From the back cover:
Travel into Japan’s nuttiest apartment house and meet its volatile inhabitants: Kyoko, the beautiful and mysterious new apartment manager; Godai, the exam-addled college student; Mrs. Ichinose, the drunken gossip; Kentaro, her bratty son; Akemi, the boozy bar hostess; and the mooching and peeping Mr. Yotsuya.
Funny, touching, and a tad off-kilter, Maison Ikkoku is the great Rumiko Takahashi at her very best.
Review:
Finally I am reading this! I was planning to watch the anime first, but I got stalled around episode 70 for the longest time and figured I’d probably get through the story a lot faster if I just went ahead and read it.
I wasn’t too fond of the first two chapters: Godai’s neighbors came across as more annoying than wacky and some of the art was still getting ironed out. By chapter three, in which Godai struggled to give Kyoko a Christmas present, things had evened out and the charm of the series was apparent. My favorite chapter was the one in which Godai learned that Kyoko is a widow. It seemed that he finally started to see her as a real person rather than just a pretty object.
The art in this series was pretty different from most of the series I’m reading, with detailed backgrounds and lots and lots of teeth. It was also unique how much time passed—the first chapter occurred sometime before Christmas and by the end, it was at least May.
To end on a completely random note, I’ve decided that if this were an American TV show, the role of Yotsuya would be played by Adam Baldwin.
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