Maison Ikkoku

Before you guys label me as a Space/Futuristic fanboy.... I thought I would toss a shoujo title at you...

Brilliant series... easily Takahashis best work IMO... and yes... that does include IY, Ranma 1/2 and Urusei Yatsura...

Anime is true to the manga for the most part... slight deviations here and there but nothing excessive... those who pick up the manga first... be warned... the art SUCKS initially.... but it gets better....

One of the best Rom Coms ever made... I would make it mandatory viewing for any anime fan... has funny quirky characters and a great flow.... sure it may seem like it is the same old story with a wimp landing a hot chick at the end... but you would be surprised...

The story spans five (I think) years and focuses on the growth of the relationships between the characters through all the little interactions...

Yuusaku Godai is the wimp in question here... a ronin... i.e. a person who failed to get into college in his first year out of High School... he lives in an old apartment complex with a bunch of annoying quirky neighbors who take pleasure in tormenting him and generally doing everything humanly possible in order to disrupt his studies... he is fed up and is just about to leave... packed up his stuff and putting on his shoes actually.... when the new apartment manager shows up.... it was love at first sight for poor Yuusaku... and who could blame him... Kyoko being as pretty as she is.... he obviously shelved his plans for departure... and so began one of the most hilarious yet dramatic romances in Anime history...

I have always thought of Rumiko Takahashi's works as a bit bit odd. Boy turning into girl on being doused with water, man turning into panda, high school girl time-travelling to the medieval period to romance a half-demon.
MI has gotta be her most...well...normal series. A regular story of boy-meets-girl-and-falls-in-love.
I had reservations about sitting through a 96-episode long anime, but now I'm totally thankful I decided to. What a beautiful portrayal of young love! I now know why Kyo always said that they don't make romances like MI anymore. Sure as hell, they don't. MI takes its sweet little time to meander to the conclusion but it's all worth it. All the supporting characters act as catalysts, sometimes in a good way and sometimes in an annoying way. But eventually, MI would've been incomplete without any one of them.
And it had so many "aww sho cute" moments, that I simply lost count.
And despite everything, I did not consider Godai a regular, stereotypical wimp usually found in rom-coms or harem shows. His character undergoes tremendous transformation throughout the length of the series. He may have been a ronin once but he changes a lot in the later stages. And even though he was a bit perverted (meh all guys are anyway) he understood Kyoko very well and right from the beginning. He was the only one who carved a way into Kyoko's heart even though it took a long time. Mitaka was simply this pompous jackass who fell for Kyoko's beauty and wanted to make her as his own. Not even once did he take Kyoko's hint that she wasn't interested and almost forced himself on her. That doesn't count as love.

Anyone else thinks that Kozue chan was more annoying than Yagami?

Praise the lord... a comment in this thread? Here I was thinking that my anime conversations would now be relegated to FB or the IRC...

Godai... sigh... It is true that he changed a lot... but he had some years to do it... But Takahashi did one thing right here... she made Godai more desirable than Mitaka by means of the depth of his feelings... something which I felt that Urusawa failed to do well in Yawara... His effort in Happy! appears to be better... but scanslations have stalled... no way to tell if it lives up to its promise...

Kozue's behavior was more the fault of Godai and Kyoko IMO... neither were assertive enough to drive her away... She was honestly sweet and loving... a bit passive aggressive perhaps...

Yagami appeared to be more tolerable because even though she was so aggressive... Godai and Kyoko were both pretty firm about not taking her seriously and letting her know it...


On a related note I should also recommend two other romances which I really liked.....

Yume De Aetara (Manga only) COMPLETE!

Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie (Manga Only) COMPLETE!

Both of these series have more 'mature' romances in as much as that the characters are not students.

Yume de Aetara... again...a wimp landing a beauty... that said. our wimp does seem to gain incredible power when faced with the prospect of losing the beauty.... Art is a bit... old... but... Its cute and funny even though Nagisa can be annoying as hell... side stories and secondary characters are well used for the most part although some are cast aside or otherwise sidelined rather more abruptly than I would like.... This series may feel similar to Maison Ikkoku in some aspects... mostly by way of inclusion of similar character types for the leads and some of the secondaries...

Orange Yane No Chiisana Ie is more than a little reminiscent of the Brady Bunch and that makes me feel a bit less inclined to recommend it (PLAGIARISM!! (Not really))... but I like how well the romance is handled and grown... One of the few rom-coms where we don't see too much tiptoeing around and a sudden dash to the finish to get the characters into a relationship and end the series.