First write up is done! Comments, Questions, Advice and more welcomed!!
一緒に暮らしていいですか？(Is it Okay if I Live With You?) by 流石景 (Sasuga Kei)
Genres: Romance, Drama, Comedy, Slice of Life
Triggers: Some nudity, death in the family
Background on the artist:
Kei Sasuga is a decently well-known mangaka, with notable contributions to the world of manga and her notable work down for the shounen romantic drama genre. She gained significant recognition and popularity for her manga series “Domestic Girlfriend” (Domestic na Kanojo), often called ドメカノ, which made its debut in 2014, and for her earlier work GE (Good Ending) Her series often revolve around complex relationships, love triangles, and family dynamics, and follow the life of a young man who becomes involved with two women, leading to a web of emotional turmoil and romantic entanglements.
ドメカノ garnered a decently large and pretty dedicated following and sparked discussions and debates among readers, but famously the ending was not well received, with many thinking that it came out of left field and contradicted the main point of the story. While the ending was controversial (not necessarily bad), the first 98% is pretty well loved as the perfect modern example of a love triangle that isn’t just fanservice or teasing, but actually focuses on the drama that being in that sort of situation would entail. It’s not for everyone, but I liked it!
As a woman writing manga for boys, she has unfortunately been harassed by many fans, including a lot of foreign fans, which really sucks. She is a very talented mangaka and deserved better! If you want to see/learn more about her, here is a video of Gigguk (an anime youtuber) meeting her.
Manga Summary:
As mentioned above, this is a romantic dramedy, and as the title and pictures suggest, it is about a man moving into a share-house where the other residents are all women. The plot reason for this is less convoluted than other manga with the same premise: he was recently fired and dumped by his girlfriend, and he applied to live there because he needed somewhere cheap to live, but his flier didn’t have the full information that it was for women only. Okay, it is a little contrived, but serviceable, and everyone treats the situation like how adults would. He understands that they can’t live there, and promises to leave. After he talks to the landlady, she tells the residents about his background and situation, and they decide to let him live in the house until he finds a job, as long as he follows the rules they set for him.
The first chapter has a fair amount of fanservice, but as the chapters go along, the fanservice goes down in quantity, but it certainly doesn’t reach zero. The first volume goes through the main character’s interactions with his housemates, and gives us a glimpse into each of their lives. Like a lot of harem-esque manga, there will be some girls you prefer over others (my favorites so far are Tsubasa, Yukari, and Riri).
The female cast have great interactions with each other, and you can tell that this was written by a woman by how the girls talk to each other (based on my experience listening to my wife talk to her friends.
One example of the female-authored nature of the manga that I want keep vague is that in the first few chapters, the main character has to deal with a very natural part of living with women which I have NEVER seen in another male-focused rom-com. I was honestly shocked that they brought it up. Worth a read for that alone!
Sean’s Feelings:
So, I’ll be honest, this is the manga that made me want to start this project. Her previous work, ドメカノ, was a manga that I absolutely adored (though I agree the ending wasn’t ideal). I started it when the first chapter came out, back when I was getting back into manga after a break for a few years, and read it religiously until it concluded. It is one of my top 25 favorite manga, because it just felt so much more real than most of the boy-targeted romance manga that were happening all the time, which felt so fantastical and drama-free. Of course, that may be my nostalgia talking, but when I heard that 流石先生 was writing a new manga, I knew I wanted to support her.
This manga started in Grand Jump Mucha, which is a sister magazine to Grand Jump, and I read a lot of the manga in it and caught up so I could read each issue when it came out with the new chapters. It was an exhilarating experience reading it in the magazine, and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to read, despite no furigana. I was determined to keep up with Grand Jump Mucha!
However, it was announced it would be transferred to the main Grand Jump, thus starting my aforementioned journey through Grand Jump. The first new chapter will be published in the 11/15 edition of Grand Jump, so just in a week away!! This is honestly not surprising, because this was quickly becoming the most popular manga in GJM.
So, after going on and on, I’ll finally be somewhat brief. I like this manga, and am invested in reading it. 流石先生 is famous for writing long dramas with great characters the criss-cross and grow and change as people, and I think this is going to be great ride. The art is really expressive and well-polished, and 流石先生 is a veteran of the manga industry, so I think this work will take all she has learned from writing her previous manga and improve on it! Am I being a bit optimistic, sure! But what is life without a little optimism??
TLDR:
Is this manga perfect? No. But I think it is worth reading! You can pick up the first volume on Bookwalker or Kindle, and if you want, you can hop right into the new chapter on the 11/15 edition of Grand Jump! I know I will!
Reasons to read:
- Very short and easy to catch up on!
- Great Entry-point for No-Furigana Manga!
- Beautiful Character Art!
- Veteran Mangaka (who deserves support)!
- Pretty Women!
- Settling in for some juicy long-term DRAMA!!
- Nice Slice of Life!
- Also I should mention that the women in this manga are very pretty.
I hope that helped those who didn’t know about this manga/just want to know more about the manga in Grand Jump. I encourage everyone to give this manga a try! The first chapter is a little fan-service heavy for me, but it calms down pretty quickly. You can read the first chapter of the manga for free here!
And finally, I just have to ask:
