Yuusaku Godai
GO'DAI:
GO (Kanji): "5, five"
DAI (Kanji): "price, materials, substitution" (SHI-RO) o "world, society, generation" (YO)
YUU'SAKU:
YUU (Kanji): "affluence, prosperity"
SAKU (Kanji): "a work, a harvest"

The resident of room #5, until he got married to Kyoko. He is a timid, weak-willed, clumsy indecisive man who day-dreams a lot. He's been the constant target of harassment and practical jokes by other tenants. Also, his room, by tradition, is the party site since his is the only room spacious enough to contain more than five people, and clean enough to hold such lunacy essentially every night. When first Kyoko moved in, he was considered a ``ronin'' (student who failed an entrance exam). He immediately fell in love with her. Though he later found out that Kyoko was a widow, that fact only strengthened his feelings towards her and motivated him to work harder, to surpass Souichiro. Psyched up by Kyoko, he managed to get into a faculty of education of "Sanryu Daigaku" (meaning "third class college") Because of his indecisiveness, he ended up having several women hanging around him, namely Kozue Nanao and Ibuki Yagami. He did want to get rid of them, but he didn't have the heart to hurt them. Since Kyoko didn't want to admit that she was jealous, she ended up burning a hole in her blouse while ironing, breaking a broom with a bare hand, or peeling an apple to the core. During the fourth year in college, he got a part-time job at a day-care center, and liked the work there (since he had just finished a student teacher program in which he had a nightmarish time because of Ibuki Yagami). Unfortunately, he was fired and got a part-time job at a place called "Cabaret Bunny" where he became the "chief-in-charge-of-advertisement-and-welfare", calling in customers and baby sitting in short. Meanwhile, his relationship with Kyoko was having its ups and downs. At one point, he ran away from Ikkoku-kan because he thought Kyoko was going to marry Mitaka, although it was actually Mitaka's sister who was getting married. Kyoko and Godai accidentally kissed when Godai tried to hold Kyoko who almost fell from a step ladder. They paired up to run in the "three-legged race" in Kentaro's PE meeting even though they couldn't even take more than five steps. Godai gave up on Kyoko for a while when he saw Kyoko under the arms of Mitaka (who fainted because of a dog). In the manga version, Godai was unemployed for one year after his graduation. During that year, the relationship with Kyoko became a solid one, and he bid farewell to Kozue. (in the TV version, right after the grad exam) Though he planned to move out after Kyoko had the first child at the end of the TV series, the couple was still living in Ikkoku-kan.

Note on japan character voice: Kazunari Futamata has done the voices of Chibi (Urusei Yatsura), Ishida (Gospel of One Pound), Shinshi (Patlabor), Mogwi (Jungle Book), and unexpectedly, Donko (Crusher Joe).

Scheda di Yusaku Godai
Born 1962
Zodiac sign Tiger
Blood type A
Variant spellings Yusaku, Yuhsaku
Addressed as `Godai-kun' by Mitaka, loon squad & employees of Shiinomi daycare
`Godai-san' by Kyoko, Kozue and Nikaido
`Godai-sensei' by Yagami and other students
`Oniichan' (brother) by Kentaro
`Yuhsaku' by other family members
`Bucho' by the Cabaret Bunnies and their children ("Bucho" means means Department Head, in which Yusaku is the Head of Health and Welfare Department.)
'Hugo Dufour' in France
Prima apparizione Episodio 1