Reviewed by: James Zhang
Ratings:
Genre(s): Comedy, Romance
Year: 1986
Series Length: 96 episodes

Godai is living away from home and hoping to get through college with good grades, but his efforts are frustrated by the tenants of Ikkoku-kan (similar to a boarding house), who stage a beer party inside his room every night without fail.

There's the chronic drunkard Mrs Ichinose who must certainly be a bad influence for her son whenever she dances and sings (quite horribly too) under the influence of alcohol. Then we have Akemi who likes to 'encourage' Godai by telling him how much better off he'll be if he ignored studies and adopted her lifestyle of beer, sleep, and general buffoonery.

Not that Godai needs Akemi's help – he is the stereotypical ronin (student studying to get into uni) whom everyone likes to watch but would hate to be: with limited aspirations, limited commitment, and limited resources (both material and mental), not to mention an overly lecherous mind.

Yotsuya completes the troublesome trio – a mysterious man whose job is unknown and chief area of expertise lies in swindling food from Godai. The price is usually one cup of ramen (instant noodles) to leave Godai alone, and more expensive delicacies to keep his nose out of Godai's business – the pinnacle of living on other's troubles!

Godai resorts to leave the hellish place when through the doorway, an angel waltzes in – she is the beautiful Kyoko, the new manager of Ikkoku-kan, and Godai changes his mind at once. It's fair to say that no character serious about himself would let night after night of maltreatment be swept away by a glimpse of a pretty face.

From this point on, Godai's hormones override his head – about the only time he uses it is in fantasizing about Kyoko and flying into her arms. Whether it is raw attraction or fate, the story in Maison Ikkoku is escapism taken to the extreme, where Godai pretty much breathes, eats, and sleeps Kyoko. It might be mistaken as romantic idealism until one realises how much Godai exaggerates Kyoko's kindness to him, while oblivious to the actions of anyone else. And isn't the main reason for Godai's attachment that she is very good looking? Kyoko is almost represented as a trophy for Godai to win.

A love story isn't complete without rivals on both sides: for Godai it is the ex-workmate Kozue, and the sporty, educated, wealthy Mitaka for Kyoko.

One hopes that this would set up conflicts that let the audience explore the complex social dimensions of love. The failing student who wants to make a name for himself pitted against the financially secure, well-established gentleman – who will Kyoko choose? How will Godai balance his love for Kyoko and the pragmatism of studies? What about love for its own sake – will Godai choose the one who loves him already or try to pursue a seemingly hopeless dream? Will Godai ever rise beyond the mentality of a sex-crazed young adult to a mature man who looks deeper inside a person before he mistakes lust for love, and more importantly, to reflect on his own aspirations that does not necessarily have to revolve around 'love'?

However, Maison Ikkoku is a show where people fall in love in less than five seconds, with even less reason, and where misinterpretations and malapropisms abound in plenty. Is there any chance of a bright and beautiful daughter of a corporate chief falling for a stranger five minutes after meeting him – not because he's a great person but because she feels sympathy for him? What about marrying someone because you thought you made her pregnant (can sexual intercourse take place unconsciously?) when it is in fact your dog that made her dog pregnant?

So the answer to whether this anime explores the complex (not superficial) social dimensions of love – in one word: no, in two: like hell, in three: not at all, in four: not for one second.

Maison Ikkoku has 96 episodes up its sleeve and actually makes a big deal of romanticising situations and giving the impression of a serious love story, but the comic sequences always get in the way. At first, it's a tad silly, then it's comically ridiculous, until it becomes ludicrous by the end.

There are many one-shot episodes where no plot development takes place and the audience sits through 24 minutes surrounding a mostly trivial matter – sometimes with laughs but almost all the time with frustration because it unnecessarily delays the conclusion to a fairly shallow series. More frustratingly perhaps, is how a significant event or development in one episode can be pretty much ignored by the next one, so that relationships revert back to before the previous episode – defying logic and chronology in the process.

In Maison Ikkoku, nothing is taken seriously and even though some classify it as a 'pure romance', this doesn't make the romance any more serious. In a nutshell, Maison Ikkoku is about two people who fall in love because they go through many unlikely experiences together – usually brought about by one's idiocy and the other's petty jealousies.

If raw entertainment is your top priority, Maison Ikkoku is a welcome viewing – with music that is consistently good. If a love story that is less than a quarter decent will insult you however, read Wuthering Heights instead.

That said, Takahashi's talent in Maison Ikkoku is not intellectual stimulation (though I fervently hoped that some of the 32+ hours spent watching this would be more productive) but setting up the characters and events so that bizarre situations arise which can be very funny indeed. And what impresses me the most about her work is that she seems to have an overpowering drive that renders her invulnerable to whatever criticisms might be made of it – something truly amazing.

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