Maison Ikkoku, by Rumiko Takahashi
Volume 2
Okay, not as many thoughts on this one. As with a lot of long-form stories, this second book is mainly about getting more comfortable with the characters and their dynamics, which I think Ikkoku does quite well (for reference, this is also the VIZ signature edition, collecting chapters 17-31 of the original run). There's really a lot of room for the characters to breathe and come into their own, especially Kyoko.
I mentioned that in the first book Kyoko doesn't come across as much of an actual character, and while not entirely fixed, she has a lot more depth here. We still see her grieving over her dead husband a lot, but a lot of this book is also dedicated to her parents, and her rocky relationship with them. Seeing her own parents pressure her to remarry, and how vehemently she hates them for it, lends a new character to her relationship with Soichiro. Instead of grieving because she has to, because it's an obstacle to her getting with Godai, we as the audience see that she's grieving because it's her choice, because it's the only thing she can do to preserve her husband when everyone else wants her to move on. It's genuinely touching, and an amazing direction to go with her character, especially because the scenario lets us see her actually angry, expressing some emotion other than just 'demure longing'. It is somewhat undercut by the reveal that Kyoko met her husband because he was an assistant instructor at her middle school, but that really isn't dwelled on much, and I really don't have anything to say to it other than 'ew'. I’m not sure why that was brought up specifically, because it really doesn’t change anything about the rest of the story, and the way it was pointed out was kind of awkwardly forced? But disregarding that, the relationship serves really well to characterize Kyoko, and flesh out her mental state.
This has the unintentional side effect of making Godai seem like even more of a dick. This is true for a lot of the first volume as well, he really clearly sees Kyoko’s grief as nothing more than an obstacle to dating her. It’s played up as this uplifting, heartfelt moment, where he asks her not to be stuck in the past, and to keep looking forward, but this is almost exactly the same logic used by Kyoko’s parents,and they’re treated as antagonists for the majority of the book. Is the implication meant to be that Godai is different because he loves her? Because he's really been pretty inconsistent on that front.
Which, speaking of Godai in general, his developments in this book feel really… conflicting. This volume spends a lot of time establishing his life outside of Maison Ikkoku, with different hobbies and friend groups and whatnot, and it sort of ends up clashing with how Godai acts around Kyoko. This is because all of the unexpected plot developments across both of these first volumes still have to push hard against the status quo of the story. No matter what happens, Godai has to be obsessed with Kyoko, and Kyoko has to keep not reciprocated, usually involving some level of zany misunderstanding. When he invites her to his new puppet theater club, everything has to bend over backwards to create some form of wacky hijinks. Hell, Godai even starts dating someone in this volume, and it changes absolutely nothing! He still goes after Kyoko with just as much fervor, and he still keeps getting blocked by circumstances, but blocked from what? Is he really going to ask his manager out when he’s already in a relationship with someone else? What are the goals here? Again, I do really like that Godai gets to have a life outside of Kyoko, but it sort of becomes a moot point when he drops most of that life for Kyoko at a moment’s notice.
And these obstacles really irk me, because this volume also really leans into the fact that Kyoko does like Godai, and there are moments of actual chemistry between the two! This is maybe the first rom-com plot I’ve followed that got me actually invested in the main plot, and I can’t even enjoy it properly because the com keeps getting in the way of the rom, which is I think the intended effect of these kinds of stories, but it still just leaves me with a feeling of discontent. There are times when I really want to see Godai and Kyoko just sit down and talk through their feelings for each other! But you know that they can’t because this is a romance story, and you can’t have a story without a conflict.
Okay, might have gotten a tad carried away with that. I feel like I should take a step back and mention that these are really personal gripes I have with the genre, and even despite them, I found myself really enjoying most of this book. It can get annoying and overly tropey at times, but when you get down to the brass tacks, Takahashi is just real good at writing characters, and no matter how much I grump, I find myself getting sucked in. Definitely enough for me to want to read the next volume, in any case.