Rumic World Profile Timeline Articles Interviews Encyclopedia Contact Messageboard

Concluding the Ninth Year

By Dylan Acres



One last time.

Every year I sit down to write this for the anniversary of Life at Maison Ikkoku, my contribution to Rumic World, and pretty much every year I'm very late in getting it posted. It's not as though I don't have anything to write about so much as it is finding the time to do so. This year is a very momentous year for my favorite series as it marks the end of the series in America.

The manga has of course ended once before, but 2006 saw the final volume of Viz's re-release of the complete manga series. All 162 chapters were included in the second edition this time around. Many long time fans of the series were irked at Viz's decision to "fast forward" Godai and Kyoko's relationship by skipping over chapters 3 through 6. And everyone was just confused by the Viz's omission of chapter 24, the standalone skating rink story. But Viz proved to be very fan friendly in their re-release and corrected their past errors in judgment.

Perhaps more important was the conclusion of Maison Ikkoku on DVD. Many fans (myself included) worked tirelessly to convince Viz to bring back the anime after the untimely cancellation of the VHS release in 2000. Even though it took a decade to see the entire 96 episode series get released in the States, the amount of pride I felt after purchasing the final boxset was tremendous. Of course I'm sad to see the Maison Ikkoku end, but after all the trials and tribulations that the series has gone through I couldn't be more relieved that it actually made it to its conclusion (dubbed and subtitled to boot).

With the conclusion of both Maison Ikkoku's manga and anime here, what's in store for the website? Well, it too will be wrapping up soon. Updates have always been sporadic at best, but every site here at Rumic World has been designed to have an eventual conclusion. I still have to summarize the last few episodes of the anime and that will bring all of my information up-to-date and to a natural conclusion. I do have some things planned for the future though that will likely keep me busy. The live action Maison Ikkoku drama series will begin in Japan next year and I certainly want to offer fans a thorough look at that. And fans of the series can look forward to new articles like this year's look at the directors of Maison Ikkoku in the future as well. So while the series has reached its end here in the United States, the site will plug along as always. Thank you for nine fantastic years!
Dylan Acres is a psychologist and college professor. Maison Ikkoku has long been his favorite manga and he has written a number of articles on the series and Rumiko Takahashi including an analysis of the animation directors of Maison Ikkoku, Takahashi's love of the Hanshin Tigers and a cataloging of the color artwork of Rumiko Takahashi.

Cover

Rumic World
Published: November 2, 2006
Author: Dylan Acres
Translated by: ---
Archived: ---
ISBN/Web Address: https://www.furinkan.com/ features/articles/9years.html
Page numbers: ---