Subjectivity matters most to me when rating anime. As a result, despite a lot of high praise and beloved ratings, in my eyes, this manga is only a 6/10. Due to its lack of character development and characters with much likability, lack of a satisfying build up of the main couple's relationship, and its nature to take an unnecessarily long time to reach a conclusion which could have been brought much sooner amongst more reasons, I could not help but notice these things and not enjoy it as much as every one else did. This works better as a slice of life manga than a
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romance, all things considered.
First off, this manga did have its good points and, to a degree, I agree with many of the praises given to this work. It handled the romance aspect well, it generally had the knack of being somewhat comedic with its misunderstandings and its main heroine is a character with a backstory which the readers could care for. The art of this manga is also pretty decent for its time, the details convey what they meant to and the characters are not ugly. Furthermore, this manga is one of the most influential works of its time, as it went on to influence many future works of other artists within this genre and brought upon many more beloved works to the industry which clearly resemble this original work to a certain extent. One of my favorite romance manga's ever was obviously inspired by this work, with many of its ideas clearly being borrowed by the creator and implemented onto their own. I have reasons to respect and appreciate this manga.
While the romance was handled well here, the main characters' relationship lacks convincing development and at some point gets repetitive. During the first 60 chapters of the manga, the buildup of their relationship was not done great. Godai meets Kyoko, and he instantly falls in love. For the rest of the manga, Godai was not given any development in regards to his love for Kyoko. Kyoko, on the other hand, only for the first 60 chapters gets any sort of romantic development with Godai. Even so, it was not convincing and without many reasons to believe that she has developed feelings for him, she later gets jealous when he is with other girls. From that point on, their romance gets repetitive and is still absent of any convincing development. Godai either gets into a misunderstanding with a girl, or is seen by Kyoko with someone else, and Kyoko gets jealous. Godai doesn't do or have to try much in an effort to win her, but eventually, she grows feelings for him anyway. The buildup is lackluster, and therefore, it did not give me the sense of satisfaction that would otherwise merit it a better score after I had read the conclusion. I agree, this series has a great conclusion, though it would have been much more satisfying had the relationship been done better.
Another major downside is in regards to its characters. None of these characters get much development, and there are not many reasons to fall in love with them either. Godai is the protagonist, and he bothers me because he is the same spineless, weak guy from beginning to end. However, through meeting Kyoko, he became a more hardworking man who is more worthy of her and I was happy to see it. This was nothing majorly redeeming, as it is the very least this character could grow and make him somewhat tolerable. Kyoko, similarly, is an undecisive character who is majorly responsible for stretching the series for so long. Also, as mentioned, she is unreasonably jealous and this is the case for most of the series. The only change to this character is that she eventually accepts that she can move on from her past relationship, and she loves Godai. Still, this took way too long, and I wished the author had done more to show that she learned to move on. The main characters aside, there is not much to love about the other characters, and the only one you should sorta feel bad for is the love rival of Godai. This guy is a much better man than the main character, and he is genuinely a good person. He also makes efforts to make her fall in love with him, unlike the protagonist. Other than that, the side characters do not get any development or are well written; they serve either to provide comedy, or to influence the main characters in some way.
All in all, this series works better as a slice of life than a romance. Along with the points mentioned above, this series is more comedic than romantic, and it's centered more around the characters' lives than anything else. Out of respect for its influence on future romantic comedies, I give this series a 6.
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Jul 16, 2022
Maison Ikkoku
(Manga)
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Subjectivity matters most to me when rating anime. As a result, despite a lot of high praise and beloved ratings, in my eyes, this manga is only a 6/10. Due to its lack of character development and characters with much likability, lack of a satisfying build up of the main couple's relationship, and its nature to take an unnecessarily long time to reach a conclusion which could have been brought much sooner amongst more reasons, I could not help but notice these things and not enjoy it as much as every one else did. This works better as a slice of life manga than a
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