hold a Gaffneyesque view of the Loon Squad myself, so I didn't care much

the loon squad is cool...imho, they make the story more interesting..
without them to get in the way, the story would have quickly gotten
boring.  One of the coolest things about MI is the hilarity of the
characters and situations--Mr. Yotsuya is great! :>  It's kinda like
a sitcom, only less lame.

The manga is much better (about my favorite, in fact); the early
animators added a lot of bogus stuff, watered down Kyoko's
personality

true...

and completely blew one of the most important emotional
climaxes of the story (when Godai broke his leg).

That happened recently in the manga(from Viz, that is), did it not?
That part was definitely deep...and it had me laughing too when
Shun gets admitted to the same hospital as Yusaku.

Why they felt compelled to add the ludicrous underwear subplot to the
first emotional climax (not to mention the first time Godai calles her
Kyoko-san (at least in the manga)) is completely beyond me.

dude...was the underwear deal in the manga or not?  my subscription
started last october, before then i'd only bought here and there from
the comic store..anyways, that looniness is fine with me, but getting
a clean pair of underwear?  gimme a break...

The only thing that bugs me about Maison Ikkoku is that Takahashi seems
to try too hard to make Yusaku into a dope, and Kyoko is like a fierce
lion ready to tear his head off for anything.  This is the only comic
book I've ever read where I *cringe* while reading it. (ex: Yusaku
whipping out a dirty magazine when he's supposed to be studying..Yusaku
trying to kiss Kyoko when they're sleeping in the cheap room at the
Spa...just makes me cringe thinking about what will happen when he
inevitably gets caught...although he never seems to actually get found out.)

I think I remember hearing something the initial animators getting
sacked....

hahhahahah...

signed