Is maison ikkoku the most overrated manga of all time?
Just finished maison ikkoku and holy shit was it a disappointing ride. Widely considered as one of rumiko takahashi's finest works i went into it with pretty high expectations. Also because I'm a huge romance buff and the synopsis was right up my Alley.
But as I was reading, the flaws of the manga were painfully apparent. I, for one, am a huge advocate for slow burn romances and stories in general. But this was just frustrating. Each slight development in the relationship was effectively forgotten and thrown away in the next chapter for a gag or drama. This happens for the first 140 chapters. That's almost 90% of the whole manga.
The characters also are just straight up frustrating. This is more of an extreme subjective take but i feel rumiko wanted to make a "charming but lovable" cast and completely failed in doing so.
The ending was admittedly good but could have been reached in a much more satisfying or even quicker way.
What are your thoughts?