Maison Ikkoku: Collector's Box set 1 (eps.1-12) | Ellen Kennedy, Jason Gray-Stanford

Maison Ikkoku: Collector's Box set 1 (eps.1-12) | Ellen Kennedy, Jason Gray-Stanford | wish i lived there but oh well

DVDs:

Maison Ikkoku: Col...

	Maison Ikkoku: Collector's Box set 1 (eps.1-12) Ellen Kennedy, Jason Gray-Stanford Viz Video, 2003 average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Rumiko Takahashi followed her first success, the sci-fi farce Urusei Yatsura ("Those Obnoxious Aliens," 1981), with Maison Ikkoku (1986), a romantic comedy inspired by a shabby apartment building she once lived near. "Ronin" (a student wannabe) Godai finally succeeds in getting into college, which he's been trying to do since he arrived at the threadbare Tokyo boarding house. When the lovely widow Kyoko becomes the manager, Godai is instantly smitten, but the course of love never runs smoothly for Takahashi's characters. In addition to competing with dashing tennis coach Mitaka and Kyoko's memories of her late husband, Godai has to contend with the embarrassing stunts of the other tenants: hard-drinking Mrs. Ichinose and her son Kentaro, the prying Mr. Yotsuya, and Akemi, a waitress given to scanty lingerie. Not that Godai needs help to make a fool of himself: he's almost as maladroit as Ataru, but unlike the hero of Urusei, he has a genuinely kind heart. When a friend from school gets him drunk in episode #8, Godai proclaims his love for Kyoko--waking the entire neighborhood. He can't remember what he did the next morning, and jumps to the erroneous conclusion that he performed a striptease. When he tries to laugh off his actions, he infuriates Kyoko. No sooner does one comic crisis get resolved then another arises, but the characters' occasional moments of honest sentiment give Maison Ikkoku a warm appeal. (Rated 13 and older: risqué humor, brief nudity, alcohol and tobacco use, slapstick violence) --Charles Solomon

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This is my favorite anime, and will be yours too

I originally watched Maison Ikkoku from the Arctic Animation fan subtitles sometime in the early 1990's, and I've been in love with it ever since. I think (and many people share this opinion) that Maison is Rumiko Takahashi's best manga and best anime, and that's saying a lot, since Takahashi has penned blockbusters like Ranma, Urusei Yatsura, and Inuyasha.

The story is about a boarding house called Ikkoku-kan where a hapless student Yusaku Godai lives, along with a hard-drinking housewife Ichinose-san, her son Kentaro, a bizarre and secretive man Yotsuya-san who is constantly frustrating Godai, and Akemi Roppongi who is a sultry hostess at a local tavern. The tenants of Ikkoku-kan continuously torture Godai: they prevent him from studying, eat all his food, and party all night long.

Into this nightmare moves in a new apartment manager, Kyoko Otonashi. She is young and pretty and Godai is instantly infatuated with her. The rest of the series is Godai trying to win the love of Kyoko over Shun Mitaka, a local tennis coach who also is in love with Kyoko. And despite the interference of the Ikkoku-kan residents!

It doesn't sound like much to start, and surely this first 12 episode set proceeds slowly, but the storyline is well-developed, and the characters are heartfelt. My friends forced me to watch the first 8 episodes, and after that I was hooked. But I'm guessing that if you're pondering buying this series, then you probably have a good idea about the plot and story and such, and want some technical information.

The transfer is excellent. This series aired on TV in the '80's and that's obvious from the animation quality, but the job done on the DVD import is good, probably as good as you could get in Japan. The Japanese audio track is mono because that's how it was broadcast. But it has good sound quality and is very crisp.

I hate dubbing, but for the sake of this review, I watched it. I don't like it, but as far as dubs go, it's passable. I would discourage watching the dub though because this show is SO Japanese that it relies a lot on the Japanese language itself.

The DVD's have essentially no extras or features. It is just the episodes. It's still a good deal, considering 12 episodes a set for ~$45. There should be a total of 8 sets (96 eps). I own 1-5, and plan on acquiring the rest.

My main criticisms of this collection:
(1) This series is so very Japanese that you HAVE to explain some things. For example, in the American mind, a ronin is a samurai without a master. In the modern Japanese mind, it's someone who's failed the college entrance exams. This DVD set NEEDS technical notes.

(2) The DVD liners are not that useful.

(3) The English dialogue loses a lot of intricacies above and beyond simple loss of Japanese. Takahashi is a huge fan of puns and such, and this is all lost. Most notable is the loss of Yotsuya's bad poetry, including numerous attempts at haiku, often coming a syllable short or long.

Still, Viz actually did a good job with this, and I'm planning on buying the whole set. But for your sake, here are some technical notes.

Numbers:
Most of the cast has names with numbers.
Otonashi means "no sound" in kanji and the "no" part would be like zero, or the numberless manager's room.
Ichinose - ichi = 1, corresponding to room #1.
Nikaido - ni = 2 (he is only in the manga)
Mitaka - mi = 3. Mitaka is also a rich district of Tokyo, signifying that the character is well to do, and would never live in a place like Ikkoku-kan, thus room #3 is vacant. It would be like saying Mr Beverly Hills.
Yotsuya - yo = 4. As is room #4
Godai - go = 5. As in room #5
Roppongi - Ro (or roku) = 6. Roppongi is also an entertainment district of Tokyo, signifying her job as a hostess at a bar and her personality. Akemi means red beauty (since she's a red-head).
Nanao - nana = 7.
Yagami - Ya = 8.
Kujo - ku = 9.
Chigusa - chi = 1000.

A ronin is a term for student who have failed the college entrance exams and are trying to get in, often attending cram schools.

A love hotel is a hotel you go with a partner to have sex. It's like a hotel you'd rent a room by the hour. This is because a lot of Japanese households are extended, and you wouldn't have the privacy to be intimate at home.

The story is set in 1980's Tokyo and there are some facets worth mentioning. Most people do not own cars. This is a big status symbol for Mitaka. Many homes do not have baths, and so people go to public baths. In the bath, Japanese enjoy soaking in nearly scalding hot water. Trains are the primary mode of long distance travel in Tokyo, so it is often featured in the anime. Despite being a bay city, Tokyo has no beaches per se, and so it is a long trip to go to a beach despite being next to the ocean. Many people in Tokyo have 'home towns' and aren't Tokyo natives (such as Godai). Often, Tokyo natives had a sense of a lack of this 'home town' feeling, and a recurring theme in the storyline is how Ikkoku-kan has a feeling of home.

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wish i lived there but oh well

After reading the first couple of reviews i thought the dub was going to be terrible but its not all that bad. I found myself actually liking the dub after watching the first couple of episodes. This is one series that has me hooked unfortunately since well Viz is known to have release problems so who knows when everything will be released. It may take one year or longer to have everything released for this series which stinks since i am hooked and there is talk that it may never be fully released. I can only hope this is false but till then any anime fan that likes this series might want to look into Kimagure Orange Road(good series). thanks

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Important Facts About Maison Ikkoku

Thanks for taking the time to read my review. Almost everyone knows what this anime is about so I won't go into details. I just want to answer some previous questions about this series. Most of the people are not sure how well the dubbing was handled by Viz. Don't worry I've seen 60 episodes and the dubbing has been excellent. Another question that was asked by the many fans of this anime was will there be more Maison Ikkoku dvds produced. The answer is yes and volumes 4 and 5 have already come out so make sure to pick up the box sets 4 and 5. Another important fact is that this series was first aired on 1986 and since then has been a huge hit with the fans world wide. With that being said you cannot go wrong with this product so pick up your box set today. Thanks

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"Maison Ikkoku" Is Something Special

"Maison Ikkoku" is unlike anything I've ever seen. There, I said it. I was debating whether or not that would be too much of a set up, but after hours of arguing with myself on how to review this wonderful show I threw all my notions of how to write a review out the window. Despite what some people think, writing a review really is a process. You want to make your review entertaining and informative, but you are supposed to hold onto your final recommendation till near the end of the review to maintain the readers interest throughout. This is a normal review. However, "Maison Ikkoku" is not a normal show. Oh sure, when I tell you what it's about it may SOUND like a normal show, but trust me; it's not!

"Maison Ikkoku"is a one-of-kind. A show so smart, so beautiful, and so joyful to watch, that a typical review would be pointless as well as a complete disgrace. For this show I have to be up-front: "Maison Ikkoku" is one of the best shows I've ever seen. It's one of the best shows I've seen in the past ten years. And if I were to sit down and look at every show I've ever seen, from prime time to Saturday morning, from animated to live action, from American to Japan, I'd say "Maison Ikkoku" would very likely be in the top five (and if not there, then it would definitely be in the top ten). While the show has minor nitpicks one could complain about, they ultimately don't matter, as THIS is as close to perfection as television can possibly be!

There, now that I've laid out all the cards, I'm going to now have faith that my readers will stay here long enough to let me explain why I feel so strongly about this show. "Maison Ikkoku" revolves around a young college student named Godai, who is attempting to get into a high college in Japan but failing miserably. He lives at the Maison Ikkoku, a run down apartment complex that has few tenants and seems to be hidden in a back ally of some sort. Then one day the apartment complex gets a new manager in the form of Kyoko, who Godai falls instantly in love with. Yes, this is a romantic comedy. Yes, there is nothing particularly new or daring in this concept. In all honestly, I could give away every story twist this show throws at you, and unless you actually watch it you would find the descriptions fairly uninteresting.

Therefor, discussing the storyline beyond this point would be pointless (hey, I managed to squeez a bad pun in there). However, the journey for this show is one that will take your breath away. Maybe not instantly. Very few shows start out with a bang and keep the energy going. Instead, "Maison Ikkoku" begins as a fun little comedy that evolves into something much deeper then you could possibly imagine. Seeing that the basic storyline is about two people falling in love, the show mimics real life in that the relationship develops slowly and realistically. Though Godai is smitten with Kyoko right off the bat, Kyoko has no interest in a relationship. Particularly since, despite her young age of twenty-one, she is a widow.

Still fresh from a tragic event that took her husbands life six months into their message, Kyoko is suffering some trust issues of her own. It doesn't help the that three other tenants, Akemi, Yotsuya, and Ichinose, tend to be loud mouth drunks who tend to get in the way of the relationship (though, to their credit, they usually don't mean to). But...man, I'm already doing this show a disservice. There is just NO way to review this thing! Some romantic comedies are considered "a slice of life," but this show is the whole pie. The transition and change in this show is amazing. The character development is stunning. There are several characters that look like RC stereotypes, until you spend time with them and get to see their true colors. In a strange way, you develop your own relationships with these people.

Alright, I'll say it in a way everyone here will understand: You come to care for this cast as much as you come to care for the cast in the Harry Potter books. Yes, it's THAT good! "Maison Ikkoku" was written by Rumiko Takahashi, who is the richest woman in Japan. She has written popular series that have become famous worldwide, including "Ramna ½" and "InuYasha." Trust me, this show blows all those other shows out of the water. More epic is story then the aforementioned but with a more subtle tone, "Maison Ikkoku" is something that any fan of good storytelling will just eat up. The TV format gives a life to this story that even the books couldn't match. That life would be time.

At 96 episodes, "Maison Ikkoku" is not short. It takes its time telling the story and developing the relationships. During that time characters age, seasons pass as do holidays, and the economy goes from stable to unstable. It's a living, breathing world that a single movie (to some extent) the books couldn't properly display most of the time. I'm going to share my personal experience of the ending of this show without giving the ending away. When the final episode was finished I starred at the TV. And I looked at it. Then I cried. I cried a lot. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Go ahead, laugh all you want, you don't know what this show is like. It's not that the ending is sad or tragic per se, it's just so fitting and beautiful. With just a few simple images, a couple lines of dialog, and the memory of the show behind you, it left me feeling truly happy I spent my time watching it.

I've only done that two other times, and for lesser shows might I add. Like I said, this show is not perfect, but it comes as close to perfection I've ever seen. What's even more amazing is that this is the first I've seen the show. The show premiered in Japan in 1986 and it is now 2008. This show is over twenty years old and it feels more fresh and originally then any RC I've seen made all year. That fact that such an old show can have this much of an impact in the modern world solidifies it as a classic. Now then, here's the bad news: The show is currently out of print from Viz Media. Most of the sets can currently be found in stores, but volumes five and (more importantly) eight are close to impossible to find for less then $100. Considering volume eight contains the moving ending, this could be considered a serious blow against the show.

Rental stores may have the show for rent for awhile, but soon those copies will be too worn to rent as well. This makes finding the show a difficult task, but one that's well worth involving yourself in. While no written review can do justice to this show, for those with the patience to watch it I can promise it will be a treasure. Something you'll remember forever. In fact, if I know me, I'll be taking the journey again many times throughout the years.

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starts well! (and *why* it's sooo 'sit-com'-ish...

I've watched these DVDs and they were nothing other than I expected (*and* almost perfect). I just want to reply to the, in my opinion not really fair comment in someone else's review. They wrote that that they didn't like it that the series seems to consist of misunderstanding piled upon misunderstanding. The people who made the anime had no choice, they *had* to make it that way, because the manga it's based on is like that, anything else would have violated the 'spirit' of the manga. Oh, and though it does go a bit far with that kind of thing, in the manga they also end up saying serious and amazing and just super "real" things, real eye openers. I can't wait for the rest of these CD sets to come out!

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reviews: page 1, 2

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