Maison Ikkoku is one of my favorite rom-com stories ever.
Everything starts with Godai, who is a boy that is studying for important exams, the ones that will lead him to a great or a bad japanese university, that will define his future. His hostel neighbors make his task even more difficult as they keep bothering him. Suddenly, everybody's lives begin to change, essentialy Godai's, as the new manager (kanrinin), Kyoko, starts working in the hostel.
The past of the "kanrinin" is really well thought out and is a perfect obstacle to prevent her from loving Godai. Due to this important fact plus many smart obstacles created by Rumiko, the 96 episodes of the series are amazing.
Kyoko and Godai are very relatable and real. We get to know their thoughts so we know them deep inside and can't help but love them and cheer for them to be together.
The support characters are great and well developed too. The way Takahashi mixed their stories with the main characters one is perfect.
What stands out for me is how well the narrative navigates between drama, comedy and romance. This has everything to do with the lines, sometimes very deep.
About the technical aspects I have only good things to say.
The animation is beautiful and it aged very well to me. The expressions are marvelous and the landscapes are breathtaking.
To end this, something that helps a lot with the genre navigation I mentioned are the scores. They give the perfect feeling of each scene, making the atmosphere more comic, romantic or dramatic. Also, I love the 1980s style in the scores and in the openings and endings, it's perfect for the anime theme, very passionate.
