Nozomu Nikaido ("two-storied shrine")(Not in the T.V. series): NI means #2, he lives in room #2

Nikaido is a quite interesting character, but, unfortunately, he does not show up on the TV series. Many plots that Nikaido is involved are rewritten and Nikaido is mostly replaced by Yotsuya-san, which is interesting because Nikaido hates Yotsuya-san.

The walking insensitivity of room #2 is a college student who came from Ibaraki. He's always curious, so when he realized that nobody knew a thing about Yotsuya (everyone else had already given up on finding out anything about the peeping tom of room #4), he set out to find out about Yotsuya.

One day, he tails the mystery man and finds himself in a restaurant with Yotsuya's bill (he ate steak). Later that day, he tried to chase Yotsuya into room #4 via #5 through the crack, but he got trapped there. Yotsuya locked his closet and nailed the crack from room #5. Nikaido managed to get out of there easily, using Yotsuya's technique. That night Nikaido tried the same thing and trapped Kyoko instead. Later Nikaido had to borrow a nail puller from Kyoko since Yotsuya nailed the door of room #2. To take revenge, he glued a door which he thought was room #4 without knowing that Yotsuya had put a sign "#4" on the door of room #6.

(The next morning, when Kyoko entered room #5 to wake up Godai, she found Akemi and Godai sleeping together... Probably Akemi crawled into room #5 after she found out that she had been locked out) After the graduation, Nikaido moves back to his home and gets a job there. Since in the manga version, his existence was rather overlooked after several episodes, in the TV version he is omitted completely, though he does appear in the movie.

Shun Mitaka ("three hawks", a city in Tokyo where relatively high class people live): MI means #3, Room #3 is empty because he does not live at Maison Ikkoku

A tennis coach with shining teeth (TM), he is notorious for being a "woman killer". He had some bad memories about dogs when he was little, so he has a very strong fear of dogs. He met Kyoko when she joined the tennis club that he worked for. He and Godai recognized each other as rivals very quickly. He wooed Kyoko quite boldly, but ironically that approach actually strengthened Kyoko's feelings towards Godai in most cases.

His uncle arranged an "omiai" between Shun and Asuna, but he reacted quite badly when Asuna introduced those that she considered her brothers and sisters: dogs. Although he wanted to turn down the match, his uncle proceeded with the arrangements anyway, so he tried one final option, introducing Kyoko to his parents. That night, when Shun took Kyoko to a drive-in, she finally turned down his approach. Mitaka finally realized that to Kyoko, his existence did not hold as much significance as Godai's.

A few days later when Godai challenged him to a duel to settle their scores, he openly showed jealousy to Godai and drank rather heavily. Afterwards, Asuna found him near his door of his apartment. When she tried to carry him inside, he kissed her and fell asleep, not remembering a thing the next morning. He thought he had done unspeakable things with her. Conversation with her at the Kujou family cottage reinforced the misconception because both of them talked in vague expressions. When Asuna started to spread the news of pregnancy, he gave up and decided to marry her. Afterwards, he found out that it was her dog Salad who had become pregnant --- but he was partially responsible anyway because McKenroe was the father. By the time the Godai's have their first child at the end of the series, Shun and Asuna Mitaka have become proud parents of twin girls, one of whom looks like Shun and the other like Asuna. The third one is doing well inside Asuna.

McKenroe is the dog Mitaka got to conquer his canine-phobia. The name is taken from the famous John "You-Know-Who". Mitaka tried to self-hypnotize himself: "Dogs are cute... Dogs are cute... Come here McKenroe..." When he started doing this, he passed out when the dog friskily jumped onto his lap. After a while, the pet started to look like his master: that is, he too started to have shiny teeth. Asuna's dog also got the same shiny teeth as Mitaka's had. When Asuna's dog had puppies, she named them Salt, Pepper and Ginger.

Yotsuya San ("four valley" -- a notorious section of Tokyo district known for a very famous ghost story): YO means #4, he lives in room #4

The mysterious resident of room #4. The other tenants gave up on finding out anything about this strange man whose personal information is completely unknown, even job or age. Yet he seems to have something to call his job, and somewhere to call home, since he was away during the new year's holiday. His hobby is peeping and eavesdropping. His room's closet is connected to Godai's room by a huge crack that Yotsuya always opened whenever somebody tried to seal it. The only time anybody saw Yotsuya at work was when he tutored Yagami, although he didn't teach her anything. All he has done in the course of four years recorded in TV or manga has been to create unspeakable messes.

One day he disappeared leaving an egg in Godai's hand, and confusion prevailed for at least a week in Ikkoku-kan with everyone trying to establish a connection between the egg and Yotsuya's disappearance. It turned out that there wasn't any --- and all that was left was Sakamoto's food poisoning (Godai's best friend) when he ate the egg.

Once Kentaro came across an old album version of Ikkoku-kan, and saw Yotsuya everywhere (in the TV version). He was running beside the torch relay runner at the time of the Tokyo Olympic, waving a flag of the rising sun to the soldiers marching to the battleground during WWII, and looking at the half-completed Ikkoku-kan, although it turned out that the album was Yotsuya's family's last album. Compared with the other works of Rumiko Takahashi, he is the equivalence of Cherry (Urusei Yatsura).

Maison TV series were quite popular because of his weird sense of humor. (at the end of the preview of an episode in which Godai and Kyoko's relationship became definite, he said "Would somebody marry me?")

Yusaku Godai ("five generations") Go means #5, he lives in room #5

The resident of room #5, until he got married to Kyoko. He is a timid, weak-willed, clumsy indecisive man who day-dreams a lot. He's been the constant target of harassment and practical jokes by other tenants. Also, his room, by tradition, is the party site since his is the only room spacious enough to contain more than five people, and clean enough to hold such lunacy essentially every night.

When first Kyoko moved in, he was considered a "ronin" (student who failed an entrance exam). He immediately fell in love with her. Though he later found out that Kyoko was a widow, that fact only strengthened his feelings towards her and motivated him to work harder, to surpass Souichiro. Psyched up by Kyoko, he managed to get into a faculty of education of "Sanryu Daigaku" (meaning "third class college") Because of his indecisiveness, he ended up having several women hanging around him, namely Kozue Nanao and Ibuki Yagami. He did want to get rid of them, but he didn't have the heart to hurt them. Since Kyoko didn't want to admit that she was jealous, she ended up burning a hole in her blouse while ironing, breaking a broom with a bare hand, or peeling an apple to the core.

During the fourth year in college, he got a part-time job at a day-care center, and liked the work there (since he had just finished a student teacher program in which he had a nightmarish time because of Ibuki Yagami). Unfortunately, he was fired and got a part-time job at a place called "Cabaret Bunny" where he became the "chief-in-charge-of-advertisement-and-welfare", calling in customers and baby sitting in short.

Meanwhile, his relationship with Kyoko was having its ups and downs. At one point, he ran away from Ikkoku-kan because he thought Kyoko was going to marry Mitaka, although it was actually Mitaka's sister who was getting married. Kyoko and Godai accidentally kissed when Godai tried to hold Kyoko who almost fell from a step ladder. They paired up to run in the "three-legged race" in Kentaro's PE meeting even though they couldn't even take more than five steps. Godai gave up on Kyoko for a while when he saw Kyoko under the arms of Mitaka (who fainted because of a dog). In the manga version, Godai was unemployed for one year after his graduation. During that year, the relationship with Kyoko became a solid one, and he bid farewell to Kozue. (in the TV version, right after the grad exam) Though he planned to move out after Kyoko had the first child at the end of the TV series, the couple was still living in Ikkoku-kan.

Akemi Roppongi ("six trees", a section of Tokyo known for expensive hostess bars): roppongi is written as ROKUhongi. Roku means #6 but pronounced roppongi, she lives in room #6

The waitress of the snack bar "Cha-Cha-Maru", the resident of room #6, she is a red-haired bombshell who wears a negligee whenever she's in Ikkoku-kan. Though she may act sloppy, she is quite a sensitive lady who can understand not only Kyoko's feelings but Godai's as well.

When the two's relationship was reaching a critical point, she sharply nagged Kyoko in an attempt to make Kyoko more honest with herself. She even threatened to have a relationship with Godai. Also, when the master of Cha-Cha-Maru visited Ikkoku-kan to propose to her (two days before Godai and Kyoko's wedding), she acted ignorant and had fun. Later, she gets married to Master (he recently divorced his wife), and moves to the second floor of Cha-Cha-Maru. (I hope she's not wearing the same kind of clothing that she did in Ikkoku-kan...)

Kozue Nanao("seven tails"): NANA means #7

The former co-worker of Godai's (at a liquor shop), she has a brother named Yousuke. Godai got acquainted with her when he was having trouble getting rid of a movie ticket he bought for Kyoko (she went out to a concert with Mitaka). By some minor misunderstandings, she thought that Godai was serious about her --- and so did her parents. Since Godai didn't want to hurt her, he tried to maintain a "parallel relationship ". (no progress relationship) While Godai was unemployed for several months before he got a job, Kozue got a job at a bank teller two months before graduation.

After a while, she was proposed to by her colleague (classmate in the TV version) and had a hard time deciding between him and Godai. She made up her mind when she happened to see Godai and Akemi coming out of a "love hotel" (Godai went there to pick up Akemi who was penniless). Yet she managed to say good bye to Godai in a happier tone when she happened to meet Yotsuya and found out the truth. At the end of the series, she's living in Nagoya with her husband, now happily married. She seems to be living in building #7 of a housing complex.

Ibuki Yagami ("eight gods") YA means #8

The class-representative of Room 2-4 of the high school where Kyoko met Souichiro (the home-room teacher of 2-4 also happens to be Kyoko's home room teacher). Ibuki met Godai when he was in the student teacher program in his fourth year of college. Originally not paying any attention to him, she madly fell in love with him when she ran into Godai while he was looking in an old High School yearbook (looking for Souchiro's picture), and Godai being tired, appeared to be crying, though actually, he was just yawning. Yagami made the assumption that Godai's lost love had gone to that high school before, and that he missed her very much.

Yagami was then determined to get his attention. She gave him a notebook in which she wrote "I love you" on every page and she tried to make a move on Godai after her classmates trapped the two in the PE prep room. She stormed Ikkoku-kan and found the existence of Kyoko and declared a war against her. After the stormy two weeks of the program was over, Godai's class wrote him a card. Yagami wrote down "Long Goodbye" (I know the grammar is wrong, but that's what she wrote), then dropped by at Ikkoku-kan and changed the message to "So Long, Goodbye".

Sure enough, she showed up again a week later and saw a poster that Godai put up for a tutoring job. She managed to make him tutor her for a month (she paid in advance and the tenants used most of it up for partying). When Yagami tagged along with Godai to a summer festival (TV version; in the manga version, when they went to visit a shrine on the New Year's Day) Godai happened to find out that Ibuki's father was the chief of the personnel office of Mitsutomo Corporation. Godai thought he had the favor of that man, but it turned out that Mr. Yagami usually did not remember the things he said when he was drunk. Godai didn't get a job because he missed the job interview (being mistaken as the husband of a pregnant lady who just went into labor).

When Ibuki found out that her father didn't hire Godai, she entrenched herself in Ikkoku-kan. When Mr. Yagami visited there, he happened to find out the truth and decided that he liked Godai, so Yusaku got a reference to Kasumi Firm. Godai bought a TV to celebrate the occasion, and the first thing he saw on the TV was the news that due to the bankruptcy of Sekiguchi Firm, Kasumi Firm also went bankrupt (ever since then, Godai never turned on the TV).

After that, Yagami did not haunt Godai for a while. She visited Ikkoku-kan later, to celebrate her 20th birthday. What she didn't know was that day was also two days before the wedding of Godai and Kyoko. When she found out about Godai-sensei's wedding, she tried to settle her score with Kyoko, but realized that the bond between Kyoko and Godai was too strong to break. Despite this, she still cannot give up on Godai and has not yet made any boyfriends.

Asuna Kujou ("ninth street", a family name of an ancient aristocrat): KU means #9

A shy lady who considers dogs her brothers and sisters. She promptly fell in love with Mitaka when they met in "omiai", although Mitaka had an allergic reaction ("DOGS!!!"). She was worried about the relation between Mitaka and Kyoko; when she finally found out that the arrangement was made against Mitaka's will, she almost gave up about him, but that night, the drunken Mitaka kissed her and she spent the night at his place.

To Asuna, who is really a very innocent lady, even a kiss was shocking enough so even though nothing else happened, she tried to hide the fact that she spent a night in a man's place and gave misleading answers to Mitaka when he visited her to find out if he had done anything wrong. Later, Asuna announced a pregnancy without saying whose it was. Her driver, not being able to bear the rumors which would fly around, decided to tell Asuna's parents what had happened that night. So the wedding arrangement of Asuna and Mitaka was accelerated. Afterwards, everyone found out that it was her dog, Salad, who got pregnant, but the arrangement had become irreversible.

In the evening that she was introduced to Mitaka's parents, she sensed uneasiness in Mitaka. She pointed out that the smile he made at the dinner table was the same smile she saw on a photo taken after Mitaka lost in the finals of a tennis tournament. Hearing that, Mitaka made up his mind to forget about Kyoko completely. By the time Godai and Kyoko got married, Asuna was expecting her first child. When the couple showed up to Cha-Cha-Maru in time for the 2nd reception of Godai and Kyoko's wedding, grandma Yukari predicted that Asuna should expect twins. As the elderlies are always right, Asuna gave birth to twin girls, one looking like Shun and the other like Asuna. She is expecting the third one quite soon; I hope that none of the children inherit their daddy's teeth...

Other characters

Sakamoto

Godai's light-headed buddy since the entrance exam days. Apparently he failed the exam once as well. His financial situation is somewhat better than that of Godai, so he lives in a cozy apartment. After the term exam of the first year, he went for a trip, leaving his cat named Kyoko to Godai's care. The cat created a mess since Ichinoce overheard a phone conversation of Sakamoto telling Godai that he was sleeping with the cat --- Ichinoce thought Godai meant Kyoko herself...

Godai often used Sakamoto's place as a hideout whenever he didn't want to go back to Ikkoku-kan. Sakamoto often doesn't get involved deeply in plot development, but he does appear often. He was running a food booth during the college festival; he visited Ikkoku-kan for the first time when both he and Godai were working at a beer garden. He almost crushed Godai to death when he joined everyone inside a well in a spook house (TV version only). His greediness resulted in food poisoning when he ate a week-old egg, left by Yotsuya in Godai's care.

Godai and he worked three part-time jobs a day to earn enough money to go to Saipan ("I hate you..." --- Godai) while Godai's plan was just to buy Christmas gifts for Kyoko, Kozue, and Ikuko. He kissed Godai's neck while sleeping, and the kiss mark led to another misunderstanding between Kyoko and Godai. He is the one who introduced Godai to the boss of "Cabaret Bunny". He managed to get a permanent job by asking Yagami's father for a reference. Even after he got a job, he was still light-headed, skipping work on the wedding day of Godai and Kyoko.

Grandma Yukari

Godai's grandma looks like Yoda microwaved for 30 minutes. She is the one who raised Yuhsaku because his parents were too busy running the restaurant "Godai's". She first visits Ikkoku-kan just before the announcement of the results of the college entrance exam. The next time she visits to check up on Godai to see how he's doing with his social aspect.

When she leaves, the tenants throw a gigantic party and the next day, Grandma wakes up as if nothing had happened, while Godai is suffering from a major headache and others are having trouble waking up. Once they arrive at the Ohmiya station, the tenants and grandma Yukari resume partying, sending Godai to the washroom.

Unfortunately, Grandma misses her train, so the party continues until the next train (Godai passes out). She always cared about Godai more than his parents, so when she found out that Yusaku was getting married, she happily loaned him a lump of money which she had been saving for her funeral fund. She also gave Kyoko the ring that she had originally gotten from her husband. Also, she is the culprit of the turmoil in Ikkoku-kan two days before the wedding (Kyoko was waiting for a letter from grandma, and the looney squad rumored it to be from another man.)

Mr Chigusa ("thousand grasses")

Kyoko's father is not too pleased about the fact that his daughter is taken away from him twice (first by Souichiro Otonashi, then by Yuhsaku Godai). He was strongly opposed to Kyoko's decision to the first marriage and even stronger to the second one, because he can't stand to see Kyoko's sad face ("That's why I said she should've chosen more flesh one!!" --- when he was arguing with his wife). But when Godai carried him piggyback, (after he stormed "Cabaret Bunny" to oppose Godai's plan), despite the cold he caught, he remembered what he said to Kyoko when she was little.

He approved of Godai's proposal to Kyoko; yet he still couldn't stand to see Kyoko's bridal kimono when he visited Ikkoku-kan two days before the wedding. So he almost strangled Godai's boss to death when the boss just mentioned the name "Godai" and ended up spending the night in room #2 grumbling to the boss about his memories of Kyoko...

Sayuko Kuroki

A member of the puppet play club. She is the one who invited Godai to join the club first. When she phoned Ikkoku-kan, she noticed that a young woman was the janitor (Kyoko, obviously) and sensed something between Godai and her. So as a joke, she and the other members of the club (all females except the president, who can fake a girl's voice) start phoning Ikkoku-kan where there's only one phone, which was in Kyoko's room.

When Godai was in his fourth year, Kuroki arranged a Christmas play at Shienomi Day Care to pave a way for Godai to get a part-time job at the day care. She married Saotome, the president of the club, but apparently has not changed her surname yet or possibly Saotome changed his.

Ikuko

Kyoko's niece by marriage, she lived with her mother in Otonashi's house (but has never seen her dad). When she visited Ikkoku-kan with her grandpa to see how Kyoko was doing, she met Godai, and later when her family thought about getting a tutor for her, she insisted on Godai --- she was in the 6th grade at that point.

On the first day, Godai found out that it was more like a babysitting rather than a tutoring session. Thanks to Godai's tutoring, she managed to get into her first choice high school, and passed the college entrance exam in one shot --- probably because she knew a living example of a ronin. (Who else --- Godai-no-onichan!)("Godai, my big brother")

Grandfather Otonashi

The landlord of Ikkoku-kan, who is also the father of Souichiro and the grandfather of Ikuko. He is a good-natured man who has a heart big enough to let the looney squad stay in Ikkoku-kan.

Souichiro Otanashi

Kyoko's late husband, whose face was always shown in silhouette, if any. He was the geology teacher in Kyoko's high school. It was Kyoko who made the first moves, and then rumors of the two's relationship preceded anything else.

Souichiro was one of those stoic teachers and was thus shocked when the rumors finally reached him. He got married with Kyoko after she graduated from high school. Within a few months after the wedding, Souichiro passed away due to illness. Since the actual marriage was so short, Kyoko only had good memories (except for the last moment of the marriage) of the time she spent with Souichiro, so she tried to be virtuous to his memory.

Souichiro (the dog)

The dog with no name owned by Souichiro. After her husband's death, Kyoko named the dog Souichiro as a memory of her husband. So instead of straight-out calling him "Souichiro", she called him "Souichiro-san".