The Maison Ikkoku "Final Movie" features the
character designs of Moriyama Yuji (Cat Girl Nuku Nuku) who did
the designs of the first 24 television episodes. Interestingly enough he was replaced
by Takada Akemi (Kimagure Orange Road) who stayed on as character
designer for the rest of the 96 episode television series. In other words the
movie's designs are obviously different from their television counterparts. It
was also decided to include the never before animated character "Nozomu Nikaido"
from the manga in this movie.
Assuming you have seen
the Maison Ikkoku series in its entirety then you owe it to yourself to
see this movie as it resolves some aspects of the story never fully developed
in the television run. There is not enough here to stand on its own so if you
haven't seen the original series this feature is riddled with spoilers and/or
won't make much sense, so don't waste your time.
