Living-Room Matsunaga-san

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 coverand 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.

[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 prettyshocked 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.

Okay so I've never written a review before on here but I feel like I gotta because I've recently finished it and I cannot stop thinking about it. Honestly, no, the story is not the deepest but if you like romance that is sometimes a little cheesy that makes you roll around in your bed while your reading then this is definitely for you! The author knows what cutesy, sweet, adorable romance is and they're not greedy with it ;) You might be shocked bc of the age difference but tbh, compared to other age gap manga's I feel like this manga handled it in themost healthy way you can handle an age gap in general lol :') Also, I think the main reason I enjoyed this manga was because of the art. I loved that the male love interest had a different haircut than I'm used to in shoujo manga and literally every character was designed and drawn so beautifully! All in all, a very wholesome, funny and light-hearted but beautifully drawn manga that is definitely worth a read if you're into comedy romance shoujo's with an age gap.

Lately I have finished reading Living-room Matsunaga-san, personally I enjoyed it. ₍^ >ヮ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!