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Welcome to the maison ikkoku apartment fantasy review page!
Here on this page, you will find my review on Maison Ikkoku -- Apartment Fantasy.

Maison Ikkoku -- Apartment Fantasy ★★★☆☆ Maison Ikkoku began its life as a manga serialization on November 15, 1980 by renowned manganka Rumiko Takahashi. Eventually, it would receive an anime adaptation on March 26, 1986. Both of these works are held in very high regard; however, it's first adaptation in live action in 1986 in Maison Ikkoku – Apartment Fantasy is another story. The film is not often discussed, but when it is, it is mostly in a negative light. It's impossible for me to view this without comparing it to its source material, so to start, let's get that out of the way. All of Maison Ikkoku's characters are portrayed well here--Yotsuya being the stand out (as for some reason, he has the most scenes of all of the apartment tenants…) On the other hand, Godai, the protagonist of the source material is not even relegated to being a duertagonist, but he is instead treated as a side character. As a whole, the relationship between Kyoko and Godai is extremely shallow. The highlights from the early series are here--Godai's love confession and Godai moving out of Maison Ikkoku, but none of it really matters at all. It's all a footnote in the story of.... I don't know? The comedy of the series is adapted fairly well, but the romance, grief, and maturation of its characters that has made the series so fondly remembered are not found at all here. It has moments where you catch glimpses of who the characters are (thoughts, feelings, hopes, fears), but without truly developing any of it in the movie, it feels completely throwaway. The movie has a random, unimportant, musical number halfway through. It's shot well, but the song is terribly boring, and it adds nothing to the meaning of the movie. In an extensively long anime/manga, a throwaway moment like this is fine, and it suits the tone well, but when you only have 97 minutes to execute a story, I don't think it was a good use of time... Similarly, the film introduces two characters who serve as love interests for Yotsuya and Akemi. Their purpose is to serve as a mirror of Kyoko and Godai's relationship in a way? I'm not entirely sure... It felt somewhat confusing, and once again, when you only have 97 minutes, why would you waste it on new characters whose only purpose is to give insight into the two main characters? Why didn't they just give Kyoko and Godai more scenes...? Instead, the film abruptly jumps to the two of them trying to sleep together...and failing. I very much dislike this decision, as it diminishes their relationship to just one of a sexual nature. The film does nothing to establish the nurturing nature the two have for each other, and it instead gives the impression that they simply find each other attractive and want to fuck. It's quite unfortunate, and I wish more was done to show their initial attraction, show their developing feelings of love, and then it could have ended on some pivotal scene that helps them realize something! There are lots of places the movie could have ended without abruptly jumping to attempted sex... From a technical aspect, I felt the movie was shot very well. The film utilizes quite a few wide, panning, and zooming shots that are pretty visually interesting while doing a good job of setting the scene they're used for. At no point is the movie visually flat, it does a nice job at creating compositions with the environment and its characters while also not lingering too long. Most of the film shoots its characters at a distance, and reserves close up shots for when the tenants are drinking together. I've seen this discussed as a negative, and I don't think I agree here! I think reserving the close-up shots for those moments does a great job of establishing how connected and intimate the tenants are while making you feel a part of those moments? Truly, I think these moments are what the movie does best. The soundtrack for this film was done by Joe Hisaishi, and honestly, it's quite phenomenal! I really love its synthesizer sound, and it really fits the mood of the film well. Even if you don't desire to watch the film, I still highly recommend giving the soundtrack a listen (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWsonTRjfN8). I came away from this movie not really knowing what the point was. I understand the constraints the filmmakers were under–the manga wasn't finished (though, its end is obvious from fairly early on), and it is just incredibly lengthy! To fit all 161 chapters worth of story and character development into a film is an arduous task… I understand wanting to condense and revise the story, but some of the choices they made were quite odd… The only purpose this movie serves is making you feel more immersed in the chaos of the apartment and its tenants. It does that fairly well. Compared to the source material, the whole of this movie is incredibly lacking, but it has some glimmers of positive moments that shine through occasionally. Certainly, I can say that the writers for the film very much do understand Maison Ikkoku's characters. Overall, for Maison Ikkoku fans, I would say it is worth a watch. For a general audience, I don't think this film really offers much.