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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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