It was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Big Comic Spirits from November 1980 to April 1987, with the chapters collected into 15 tankōbon volumes.
Maison Ikkoku is a romantic comedy involving a group of eccentric people who live in a boarding house in 1980s Tokyo.
The story focuses primarily on the gradually developing relationships between Yusaku Godai, a poor student down on his luck, and Kyoko Otonashi, a young, recently widowed boarding house manager.
A Final Chapter movie, three original video animations (OVAs), and a music special were also produced, with a live-action film made by Toei in 1986.
The story mainly takes place at Maison Ikkoku (一刻館, Ikkoku-kan), a worn and aging boarding house in a fictional Tokyo ward called Tokeizaka (時計坂, "Clock Hill"), where 20-year-old college applicant Yusaku Godai lives.
Godai and the other tenants find out that despite her young age, Kyoko is a widow: after she married her high school teacher Soichiro, he tragically died shortly thereafter.
Almost mirroring Kyoko's first romance, Godai catches the attention of precocious and brazen student Ibuki Yagami, who immediately begins pursuing him.
He eventually overcomes his phobia but, when he is about to propose to Kyoko, his family begins to goad him into an arranged marriage with the pure and innocent heiress Asuna Kujo.
When she later announces a pregnancy, he takes responsibility and proposes to Asuna, but finds out too late that it was her dog who was pregnant and not her; however he fully realizes that he has loved her since their first meeting and promises to never make her feel second-best in their marriage.
However, this backfires when Kozue sees Godai leaving a love hotel with Akemi; innocently, he was called there only to cover the room fees.
As Kyoko is about to return to Maison Ikkoku, she learns about the love hotel incident that has ended Godai's relationship with Kozue, but assumes he slept with Akemi.
[4] She originally only wanted to start the series focusing on Kyoko and Godai's relationship before moving on to include the other tenants to have a "human drama," but said the love story attracted her more and took over.
[8][9] Soichiro Suzuki, Takahashi's third editor on Maison Ikkoku beginning from the eighth or ninth chapter, explained that having a young up-and-coming female artist attracted much attention for the new magazine.
[9] Suzuki also said that Takahashi went with the romantic comedy genre for the new series because of the magazine's older reader demographic, but noted it still had the gag-like feel of Urusei Yatsura in the beginning.
[10] Written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi, Maison Ikkoku was serialized in the seinen manga magazine Big Comic Spirits as 162 chapters between November 15, 1980,[11] and April 20, 1987.
[18] North American publisher Viz Media originally released the series, adapted into English by Gerard Jones,[19] in a monthly comic book format from June 1993.
It featured Mari Okamoto as Kyoko, Kazuhiko Inoue as Godai, Midori Katō as Hanae Ichinose, Yusaku Yara as Yotsuya, Eiko Hisamura as Akemi, and was narrated by Junpei Takiguchi.
[35] A finale to the show was aired on July 26, 2008, under the title Maison Ikkoku Kanketsuhen and featuring Akina Minami as Kozue Nanao and Ikki Sawamura as Shun Mitaka.
[38] In 2002, Christopher Macdonald, co-editor-in-chief of Anime News Network, wrote that while far from her most popular, Maison Ikkoku is considered by many to be Rumiko Takahashi's best work.
Macdonald wrote that what it does have in common with most of Takahashi's other works is "absolute, unadulterated hilarity," but this differs still in that it features hilarious situations that actually happen in the real world.
[39] Like Macdonald, Comics Beat's Morgana Santilli noted how Maison Ikkoku is an anomaly in Takahashi's bibliography as it contains no fantasy or magical elements, but does include her signature wacky romcom hijinks of "jealous would-be lovers, plenty of pratfalls, and needlessly complicated misunderstandings," which makes it just as charming and fun as more popular works like Ranma ½.
[41] He also stated that because the main character is a university student, Maison Ikkoku is "slightly more sophisticated" compared to Kimagure Orange Road.
Although she noted the art as dated, Moore felt it still holds up well with its simple but expressive designs, and that the suburban Tokyo setting gives a timeless feeling.
"[1] Right Stuf Inc. called Maison Ikkoku a classic rom-com that has many of the strengths of modern sitcoms and praised the back-and-forth between characters as always hilarious and the romance between Godai and Kyoko as both nuanced and sweet.
"[45] ANN's Allen Divers wrote positive reviews of the anime, saying "The beauty of Maison Ikkoku is the fact that the entire cast feels dynamic enough that each could be the center of an episode without pulling away from the main idea of the series."
[46] Melissa Sternenberg of THEM Anime Reviews gave the show a perfect five star rating, calling the development between the two main characters refreshing and praising the supporting cast for reacting to what happens around them.
"[47] TV Asahi released two Top 100 Anime lists in 2005; Maison Ikkoku came in 80 on the nationwide survey of multiple age-groups, and 89 on the web poll.