Maison Ikkoku is a series that is considered as Rumiko Takahashi's best work so far. I think this is one of the best romance show available out there. Unfortunately, this release has some flaws. In episode 24, the original R2 has the one time only OP/ED but in R1, those songs were not included. They played the usual OP/ED instead. On top of that there was a sequence in episode 26, I believe, that used the same song and Viz used one of the BGM in the OST instead. I'm definitely not happy with this changes, but R2 packaging doesn't look that great and I don't feel like spending more than twice the money for that OP/ED, so decided to just buy R1.
Packaging was surprisngly decent. They changed the illustration from R2 a bit, but they at least brought the R2 illustration and overall packaging is a lot better than that of Animeigo who released the Urusei Yatsura.
Video quality was not that great. Apparently, they had the same master as R2 release (and according to some, the video quality is about the same as R2) but I see microblocking quite a bit which is a shame. Not bad for 80's show but could have been better.
About the show itself, there were director/staff changes and unfortunately, the very first staff were the best ones, I believe. Firstly, character designs look superb for the first 24 episodes. Simply gorgeous time to time and Rumiko Takashi character design's loveable charm is transfered right into the screen. Also, director was perfect for this job. I just cannot describe how much I loved the first 24 episodes. Great humor and relationship between Godai and Kyoko were dealed so well. Unfortunately, the TV ratings were declining and they decided to change the staff completely. Charcter design was re-done by Takada Akemi, who was very popular back then, and a new director decided to deviate from the original manga. Damn, what were they thinking. After not so great response, they changed the director again. While chracter design was still Takada Akemi's one (which I don't think is the best match with the Rumiko Takahashi's work) director did a good job on concluding the series. Thank GOD. Anyways, I sometimes imagine how the show would have been if the first batch of staff didn't change, which makes me sad. T__T Still, thanks to the last director, this became one of the greatest romance show of all times. If you haven't watched this show, I highly recommend you to watch it.
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Packaging was surprisngly decent. They changed the illustration from R2 a bit, but they at least brought the R2 illustration and overall packaging is a lot better than that of Animeigo who released the Urusei Yatsura.
Video quality was not that great. Apparently, they had the same master as R2 release (and according to some, the video quality is about the same as R2) but I see microblocking quite a bit which is a shame. Not bad for 80's show but could have been better.
About the show itself, there were director/staff changes and unfortunately, the very first staff were the best ones, I believe. Firstly, character designs look superb for the first 24 episodes. Simply gorgeous time to time and Rumiko Takashi character design's loveable charm is transfered right into the screen. Also, director was perfect for this job. I just cannot describe how much I loved the first 24 episodes. Great humor and relationship between Godai and Kyoko were dealed so well. Unfortunately, the TV ratings were declining and they decided to change the staff completely. Charcter design was re-done by Takada Akemi, who was very popular back then, and a new director decided to deviate from the original manga. Damn, what were they thinking. After not so great response, they changed the director again. While chracter design was still Takada Akemi's one (which I don't think is the best match with the Rumiko Takahashi's work) director did a good job on concluding the series. Thank GOD. Anyways, I sometimes imagine how the show would have been if the first batch of staff didn't change, which makes me sad. T__T Still, thanks to the last director, this became one of the greatest romance show of all times. If you haven't watched this show, I highly recommend you to watch it.
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