Yūsaku Godai (五代 裕作, Godai Yūsaku) is the main protagonist of the series. He begins as a poor 19-year-old rōnin studying for his college entrance exams after failing in the past year. He eventually gets into a third-tier college (with Kyōko's help). He is kind-hearted and handsome, but indecisive and spacey. Yūsaku is often 'played' by the other tenants of Ikkoku, who habitually take advantage of him (e.g. they use his room for frequent drinking binges and steal food from his care packages). He falls in love with Kyōko at first sight, but lacks the courage (when sober at least) to tell her how he feels. Instead, he daydreams a lot and does numerous silly things. During the course of the series Yūsaku matures into an honorable man who becomes worthy of Kyoko, as his love for her grows from an infatuation to a lasting and devoted love. He lives in Room 5 (Go).
Biography[]
History[]
Plot[]
The opening scene of the series shows Godai fed up with the obnoxious tenants of Ikkoku and ready to leave--that is until he meets Kyoko, the new building manager, and falls in love with her at first sight. He starts off as a ronin in the beginning of the series. He eventually gets into a college where he studies to become a teacher. He often tutors Kyoko's niece Ikuko.
Appearance[]
Godai is often described as handsome, is tall, and has a lean muscular body. Godai sports a simple hairstyle with bangs covering his forehead and hair that covers the back of his neck. His hair is depicted as brown, as well as his eyes.
He is often seen wearing a jacket with "Boy's An Non" written on the back and left breast.
Personality[]
Initially, Godai is described as a typical boy his age, particularly being called a pervert by Yotsuya. He can be dedicated when he puts his mind to it (or when his neighbors aren't distracting him). Godai grows to become a very mature and responsible person worthy of Kyoko. Even though there are multiple times where he wants to make a move on Kyoko, he refrains because he doesn't want to taint her image of him as a perfect gentleman. Godai is shown to be good with children. He often daydreams in public, resulting in embarrassment.
Relationships[]
Godai is smitten with Kyoko since he first meets her. Through many years and trials, he eventually marries her and have a daughter with her.
Godai meets Kozue on a day where he is supposed to have a date with Kyōko Otonashi, but Kyoko runs into Shun Mitaka and ends up missing her date with Godai. Godai, however, still has movie tickets and decides to take Kozue, a former coworker at a liquor store, in order to make use of them. Kozue gets the wrong idea and thinks that Godai likes her and she begins to pursue him. He is too nice to say no to her and she continues to be his steady date. She complicates his ability to confess his feelings to Kyoko, as both Kozue and Kyoko think she is his girlfriend. There are multiple times where he tries to break up with her, realizing he should stop leading her on, but Kozue always misinterprets and continues to date him.
Mitaka is Godai's "rival in love" who both tirelessly pursue Kyoko, which causes them to constantly bicker.
Ibuki is a student who falls in love with Godai while he's student-teaching at an all-girls' high school, coincidentally the one that Kyoko attended as a girl. She continues to pursue Godai even after his period teaching there is over.
Sakamoto is Godai's best friend. Godai stays at Sakamoto's house whenever he runs away from Maison Ikkoku.
Quotes[]
- "I want to drop out of school and become a tree."
Trivia[]
- Yūsaku is among the major characters whose name involves a number. His family name Godai means "five generations", therefore he is representative of the number 5, which match the number of the room he lives in.
- The name Yūsaku means "abundant" (裕) (yū) and "work, production, cultivation, tillage" (作) (saku).
- Yūsaku's surname Godai means "five" (五) (go) and "generation" (代) (dai).
- In the 10th Anime Grand Prix, conducted in 1988 by Animage, Yūsaku Godai was voted the sixth best male character.[3]
- Godai's seiyū Issei Futamata, provided the voices of characters from 2 other anime adaptations of Rumiko Takahashi's manga series: Chibi from Urusei Yatsura, Hikaru Gosunkugi from Ranma ½, Ishida from the One Pound Gospel OVA, and also Elder Karasutengu and Gosaku from Urusei Yatsura (2022).
- Godai's young self's seiyū Kumiko Watanabe, provided the voices of Shippō of InuYasha and Ritsuko Hirooka of House of Garbage from Rumiko Takahashi's anthology series Rumic Theater.
- Godai's two English voice actors provided the voices of characters from other anime adaptations of Rumiko Takahashi's manga series:
- Jason Gray-Stanford provided the voice of Shinnosuke in Ranma ½ and Yuta in Mermaid's Forest OVA.
- Brad Swaile provided the voice of Mousse in Ranma ½ and Amari Nobunaga in Inuyasha.