Keith Palmer's Multi-Purpose Journal

As I headed into the ninth volume of the new release of Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku I already had an impression of what the tenth volume’s cover would be, and that was enough to get me thinking things just might not run on that much longer. I suppose there’s a tension between “the promise of a conclusion; this is a relatively realistic romantic comedy” and “when you’ve got a good thing going...” The question did come to mind “when the reputation of this series was building among English-language manga and anime fans, what else was it being compared to?”, but that might be shading towards unfairness.
( As for “unfairness” in the story... )

My perpetual pondering about what to post to this journal next drifted to manga read. Not that long after watching my way through the girls’ theatrical academy anime Kageki Shojo!, I picked up the original manga I’d chased down in the midst of the adaptation. It was nice to revisit the story. However, after an extra-thick lead-in volume (having wondered just what that meant in advance of a volume with number one on its spine, a note at its back explained the story had moved from one manga magazine to another) and five regular instalments I haven’t quite reached where the anime left off even if I’ve happened on subplots and flashbacks that weren’t adapted. The next volume of manga I thought I might be able to say something about was the seventh instalment of Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku, which I’d managed to keep up some sort of commentary on.
( But I digress )

Writing a post about the first volume of the new release of Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku might have been a chance to say a bit about Takahashi’s manga in general. Posting about the second and third volumes had been driven by negative comments in Anime News Network reviews, but posting about the fourth volume just might have been starting a habit. I therefore wondered if I could keep that habit going as I read the fifth volume, and had time to wonder about that with too many other things happening in a day.
( Arrivals and departures )

“Getting to each new volume of manga in the order I acquired it” might always have been a basic strategy for me; still trying to get past fears it’s a risk to really handle anything at all brought in from outside “too soon” might have made that strategy just a little more rigid. I was interested in working my way to the third volume of the new release of Rumiko Takahashi’s Maison Ikkoku, but right around when I managed to pick it up I just happened to see a blurb for its review on Anime News Network criticizing the instalment as in a wheel-spinning rut. It was an unfortunate reminder of uncertainties raised by their blurb for the volume before.

Making efforts to manage my expectations, though, I did pick my way through my latest block of the story. It’s just possible an extended story where Godai jumps to conclusions about Kyoko and the tennis instructor Mitaka and moves out of Maison Ikkoku countered first speculations that “nothing much happening” would amount to “one inconsequential one-shot chapter after another,” and even if the misunderstandings and missed opportunties that stretched things along had their own uncomfortable familiarity, circling back to where things had stood wasn’t that bad in the end. When comparing this story to Urusei Yatsura (which I keep piling up volumes of manga out of the vague impression “getting through the anime should precede seeing how the manga did each thing to start with”), the cast of characters not expanding without end has its own appeal, as does the other residents of Maison Ikkoku not all being college students like Godai. “The journey’s better than the final arrival” can sometimes seem a too-familiar sort of faint praise when it comes to manga serials and the anime connected to them, but in this case I might be getting by without too many personal demands to see an expected conclusion draw ever closer.

I’ve mentioned here before how, in trying to keep up with the manga I buy, I only go back and “read things again” in exceptional circumstances. (This is at least different from having piled up so much anime “to watch... some day” that I can shrug and return to series every so often.) However, I’m not quite “stranded in the present moment”; older series do keep getting released, whether in new editions or even for the first time. I picked up one series getting a new edition with some interest. Rumiko Takahashi’s “Maison Ikkoku” had been present in the general fan consciousness when I first joined in, and I’d formed the impression that in being more “realistic” than Urusei Yatsura or Ranma 1/2 (and having an actual conclusion, or at least one that hadn’t resulted in vast quantities of fanfiction) it had wound up a vital part of her work. With volumes of Urusei Yatsura beginning to pile up again as my “anime adaptation before original manga” habits bumped into news more of its movies will be legitimately re-released over here and having to admit to just sort of letting Ranma 1/2 trail off, having the chance to read Maison Ikkoku seemed a pleasant example of “better late than never.”
( Judging a book by its cover )