Maison Ikkoku/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation - I haven't gotten through very much of the series, but does it seem like Kyoko's really frigid? Goes out on dates with two different guys, plays them against each other, and doesn't even show either any affection. Then she has the nerve to get jealous about Kozue!
  • Two things. She never really had any "fun student time", she got married right out of high school, she's having her belated dating phase. Two, she has some major issues with losing her husband and tends to get weepy or guilty when people bring up getting re-married. And anyway, Godai is in no condition to think about marriage until he leaves college, so there's time. It's complicated, that's what makes this series good.
  • Also, she does get called out on it very late in the series by Akemi.
  • It's made clear that she's quite attracted by Mitaka and Godai. Kyoko can't act on her feelings because of her own issues (with her past) but it's shown she has urges. For example, after Godai confess to her for the first time while he's drunk and took her to her room, she shows she would have not stopped him. She shows the same reaction when Mitaka takes some aggresive action when he broke his leg to be at the hospital Godai is.
• Better by a Different Name - Indirect Trope Namer; "it was better when it was called Maison Ikkoku" has reached Memetic Mutation status when applied to romance anime.
• Epileptic Trees - Yotsuya, heck the show sometimes even tries to encourage this especially during the episode where Kentaro has found Yotsuya's old album and where Yotsuya got Godai to do some Egg Sitting for him.
• Fan-Preferred Couple- While not as prominent as other Rumiko Takahashi shows, Yusaku/Kozue does have a pretty big following. (Though unlike other examples of this trope in other Rumiko Takahashi shows fans still generally like Kyoko though.)
• Foe Yay: Godai and Mitaka lightly played around with in episode 37 where they end up wrestling each-other as payback for the dirty tricks that both have used against each other earlier. While it is a It Makes Sense in Context moment it does slightly go into Ho Yay territory here.
• Les Yay - Occasionally played around with, such as in episode 36 when a drunk, horny Akemi tries to make out with Godai and, when Kyoko tries to interfere, briefly makes out with her. Moments later both Godai and Kyoko have to remove Akemi's lipstick.
• Memetic Molester - The show occasionally plays around with the concept for Kyoko's father in which when he tries to disguise himself in a hat and trench coat it makes him look like a rapist. (He even gets arrested later on in the series in which Kyoko's father is waiting for Godai nearby the kindergarten where Godai works; there is a scene later where Kyoko's father is at the Police station trying to tell the police that he is not a pedophile.)
  • Yotsuya occasionally gives off this vibe as well.
• Toy Ship - Kentaro and Ikuko, it starts in episode 11 in which its revealed that Kentaro develops a crush on her. Its played around with as Ikuko claims that she has a boyfriend at the end of episode 11 (but this is never mentioned again and its possible that she was lying). This gets some more play in the middle of the series though as there is a little bit of Ship Tease.
• Values Dissonance:
  • Western viewers might be surprised regarding the cast's opinions on adult/teenager relationships. The problem everyone has with Godai's relationship with Ibuki, is that Godai doesn't really love her... not that she's a teenage student and he's an adult and her teacher. In fact, everyone acts like he just may hook up with Ibuki anyway, and they don't particularly comment about the morality of it aside from breaking Kyoko's heart. Even more, Kyoko had married her teacher years earlier, when the age difference was even bigger, and it's viewed as a perfect relationship. Kyoko and Soichiro were clearly deeply in love, but in the West, certain parts of this are nearly illegal (Ibuki deciding to live with Godai especially), or at least frowned upon (though it's likely nobody had sex until adulthood).
  • While it's a lot subtler than the above example, the series definitely reflects the more traditional, rigid gender roles in Japanese society (especially 30 years ago, when the story was set/written) which may be off-putting to Westerners. For example, the expectation that women will leave their jobs upon marriage (plenty of Western women still do this, but it's not assumed anymore) and with it, that a man should not propose/a woman should not encourage him to propose unless he's in a good financial state (which is one thing that turns a lot of Western fans off Kyoko, since in the West, women with such expectations are stigmatized as "gold diggers" who are too lazy to work themselves). And there are also a few suggestions that Kyoko is approaching Christmas Cake age, though mainly it comes from her My Beloved Smother who is desperate for grandkids.
• What an Idiot! - Godai is often accused of this on a VERY regular basis, in which there certainly have been times in which he does not deserve this at all (or at least not as much). But to be fair there have been times in which he really does deserve it.
• Woobie - Kozue when Godai does eventually dump her for Kyoko.
  • And how about Asuna? She falls desperately in love with Mitaka, who only has eyes for Kyoko. Even after it was clear that she would end up with Mitaka anyway.
  • Kyoko also has a lot of Woobie moments, mainly involving her memories of Soichiro and her trouble at moving on.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character - Some viewers have considered Kozue to be a case of this due to how she was practically Demoted to Extra over the course of the 2nd half of the series when Ibuki showed up. (That and on how during the ending of the series she has a fairly blatant Last-Minute Hookup in which her ending in the story is a bit more of a Bittersweet Ending than anything else.)