I have an addiction. Now, that’s nothing new. I’ve always had one, to comics and animation and whatnot, but this. This is something I can’t even explain. I mean a full-strength, life-debilitating addiction. For work by Rumiko Takahashi, and most recently, particularly her romance series Maison Ikkoku.

I got access to this manga series about…a week ago? Two weeks maximum. I hadn’t even planned on reading it in the first place, but a lot of users on myanimelist.net have it rated highly, and many in the manga/anime community in general claim it’s the best romance series out there. Now, I don’t know about that – I haven’t read enough romance manga to make that claim, but that statement got me to look into it and holy smokes, if it’s not the best, it’s damn high on the list.

Briefly, the series is about a group of people living at a boarding house. You have Mrs. Ichinose and her son and husband; Yotsuya; Akemi; and Godai. They’re an eccentric crew, and the story opens in chaos – which is also where the story ends up staying most of the time – and chaos is the first thing that greets Kyoko, the brand new manager of the property. She’s beautiful, she’s young, and she’s a widow – and to Godai, the young student trying to get into college, she’s love at first sight.

The story takes off from there in a sort of twisted snake’s nest of misunderstanding. The main plotline is the romance between Kyoko and Godai, but it’s not an easy romance. The other tenants, other love interest, and the two main characters themselves complicate things so much that you really don’t know if this is going to be a happy story or one that ends bittersweetly. There are times when the series is both, and Takahashi does a wonderful job of not letting you relax. Ever.

I read this series straight through. There were some nights when I’d start reading at before bed, expecting only to read a few chapters, and then suddenly it was 7am and I still couldn’t bring myself to stop. Takahashi is a master at getting the reader to turn the pages because you HAVE to know what happens next. Will Godai confess to Kyoko? Will Kyoko keep acting clueless or will she face the situation? Will the other tenants ever stop partying? Will anyone ever be decisive about serious situations?

Even when you get a little fed up with this series, you can’t stop. I’ll admit, halfway through, I was just getting tired of all the misunderstanding. Over and over again Godai and Kyoko get this close to making progress in their relationship, and then something stupid happens and ruins it. It’s tormenting, and you both love it and hate it.

Also, something that kind of caused me to pause while reading was the similarities in appearances between some of the characters. This wasn’t a problem when the similar looking characters were not in the same scene, but when they got together, I often had to stop and check to see what each character was wearing in order to keep them straight. Below is an image of Kyoko’s and Godai’s rivals talking together – if it weren’t for Kozue saying Mitaka’s name, just looking at this wouldn’t tell the reader whether or not that were Godai or Mitaka sitting with her. You can look at the image of Godai and Kyoko two panels up for comparison. They do look different when you’re paying attention, but when you’re breezing through the story, they look too similar and this becomes a problem in some parts.

Still, this minor nuisance isn’t enough to really ruin the reading experience, and it’s easy to overlook it. Takahashi’s overall art style is so quaint and attractive, that you end up not minding having to slow down and look at the images a little more closely.

And despite the constant obstacles the characters all face, you care about them too much to give up on them. I think if I had read the series slowly over time, and had a bit of a gap between each volume, I wouldn’t have gotten frustrated at the slower progress of the relationships. In a way, I wish that’s how I read it. In retrospect, I’m glad it was a slow build up to a really great climax – it was a very good representation of real life relationships and how they take time and nurturing to develop and mature, which is probably also the best part of this series. The slowness, while frustrating, is accurate and allows for more character development and reader investment. I think the trend in young adult fiction nowadays is to have the romance barrel the reader over halfway through the first chapter, and while there is a sweet budding romance immediately in this story, it doesn’t rush.

The story is often laugh-out-loud funny and even the characters ask themselves how they get into such insane situations. The side characters are just as lovable as the main characters, and even though you constantly wonder why the main characters put up with some of their associates, by the end of the series, you understand perfectly and wouldn’t want it any other way.

All in all, this was a wonderful early series by Rumiko Takahashi, and despite it’s minor complaints, it really deserves a read by anyone who is a manga fan and doubly so for any romantic. This one is going on my To-Buy List.

9/10