The Fifth Year Renovation of Maison Ikkoku
By Dylan Acres
After a fairly horrendous fourth year, if you had told me the recovery that not me, but the site too, would make, I would have thought you were crazy.
After leaving Alabama and coming back to the comfort of my familiar home, I took a look at my site and found that I really wanted to get back into the updating it on a regular basis. I loved it too much to just let it sit and get moldy, and besides, thats what every other Maison Ikkoku webmaster does.
So imagine my surprise when I stumbled across a cache of new Maison Ikkoku midis! I decided I would post one a week, and that would be a guaranteed way to update on a regular basis, while giving me time to devote to my schoolwork and work on other, larger updates that would take more time. And then, Japan brought out a set of Maison Ikkoku gashapons! Maison Ikkoku toys after years of no products whatsoever! So with that, the renaissance of my site was born.
Then another shocker hit at the beginning of the summer, when my brother came home and told me about an idea he had, he wanted to build a Rumiko Takahashi supersite, made up of the best websites dedicated to her series on the internet. So with that, I packed up and left Geocities after almost five years and started a new life at furinkan.com. The difference is amazing. Now I'm surrounded by other websites that are exceptional, and the webmasters, Harley Acres and Mason Proulx make me want to work harder on my contribution.
As you can see from the new index, the site is entering another new phase. Gone is the old title "Yusaku Godai's Life at Maison Ikkoku" to the more streamlined "Life at Maison Ikkoku." This will reflect an upcoming change in the content of the site. I've decided that seeing things from Godai's perspective is a bit limiting, so I'll be changing all that in the coming weeks. This year is shaping up to be the best yet, so hang in there and see what Maison Ikkoku and Rumic World have in store for you!
Dylan Acres is a psychologist and college professor. Maison Ikkoku has long been his favorite manga and he has written a number of articles on the series and Rumiko Takahashi including an analysis of the animation directors of Maison Ikkoku, Takahashi's love of the Hanshin Tigers and a cataloging of the color artwork of Rumiko Takahashi.
