I read about you're not being sure whether the Maison
Ikkoku anime series were shown in Spanish TV. Let me
assure you it has. I don't know whether it was on its
entirety or not, but I can tell you that I think it
was by the beginning-mid nineties. Although, the
station changed the title of the series, so instead of
"Maison Ikkoku", in Spain the anime series was called
"Juliette, je t'aime" (I don't know why they chose a
title in French, but there you go). That's why Planeta
DeAgostini Publishers (the same guys that published
Ranma, Adolph and all Marvel superheroes), when they
published the manga, used that title too, so the
readers could connect the tv series with the book.
Nevertheless, the book wasn't very successful, so it
has never been published in its entirety as far as I
know.
I am so sorry I cannot give you more details, but I'm
talking from memory, since I don't live in Spain
anymore. However, I'm planning to get to Spain this
summer, and I could try to fetch that information (#
of episodes shown, dates and such).
I just read your update of "The Mysteries of the
Characters". I wondered if by any chance you had a picture of "Dust
Spurt" ? I really wonder what it looks like :-).... but as it is out of
print, it's probabaly hard to find a picture of it :-(
I'm just back from an Anime Convention in Paris, and I found a cool pack of new figures of Maison Ikkoku, by Bandai. Did you know them? http://www.bandai.co.jp/gashapon/ So I bought every character ;-) It was not so expensive.
Here the translation is going on steadily, Volume 7 is out and vol 8 will be available this summer.
I also bought Maison Ikkoku Music Blend Vol.1, a P-Chan key-holder and an Inuyasha poster!!... It was an expensive day!
In your web site, you said Godai's school must either be Soka or
Bunkyo. When I checked out Bunkyo's homepage, it says the school was called
"Bunkyo Women University" before. If it really was a girl school before,
wouldn't it pinpoint Soka as the school he went to?
~~Hello! I've been reading your Maison Ikkoku webpage thoroughly and
just wanted to thank you for putting it up and translating it into
English. I look forward to whatever updates you come with.
~~Also, I'm not sure if you know this (I couldn't find any reference to
it on your webpage) but most of the "missing" comics that were not
translated by Viz in the initial run were published last year in their
manga magazine "Animerica Extra".
Animerica Extra 3.1 (January 2000)
[2 page article]
Suit yourself, Santa = Katte ni seiya
For Whom the bell tolls = Akatsuki ni kane wa naru
Animerica Extra 3.2 (February 2000)
[Front cover art]
Hope Springs Eternal = Haru tokaraji!
Will the cherry blossoms bloom? = Sakura sakuka!?
~~Rink ni kakero! has still not been translated by them.
My first puzzle. Does Mitaka Shun earn enough money to pay for
everything he owns?
If I teach tennis in Tokyo, Japan like Mitaka Shun can I buy a new car,
rent a large apartment in his part of Tokyo, and buy all the expensive
furniture and electronics he owns?
Is a tennis coach salary in Tokyo enough to pay for the lifestyle he
has?
In the original Japanese language you read if Coach Mitaka gets money
from his family?
Does he have family money that he can invest in stockmarket and earn
more money?
Do you think he gets some money from his wealthy family?
Do you know if Mitaka has another job?
Did you read what Mitaka will do for a job when he is older and not
handsome or strong like now?
Will he always teach tennis?
I think he was teaching at many clubs.
He was teaching in Clock Hill Tennis Club only once or twith a week, and it was about 2-3 hour.
If he had 10 or more tennis clubs to teach, I think it's possible for him to earn enough money to pay for everything he owns. As he does his best more, he can earn more at that time.
And I think they're no probrem for him to teach tennis when he's older.
The best important thing was that he was good at tennis.
> Was Kyoko's name "Juliette"? How about another person?
Yes, so Kyoko's name is in the french version Juliette Rosier !
I know only the original name of the main characters, I'm sorry :-/.......
Ah, and as I said already, those names were used in the TV series, I think they will use the original names in the book that will be released in december in France.
Here we go !! :-)
Godai: Hugo Dufour
Kyoko: Juliette Rosier
Yotsuya: Stéphane
Akemi: Charlotte
Ichinose: Pauline
Mitaka: François
Yagami: Clémentine
Kentaro: Léo
Kozue: Suzanne
Sakamoto: Marc
> (1) What company (publisher) French edition of MI is published from?
Believe it or not, Maison Ikkoku was not yet published in France !!! The only comics by Rumiko Takahashi published here is Ranma1/2, as far as I know. But, this will change in December, since it will finally be published !!
The name of the company is Tonkam Editions. It's in fact a shop that began to publish some comics a few years ago. It seems like they will publish the Wide Edition (which I own!). I will let you know more about it as soons as it comes out. I wonder if they will keep the reading from right to left. In France, publishers often reverse all the images so it can be read from left to right. If you wonder what I am talking about, I will scan you some examples.
> (2) Is its title name of comics and animation "Maison Ikkoku"? Or another name?
The animation series was named "Juliette je t'aime" (Juliet, I love you). It was the big boom of japanese animation on TV. But not the comics, only animation. So on Wednesday afternoons when french children don't go to school, they showed a lot of animation series which became highly popular, such as Saint Seiya, Dragon Ball, etc etc.... The quality was most of the time not so bad, but they ALWAYS changed the title, the name of the characters, to make it sound more "french", so all the characters got french names! And they also always replaced opening and ending credits with a french song, with a mix of images from the first episodes of the series. But they also showed violent series at the same time, such as Hokuto no Ken, (they should have choosen a better time in the day, not in the afternoon) which resulted in a lot of protest from parents; and also in the press. This gave a very very bad image of japanese animation. (a lot of people still think to this day that any comic or animation series coming from japan is violent.)
So what was the consequence of this ?? Well, a lot of episodes from ANY animation (Maison Ikkoku, Ranma1/2, etc etc) were censored !!!! And censored in such a bad way that sometimes you would not understand the story anymore !!! Or they changed the dubbing to make it sound ridiculous and funny when it was not (ex: Hokuto no Ken) Nevertheless, it was a good time, we were able to see so much japanese animation on TV !!! Because from the middle of the 90's until recently, it had become very rare to be able to watch japanese animation on TV. But during this time, the edition of comics developped rapidly, with some good, but also some bad translations, and adaptations. Now, the situation seems to change since 1 year or so, japanese animation and comics become popular again, and especially with the boom of DVD in Europe, a lot of series from the 80's and 90's are released in DVD, and sell very well. The general opinion seems to have a changed a bit. Now those series are sometimes re-dubbed, and get their original title. Editors seem to respect much more the work of japanese artists. So MI will be published under the name Maison Ikkoku, not "Juliette je t'aime".
> (3) When was the first edition of its comics (vol.1) published?
December 2000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> (4) Has the animation of MI been broadcanted on TV in France? When?
We were lucky, since we discovered MI in 1988 on TF1, the biggest french TV channel. It was a national TV and had been privatized at that time. Which explain that they had quite a lot of money to buy animation series. The most famous series were presented in a show called "Club Dorothee". Although the woman who presented the show was highly criticized at that time (said to make children stupid, etc) I agree she made some mistakes (programming Hokuto no Ken in the afternoon when a lot of young children watched TV (we had 3 channels in France at that time, so a lot of children watched her show) she was yet one of the first one to introduce modern japanese animation in France. She has choosen very good series, since I discovered MI thanks to her. :-) :-) Her show stopped around 95 or so, and she never appeared on TV again. Some private Satellite channels have bought those series and show them sometimes.
In Italy comics "maison ikkoku" (sub-title "cara dolce kyoko"- the anime
serie only "cara dolce kyoko")
are published from Star Comics. (first number come out in november 1998,
with monthly cadence).
I send you a cover from first number (jpeg attachment)(the number is written
on the right-low, in white).
But this is not the first time that Maison Ikkoku is published in Italy!
There was a first time 1994/1995.
Published from Granata Press, but this house will fail in 1995 (to go under,
bankrupt, ok?)and Maison Ikkoku stopped at number 12 (only 12 number).