In the animation episodes of Ninja Hattori produced in the 80s, you may have noted occasional flashing of the derière. It was pixelated in India but not in Japan. There, this sort of thing is commonplace so I was not surprised by topless nudity in Maicching Machiko. However, I was sufficiently tormented by guilt that I decided to punish myself by watching a romantic comedy anime named Maison Ikkoku. To recover from the deleterious effects of Maison Ikkoku, I watched with Annasan no Omame.
Maicching Machiko
This cartoon is from the 80s where it appeared as a manga first and later as an anime. Miss Machiko is a well-endowed teacher who has a propensity for wardrobe malfunction. She is the target of perverted pranks by several of her male students. She does try to thwart their plans but invariably gives up saying, Maicchingu or ’I am embarrassed‘ or ’I give up‘.
I stopped watching The Simpsons because of the frequent nudity and woke stupidity almost as soon as I started binge-watching the episodes. In Machiko, full-body nudity is part of the opening and closing themes and sometimes in the middle. Somehow, it is all comical. In the Simpsons, it was revolting.
I think I may have exhausted all good TV programmes from Japan. I tried to see Kabocha Wine but only some initial episodes had subtitles. Episodes of Miss Machiko seem to be somewhat similar to episodes of Kabocha Wine and more funny.
Miss Machiko has been made into several movies. I have two of them. Only one has subtitles but they do not seem to be as funny as the anime version. I am yet to see them.
There are nearly a hundred episodes of Miss Machiko. I suggest watching a dozen episodes of Machiko before watching Maison Ikkoku.
Maison Ikkoku
This cartoon is also from the 80s. It is about a young widow named Kyoko and her love tryst with a student (one year younger) named Godai. Kyoko is the manager of a rental mansion where Godai is staying with a few mischievous and meddling characters. The love pair are lovesick but have not dared to talk about their feelings yet. It looks as if they may not until the last episode. Godai does try to get handsy with Kyoko on occasion but fate intervenes all the time. This anime is not so innocent after all.
Why am I forcing myself to see this stuff? Well, it is a perfect antidote for Miss Machiko. The opening and closing sequences have great music. There are seventy-five episodes in all.
For every, dozen episodes of Miss Machiko, I suggest watching seven episodes of Maison Ikkoku subsequently.
Annasan no Omame
This is a TV drama from the twenty-zeros. It parodies all TV programmes that fall under the romantic genre. That is including Maison Ikkoku.
Anna is not the lead in the TV serial. It is Riri, the most misunderstanding woman in the world. She believes she is very attractive (she is but that is not the point) and that all men around are charmed by her good looks. She drives them crazy by saying she is not interested in them and they should focus their attention on somebody else. When they protest that it is a misunderstanding, she becomes more convinced about her conquest of their hearts. It drives them even more crazy.
Just like in Maison Ikkoku, most of the dialogue is vocalized account of the inner conflict and consequent turmoil. If you are not exposed to romantic TV yarns, you may not be able to appreciate how painstakingly accurate the director has parodied every silly hackneyed romantic situation out there.
I suggest one episode of Annasan no Omame after seven episodes of Maison Ikkoku.
Age rating: 18+
UPDATE (May 2024)
- I tried to see two Machiko movie but could not finish because they were both bad. They had girls acting in place of the lecherous male students but that was not what was bugging in the movies. They had no story. As a bad-movie aficionado, they were surprisingly too low.
- I could not sit through all the 100 Maison Ikoku episodes so I saw the movie version. It was all right. The TV series must have been about the humour but the romance aspect was too much for me to tolerate. I was not interested. It is good entertainment for most people though.
- I am going strong with ANO. Each episode is funnier than the other and the story seems to produce new twists. I will continue with ANO and Miss Machiko over the next few weeks.