Rumiko Takahashi
Maison Ikkoku

In "Urusei Yatsura," the universe is infinite; in "Maison Ikkoku," it's limited to a few reassuring rooms.

The most evident contrast between Takahashi's debut work and the subsequent one is given by space and dimensions, especially emotional ones, that characterize it. "Maison Ikkoku" comes out in 1980, the TV series that deals with the adventures of the Oni Lum is yet to come ('81), and its author creates a different work, more intimate with a very limited number of protagonists who face issues closer to the age of its creator. The adolescent, playful world of Tomobiki's high school students gives way to that of a young lower-middle-class university student in love with the manager of his apartment building, Maison Ikkoku. If the love that drives Ataru and Lum's storylines is ironic and splendidly naive in its lightness, the one between Yosaku Godai and Kyoko Otonashi is troubled, difficult, adult. Rumiko Takahashi brings part of the Japanese tradition on love, sexuality, and marriage into this beautiful and small work. Reflections on the compromise between empathy and respectability in a suitor, the role of the woman as a devoted wife and mother, the influence of social status on a man who aspires to win a partner of another social rank. Millenary customs gently touched by the economic and consequently cultural development that marked Japan in the second half of the 20th century. "Maison Ikkoku" is a clear and fast-paced work that inherits from "Urusei Yatsura" the taste for genuine irony; obviously, the absurd themes that enrich the comedy of Lum's alien adventures are missing, but in this work, there is the right balance between seriousness and comedy that makes reading extremely enjoyable. Indeed, a few quirky characters enrich this small universe of Maison Ikkoku: the uninhibited waitress Akemi, the mysterious Yotsuya, Godai's best friend Sakamoto, and the love rival Mitaka, handsome and rich like a grown-up Mendo. 

From "Maison Ikkoku," a successful anime was made and concluded simultaneously with "Urusei Yatsura," in 1987. The comparison is impossible, they are two works with different spirits, perhaps the first is more loved by the female audience, but both enjoy a success still very much alive today.