Maison Ikkoku

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.'

It is a bitter-sweet romantic comedy about a group of madcap people who live in a boarding house in contemporary Tokyo. It is mostly the story of the blossoming relationship between a poor student Yusaku Godai and the boarding house manager, the young recently widowed Kyoko Otonashi. Maison Ikkoku has been translated into English and the 14 volumes are available from Viz Communications.

The television version of Maison Ikkoku ran for 96 episodes and included some new story arcs not covered in the manga version. There was also a Final Chapter movie, two OVAs, and a song special.

Maison Ikkoku is sometimes considered the prototype 'unlucky university student in a weird household' series, which later featured heavily in bishōjo series like Love Hina.

Characters

Names are in Western order, with the family name after the surname. Most characters involve a number-based pun. All of the tenants' names involve a pun on the character's room number.

• Kyoko Otonashi (音無 響子 Otonashi Kyōko) - A beautiful young woman who has started work as the manager of a broken-down apartment building. She lives in the manager's room, which does not have a number. (Otonashi can be interpreted by the kanji to mean zero.)

• Yusaku Godai (五代 裕作 Godai Yūsaku) - A ronin who is trying and failing, to study for his entrance exams. Lives in apartment 5 (Go)

• Hanae Ichinose (一の瀬 花枝 Ichinose Hanae) - A middle-aged gossip whose objective is to live life in a drunken stupor. Has a wage-slave husband who seldom appears in the manga and apparently does not appear often at the apartment. Lives in apartment 1 (ichi)

• Kentaro Ichinose (一の瀬 賢太郎 Ichinose Kentarō) - A grade-school-aged brat who loves Kyoko and initially finds nothing good in Godai. Later in the series, he starts to treat Godai as kind of an older brother, albeit one he would not want to emulate.

• Akemi Roppongi (六本木朱美 Roppongi Akemi) - A boozy bar hostess who usually wears lingerie that leaves nothing to the imagination. Lives in apartment 6 (Rop). Her last name is also the name of a famous red light district in Japan, Roppongi.

• Mr. Yotsuya (四谷) - An enigmatic man who finds enjoyment in mooching, peeping, and tormenting Godai. Lives in apartment 4. (Yotsuya means "four valleys") Neither his family name nor his occupation are ever given.

• Nozomu Nikaido (二階堂望 Nokaidō Nozomu) - An accidental tenant, having arrived at Maison Ikkoku while searching for a much better house, called "Ritsukoku-kan". He stays to take part of an ongoing prank war with Yotsuya. Only appears in the manga and the movie. His lines are largely given to Yotsuya or Kentaro in the TV series.

• 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 departed husband. The name means "the only husband."
  • The dog - A large white dog, originally named "Shiro" ("Whitey"), but has always responded to the name "Soichiro." Was found by Kyoko and her husband, Soichiro, during their marriage. He serves as comedic relief, a reminder to Kyoko of her departed husband, and an effective defense against 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 teacher and they eventually married, albeit with opposition from Kyoko's family. Soichiro died of an unspecified cause, leaving Kyoko a very young widow. His face is never shown in the series, always either in shadow due to lighting in memories or rendered illegible in some manner in photographs, but he apparently resembles Godai. Soichiro's family still considers Kyoko to be family and are often more welcoming to her than her own family.

• Shun Mitaka (三鷹瞬 Mitaka Shun) - Local tennis pro and ladies man. He is handsome, young, and rich, and consistently has a glint to his teeth when he smiles. Kyoko begins to take tennis lessons from him early in the series, leading to him falling for her. He has a morbid fear of dogs through most of the series, until the very end.

• Kozue Nanao (七尾こずえ Nanao Kozue) - Godai's girlfriend. He shows little romantic interest in her, but he seems to enjoy being around her and he's always willing to go to her family's house for a free meal. Despite his lack of romantic inclination, Godai nevertheless goes to great lengths to keep from hurting her throughout the series. Her name means "seven tails."

• Ibuki Yagami (八神いぶき Yagami Ibuki) - A 16-year-old student at the school where Godai does some substitute teaching. Aggressively pursues him in the series. Her name means "eight gods."

• Asuna Kujo (九条明日菜; Kujō Asuna) - a pretty, kind-hearted, utterly innocent, and shy girl from a wealthy family. Mitaka's uncle attempts to arrange a marrage between her and Mitaka. She is immediately attracted to Mitaka upon meeting him; but Mitaka doesn't feel the same way, especially when he discovers that she is a dog lover who has six dogs. Mitaka ultimately does marry her as a consequence of one of the most amusing misunderstandings of the entire series; but they end up a happy couple with beautiful children. Her name means "nine vegetables."

External link

• Maison Ikkoku fan site (http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~leon/mi/)
• Yusaku Godai's Life at Maison Ikkoku (http://furinkan.com/maison/)
• AniDB.Net page on this anime (http://anidb.ath.cx/a288)
• AnimeNfo.Com page on this anime (http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3,wdzqwi,maison_ikkoku.html)
• Breakdown of the tenants and the puns involved in their names. (http://www.kyoko.org/kyokop-e.html)de:Maison Ikkoku

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