Winter 2024 was a wild announcement of titles for Snow Man followers. We had 5 out of 9 members of Snow Man in dramas. Miyadate Ryota was forged in Ooku, Iwamoto Hikaru in Koisuru Keigo 24ji (evaluation coming quickly!), Fukazawa Tatsuya in Haru ni Nattara, Watanabe Shota in Sensei Sayonara (evaluation coming quickly), and lastly Mukai Koji right here in Livingroom Matsunaga-san.
Granted of the 5 titles, three acquired fansubs instantly. Yay for the facility of Snow Man and their supporters! Sadly, two of these three are dramas I might not selected alone if it weren’t for Snow Man’s affect. I’m getting a contact forward of myself, so let’s do a plot synopsis.
The story of Dwelling no Matsunaga-san, is a shojo manga turned stay motion drama. The story is fairly easy. Sonoda Miko (Takahashi Hikaru) is put in a pinch and as a substitute of dwelling together with her mother and father, finally ends up at her uncle’s share home. Earlier than she even strikes in, she’s hit with much more unhealthy luck, somebody is stalking her! That stalker truly isn’t one and as a substitute seems to be a tenant of the share home, Matsunaga Jun (Nakajima Kento) an grownup graphic designer with a seemingly unhealthy mood. Miko is extremely embarrassed by her poor first impression, that the remainder of her highschool profession shall be depressing. Nevertheless by means of Jun, she learns to stay with the grownup tenants of the share home, and perhaps there’s some hope but?
It’s a shojo manga that was being pushed fairly closely in America in the course of the pandemic, which I swiftly prevented as a result of implication of the age-gap romance occurring. It was inescapable although because it was fairly well-liked in Japan too even now. Plus, it netted not one however two Starto skills within the roaster – Nakajima Kento previously of SexyZone now a soloist, and Mukai Koji of Snow Man. As a fangirl, I didn’t should topic myself to this, however I needed to be up-to-date on what my fellow followers had been gushing about.
I braced myself for the worst, as I are likely to do with any live-action shojo. Particularly so with age-gap relationships like this. In all honesty, this present may have been manner worse by way of the way it was produced. It sadly results in the beautiful bathroom customary stay motion adaptation pile.
There’s fairly actually nothing for me to actually write about right here. The premise is cringey, however a minimum of in a enjoyable rom-com form of manner. I’m assuming it follows the usual system of spotlight reel of occasions, and lands near the canon ending.
Every little thing else was simply wonderful. The sound design, areas, digital camera angles, and so on had been wonderful. Nothing horrible, nothing excellent, resulting in a wonderfully satisfactory however dime a dozen execution. The forged was strong, combine of huge names and on the rise expertise, cohesive supply however completely bland general.
The largest mentionable facet is the non-existent chemistry between Miko and Jun. I don’t even say that condescendingly. It was clear that Takahashi Hikaru as Miko was giving it her all to a minimum of try to have a spark in there for the viewers. Nakajima Kento was not reciprocal within the slightest. Which is a real disgrace, the least a rom-com can do is have a important couple with chemistry, even when the storyline isn’t nice!
It’s a foul manufacturing when secondary characters’ tales begin overtaking the primary couple’s by way of viewer satisfaction. I felt extra sparks fly with the whirlwind two episode subplot that Akane and her boyfriend had. Kentaro (Mukai Koji) and Asako’s subplot that solely was launched mid-series regardless of it being background fodder, was extra passable to see conclude than Miko and Matsunaga. I can’t even think about the frustration for followers of both actor, or followers of the manga really feel about this.
As a substitute of dwelling an excessive amount of extra concerning the negatives – I’m going to speak about Mukai Koji for a bit since he was my important purpose for watching. I didn’t put too many expectations on him right here because it’s a supporting position, and my first time seeing him in a drama. I’ve to say I used to be pleasantly stunned right here. There have been bits and items the place I noticed extra of Koji then Kentaro within the supply, however he had nice forged chemistry and was fulfilling to see on display. I imply the plain bromance of Kento/Matsunaga and Koji/Kentaro was to be anticipated, however saved loads of episodes from being fully unwatchable.
I want I may pull extra nuggets of positivity to finish on right here however Dwelling no Matsunaga-san doesn’t have many. It’s a reasonably par for the course stay motion adaptation in most regards, and that’s about it. I can’t suggest it this, even for tremendous followers of the manga or of a specific actor. There are manner higher productions to spend time with.
