him to be with Kyoko when Soichiro is around. While very interested in and devoted to Kyoko, he is very popular with other women (such as Akemi: "Can I have him when you're done with him?") and has something of a reputation as a womanizer, a reputation not entirely undeserved (most of his more grievous actions have innocent explanatons, but Shun has admitted to dating many women). However Kyoko's mother srongly approves of him as a potential future husband of Kyoko (to Yusaku's chagrin).
  • Shun recognizes Yusaku as a rival for Kyoko's affection (and vice versa) and the two are usually antagonistic towards each other. Shun's actions towards Yusaku are somewhere between magnanimous and condescending, depending on if Kyoko is around, and he is not above trying to position Kozue as a wedge between Yusaku and Kyoko. But while Shun and Yusaku are rivals, they both share moments where they bond over their mutual frustration over Kyoko's reluctance to fall in love with anyone.
  • Kyoko generally likes Shun and regards him as a suitor, but is apprehensive about his forwardness and occasionally feels pressured by him (Shun doesn't want to force a relationship with her, but will often "bend the rules"). It can be unclear whether Shun is interested more in Kyoko herself or more in "saving" Kyoko from what he sees as a degrading life as a widow in Maison Ikkoku, putting him in the stereotypical role of the "knight in shining armor." Although he is one of the characters who does not live in Ikkoku-kan, his name is representative of the number three.

• Kozue Nanao (七尾こずえ Nanao Kozue) - Kozue is Godai's steady date ("girlfriend" may be too strong a word, at least in Yusaku's view) and generally serves as an obstacle for Yusaku in his pursuit of Kyoko. Cute, sweet, and a little scatter-brained, she's oblivious to the fact that she is more interested in Yusaku than he is in her, and she doesn't recognize Kyoko (or, later, Ibuki) as competition for Yusaku's affection. Their relationship starts after Kozue finds Yusaku with a spare movie ticket (originally intended for Kyoko, who had just started dating Shun) and she invites herself along, setting the general theme for their relationship. Yusaku would like to come forward and break things off Kozue, however he either cannot find the right opportunity to do so without hurting Kozue's feelings deeply (Yusaku's view) or he is unwilling to "be a man" and stand up for himself (Kyoko's view). The situation becomes more complicated after Kozue introduces Yusaku to her family (Yusaku didn't know Kozue's plan until they had already arrived at her home), who approves of Yusaku and is all too willing to feed the perpetually starving college student.
  • Kyoko doesn't dislike Kozue and always responds to Kozue's genuine friendliness in kind, but Kozue's relationship with Yusaku does trigger Kyoko's jealousy (which she won't admit as such) and as a result Yusaku always takes pains to keep all mention of Kozue away from Kyoko. Yusaku finds Kozue attractive, and admits to himself that he would have fallen for her if Kyoko weren't in the picture, but because of his feelings for Kyoko he strives to maintain some sort of distance from Kozue; his naivete (both feigned and genuine) keeps their relationship platonic.
  • Kozue's name means "seven tails."

• Ibuki Yagami (八神いぶき Yagami Ibuki) - As a part of his studies, Yusaku was a student-teacher briefly in the high school Ibuki was attending (which was the same school Kyoko attended, where she met Soichiro). Ibuki was at first unimpressed with "that mope" (1st ed. of English manga) or "that dork" (2nd ed.), ridiculing one of her classmates for her short-lived crush on Yusaku. But Ibuki developed her own crush on Yusaku after misinterpreting him as a sort of tragic romantic hero. Even after she spends more time around Yusaku (and possibly learning that her first impression was more accurate), however, her feelings for Yusaku persist even after his tenure at her school ends. Ibuki tends to hatch devious plots that put her together with Yusaku, usually putting him into a compromising situation. Yusaku wants nothing to do with her but she refuses to be denied.
  • Kyoko at first lets Ibuki play out what Kyoko sees as a simple schoolgirl crush, even acting on occasion to "protect Ibuki from Yusaku," but eventually sides with Yusaku when it becomes clear that he is the one that needs protection. But Kyoko is continually frustrated with what she perceives as Yusaku's unwillingness to stand up for himself, as with Kozue. Ibuki, on the other hand, initially sees Kyoko as a role model for getting married to her own high school teacher, but later comes to recognize "that widow" as a rival for Yusaku's affections and often confronts her, even pushing Kyoko to admit that she loves Yusaku, and calling her a coward when she won't. It can be difficult to determine whether Ibuki is more interested in Yusaku himself or in what she perceives as the tragic romance of their (her) situation.
  • Ibuki's name means "eight gods." She is voiced by Alexandra Carter in English translations.

Graves of 47 Ronin at Sengakuji A ronin (Japanese: 浪人 rōnin: literally, wave man - one who is tossed about, like a wave in the sea) was a masterless samurai during the feudal period of Japan that lasted from 1185 to 1868. ... Salaryman (Japanese: サラリーマン, salarīman) is a Japanese term for a white-collar worker. ... A red-light district is a neighborhood where prostitution is a common part of everyday life. ... Roppongi Hills Roppongi (六本木), a part of Minato Ward, Tokyo, Japan, is chiefly known for its nightlife and the presence of Western tourists and expatriates, although the vast majority of visitors are Japanese. ... PHOTO: [[1]] Alexandra Carter is one of the many well-known voice actors who work with Ocean Group, out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. ...

Minor Characters

• Nozomu Nikaido (二階堂望 Nikaidō Nozomu) - Originally intending to move into an upscale establishment called "Ritsukoku-kan" ("Rikkoku" in Viz' translation), a typographical error on the lease papers brings him to Maison Ikkoku relatively late into the story as an accidental tenant. He led a relatively sheltered life before entering the story, and he moved into Maison Ikkoku as he started college against the wishes of his protective mother. Nozomu initially strikes Kyoko as a very well-mannered boy, while most other tenants see him as a "sheltered mama's boy." Aside from his long-running vendetta against Mr. Yotsuya (Nozomu retaliates to Mr. Yotsuya's invasions, in contrast to Yusaku), he is known for being incredibly dense ("I don't get it") and is totally oblivious to the situation between Yusaku, Kyoko, and their respective love triangles. He moves into the long-empty apartment 2.
  • Nozomu only appears in the manga and the movie. His lines are largely given to Yotsuya or Kentaro in the TV series.

• Asuna Kujo (九条明日菜; Kujō Asuna) - a classically demure Japanese maiden from a wealthy family, Asuna is pretty, kind-hearted, shy around people and innocent to a fault. Her family and Shun's uncle has arranged a traditional Japanese marriage between she and Shun (against Shun's wishes). In contrast to Shun, Asuna is a dog lover and she is initially attracted to Shun (approving of their engagement) because her many dogs seem to approve of him. Shun would like to end their arranged engagement, but often finds himself unable to, either because of his fear of her dogs or his fear of hurting her feelings (mirroring the situation between Yusaku and Kozue). Asuna is initially unaware of Shun's feelings for Kyoko, but she is not above pursuing Shun, albeit in her own fashion. Her name means "nine paths."

• Ikuko - Kyoko's young niece from her marriage to Soichiro. On a visit to Maison Ikkuko, Ikuko meets Yusaku and quickly becomes fond of him. Ikuko insists that Yusaku becomes her tutor as she approaches entry into high school, though it seems she's more interested in goofing off with him rather than actually studying. Kyoko initially tries to dissuade Ikuko and later tends to hover when the two are together, hoping to keep Yusaku from corrupting Ikuko with his lazy habits, but it is more often Ikuko who steers conversation away from her studies and more towards gossip. Tutoring Ikuko becomes Yusaku's first steady source of income as well as his first major attempt to demonstrate his maturity and reliability to Kyoko.

• Owner ("Master") of Cha-Cha Maru - Akemi's boss (no name is given other than "Master"). Initially an incidental character when the tenants of Maison Ikkoku go someplace other than Yusaku's room to drink, he is often seen complaining when the tenants are trashing the furniture, scaring away other patrons, or specifically when Akemi seems to be taking her own drinks rather than serving them to others. Later, the owner occasionally acts as the voice of reason, all too often being the only sober person in the room when something important happens, whether the other characters are either drunk on alcohol (Akemi, Mrs. Ichinose, Mr. Yotsuya), their own strong emotions (Kyoko and Yusaku), or a mixture of the two. He tolerates Akemi's obvious incompetance as a waitress because his feelings for her are more than just that of a boss to an employee. At the end of the series, he tells Akemi that he has just gotten divorced and proposed to her, thus finally making an honest woman out of Akemi.

• Mr. & Ritsuko Chigusa - Kyoko's parents. Initially against Kyoko's marriage to Soichiro, they (especially her mother, Ritsuko) wish to see their daughter continue her life, preferably remarrying. Ritsuko is quite taken with Shun and sees him as a suitible husband for her daughter, while Kyoko's father sees the handsome Shun as a potential womanizer who will only break his "little girl's" heart. Neither of them seem to notice Yusaku's existence (their inability to remember his name is used as a running gag), let alone the bond both he and Kyoko share, and their obsession with Shun only frustrates Yusaku. Both Ritsuko and Kyoko tend to address Mr. Chigusa as "Daddy" or "Father."

• Sakamoto - Yusaku's friend and drinking buddy (usually at Sakamoto's insistence) from school. Sakamoto has his own woman troubles, though in contrast to Yusaku his difficulty is finding the right one. Sakamoto occasionally offers Yusaku a roof to live under when situations temporarily force him out of Maison Ikkoku, and even has a word or two of insight on love for Yusaku, but more often than not the nights the two spend drinking together (often to lament that Sakamoto got dumped again) get Yusaku in trouble with Kyoko for one reason or another.

• Yukari Godai - Yusaku's grandmother. She usually lives with Yusaku's parents out in the country in the Godai family restaurant, but she occasionally comes to visit her favorite grandson in Tokyo (though Yusaku would rather she didn't). Akemi, Mrs. Ichinose and Mr. Yotsuya love when she visits as she always joins them in their drinking, however "Grandma" Godai does not torment Yusaku in quite the same way. She truly cares for her grandson, recognizes his situation with Kyoko, and her schemes are ultimately constructive for the two of them (and, in contrast to Mrs. Ichinose, she's far more successful at it).

External links

• Maison Ikkoku fan site
• Yusaku Godai's Life at Maison Ikkoku
• AniDB page on this anime
• AnimeNfo.Com page on this anime
• Breakdown of the tenants and the puns involved in their names.
• Maison Ikkoku review at MangaReviewer.com