Characters
Nozomi Nikaido
Around the half way point of the series Maison Ikkoku gets a new tenant. Nozomi Nikaido is an 18 year old boy, just starting college. His parents promised him that he could move out of the house and become more independent after high school, and so thats exactly what he does. The Nikaido family is wealthy and his mother is extremely over-protective, so she plans on giving him the absolute best apartment to live in while he studies his days away. A mixup brings him to Maison Ikkoku, and after seeing Kyoko, he decides he's not going anywhere.
Nikaido and the rest of the tenants start off on the absolute worst terms. After sneaking into his room, they realize that this seemingly nice young boy is in fact a spoiled rotten, egotistical jerk. He insults his fellow tenants and mentions that the only bright spot is Kyoko. But when Yotsuya makes Nikaido into the butt of his practical jokes, things really get nasty. Nikaido retaliates as best he can, and usually ends up making Yotsuya look bad in front of Kyoko, while he gets away with everything. Not until Yotsuya hides Kyoko in Godai's closet and allows her to witness Nikaido's true self does she finally understand that he's no better than everyone else that lives at Ikkoku.
Nikaido isn't very bright, he needs things repeated over and over before he understands what someone is talking about. He has absolutely no sense of imagination, so everyone is constantly having to explain things to him in a really simplistic way. The tenants stayed up with him an entire night in an attempt to explain Godai and Kyoko's relationship to him. But if you get him curious about something, and then refuse to talk about it he will follow you nonstop, pestering you until you sit down with him and tell him every little detail. Another horrible trait is his bluntness. He has no filter and says pretty much the first thing the comes to his mind, without thinking about it. This usually causes more trouble for other people than himself, but because he's so dense, he never minds.
The Meaning Behind the Name - 二階堂望
Nozomi (望) means "desire" and Nikaido (二階堂) means "second story of a hall". The "two" aspect of his name matches the rest of the cast in that he lives in Room 2 at Maison Ikkoku.
Voices:
Ryo Horikawa