Taiyou no Ie
House of the Sun

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I shouldn’t need to persuade you to read this, I mean - as of writing this - it has a 33-0-0 review ratio (now 34-0-0), that’s incredible. Please go read this manga, you won’t regret it.

Much like the title itself: everything about this read emanates a certain warmth that’s hard to generate from a typical read. From the fantastic characters and their interactions with each other, to the cozy art-style; comparable to the other rom-coms we all know and love - to the perfectly slow-paced story and the rewarding progress towards the main characters primary goals. It all weaves together to create a feeling unlike ... much else. And that’s, incredibly special.

The main narrative of the show definitely hit me harder than I was expecting. It genuinely made me want to try and reconnect with my dad whom I haven’t see in so long, and it made me want to grow a closer relationship with my mother whilst I still have her. Needless to say they handle this narrative incredibly, I cannot give it enough praise.

The obvious and loudest issue involves the ethically questionable age gap between the two love interests, but - honestly. I don’t care anymore. Maybe it’s because the show won me over with it’s other aspects, maybe I’m just used to this, or maybe its because they actually acknowledge that it’s a questionable concept in the story itself. But I just stopped caring around the half-way point. And I hope you will to, if you let this bother you, you will not have enjoy yourself.

(Just to clarify this is still ethically abhorrent and I do not condone this situation in any way shape-or-form)

But still - this manga is fantastic.

Have a wonderful day <3

The story is about seperated siblings that try to get together after their parents pass away but it’s not that easy because they’ve been living in different places for years. So it is not much in the romance part and centers mostly on the family concept, meaning this was more slice of life than romance. I’m going to be real and not influence myself from other reviews. The truth is, I didn’t enjoy this as much as other people did. Mostly because it was too slow and I felt that the story is stagnant at times. The character development was well done since they showed ... the families get closer step by step. Expressing their feelings and facing one’s fears make a huge part of the story. The characters run away from their problems so the problems don’t get solved for a very long time. Everyone blamed themselves, they just can’t solve problems by talking it out so I couldn’t help but feel frustrated by this manga a lot. I dropped it two times before finishing it just because of the miscommunication and the stagnant, unprogressive storyline. It is also full of love triangles and makes drama out of it. It constantly gives the narrative of the character being a good-hearted person and would be good for them. I honestly couldn’t care less about the drama caused by the love triangles.

The art is cute. The scribble style in the characters’ eyes are unique. The body proportions were not my favorite since the face seemed bigger than the body. It also caught my attention that the art seemed to use 3/4 profile so much that in some parts it bothered me. Mao is supposed to be a 17 year old but the art made her look like 13 next to Hiro. Still, the art was great and suitable for the manga, the tones made a great contrast.

I recommend this if you don’t mind reading are very slow paced story which is mostly slice of life. I also don’t recommend it if you aren’t a fan of miscommunication or shoujo genre. Other than those, this might be the one for you if you want to see family bonds.

A page-turning read from start to finish. The way romance was woven with family issues for both the MC and ML was very natural. You could see why they're special to each other in ways besides their developing romantic affection for each other.

The side characters were generally lovely. Everyone has nuance to them, even the ones you'd hate initially. Although I'd say one character is held in too much of a sympathetic light, but it's not that much of an issue because MC was allowed by the narrative to make her own decision regarding that character. MC's female best friend is also a welcome part ... of the story, and talks about important issues with her and actually makes her think. I also like that MC treasures her relationship with her and gets jealous when she "gets stolen" by a guy. Her BFF is clearly very important to her and I like that the story takes the time to establish this. And the second male lead(s) were likeable without outshining the main guy in the "she should end up with him" department.

Although this manga is not without some puzzling problems. First, a lot of the times the panels look as if they're drawn in MS Paint, and I'm not one to complain about art. Characters often look similar to one other so it's hard to determine who's who, and designs are often inconsistent. Most importantly, everyone looks so young, especially the women. For example, MC is a teenager but often has loli proportions, and the times when she's shown to be 10 years old she looks like a toddler. This is a little off putting sometimes, especially since the "working adult" women are also portrayed this way and especially for scenes when they're treated as women.
MC is rather tsundere and often calls ML "creepy" for no good reason (like being emotional). I also wish her housekeeping skills developed more, as hinted with her practicing with other characters, because it becomes strange to see ML see her as a woman anyways even if he often has to take care of her like a little sister, I just don't see how that's attractive. Romance to me really requires both people to see each other as a member of the opposite sex and while ML shows some initial attraction and MC tries to contribute more it just becomes more puzzling given how childish MC acts. On a similar topic there's a lot of "finding the person you love" spiel and how you'll be lonely without a romantic relationship, a message I really don't like.
Finally, the conflict at the end I feel was wrapped up a little too quickly, and I didn't really get closure for the character that caused it, especially since they were so important in the life of the MC.

I would tentatively recommend this for the drama with a good focus on a plethora of relationships that are not romantic. I just couldn't really get past the art on top of the fairytale romance message.