Kyoko Otonashi
is the beautiful manager of the apartment, Maison Ikkoku. She is the widow of her late husband Soichiro Otonashi. Maison Ikkoku is owned by the Otonashi family, and she took the job up there to help out and be closer with her family. She is a very emotional, but patient woman. She soon befriends (if you would call them friends) the tenants of Maison Ikkoku. Always hard at work fixing something or sweeping the front porch, she is always some how drug into the hijinx of the rest of the Maison Ikkoku game. Mrs. Ichinose is always informing her of the latest "gossip" which Mrs. Ichinose almost always makes up herself, and Kyoko spends quiet times thinking of her late husband. She has a dog named Soichiro, and occasionally walks him. She also starts taking tennis lessons during the 'house wives' time at the courts. She occasionally goes out with the coach, Shun Mitaka, who's hinted marriage towards Kyoko quite often, but she just insists they're good friends. Even though she'd never admit it, we see her growing affection towards Yusaku over the course of time. Kyoko is also jealous, everytime she see's or hears about Yusaku being with other girls. Kyoko is bright, even though she never went to college, marrying Soichiro right after High School.
Yusaku Godai is the young college student, who lives in room 5.
The story starts off as Yusaku insists he is leaving Maison Ikkoku for real, and is about to go and tell the manager he's leaving. Instead he bumps into a beautiful woman as she asks "This is Maison Ikkoku, isn't it? As of today, I'll be the new manager." Right there and then Yusaku falls in love with her. He started as a High School Senior, and known as "The Flunk-Out" but after seeing Kyoko, he decides, he'll get shaped up and become a good man. The other tenants see him more as a joke or their own personal toy. They use his room to through parties in, and constantly tease him. He's always broke, yet is always looking for or doing a part-time job to help himself out. He is a very strong willed character, and very determined to get what he wants. He doesn't give up very easily. Even though his love is completely devoted to Kyoko, he does have a "sort of girlfriend" Kozue Nanao. Although he has never done so much as kissed her, he still hangs out with her a lot, sometimes just using her to get a free meal at her house. Yusaku seems to be a pretty pathetic guy sometimes, having fantasies while walking down the street, or just sitting flat broke....but even still, you either feel sorry for him, or like his character.
Mr. Yotsuya is a secretive, strange man. He lives in room 4, which is the room right next to Yusaku. He is always crashing big holes in the wall, and sliding to and fro from his room to Yusaku's at odd moments. He also has a disturbing habit of voyuerism. One of the weirdos at Maison Ikkoku, he leads a secret life that no one knows about. He often uses black-mail and other ways to smuggle food from Yusaku, and just torture all the tenants around Maison Ikkoku. The thing that makes Mr. Yotsuya an interesting character are his mysterious ways, and how no one knows anything about him. The only time someone really tried to find out about him was when a new tenant, Nozumu Nikaido moves in, and continues a war with all the tenants, especially Mr. Yotsuya. He tried to follow him to work one day, only to be baffled that it seemed he went no where. Personally, I think Mr. Yotsuya is one of the cooler characters, just because he's odd, different, and mysterious.
Mrs. And Mr. Ichinose are the couple that live in room 1. Although you aren't introduced to Mr. Ichinose until further into the series, he's a hard working man, just trying to make money, since Mrs. Ichinose doesn't work. They have a son, Kentaro. Mrs. Ichinose is a heavy drinker, and makes a scene wherever she goes when she's intoxicated. Always dancing around with fans, her son is always embarassed to be seen with her at those times, which are quite often. She is the gossip of Maison Ikkoku as well. Living closest to the manager's door, and the public phone, she always something to say to someone. Normally to Kyoko about Yusaku being on the phone with girl's, just to make Kyoko jealous. Mrs. Ichinose is a loud-mouthed lady, who can easily be bribed with alcohol.
Akemi Roppongi lives in room 6. Although it's right next door to Yusaku's room, she is constantly in there, sleeping, or drinking with the rest of the Maison Ikkoku gang. She usually lounges around in skimpy outfits, and drinks. When she's not drinking, she's working as a waitress at the Cha Cha Maru, the local pub near Maison Ikkoku. She has rotten luck with men, and is always moping around over some guy who dumped her. She is one of the nicer tenants at Maison Ikkoku, even though she lives to tourment Yusaku, she pities him, and hope things turn out OK for him. She is always urging him and kyoko to be together, so that she can have Coach Mitaka for herself.
Shun Mitaka is the coach of the woman's tennis club where Kyoko, Mrs. Ichinose, and a bunch of other house wives go to play tennis. He's a good looking, money making guy, and has almost every female swooning over him. He lives in a nice apartment, and drives a nice sports car. He's a very good tennis player, and dates a lot of woman. He is especially interested in Kyoko. He seems like the perfect man, except for his strange fear of dogs, which seems to hold him back from spening more time with Kyoko, because of her dog, Soichiro. Regardless though, he has hinted at marriage, and told her he'd wait for her so that they could get married one day. Forever competing with Yusaku for Kyoko's love, sometimes it appears, he believes his good looks, and money will get him closer to his goal. However, Kyoko appears to only want to have a good friendship with him, which at times becomes frustrating for him.
Kozue Nanao is a girl that went to High School with Yusaku. He bumped into her one night when looking for someone to go to the movies with. After they spent the evening together, they kept getting together to do things, until everyone just assumed she was Yusaku's girlfriend. She really does like Yusaku, even though she pities him for his misfortune. She comes from a middle-class family, attends college, and has a part time job. She invits Yusaku over for dinner often, and her family seems to like him a lot, and always talk about when he and Kozue get married, how things will be. Yusaku kind of takes advantage of her and her kindness, but she's pretty naive as well. For her, their relationship consists of giving small gifts, going out to movies and lunch, and holding hands. Kozue is well liked though, for her cuteness and innocence. She also kind of silently competes with Kyoko for Yusaku's attention.
Ibuki Yagami is a pretty, nice girl who is perfect in Grade 2D class, which is taught by Yusaku, when he has a job as a substitute teacher. She's very good in academics and sports. She invisions her perfect lover as a tall, strong, handsome man. Yusaku is almost none of the following. After over seeing him looking in a year book, and talking about always chasing after a dead person, she assumes he's lost a love, and suddenly feels sorry for him, and decides she's going to make him feel better by becoming his new love. She develops a serious crush on him, and changes her first impressions of him as a wimp. She expresses her love directly, by strong actions and words. She humors Kyoko with her crush on Yusaku, reminding Kyoko of when she was Ibuki's age, and was in love with Soichiro.
Kentaro Ichinose is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ichinose. A young child, who wishes his family loved him more, and spent more time with him. He's embarassed and ashambed of his mother's drinking, and her public displays of dancing and singing. Thus, he's become more independant, and swore when he got old enough he would work hard, and not become a failure like Yusaku. He befriends Kyoko pretty quickly, and loves to play with her dog, Soichiro. He also develops a crush on Kyoko's niece, Ikuko.
Soichiro is Kyoko's dog. He is very special to her, because she and Soichiro, her husband found him together. Actually he followed them home, because of the food Soichiro was carrying. Since he never left, they decided to keep him, and tried to name him, but he only responded when Kyoko called for her husband. After Soichiro died, she gave the name to the dog, and therefore, the dog is very special to her. The dog lives in a dog house outside of Maison Ikkoku, and Kentaro enjoys playing with him, and Kyoko often walks him.
Nikaido Nozomu is the "new" tenant that moves into room 2. His parents are the rich, snobby types, and they don't want him living there. But he also is captured by Kyoko's beauty and decides to stay at Maison Ikkoku, despite all the "weirdos" there, even after his parents argued with him to find a better place. He is the one that kind of wages war with Mr. Yotsuya, after Mr. Yotsuya started playing tricks on him. They have kind of a prank war, going back and forth, and creating havoc amoung the entire gang of Maison Ikkoku. It especially causes trouble for Yusaku.
Asuna Kujo is a noble, but shy young woman. Mitaka's uncle sets him up to meet her, and finally after much harassment, Shun agrees to meet her. They seem to get along until, she decided to introduce him to her "sisters and brothers", which happen to be dogs. Since dogs seem to love Shun, Asuna decides that he's the one she has to marry, thus falling in love with him at almost first sight. She finds out that Shun is intrested in Kyoko, and makes a point to try and go and talk with her, but gets to shy each time, but always using her dogs as an excuse to bump into Kyoko. She wants to tell her to leave Shun alone, because she loves him, but she can't bring herself to do it.
Sakamoto is Yusaku's best friend. Yusaku turns to him with problems, and crashes at his apartment often. Sakamoto has a cat that he named Kyoko-Baby, thus creating some troubles when Yusaku offered to take care of the cat at Maison Ikkoku. Sakamoto's advice towards Yusaku is normally things that seem to be a good idea at the time, but later it would bring on regret. He too, thinks the manager is good looking, and often is over to have dinner, and is always very nice to her.
Mr. and Mrs. Chigusa are Kyoko's parents. Kyoko is their only daughter, so they are always worried about her well being, and over protective of her. Never really approving of her marriage to Soichiro, they constantly pester her to withdraw from the Otonashi register, and to stop working at Maison Ikkoku. Always scheming to get her to come back home, her father once stalked Maison Ikkoku, her mother hired movers to move all her stuff from Maison Ikkoku, and a bunch of other crazy stunts. They always bring up the subject of remarriage, and how they want grandchildren before they die. A very odd couple indeed.
Grandfather Otonashi is Soichiro's father, thus making him Kyoko's grandfather-in-law. He seems to be a very passive, wise, kind old man. He owns Maison Ikkoku, and was the one who employed Kyoko with the job as manager. He's mostly seen everytime an aniversay of Soichiro's death comes around, or when there is company over at his house.
Ikuko Otonashi is Kyoko's niece, and lives with Grandfather Otonashi. She's first introduced when the Otonashi's call up and ask Kyoko if Yusaku could tutor Ikuko with school. Reluctant to give him the job, she does anyway, and he tutors her, and she suprisingly does well in school. Ikuko seems to have a crush on Yusaku, and was always out to please him, or impress him. Through out the series we see her grow up from a girl to a young lady.
Grandmother Yukari is Yusaku's grandmother. She is an energetic, sarcastic, wise cracking grandmother, who likes to come and visit Yusaku. She's just as bad as the other tenats of Maison Ikkoku. She's a handful to take care of, and likes to meddle in Yusaku's life. Once, she set Yusaku and Kyoko up on a date, just to have the other tenants to go spy on them, invites everyone over to Mitaka's, and even makes everyone go to some really cheap spa. The Godai's are always happy when she goes to visit Yusaku, because it gives them a time to rest.
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