Goosed wrote:

That's true.  But Maison Ikkoku is "Maison", not "Mansion."

I've *heard* (not sure if this is accurate or not) that "Mezon", the
correct romanized spelling of the word, is a French loanword meaning
mansion or elegant house.  This would make you right, sort of...

Rant mode on:  "Mezon" is NOT the correct romanized version of the word.
It's a loanword from French, as you pointed out.  There's a simple 
reason the hiragana is used instead of katakana: it looks nicer.  (I've
actually talked to a couple of Japanese folks about this.)  (C.f. the
sukeban in UY--should they be Syugaa, Peppaa, etc, or Sugar, Pepper,
etc)
Rant mode off.

Usually, Japanese apartment complexes use the word "mansion" as part of
the name, which used to imply style, elegance, etc.  Of course, now it
just implies that this is an apartment building.

"Maison," OTOH, is not generally used for apartment buildings. Far as
I know (dimly reaching back to high school French here), "maison" means
"house" in French.  But it may be that Takahashi's using it the way 
that American restaurants call themselves something like "chez Pierre."

Gavin Steyn

PS  I hate to be nitpicky, but this thread's already been going on a
little while...