Living no Matsunaga-san (Living-Room Matsunaga-san)

Due to family circumstances, high school student Miko Sonoda is forced to live at her uncle's boarding house. However, before she can arrive there, Miko is already met with a bad omen: while trying to find the place, she suspects that someone is following her! When her uncle comes to her rescue, the assumed stalker happens to be one of his tenants, leaving Miko embarrassed on her first day.

Miko learns that she will be living with five unique adults, including the accused man. Additionally, it turns out that he is Jun Matsunaga, a 27-year-old designer who seems to lose his temper easily. Having made such a humiliating first impression, Miko believes that only a miserable life awaits her. But in the presence of Jun, she comes to realize that living with adults is not so difficult after all—and there may even be enough room for romance.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Living no Matsunaga-san was published digitally in English as Living-Room Matsunaga-san by Kodansha Comics USA from December 19, 2017 to February 22, 2022, and in print from January 28, 2020 to July 19, 2022.

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Characters

Matsunaga, Jun

Main

Sonoda, Miko

Main

Houjou, Ryou

Supporting

Hattori, Akane

Supporting

Oonuki, Asako

Supporting

Suzuki, Kentarou

Supporting

Izumi-san

Supporting

Chinen-kun

Supporting

Reviews

Oct 11, 2021

sonnygirl___

Recommended

I've decided to review this manga because I couldn't find any other review that had completed the series. So, to note, it's my first and probably only review I'll make, so i'll try to be short, objetive and sincere. This isn't a spoiler free review.

Despite all of the age gap that we were receiving in these last years, I would like to say that this manga was ahead of this classic cliché, by a plot based in making them live in the same house with a set of side characters. About Matsunaga-san, even with all the fan-service we got, that I really didn't dislike it ... too much because it seemed like it was part of his personality. Ignoring this, his character was very cool and interesting, I never seen a personality like that in any other shoujos or josei of the same type, he was mostly very kind, respectable, patience and supportive with the ML 10 years younger than him. I think it was the best personality and way to deal with the situation, and felt very natural for me. (Takane from Takane to Hana or Vivi from Hana to Akuma are both good examples, but they seem pretty unnatural). The only problem I had with him was around the last chapters. He seemed like another character, It's like he forgot what used to be his priority, or even his little development around his kindness. I know that when we make changes into our lives we can forget some things, but even later the accident he got, I think the autor forgot what was the most important thing to him.

Miko was good, she was the representation of innocence and childhood in a house full of adults. However, I think her development was quite poor, she had the potential to not be one of the typical crybaby protagonists of a shoujo, but one thing I learnt from all the situations in which Matsunaga and the others helped her, it's that she clearly never learns to properly rely in others, it's like she forgot that little progression she did with Matsunaga a few chapters before when he took her to see her grandma. We can clearly see this regression in the final arc, when Matsunaga leaves the shared house. Also, we never knew what she wanted to do or be, we got time skipped two times, and she got zero development since Matsunaga moved, we only see her crying around and being miserable from the distance that was predictable. Her hole self and life ended exclusively revolving around this first love and Matsunaga itself. What was quite sad to be honest, not to mention that their relationship was supossed to start when she graduated, I'm pretty sure we were all waiting for that moment to happen, for them to start dating like a real couple, well i think the autor forgot about it?

Keiko-sensei seems like also forgot another things, like what was the purpose of the shared house, or present the new members that came when the other adults left without -any?- hesitation and from a moment to another in only one or two chapters. Miko was certainly left alone. She also forgot that Matsunaga-san told Miko that he needs to present formaly to her family and notice them about their situation, and many other things that I got used to love, like the chemistry of the main couple, or the side characters, or the shared house itself and the meaning of home and family that got destroyed in a few chapters. I know that this adults eventually would be leaving, but I think it happened like a shock.
Don't forget about Ryou and his feelings, that went from pure and kind to desperatly in love, like all the old cliches of triangle love we are tired to read, not to mention it was kinda unecessary. It didn't contribute to nothing in the story, I never got so unpleased with a second lead so good to fit the place of posible ML. It was super forced and horrible to be honest.

In my final opinion, and after expending years of reading manga, mostly shoujos and josei, Living no Matsunaga-san had potential as refresh for this genre and tematic, but it got crushed and wasted arround the last 8 chapters. It lost everything I loved from the start, and I can't still understand the rushed final we got, this manga could last at least, 20 more chapters of development, we only get to see a clearly regression from the main couple, and from everything we enjoyed in the past chapters. As well, the message it's kinda sad and depressing. If the autor wanted to cover the age-gap thing, and all that revolves around them, it should have gave them a little more time. (Takane to Hana, and even Hana to Akuma are good examples of distance and patience of age-gap). In a moment I thought this manga was taking the same way than Hirunaka no Ryuusei got. If that was the case I think the ending could have been more fitting that the one we got.

To be fair, I would recommend this manga, i really liked the most of the story, I really jumped and screamed and laught at too many pages, at the usual things we love to see in shoujo mangas, but all this feelings started to vanish when the love triangle began to rise in a bad way. I would like to read some specials about the time they finally started to date properly, or the time of Miko in university.

I rated this with a 7 with all the love that I could give it.

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Feb 25, 2022

_blxnk

Recommended

[contains a LOT of spoilers so skip if you haven't finished reading]

I started reading this because I saw a video about this manga being completed and thought I'd give it a try. Also I really love male characters with glasses so here we are lol

The story was pretty good, I didn't know that this was an 'age gap' love story and while I am not necessarily someone who enjoys this kind of trope, I still decided to read further and eventually finish this.

I thought that the male lead was a good 4 to 5 years older than the female lead so I'm pretty ... shocked to find out there was a 10-year gap between the two of them. I do not disapprove of age gaps even in real life but considering that the story started with the female lead being in high school, I think it's valid to say I was a bit bothered.

A good part of the beginning of the story TRIES to play it out that he was being an 'adult' and only trying to take care of her because she's a high school student who started living in a shared house with adults. At least that's how I interpret it to be but from Day 1 his actions always seemed suspicious. He was overly concerned about her compared to the other people in the house which in my opinion, the other adults living in the house had more 'understandable' guidance to her. Matsunaga was just EVERYWHERE in her life at the house (tho to be fair he was working at home and the others weren't but still??)

So given that build up in the story, my assumption was that Matsunaga would wait for her to be out of high school and even wait for her to be considered as an 'adult' (and i'm not talking about 18 years old here which is barely an adult, i'm talking about like 20s) so imagine my shock when he confessed he also loved her (even though Miiko confessed first) and even kissed her at the latter part of the story, knowing full well she was in high school.

Like I really appreciated that Matsunaga was being shown to be 'waiting' for her at some point because he did know making a move on someone way younger than him and someone who's in high school is definitely wrong but it all came crashing down when he did made moves on her (even when she kind initiated one of the kisses). Some of the 'cover up' to these details I mentioned is I guess how he moved away from the house when the two of them confirmed their feelings to each other. I guess it's trying to steer clear from any possibility of them doing 'stuff' if they're under the same roof.

Nevertheless, the ending was cute. He actually did 'wait' for her, in some sense she graduated from University and they started living together and stuff. I love how we see Miiko become successful and I'm happy to see that they're kind of in equal footing now that she's an adult and working. I also love how less annoying Miiko was compared to other female leads in shoujo manga and Matsunaga wasn't that overly serious adult guy that I commonly see in these age-gap manga, he actually has a balance of his goofy and serious side to him (I also admire how serious and dedicated he could be in his work, he gotta teach me his ways).

Anyway it's a solid 7. It still had a cute plot, nice characters but there really are elements or aspects of the story that I disapprove of as I have discussed earlier.

PS. I still would've chosen Ryo, he was the best boy, the man really deserved her. He's also a doctor so +10 points in my standards and most especially he's a cat lover which gives him +100 more points. In short, I love him.

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Jul 28, 2023

soljoe

Not Recommended

Spoiler

It's not normal for a grown man to fall in love with a high schooler. In fact it's weird as hell. None of the adults in this manga have good boundaries with the child they're living with, at all. It makes me sad because the main protagonist of this, Miko, is a really nice and well-written character. Over the course of the story, though, all the characters besides Miko sort of flatten out into one entity. All of the things that distinguished Akane, Ken, Asako, Ryo, and Jun sort of gradually fade away. It's not a greatly-written story and I think that Ryo and Jun ...

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Poll: Living no Matsunaga-san Chapter 40 Discussion tinywoodenrobot - Apr 29, 2021	6 replies	by Alica87 »» Aug 20, 2023 11:26 PM
Poll: Living no Matsunaga-san Chapter 1 Discussion shanimebib - Apr 4, 2017	3 replies	by vii_coconut1 »» Jan 23, 2023 1:48 PM
Poll: Living no Matsunaga-san Chapter 44 Discussion tinywoodenrobot - Oct 13, 2021	7 replies	by Abyque »» Nov 16, 2022 1:35 AM
Poll: Living no Matsunaga-san Chapter 8 Discussion shanimebib - Aug 27, 2017	1 replies	by 6AMDiary »» Jul 26, 2022 7:11 PM
Poll: Living no Matsunaga-san Chapter 7 Discussion shanimebib - Jul 28, 2017	3 replies	by 6AMDiary »» May 8, 2022 12:26 AM

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