User:Nihonjoe/Living Game

Living Game (りびんぐゲーム) is a seinen romantic comedy manga by Mochiru Hoshisato, originally published in Big Comic Spirits between October 1990 and April 1993. The series 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 1990s.

Story
Raizo Fuwa is a 25-year-old salaryman living in a cramped home and working in a crowded office in Tokyo. On the day his company, Namifuku, is supposed to move into a new office building, the office building is condemned due to the construction company cutting corners during construction. Since the office Namifuku was in has already been leased to another company, they have to quickly find a new location. Unable to find one quickly, they move into Raizo's flat "on a temporary basis".

To further complicate matters, the company has a young, new employee: Izumi Hiyama, a high school dropout the boss has promised to take care of as a favour to her family. Since no landlords are willing to rent to a 15-year-old girl, the boss asks that she be allowed to live with Raizo. Raizo is instructed to be Izumi's "[[senpai]" (or senior) both in terms of work experience and age. He 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 midway through the series—designing and constructing) a spacious home to call his own. Both Izumi and Raizo struggle with their own maturity and very small network of relationships, and the 10-year difference in their age is eventually dismissed as an unimportant factor in their romantic relationship.

Main characters

 * Raizo Fuwa (不破 雷蔵)
 * The 25-year-old main character, born 22 February 1965. He is a reckless and irresponsible person. He lives in a very cramped apartment. 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 Hiyama (氷山一角)
 * The inexperienced 15-year-old second main character, born 30 March 1975, who moved from Shimane Prefecture to Tokyo to find work. She develops a romantic relationship with Raizo. The two of them ultimately help the other realize their dream.

Employees of Namifuku
These are employees of Namifuku DM Service (ナミフクDMサービス), the company at which both main characters work at the beginning of the manga.
 * President (社長)


 * Nanba (難波)
 * A graphic designer at the company, age unknown. She's always bossing around Raizo despite the office being Raizo's home, and is therefore always arguing with him. She smokes and always wears sunglasses (even indoors).


 * Tsugio Isseki (一石次男)
 * A sales and marketing employee at the company, born in 1961. Wears glasses. Got married after pretending to be Raizo on a matchmaking date.


 * Senri (千里)
 * An accountant at the company, born in 1949. Wears glasses.

Raizo's acquaintances

 * Tokiko Kanemori (兼森時子)
 * Raizo's former girlfriend, the same age as Raizo. They had been living together and planning to get married, but she left when Raizo abandoned his plans to become a potter. She later got married to someone else, though she crashes at Raizo's apartment whenever she has a fight with her husband. She's an excellent housekeeper and teaches Izumi how to take care of housework.


 * Mitsuo Kanemori (兼森万夫)
 * Tokiko's husband, 38 years old at the beginning of the series, and owner of Kanemori Development, a construction company. He spends a lot of time at work, though he dotes on Tokiko and sometimes treats her as a child due to their age difference. His actions sometimes cause he and his wife to fight. He was previously going out with Sachiko Ishibashi, but they broke up due to their age difference and Mitsuo met and married Tokiko. They meet again after one of the times Tokiko runs away due to a fight.


 * Komada (駒田)
 * Kanemori's secretary at Kanemori Development. She loves Mitsuo's resourcefulness and stays with the company through thick and thin. Mitsuo highly values her skills. She doesn't speak much, but when it's important, she speaks clearly.


 * Yasunobu Tanokura (田之倉康伸)
 * An older man who works a side job with Namifuku doing direct mail campaigns.

Izumi's acquaintances

 * Naoki Hiyama (氷山直樹)
 * Izumi's father. He runs Hiyama Clinic, a medical clinic in Shimane Prefecture. He had planned on Izumi taking over his practice when he retired, and had been training her to do that. After he remarried, he decided that Yūta would be the one to take over, which angered Izumi and caused her grades to worsen.


 * Izumi's stepmother (いずみの継母)
 * Married Izumi's father and treats Izumi well. She and the president of Namifuku are close friends and she entrusted Izumi to his care after Izumi dropped out of high school.


 * Yūta Hiyama (氷山勇太)
 * Izumi's 6-year-old half-brother. He had a different mother than Izumi.


 * Fukunaga (福永)
 * Attended junior high school with Izumi in the same year. Has a bit of a complex regarding his super-talented older bother and sister. When Izumi ran away from home, he went with her to a hotel.

Others

 * Sachiko Ishibashi (石橋幸子)
 * Mitsuo Kanemori's former girlfriend, prior to his meeting Tokiko.

Publication
Between July 1991 and May 1993, the manga was originally collected in 10 tankōbon volumes under the Big Comic Spirits imprint from Shogakukan.
 * 1) ISBN 4-09-182641-5 (July 1991)
 * 2) ISBN 4-09-182642-3 (September 1991)
 * 3) ISBN 4-09-182643-1 (February 1992)
 * 4) ISBN 4-09-182644-X (March 1992)
 * 5) ISBN 4-09-182645-8 (June 1992)
 * 6) ISBN 4-09-182646-6 (October 1992)
 * 7) ISBN 4-09-182647-4 (January 1993)
 * 8) ISBN 4-09-182648-2 (February 1993)
 * 9) ISBN 4-09-182649-0 (April 1993)
 * 10) ISBN 4-09-182650-4 (May 1993)

They were later released through print on demand publisher Contents Works.
 * 1) ISBN 4-09-002888-4
 * 2) ISBN 4-09-002889-2
 * 3) ISBN 4-09-002890-6
 * 4) ISBN 4-09-002891-4
 * 5) ISBN 4-09-002892-2
 * 6) ISBN 4-09-002893-0
 * 7) ISBN 4-09-002894-9
 * 8) ISBN 4-09-002895-7
 * 9) ISBN 4-09-002896-5
 * 10) ISBN 4-09-002897-3

Shogakukan Bunko released them in bunkobon format in 1997, condensing the 10 original volumes into 7 volumes.
 * 1) ISBN 4-09-192231-7 (July 1997)
 * 2) ISBN 4-09-192232-5 (July 1997)
 * 3) ISBN 4-09-192233-3 (August 1997)
 * 4) ISBN 4-09-192234-1 (August 1997)
 * 5) ISBN 4-09-192235-X (September 1997)
 * 6) ISBN 4-09-192236-8 (October 1997)
 * 7) ISBN 4-09-192237-6 (October 1997)

A less expensive "My First Big Special" edition, meant to be sold in convenience stores, was released by Conbini Comic in six volumes from September 2008 through February 2009.
 * 1) ISBN 4-09-108873-2 (September 2008)
 * 2) ISBN 4-09-108890-2 (October 2008)
 * 3) ISBN 4-09-107008-6 (November 2008)
 * 4) ISBN 4-09-107014-0 (December 2008)
 * 5) ISBN 4-09-107027-2 (January 2009)
 * 6) ISBN 4-09-107037-X (February 2009)

Original album
A CD titled Living Game Original Album (りびんぐゲーム オリジナルアルバム) (TYCY-5275) was released in January 1993 from Toshiba EMI and Youmex under their Futureland label. The runtime was 41 minutes 16 seconds.


 * Track list
 * 1) "Tokyo: Morning Call" (Tokyo～モーニング・コール)
 * 2) "Almost 16!" (もうすぐ16!) (sung by Arika Takarano)
 * 3) "I've Got Nothing, I've Got Nothing, I've Got Nothing" (何もない,何もない,何もない) (sung by MoJo)
 * 4) "Tokyo: Afternoon Noise" (Tokyo～アフタヌーン・ノイズ)
 * 5) "You're Good Just the Way You Are" (そのままの君でいい) (sung by Project Moonlight Cafe)
 * 6) "The Three Requirements for Living: Small! Dirty! No Money!" (りびんぐ三拍子～せまい!きたない!金がない!)
 * 7) "Within Each Time" (それぞれの時間の中で) (sung by Project Moonlight Cafe)
 * 8) "Tokyo: Night Light" (Tokyo～ナイト・ライト)
 * 9) "Yesterdays" (イエスタデイズ) (sung by Arika Takarano)

Reception
Jose Arroyo at The Review Geek described Living Game as "full of silly, enjoyable romantic comedy" and praised the artwork as "immaculate". He also praised the pacing of the story and the authenticity of the characters. Manga Osusume recommended the manga for both male and female college students and working adults, stating it was a humorous manga that gave a lot of good advice for dealing with the ups and downs of life both at home and at work, especially when just starting to work out of college. They also praised the character designs and artwork, calling them "cute".