Living no Matsunaga-san
Living-Room Matsunaga-san

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Lately I have finished reading Living-room Matsunaga-san, personally I enjoyed it. ₍^ >ヮ<^₎ .ᐟ.ᐟ
I finished it in one sitting;
it was all I needed, the art was wholesome, cute, romantic, sometimes funny story with a character progress and happy ending for the main characters.
If you like shoujo/ age gap kinda thing totally go for it and read it!
if not, I dont think this is a necessary read.

This was a good one, the beginning was pretty nice, the characters were getting good with eachother and the love story had been progressing, but somewhere in the end it for me got all messed up ... with Ryu, and him being fixenated to Miko.
Since 9th volume it seemed to me like the story was longer than it should be and for me it lost its sparkle. It didn't hurt the story in any way to the person itself. Even though this was a lil bit turn off for me I woud say, I still recommend it and I think its wort it.
but thats only my personal opinion ~


PS: the scenes where is only Miko and Matsunaga are the best! give it a try!

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.