Living no Matsunaga-san
Living-Room Matsunaga-san

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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.

Lately I've seen that Keiko Iwashita's works have gained quite a bit of notoriety. And while I must admit that she is a mangaka with an outstanding drawing style, the structure of her stories is, in my opinion, very weak (something that also happens with other mangakas such as Wataru Yoshizumi or Io Sakisaka)

Leaving that topic aside, let's analyze her most famous work: Living no Matsunaga-san. The story tells us about Miko, a 17-year-old teenager who, due to certain family circumstances, is forced to live in her uncle's boarding house. There she will meet several characters with whom she will relate and, little by little, ... fall in love.

The manga started off quite well, it had a very well-done balance between comedy and romance; however, from volume 4 onwards, the story loses a lot of strength. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that from that volume onwards, the author ran out of ideas to explore.

The relationship between Miko and Matsunaga is... peculiar. I don't mind the age difference as long as it's handled well (she's 17 and he's 28); what bothers me most about the main couple is the large amount of conflicts they have due to lack of communication (something that is more noticeable in the final volumes). As for the other characters, Ryou was interesting, as I think he complemented Miko more in several sentimental aspects compared to Matsunaga. As for the rest of the cast, I summarize them as follows: charismatic, but forgettable and lacking a good arc.

Living no Matsunaga-san is not a bad manga. However, it is a manga that goes from better to worse over time.

Wow. What the fuck. This is just unfair.

This man is GORGEOUS. He has the nerd glasses and slicked back hair with a chiseled face that really pops out, such a refresher in a genre flooded with the same generic prettyboy face with bedhead. I would have rated this manga 10/10 for his stunning appearance alone if the story was actually serviceable enough. Unfortunately, Living no Matsunaga-san derails itself in the final volumes, far beyond repair.

First things first. I am not someone who suffers from second male lead syndrome, especially for a manga of this length. I usually accept the man adorning the first volume cover ... and title, especially since I'm reading this manga to explore a significant age gap and the more mature appearance. But the second male lead is far better than Matsunaga-san despite said generic prettyboy face, bedhead, and being closer in age. His interactions with MC are very organic and shine in the face of the ML's questionable, out of character decisions near the end of the manga, where ML lies about something important which causes a really shitty, contrived misunderstanding that triggers MC's insecurities about their relationship status. Hell, because of this, MC does something that can kind of be considered cheating. This is all brushed aside in a few panels where they "cOmmUNicaTe." All of this really highlights how they're clearly not on the same page, an aspect of their relationship that is never addressed.

The side characters' relationships really make no sense. The manwhore falls in love for NO REASON with another side character, with absolutely no hints to this happening. I didn't really care for them after that. And then this character joins the share house for the sole reason of spurring second ML on to make more advances on MC, a truly lazy plot device that gets explained away in bonus content at the very end.

MC really isn't that well written. The story tries to make a point that she's lonely and she misses her parents and she's not a functioning human being blah blah blah but.... this all happens at the end. And how she's sooo strong for being away from her parents (whom you never get to see ever except in cut content). It seems like the story kind of patronizes her and it doesn't help that ML sometimes treats MC like a grade schooler despite developing feelings for her.

It's so unfortunate that I have to give this manga such a low rating because damn is the art amazing, and a lot could have been done with the premise and side characters, but Living no Matsunaga-san ultimately didn't deliver.

Read this manga if you want to see the second male lead's character development, admire his cute blushing expressions, and watch him suffer. Otherwise just read Tsubaki-chou to Lonely Planet.