I’m a big fan of Maison Ikkoku, Takahashi Rumiko’s 1980’s manga about life and romance in a run down Japanese boarding house.In 1986, a live action movie of the manga was released called Maison Ikkoku- Apartment Fantasy. Bad acting, cheesy dialogue, and even a musical number performed by the cast made for an infamously awful film. So you can understand why people were reluctant when a live action tv series was announced for Broadcast almost twenty years later.
However, the Maison Ikkoku live-action television show, set to air this spring, seems to be taking care to present an accurate universe to Takahashi’s manga. Misaki Ito (Gokusen, Densha Otoko), has been cast in the role of Kyoko. Godai will be played by an unknown by the name of Taiki Nakabayashi. He was selected through a rigorous audition process that allowed only college students with no previous film or tv experience, presumably to capture the ‘every man’ feel of Godai’s character.
My current excitement is over finally getting to see an image of the main cast outside of Kyoko and Godai. The other tenants staying in the Ikkoku boarding house range from crazy to… crazier and they, not Kyoko and Godai, are my primary concerns as far as casting.
I believe by the clothing chosen that they are keeping the series set in the 1980s, and that pleases me greatly. I hope that is the case. Akemi, who wears only a see-through neglige for a great majority of the series, is understandably more clad here. However, I do like the look of her actress. The hair-style is even correct. Yotsuya is a bizarre character who occupation is not ever revealed. He’s shown as almost a secret agent here, or something. I think it fits though. I always swore he was actually some kind of undercover agent for the government or another job equally out there. Yotsuya is such a unique character that I hope they got a bonafide comic actor to portray him. I can’t imagine it working otherwise. Godai looks great. Kyoko does as well and her clothing is an exact match. However I must say she is very tall. Mrs. Ichinose is a very overweight character in the manga, and here she’s quite thin. I found that odd, but I think she just doesn’t look too enthusiastic, something Ichinose has plenty of. It could just be the photo though.
I do love Soichiro though, Kyoko’s big dog. He is just too adorable.
I sincerely hope this series gets picked up by fansubbers or licensed. If not I’ll at least be seeking out the raws and probably blogging them. I’m quite excited for it and hope it lives up, or comes close to living up to, the manga.
-Haro
