Maison Ikkoku

The story is about an apartment building where some of the world's most wacky people live. There is a ronin, a student who didn't pass his college entrance exams the first time and so spends another year preparing. There is a mother who loves to get drunk and wave fans, a mysterious tall character who never seems to work at anything (except trying to peep on the beautiful female living two rooms down). Then there's the new manager, a beautiful young girl Kyoko who now has to try and run the place. Quite a challenge!

There are some 96 episodes to the series, though, so there won't be a lack of episodes to watch for a long time!

The story is a very strong romance story but with lots and lots of humorous events. The characterization is very well done, each (usually strange) individual standing out quite strongly from the others. It's a little like Kimagure Orange Road in that the main male character (Godai) loves one woman (Kyoko), but is loved by a least one other, sometimes more than one at the same time. Godai is also extremely indecisive, just like Kyosuke. Godai also cannot manage to express his true feelings for the woman he loves.

Ronin Blues is the second tape in the series. In the first episode Godai is trying to study (as usual) and the others at Maison Ikkoku are drinking, partying and in general disrupting his attempts (as usual). To make matters worse there is a power outage which he and Kyoko try to track down resulting in a rather interesting revelation about Kyoko. The second episode concerns Godai's taking some exams and Kyoko's attempts to help him and the attempts of the others to interfere with him. This is another funny, delightful tape to watch in a series that is itself delightful and funny.

Issue 1

Issue 7

My reviews of Maison Ikkoku albums

Start of Anime Review section

Maison Ikkoku Tankobon Covers



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