The next round of the Manga Moveable Feast begins this week, hosted by Rob (Panel Patter) McMonigal and focusing on the works of the wonderful Rumiko Takahashi. Rob has been conducting ongoing examination of her work with his Year of Takahashi project.
For today’s question, what’s your favorite work by Takahashi? There are lots to choose from, though some are sadly out of print. Is there an unlicensed work you’d like to read?
Despite Ranma 1/2 being my introduction to anime and manga, for me the ideal Takahashi is still Urusei Yatsura. Something about the likeable yet appalling characters and the barely controlled cauldron of chaos marks this as her quintessential work. I’d love to see an omnibus edition of all of it here, but I recognize this is basically impossible at the moment.
And I’ll bet you everyone below me picks Maison Ikkoku.
(Which I also like, though it drives me crazy far more than UY and Ranma, because of having its feet in reality.)
That probably would have been my answer had I not immersed myself in a bunch of Ranma 1/2 for the Feast. Maybe my answer should be “whichever one I’ve read most recently.”
Well, having read at least some of everything except UY, I still come back to Ranma 1/2. As I plan to explain in one of my feast posts, it’s the series where Takahashi takes the ideas that work in screwball comedies like Bugs Bunny or the Marx Brothers and puts them on the printed page. It’s something only a select few creators can manage, though many try.
I’m currently immersed in Inuyasha via the gorgeous, crisp, oversized VIZBIG volumes but I think I’d have to go with Ranma 1/2. As Rob says, it’s the perfect screwball comedy in sequential art form. (I’ve read a little UY via ILL but not enough to tip the scales. C’mon, Viz, let’s see a complete collection of this criminally overlooked series!!)
I’m going to have to say the Rumic series. I thought Takahashi’s slice of life comedies are very well done. More to the point, they don’t linger on forever. It’s all the charm and humor of her longer works without the months of required reading.
“Maison Ikkoku” is not just my favorite Takahashi comic, but my favorite comic PERIOD. Absolutely love it.
As for “unlicensed works,” there really aren’t any, unless you count her more recent one-shot stories or the latter 2/3rds of Urusei Yatsura.
The Mermaid books. Mainly because I can’t stand what usually passes for ‘comedy’ in stories. She does GREAT dramatic stuff, just not enough of it IMHO.
I didn’t even have to think about it, “Maison Ikkoku” without a doubt. It was my favorite manga for years until I read Banana Fish (It’s ok, MI is in the number 2 slot, not a bad position at all, the other slots in my top 5 in no particular order are Hikaru no Go, Firefighter Daigo, and Flower of Life, at least for now…)
For one, it doesn’t overstay its welcome and it has an actual ending, two things I appreciate. The humor is laugh out loud funny without being the same joke over and over and the characters grow and change during the series. The funny moments are “put the book down to laugh” funny and the dramatic moments are almost painful to read at times, it is the perfect romantic comedy for me, no other romcom I’ve seen or read since is anywhere near its level.
My favorite Rumiko Takahashi’s work is most definitely Maison Ikkoku. While I did enjoy Ranma 1/2 the anime and manga, I have to say that it went downhill halfway through. The first couple of volumes and episodes were awesome but then it started to get a bit boring.
Other Takahashi’s works I enjoyed are Rumiko Takahashi Anthology and Urusei Yatsura. I have only seen the anime for these two series and enjoyed them quite a lot. The only thing is that I am not a big fan of Lum, the heroine of Urusei Yatsura. She is just so annoying and clingy. I am a bigger fan of Shinobu.
Oh, I have also seen Mermaid Forest, which I didn’t like much.
Maison Ikkoku, without a doubt–it was also the first manga series I ever read. It’s not perfect (you can really trim about two volumes worth of material around the 2/3rds point without batting an eye) but I still love it to pieces.
(A much harder question would be second favorite. Maybe Mermaid Saga? The short story The Tragedy of P? Ranma 1/2? So many choices…)
InuYasha is definitely at the top for my favorite Rumiko Takahashi works (Urusei Yatsura coming in at a close second). InuYasha is the show that really got me into Rumiko Takahashi, anime and helped me find who I want to be in life. I am totally in love with most of the characters too. I share a great bond with all the Takahashi characters, but the InuYasha characters really hit home for me. Their stories make me want to cry, they’re likeable people, and Sesshomaru… well I can’t decide if I want to hit him then apologize or hit him and run away laughing.. Could it have been cut short? Yeah, there was a lot of unnecessary stuff. Regardless, it still rocks my world to epic proportions that cause my socks to hit the moon.
I like a lot of her works but, without a doubt, Maison Ikkoku is the one I love.
It would have to be Urusei Yatsura as my favorite with Maison Ikkoku is a close 2nd. Both showcase different sides of her talent
UY hooked me in that no the world wasn’t perfect and yes we’re all a little bit crazy but as long as you saw the humor in that the world was alright place to be. One of the first manga I ever read