Finished all 96 episodes of Maison Ikkoku. I loved what it had to say about the grieving process of a widow and how you can't put a timetable on the recovery from losing a spouse; every individual handles loss on their own terms. Kyoko had just buried her husband and immediately had guys lining up begging to take her hand in marriage. Her own parents were pushing marriage onto her assuming that would lead to personal happiness.
Hits on the societal pressure females face to get married in young adulthood and how they're not expected to prioritize anything else in life. I would've liked to see those expectations subverted and for Kyoko/Asuna seek agency for themselves along the lines of a Kate Chopin protag, but at every opportunity for that to happen there would be a misunderstanding that would take the rest of the episode to resolve. The comedy wound up killing the opportunity to develop the more serious themes further, but this also made the show more accessible and one of the more popular anime of the 80's so it's hard to say it should've been done differently.
Couldn't have handled the relationship between Godai and Kyoko much better. He went from a directionless kid to a responsible man who knew what he wanted in life and got it in the end, and it felt like he earned it because it took him 4-5 years to get his shyt together, and it took Kyoko the same period to get over her pain, so by the end it really felt like they'd grown enough to be ready to accept each other.
It's sad that Rumiko Takahashi never wrote anything like this ever again and at the age of 60 is probably out of time. She's widely recognized as one the greatest rom com writers in the history of the industry but only once has she ever written a convincing drama and this is it.