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Maison Ikkoku (めぞん一刻 Mezon Ikkoku) is a manga and anime by Rumiko Takahashi. The title literally means 'house of the moment.'
It is a bitter-sweet romantic comedy about a group of madcap people who live in a boarding house in contemporary Tokyo. It is mostly the story of the blossoming relationship between a poor student Yusaku Godai and the boarding house manager, the young recently widowed Kyoko Otonashi.
The story by the author of Ranma ½ (who partly based it on her own experiences) is evolving slowly and crafted with great attention to detail. Maison Ikkoku is a manga masterpiece not for its rare slapstick action, not for its quietly shining artwork (as fitting it may be to tell the story) -- but for the believable characters presented to the readers by the author. The seemingly neverending love story always manages to ridicule with passion and draws the readers in closer to the lives of Godai and the others panel by panel.
Maison Ikkoku has been translated into English and the 14 volumes are available from Viz Communications.
The television version of Maison Ikkoku ran for 96 episodes and included some new story arcs not covered in the manga version. There was also a Final Chapter movie, two OVAs, and a song special.