All about Maison Ikkoku by: Takahashi Rumiko

First, in order for you to get this layout, I do have to explain the basics.
Maison is French meaning "house"
Ikkoku means "A Moment, an Instant" or just simply, "time"
This title is very significant because Maison Ikkoku is all about the moments of time. Takahashi was very precise about Godai and Kyoko's timelines. When they were born, when they met each other for the first time, and when their relationship began to "blossom". At any rate, numbers are everywhere in "The House of Time" as I like to dub it.

The names of all the main characters of this story have a meaning to them. Most all of them are named after subway stations in Tokyo, but most notably all of their names are numbers and go with the apartment they live in. So here they are:

Otonashi Kyoko lives in the manager's apartment (no number). "Nashi" means "zero"
Godai lives in apartment #5. "Go" means five
Mrs. Ichinose and family live in apartment #1. "Ichi" means "one"
Nikaido lives in apartment #2. "Ni" means "two"
Mitaka doesn't live in the Ikkoku-kan so Apt. #3 is empty but "Mi" means "three"
Yotsuya-san lives in apartment #4. "Yo" means "Four"
Akemi lives in #6 because of her last name of, Roppongi. "Roku" means "six". Although her last name is pronounced "Roppongi", it is written as "Rokuhongi"
The Ikkoku-kan only has 6 rooms. Nanao Kozue, moved to building #7 of an apartment after she got married. "Nana" means "seven"
When Godai was student teaching, he met a highschool girl that feel in love with him. Her name is Yagami Ibuki. "Ya" means "eight"

Maison Ikkuko was written by Takahashi Rumiko from 1982 to 1987. You can say that it's not as well known as her other works such as Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, and Inuyasha. The other three have massive fanbase and they all have this "fairytale" essence to them. In Urusei Yatsura, you have a perverted hero playing tag with aliens to save the earth, in Ranma 1/2 you have a guy turning into a girl and a grandpa that turns into a panda, and Inuyasha, you have a story about a half demon/half human boy. But Maison Ikkoku is different. It contains no "magic" or any kind of fantasy essence. It contains no fighting, no action, and no aliens in a tiger print two piece. Maison Ikkoku is a drama, full of comedy, raunchy and loud neighbors, and in the very heart of it all, shows the realisms of growing up, of falling in love, of trying to cope with loss, and trying to form a new relationship.

It's a drama about a young window who decides to take the job of an apartment manager six months after her husband died. Here she meets a young man who falls in love with her but because of her great loss, she does not desire to have feelings for him. By moving into this apartment building, the young woman encounters many strange characters that many call the "Loon Squad". They are the very meaning of the "neighbors from hell"... But despite the characteristics of these hasty neighbors that manages to always make her quite angry sometimes, they also begin to give her a new out look on her life. Suddenly, she becomes more open and secure. And she soon begins to have feelings for the young man that had always fancied her all along. And so the story of the people that live in apartment house on "Clock Hill" continues as time passes by in such an ordinary way...

Takahashi is well known for writing long spanding novels... Maison Ikkoku is her shortest series spanning 15 volumes where parts of the story were actually taken from her past experiences. You see, when Takahashi was going to college, she lived in an apartment that was across from another apartment that looked similarly like Ikkoku-kan. The apartment was sort of shabby and old fashioned and very very strange. There were two mysterious people there that always talked to each other by walkie talkies even when though they were only 20 feet from each other. Takahashi thought that this was really strange but interesting as well, so because of these two strange people, Maison Ikkoku was born.

Please go to our Maison Ikkoku shrine, called The Guy in Room 5 dedicated to the other protagonist of the show Godai Yusaku... More indepth content about MI will be discussed inside that page so that is why I did not elaborate very much in here. I hope you check Maison Ikkoku out. It truly is a great series and it needs to shine just like other Takahashi works.


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