Living Game

Living Game

Living Game tankōbon volume 1
りびんぐゲーム
Genre Romantic comedy
Manga
Written by Mochiru Hoshisato
Published by Shogakukan
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Big Comic Spirits
Original run October 1990 – April 1993
Volumes 10

Living Game (りびんぐゲーム) is a seinen manga by Mochiru Hoshisato, originally published in Big Comic Spirits between October 1990 and April 1993. It is a romantic comedy that also examines some of the absurd effects of the rampant real estate speculation brought about in Japan in the late 1980s and the subsequent recession in the early 90's.

Story

Raizo Fuwa is a 25-year-old salaryman living in a cramped home and working in a crowded office in Tokyo. His hopes for improved conditions are dashed when the new office building his company is supposed to move into is condemned as unsafe because the construction company has been cutting corners. Since the old building is already being demolished, they have no choice but to "temporarily" move the office into Fuwa's new flat. The final complication arrives in the form of the new employee Izumi Hiyama, a high school dropout the boss has promised to take care of as a favour to her family. No landlords are willing to rent to a 15-year-old girl, so she too has to move into Fuwa's home/office. Fuwa is instructed to be Izumi's 'Senpai' or senior both in terms of work experience and age. Fuwa begins to develop a close relationship with Izumi, and very early on in the series, Izumi admits that she has fallen in love with him. However, he does not respond initially, feeling that he should be more responsible and should first achieve his dream of buying (or, as suggested mid-way through the series, designing and constructing a house manually), a spacious home to call his own. Both Izumi and Fuwa struggle with their own maturity and very small network of relationships, and the 10-year difference in their age is dismissed as an unimportant factor in their romantic relationship.

Characters

Main characters

Raizo Fuwa (不破 雷蔵 Fuwa Raizo)
Raizo Fuwa a 25-year-old man is the main character in this manga. He is certainly a reckless and irresponsible person. He lives in a very cramped apartment. He works in a small office which later will change into a home office, because the building that was supposed to be used as an office is condemned as unsafe because the construction company has been cutting the expenses for making it. His life started to change from this point, he had to give up his own room in apartment to be used as a temporary office and then he had to live together with Hiyama Izumi a 15-year-old girl that his company hired. He thinks like he was in some kind of hell to live with a girl 10 years younger, he must able to control his every desire as an adult. There were times that he couldn't control his desire anymore, but luckily there were always breaks that stopped him from doing anything to Izumi. He has a dream that he can have his own house, but he knows that such things were only a mere dream, but his passions never run out. With the help of Izumi he lived his life to the fullest.
Izumi
She is an inexperienced 15-year-old who moved from the country to Tokyo to find work. She develops a romantic relationship with Raizo. The two of them ultimately help the other realize their dream.
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