Taiyou no Ie
What happens if home is not a place, but a person?
Wandering about tumblr has led me to try a lot of new things, and one of these was Taiyou no Ie (House of the Sun). I saw a panel with a really impactful line about loneliness, and decided to check the manga out.
I ended up staying for the story. It's rare that a manga so focused on romance also tries to tackle other issues. In this case, it's about how the separation of a family, whether due to death or divorce, can mess up a family and how each of the members define their home after that.
That's how we find the two main characters. The male lead is a man who started work early because his parents passed away, and he wanted to keep up the house that his family was so happy in. He hopes that once he's capable of supporting his family, they can all come back.
The female lead hopes so too. She practically lived in this family's house to experience the warmth that her parents, in the midst of falling apart, couldn't provide. She visits now and then because the house is still warmer than her own house, though there's only herself and the male lead.
Her father's attempts to focus on his new family after remarrying leads to the female lead moving in to the male lead's house to make things easier for her father, and the two leads finds their feelings growing for each other as they attempt to rebuild the home that they both remember so fondly.
I like this story because it's about a romantic pairing where two characters support each other first before falling in love with each other. Their emotional hurt is not an obstacle, but a way for them to connect, as they see each other's hurts and come in to support in the best way possible. In a sea of messed up relationships, it's nice to see something honest and beautiful between the two leads.
In fact, most of the obstacles to their relationship come from other people imposing their view on the two of them. The female lead's father intentionally agreed to leave his daughter at the male lead's house in the hope that the male lead would take advantage of the situation and press the female lead into a relationship. Needless to say, that puts the male lead off from acting on his feelings in a bid to be better than what people claim. As for the female lead, her younger age makes it hard for her to contribute to running the house or work while she's studying, and she tries desperately to become the male lead's equal in this respect so that she won't feel inferior in the relationship. There's also the matter of how the siblings of the male lead views the relationship between the two leads as they begin to consider returning to the house...
Even the age difference between the characters (23 as compared to 17) is handled realistically, as the two leads have different concerns in their lives apart from each other. It's also not a throwaway detail that is forgotten, as it slips back into the story where it's realistic for the characters to be thinking about such things. For example, at 23 the male lead can have a stable job that allows him to think more about home, while the female lead finds it harder to juggle both work and studies. There's also the issue of how much they actually get to see each other outside of the home.
Then there are the tropes. There are some that the mangaka gleefully uses, even having the characters lampshade some by complaining about how clichéd they are. Then there are others which the mangaka avoids, and it's a refreshing change when they are. The stepmother of the female lead is not portrayed as being evil, and in fact encourages the female lead to reconcile with her father. Ladies confess with no repercussions, even if it sometimes leads to broken hearts when the feelings are not returned. Friends who are each other's rival love interests don't forget years of friendship to stab each other in the back, even as they do angst about who the boy likes better.
There are 9 volumes out, and I just breezed through them in two days. I'm actually happy where the manga is now, for the female love interest has already confessed (see lack of repercussions above) and the male love interest has told her to wait for him to sort out some things before he can tell her what she wants to hear, which is a kind of confession in itself. Plus he has definitely told other characters that he likes the female lead. So I'm happy and I hope the relationship is rounded up well.
The series is on Mangafox if you want to check it out. I highly recommend it!
Wandering about tumblr has led me to try a lot of new things, and one of these was Taiyou no Ie (House of the Sun). I saw a panel with a really impactful line about loneliness, and decided to check the manga out.
I ended up staying for the story. It's rare that a manga so focused on romance also tries to tackle other issues. In this case, it's about how the separation of a family, whether due to death or divorce, can mess up a family and how each of the members define their home after that.
That's how we find the two main characters. The male lead is a man who started work early because his parents passed away, and he wanted to keep up the house that his family was so happy in. He hopes that once he's capable of supporting his family, they can all come back.
The female lead hopes so too. She practically lived in this family's house to experience the warmth that her parents, in the midst of falling apart, couldn't provide. She visits now and then because the house is still warmer than her own house, though there's only herself and the male lead.
Her father's attempts to focus on his new family after remarrying leads to the female lead moving in to the male lead's house to make things easier for her father, and the two leads finds their feelings growing for each other as they attempt to rebuild the home that they both remember so fondly.
I like this story because it's about a romantic pairing where two characters support each other first before falling in love with each other. Their emotional hurt is not an obstacle, but a way for them to connect, as they see each other's hurts and come in to support in the best way possible. In a sea of messed up relationships, it's nice to see something honest and beautiful between the two leads.
In fact, most of the obstacles to their relationship come from other people imposing their view on the two of them. The female lead's father intentionally agreed to leave his daughter at the male lead's house in the hope that the male lead would take advantage of the situation and press the female lead into a relationship. Needless to say, that puts the male lead off from acting on his feelings in a bid to be better than what people claim. As for the female lead, her younger age makes it hard for her to contribute to running the house or work while she's studying, and she tries desperately to become the male lead's equal in this respect so that she won't feel inferior in the relationship. There's also the matter of how the siblings of the male lead views the relationship between the two leads as they begin to consider returning to the house...
Even the age difference between the characters (23 as compared to 17) is handled realistically, as the two leads have different concerns in their lives apart from each other. It's also not a throwaway detail that is forgotten, as it slips back into the story where it's realistic for the characters to be thinking about such things. For example, at 23 the male lead can have a stable job that allows him to think more about home, while the female lead finds it harder to juggle both work and studies. There's also the issue of how much they actually get to see each other outside of the home.
Then there are the tropes. There are some that the mangaka gleefully uses, even having the characters lampshade some by complaining about how clichéd they are. Then there are others which the mangaka avoids, and it's a refreshing change when they are. The stepmother of the female lead is not portrayed as being evil, and in fact encourages the female lead to reconcile with her father. Ladies confess with no repercussions, even if it sometimes leads to broken hearts when the feelings are not returned. Friends who are each other's rival love interests don't forget years of friendship to stab each other in the back, even as they do angst about who the boy likes better.
There are 9 volumes out, and I just breezed through them in two days. I'm actually happy where the manga is now, for the female love interest has already confessed (see lack of repercussions above) and the male love interest has told her to wait for him to sort out some things before he can tell her what she wants to hear, which is a kind of confession in itself. Plus he has definitely told other characters that he likes the female lead. So I'm happy and I hope the relationship is rounded up well.
The series is on Mangafox if you want to check it out. I highly recommend it!