____ _ _ / __ _ _______ ___ _| |_ _ | | | \ \__| |_ |____ |_ _ / / |_ __|| || | | / __ \ ___/ _/|_|_| | |___ __ ___________ / // \| || | / _\/ /\ | |___ _____| | _ \| | |___________| /__ /_| || | | |/ _/_/ | / /____ | | | | | / _/ /|_|| | \___/ \__/ \_______| /__/ \___/ /_/ / ___| | | \_/\_\\____| | ____/ Maison Ikkoku Frequently Asked Questions Version 1.11 Last updated 3/6/96 Note: This FAQ is a small subset of the Maison Ikkoku Guide. For more info about Maison Ikkoku, get the guide at http://anime.berkeley.edu/Anime/MI/HTML/guide.html Questions answered in this faq: ------------------------------- 1) What is Piyo Piyo? 2) Who is that guy who appears in the Maison Ikkoku movie? I've never seen him before! 3) How many volumes of Manga are there? 4) I heard that Viz is translating the manga, how many volumes have they put out? 5) What's this Complete Music Box? Does it include all the music of the series? Can I still buy it? 6) So what is Yotsuya's real job? His real name? 7) Why was there a different opening/ending sequence/song for episode 24? And why was it only for that episode? Did the song appear in any other episodes? 8) I heard Viz didn't translate some of the manga chapters. Which ones and how come? (Why are there continuity gaps in the Viz translations?) 9) How many TV episodes are there? Movies? OVAs? 10) Why can't I seem to get any fansubs? 11) Why does everyone look different in the final movie? 12) For what years did the manga run? TV series? 13) Is there more merchandise being produced? _____________________________________________________________________________ 1) What is Piyo Piyo? Piyo Piyo is the sound that chicks make. For more information on this, check out http://sdcc13.ucsd.edu/~ccaoile/piyo.html. 2) Who is that guy who appears in the Maison Ikkoku movie? I've never seen him before! His name is Nikaido, and he starts appearing the middle of the Maison Ikkoku manga. The writers left him out in the anime, but the production team for the movie felt that they should include him, since he was part of the manga. Nikaido is basically an blabbermouth who doesn't really consider the consequences of what he's saying. Most of Nikaido's lines were given to Yotsuya in the anime, an effect of which is that Yotsuya in the manga seems more tight-lipped than Yotsuya in the anime. 3) How many volumes of Manga are there? There are 15 volumes of normal tankobon, and 10 wideban manga tankobon. Tankobon means that it is a collection from the same series. The wideban tankobon have larger page sizes, better paper, and contain more manga chapters (generally, 16 instead of 11) per book. 4) I heard that Viz is translating the manga, how many volumes have they put out? So far, Viz has translated in comic book form as of this faq book six of volume five. They have collaborated these comics and released 3 volumes as graphic novels. 5) What's this Complete Music Box? Does it include all the music of the series? Can I still buy it? The Music Box set is a set of 8 cds which contains just about all the music in the series, including extra vocals not on other cds. It is missing a few background music (bgm) selections, and some remixes. It is no longer being produced, but rumor has it that some stores still carry the set. For detailed information on the music set, look at http://server.berkeley.edu/Anime/MI/mibox.html. 6) So what is Yotsuya's real job? His real name? No one knows, except perhaps Rumiko Takahashi, who isn't telling! Lots of guesses have been made, though. 7) Why was there a different opening/ending sequence/song for episode 24? And why was it only for that episode? Did the song appear in any other episodes? At the time, Maison Ikkoku's television ratings were not as high, so a new song was used. After the episode aired, there was a disagreement between the creators of the show, so it was switched back. (Incidentally, a new character designer was also hired starting at episode 25.) The songs are by the Irish artist Gilbert O'Sullivan, and are called "Alone Again (Naturally)" and "Get Down." "Alone Again (Naturally)" was the number one pop song in the US for 6 weeks in 1972. It was also used again in episode 27, during the scene when Kyoko mistakes Godai's silhouette for that of her late husband. 8) I heard Viz didn't translate some of the manga chapters. Which ones and how come? (Why are there continuity gaps in the Viz translations?) Five chapters, Chapters 2-6 were cut. Rumor has it that they were cut because Viz didn't want to deal with explaining the college entrance exam situation in Japan. Some continuity was lost in this section; the scenes that were later referenced were: (1) Godai's grandmother (Yukari) was introduced; (2) Godai buys a brooch for Kyoko as a Christmas present but can't find the chance to give it to her. 9) How many TV episodes are there? Movies? OVAs? There are 96 television episodes, an animated movie and a live-action movie. There is also a video called "Through the Passing Seasons" which shows scenes throughout the series, "Maison Ikkoku Prelude - When the Cherry Blossoms in the Springtime Return", a video which pastes together all of Kyoko's flashbacks of Soichiro, with some dialogue to segue the scenes, and the Maison Ikkoku Extra OAV: "Shipwrecked on Ikkoku Island". 10) Why can't I seem to get any fansubs? Viz recently bought out the rights to Maison Ikkoku, so most if not all fansubbers have stopped distributing tapes. 11) Why does everyone look different in the final movie? In short, the character designer changed. Moriyama Yuji (who has done series such as Nuku Nuku) handled the initial character designs. After episode 24, Moriyama was replaced by Takada Akemi (the designer for Kimagure Orange Road), who stayed on as character designer for the rest of the television episodes. Moriyama returned for the final movie as character designer, but the designs are obviously different. 12) For what years did the manga run? TV series? Maison Ikkoku ran from November 1980 to April 1987, in a manga called "Big Comic Spirits." The tv series ran from 1986 to 1988. 13) Is there more merchandise being produced? According to Viz, which picked up the video rights to Maison Ikkoku, they will be creating Maison Ikkoku t-shirts. According to Trish Ledoux, "We'll be soliciting MI T-shirts as of this June. They'll be kind've simple, just the "Piyo Piyo" chicks on the front, with the MI logo on the back. I think the color will be off-white." Other than that, there have been sightings of a Kyoko doll, a windows screensaver, and a small address book type wallet. There are also the LDs, CDs and manga for sale if you can find them. In terms of not so legitimate items, there are several kinds of posters, playing and trading cards that are rumored to floating out there. __________________________________________________________ Email corrections and comments to leon@server.berkeley.edu