Maison Ikkoku – Episode 1

Maison Ikkoku Episode 1
Sorry To Keep You Waiting! I’m Kyoko Otonashi!
Omatase shimashita! Watashi ga Otonashi Kyoko desu!!
お待たせしました!　私が音無響子です!!
1986-03-26

Maison Ikkoku was one of the first anime I watched in childhood, but I never finished it. A while ago, I posted a brief overview of the series and promised to myself to re-watch it someday. Recently, I stumbled upon some wonderful songs from this anime, and finding Juliette je t’aime AMV added more oil to the fire. I wanted to re-watch this anime, this time till the end, but I hesitated due to the length (96 Episodes). However, I recalled the concept of opportunity cost that my Economics professor was so fond of.

My interest in the new anime continues to dwindle, as I find myself less and less excited about each new season. I can cover several new popular shows that I am somewhat interested in or cover what some consider the best work of Rumiko Takahashi. On the other hand, not many people will be watching the show concurrently with me, but I hope that my coverage will bring back good memories for those who seen it already and reveal some trivia. 🙂

OP1: Kanashimi yo, Konnichiwa “Hello Sadness” by Yuki Saito

Nice pastel art and song in this opening 🙂

Art director Chitose Asakura created beautiful environment for the series.

WTH is going on?! XD

Godai is a 20-year-old ronin. In this context, ronin refers to a person who failed an entrance exam and is currently without college, like a samurai without a master.

Music in the early episodes is by Takao Sugiyama. Kenji Kawai contributed in later episodes – Maison Ikkoku was his debut in anime series 🙂

It seems that such crazy scenes are quite common in Maison Ikkoku 😛

Elongated legs were quite prevalent at the time. Character design seems to be more balanced now in that regard, but other features are exaggerated instead 😛

Poor Godai… They don’t let him study properly…

Ah, such mouths is one of the signatures of the period 🙂 This scene is Megumi Hayashibara’s (Ranma Saotome, Rei Ayanami, Faye Valentine, Lina Inverse, Christina Mackenzie) debut in voice acting as kindergarten kid saying, “Nanda ano inu?” She voiced other small roles in Maison Ikkoku, but, initially, she had some difficulty and had to redo many lines after the main recording sessions. Shigeru Chiba (Yotsuya’s voice) was one of her teachers. Megumi is also qualified nurse, but she pursued a career in other fields 🙂

This person refers to his friends with -chan suffix 🙂

Tsk, tsk… How could you, Akemi? 😛

Kyoko is a 22-year-old manager 🙂

Director Kazuo Yamazaki utilizes numerous perspectives and many oblique shots.

Love at first sight? 🙂

haha This was a great scene. I was anticipating a deep voice, but got something else instead 😛

Another interesting perspective 🙂

Hmm… Godai’s library is quite extensive 😛

haha Excellent editing in this scene with well-timed pause 🙂

Not many girls can or willing to do that 🙂

moshi != koshi 😉

Kojiki (古事記, also known as Furukotofumi and known in English as The Records of Ancient Matters) is the oldest surviving book in Japan. In this scene, Akemi refers to Godai’s closet as Ama-no-Iwato (天岩戸) literally means “The cave of the sun god” of “heavenly rock cave”. This is a reference to a story about Amaterasu, Japanese sun goddess, and the events in that scene echo the original story.

One day, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, in a drunken rampage, trampled Amaterasu Omikami’s rice fields, filled all of her irrigation ditches and threw excrement into her palace and her shrines. The Omikami asked her brother to stop but he ignored her and even went so far as to throw the corpse of a skinned horse at her hand-maidens who were weaving at the time. The women were killed by the splintered wood from the looms piercing their bodies.

Amaterasu Omikami was greatly angered and in protest she shut herself in the Heavenly Cave and sealed it shut with a giant rock. As a result, the world was consumed with darkness. Without her, everything began to wither and die. Countless Kami gathered in front of her cave and devised a way to lure her out. They all sat around the cave and set up a mirror across from the entrance. Ame-no-Uzume, the voluptuous goddess of merriment turned over a wash-tub and began a sensual dance, tapping the beat on the tub. She exposed her breasts and lifted her skirts as she danced. All of the gods made a great noise of yelling and cheering and laughing. Amaterasu peeked out to see what the noise was about. She asked the nearest god what was going on and he replied that there was a new goddess. When Amaterasu asked where she was, he pointed to the mirror.

The Omikami had never seen herself before and when she caught her reflection, she stared at the radiance of her own form. She was so surprised she said “omo-shiroi”, which means both “white face”, which the Omikami had, and “fascinating”. When she was out of the way, Tajikara-O shut the rock behind her. Having lured her out of the cave, the gods convinced her to go back into the Celestial Plain and all life began to grow again and become strong in her light. Once back in the Celestial Plain, she made sure that she was ready for her brother’s harsh actions again by having a bow and quiver at her side.

Godai, like Amaterasu, couldn’t resist the temptation 😛

ED1: Ashita Hareru ka (Will Tomorrow Be Brighter?) by Takao Kisugi

I just love the ED: great music and visuals 😀

Maison (めぞん) = house (French)
Ikkoku (一刻) = a) Address at #1 Koku Street b) instant in time c) stubborn or hot-tempered

Names of the characters are quite interesting. This section also serves as a debriefing for the first part of my somewhat cryptic announcement 😉

Kyoko Otonashi – Room 0 – 音無 (not a sound)
Yusaku Godai – Room 5(五) – 五代 (five generations)
Yotsuya – Room 4(四) – 四谷 (four valleys)
Akemi Roppongi – Room 6(六) – 六本木 (six trees)
Ichinose Family – Room 1(一) 一の瀬 (first ford)

Cast:

• Issei Futamata as Yusaku Godai
• Sumi Shimamoto as Kyoko Otonashi
• Chika Sakamoto as Kentaro Ichinose
• Kazuyo Aoki as Hanae Ichinose
• Shigeru Chiba as Yotsuya
• Yuko Mita as Akemi Roppongi

Overall, it was a great episodes – I look forward to the next one 🙂

Further Reading:

• Maison Ikkoku (wiki)
• Maison Ikkoku (ANN)
• Amaterasu
• Amano-Iwato
• Kojiki
• Anime explosion!: the what? why? & wow! of Japanese animation by Patrick Drazen

Other Maison Ikkoku Posts