Talk:Maison Ikkoku

Names of Yotsuya and Ichinose
If anybody knows the first names of Yotsuya and Mrs. Ichinose go ahead and add them. I got these names directly from the manga. --Eelozano 2004-12-18 18:46:22

Yotsuya's first name (and occupation) remain a mystery throughout the series. Although they are sometimes the topic of conversation between the other tenants of Maison Ikkoku, nobody has been able to definitively determine what Yotsuya's job or name really is. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 198.103.53.5 (talk • contribs).


 * I put in the first name for Yotsuya that he had written on a business card in anime episode #50 (covering an event that didn't occur in the manga). I'm still waiting for my copy of Viz' boxed set 4 (episodes 37-48), so I don't know if he tries to use any other first names (I wouldn't put it beyond him), but it's something other than "mister."  Guppy313 21:32, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Some changes
I changed some of the phrasing and punuctuation here and there, but the big change I made was removin the reference to Soichiro Otonashi physically resembling Yusaku Godai. At the end of the episode where Mr. Soichiro (dog) ran off and was missing, when Kyoko saw Yusaku and Mr. Soichiro climbing the hill to Maison Ikkoku in the sunset, she was startled by the similarity to her memories of her husband, but commented to herself that the two men looked nothing alike.

It's insinuated that the two men have similar character traits (seemingly unable to take care of themselves without Kyoko's help, etc.), but it's never stated clearly what, if anything, Kyoko sees in common between Soichiro and Yusaku.

At any rate, I'm tempted to go through this and do more editing; some of it seems a little wordy, but it could just be me. Also, there seems to be an inordinate amount of attention to relatively unimportant characters (Kyoko's niece) and no attention to others (owner of Cha-Cha Maru, Akemi's boss). Any objections? David Iwancio 01:02, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I've no issue with you doing so. I don't know enough about the series to do much other than rephrase information found via Google. -Fuzzy 07:00, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

My changes
I mostly just tried to change the wording of character descriptions. Some of it I thought was extraneous; spoilers are one thing, but detailing the situation the characters are in at the end of the story seems a bit much, especially when there's no sequel (and likely never will be).

I split the characters between "major" and "minor" based mostly on when they were introduced to the story or how many episodes they were involved in, generally trying to focus on how much they contributed to the story. I decided not to mention the puppeteering club at Yusaku's school, as they were mostly incidental: they went away after the school festival, cropping up pretty much only to get Yusaku a job at the day care center and finally offered as a quick comparison of marriage proposals. I also left out Yusaku's roomates for the brief period he lived over the pachinko parlor, and his workmates in the cabaret (though now that I think about it, a case can be made for the cabaret's owner as "voice of reason" in the same way as the owner of Cha-Cha Maru).

I trimmed off Ikuko's last name; it's never specified, and I get the impression she's related to the Otonashi clan more on her mother's side than her father's (at the very least I don't recall ever seeing her father).

I know with Shun, Kozue and Ibuki I get rather close to crossing the line and putting in my own interpretation of the characters (such as Shun's and Ibuki's motivations), but I feel that these are all but explicitly stated by the characters themselves.

(At least I didn't go into my own personal theory that Sakamoto is the source of all grief in the story :)  )

I can't for the life of me remember Kyoko's parents' names. I remember at least her mother being named, but I can't seem to find it skimming over my collection of Viz' first edition of the manga. Same deal with Sakamoto. I'm in the mood to reread the whole thing (or at least as much as I have of Viz' second edition of the manga), and if I come acros them I'll add them later.

I tossed in a note on the use of names between the major characters where the original author mentioned the ordering of the names in the article. It seemed important in describing the relationships between the characters. I personally find it odd that I had more to say about the people who didn't live in Maison Ikkoku than those who did; I imagine that's just part of the nature of the story that to explain more about the characters would require actually retelling much of the story.

Finally, I am sorely, sorely tempted to remove the comment about Love Hina. My judgment is likely clouded by how much I love Maison Ikkoku and how much I dislike Love Hina, but it seems that Love Hina is more of a contrast to Ikkoku, full of situations and even some characters that lose all touch with reality, while Ikkoku never seriously challenges one's suspension of disbelief. I suppose a case could be made that Maison Ikkoku was an early "innovator" in the whole "loser ronin in boarding house beset by beautiful women" genre, but lumping them together just feels so wrong to me.

Oh, and I just remembered I forgot Yusaku's grandmother. Off to fix that. David Iwancio 22:41, 16 October 2005 (UTC)

stuff that's missing
This article is missing some essential data. How many TP volumes in Japan are there? How many english volumes are there, or is it the same? Anime air dates, the movie, etc. &mdash; Adam Di Carlo 18:45, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Review
I'm wondering if the review should be removed. Reviews generally aren't found on Wikipedia. I'm fine with incorporating what we can in the rest of the article, as long as it remains NPOV. --nihon 00:28, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

Expansion
Okay, all done. (^_^) --nihon 06:13, 23 January 2006 (UTC)


 * I guess I was wrong. I just added all the manga someone asked for. --nihon 07:02, 23 January 2006 (UTC)


 * This article is to the point where it could be spilt into something like a List of Maison Ikkoku media page. (Duane543 04:30, 26 May 2007 (UTC))


 * Created a category and have spun off characters; plan to spin off other big sections where applicable. -- Broken Sphere  22:29, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

I am long-time fan of this series and was just curious to know the General Reception of this particular series. I wanted to know because as a College Student currently taking a Marketing course, I wanted to know why the production company put so much effort and funding into the recording of the Official Soundtrack (or is that just the trend of entertainment companies in Japan?). The related parephanalia of this series must have sold like hotcakes in order for them to invest such time and effort into the CDs. (Or at the time Eight-tracks/LPs?)

While the songs are highly corny and unoriginal now, for the time it was truly innovative in terms of Japanese Pop, R&B, and Classical music. If you listen to the songs you will hear the sounds of artists popular in America in the late 70's early 80's (Specific artists that come to mind immediately are DeBarge, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Prince and Barry White).

The Anime must have been very popular for them to do this, even if only in a Niche market sense. I have all the OSTs and related songs and it is quite extensive, the sound quality is sharp and clear even on today's standards, I am sure they used the highest technology of the time which must have cost a pretty penny. The same goes for the Ramna 1/2 series which also has extensive OSTs aside from the Background Music tracks(BGM).

- Jon DH —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.124.108.17 (talk) 17:12, 7 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Japanese entertainment companies invest heavily in OSTs for tie-ins to movies and dramas. The quality on Japanese CDs tends to be higher because they are essentially limited run production items using more expensive materials and production values. Even albums by foreign artists are remastered and re-released in Japan, usually with bonus tracks and at a much higher markup. Jun Kayama 03:47, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Also slightly unrelated, Why is this article on the Low importance scale? This Manga/Anime Series is crucial for future series. Rumiko Takahashi could very well be considered the Mother (not quite the Grandmother) of Modern Animated Series, it is especially crucial for the Seinen Love/Drama genre. While the series is obviously not very popular (not as much as Ramna anyways) outside of Japan it still is of crucial value and importance regarding the foundations and beginnings of modern Anime going into the New Millenium.

- Jon DH —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.124.108.17 (talk) 17:18, 7 January 2009 (UTC)


 * This series deserves its Low importance scale. There are others such as Reiji Matsumoto and Hayao Miyazaki whose works are much more pivotal in inspiring Japanese animators. Maison Ikkoku itself has much, much less influence on Japanese culture and animation than Urusei Yatsura, Takahashi's previous series, and there are a good number of other series such as Mitsuru Adachi's Touch that rank far above Maison Ikkoku in terms of impact.


 * Outside of Japan, there is not a single quotable source which says this series inspired them. Love comedy genre for anime produced outside Japan does not exist. Animatrix? SpongeBob? The production values for the anime version of this series is 1980s. No CGI, three different directors, it appeared 30 years too late to be a pioneer like Tetsuwan Atom, 20 years too early to be something like Sennen Joyu. Takahashi Rumiko is not a pioneer in anime. She is a great mangaka, a living legend. Her influence in anime is nothing compared to directors who are constantly in film festivals, Cannes, Academy Award contention because her creative influence does not extend outside of print. This is why adaptations of Ranma 1/2 and InuYasha have been disasters. Only rarely does she get a director on the scale of Oshii Mamoru to commit himself to one of her works (Urusei Yatsura) and even then, the creative difference between Oshii and Takahashi was so bad he walked away from the series after the second theatrical release . There is a very sharp distinction between Takahashi Rumiko's achievements in manga and these anime adaptations over which she essentially does not have full control or talent. As far as Maison Ikkoku is concerned, the manga (and the anime which is faithful to the print version) did not move Heaven and Earth to inspire great manga or OVA in the future anywhere. Jun Kayama 10:48, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

It does seem incredibly biased to rate this series as Low Importance. Possibly one editor that has a grudge against the series?? And a question about those ratings. As this is a US English page, shouldn't the rating level reflect the US impact of the series, not necessarily how one individual in Japan rates it? Certainly in the US this series is highly considered. (Just look at the prices for used copies at Amazon.com or Ebay.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.160.218.42 (talk) 03:29, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

And if it has so little impact in Japan, why did they produce 96 episodes?? That rating is just bogus. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.160.218.42 (talk) 03:30, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
 * 本気アホ草. FWIW, I didn't assign it Low Importance. I honestly don't care if it is ranked slightly higher, but this is not a pivotal series.


 * This series was popular in the 80s in Japan as a love comedy, but it owes much of its popularity as a concurrent series to Urusei Yatsura |うる星やつら in the 1980s. Impact on Japanese culture from this series is not significant, and for Japanese, this is extremely obvious. Long runs for TV series in Japan are normal because of different production values and sponsorship structure. Also, this started off as print manga, which gives it a completely different dynamic from work by "pure" animators because transition to TV and movie in Japan even for popular series is sponsor-driven, not artist-driven. There is much less artistic freedom for animators following the script of a pre-scripted series, which is why directors with original works (Kon Satoshi, Matsumoto Reiji, Miyazaki Hayao) are more influential on the direction of anime.


 * Version of Wikipedia is immaterial. It is fantasy to think this is the most important series in Japanese culture, even with release of all material for this series with the Japanese market as primary. For the TV Drama, the specials in 2007 and 2008 only had viewer ratings of 12% and 8% . It does not even come close to Top 20 dramas where the lowest series has 33.7% in a market with traditionally just seven TV channels in Kanto. For anime, even the #10 anime series reached 29.6%  and Touch is at #7 with 31.9% - there is not a single Takahashi Rumiko series in the Top 10 for anime viewership. In fact for the TV Asahi Program 「決定！これが日本のベスト１００」which ranks Top 100s, Maison Ikkoku is not even on the chart for anime.


 * Rumiko Takahashi is a great series creator and Maison Ikkoku is a very mature work, but the problem with Maison Ikkoku is it was in print the same time as Urusei (1978-87 for Urusei, 1980-87 for Maison). Urusei has six theatrical releases. Lum is one of the most recognizable characters in all Japanese pop culture. There is nothing revolutionary about any of the versions of Maison Ikkoku in manga, anime, TV drama, or theatrical release. The numbers do not support it. Maison Ikkoku was not the first of its kind in genre, it did not inspire other series on its own (Kimagure Orange Road and Touch were out the same time) and being released on Big Spirits rather than Shonen Sunday hurt numbers. Print syndication in Japan matters for readership, popularity, merchandising, transition to anime and (higher status in Japan) live action TV drama or theatrical release. If it was released before Urusei Yatsura then Maison Ikkoku would be genre-defining, but Takahashi did not get the idea for Maison Ikkoku until 1980 and in her first concept it wasn't even a love story, but a human drama.


 * Maison Ikkoku did not have tremendous impact on Japanese popular culture. It is a small, beautiful classic and a good memory for many Japanese, but this is not the work without which love comedy genre in Japan would never have existed. It is not that sort of work. I haven't looked at this article in a long time, and I will probably overhaul it, but this is not a priority for me; maybe someone else. This series is not a pivotal, revolutionary work in manga, anime, or J-drama. Jun Kayama 04:16, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

Sayako Kurogi history/Episode guide
I added more detail to the entry on Sayako Kurogi. I felt that not enough was said about her seeing as how she is pretty important to the story in that she inadvertantly sets Yusaku on the path to his future career in child care. Feel free to edit my sentence structure on the new entry, as I know that my writing can get a little garbled.

Also, I began an episode guide as someone else suggested. So far I have up the first season, titles and original air dates. I will continue to put up the remaining seasons over the next few days. I was unsure about how exactly to format it, so I used the bullet system that every other entry on the Maison Ikkoku page seems to be using...

Billgoode 06:04, 1 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Added season 2 guide


 * Billgoode 19:22, 1 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Completed episode guide


 * Billgoode 02:19, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

Review(s)
ANN Jason Thomson --KrebMarkt (talk) 05:56, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

EX --Gabriel Yuji (talk) 15:47, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

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