Maison Ikkoku - Characters

Characters

All of the tenants' names involve a pun on the character's room number:

Number Character Kanji of family name and meaning
0 Kyoko Otonashi (née Chigusa) 音無 (literally means "soundless")
1(一) The Ichinose Family 一の瀬 (first ford)
2(二) Nozomu Nikaido 二階堂 (two-storey temple)
3(三) Shun Mitaka * 三鷹 (three hawks)
4(四) Mr. Yotsuya 四谷 (four valleys)
5(五) Yusaku Godai 五代 (five generations)
6(六) Akemi Roppongi 六本木 (six trees)
7(七) Kozue Nanao * 七尾 (seven ridges; the second character is "tail" but "Nanao" itself is a name from Ishikawa Prefecture)
8(八) Ibuki Yagami * 八神 (eight gods)
9(九) Asuna Kujo * 九条 (Ninth Avenue; the name is an old Japanese aristocratic name)
1000(千) Mr. & Mrs. Chigusa (Kyoko's parents) 千草 (thousand grasses)

(* Not residents of Ikkoku-kan.)

In the English version, main characters tend to refer to and address each other informally with their given names, with the exception of Mr. Yotsuya. Yusaku, while usually referring to Kyoko by her given name, almost always addresses her with her job title of "manager". In the Japanese original, Yusaku addresses Kyoko as "kanrinin-san," meaning manager.

Read more about this topic:  Maison Ikkoku

Famous quotes containing the word characters:

    Animals are stylized characters in a kind of old saga—stylized because even the most acute of them have little leeway as they play out their parts.
    Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)

    Of all the characters I have known, perhaps Walden wears best, and best preserves its purity. Many men have been likened to it, but few deserve that honor. Though the woodchoppers have laid bare first this shore and then that, and the Irish have built their sties by it, and the railroad has infringed on its border, and the ice-men have skimmed it once, it is itself unchanged, the same water which my youthful eyes fell on; all the change is in me.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.
    Clifford Irving (b. 1930)