Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou (Japanese: すのはら荘の管理人さん, Hepburn: Sunohara-sō no Kanrinin-san) is a four-panel romantic comedy manga series by Nekoume. The series is serialized in Ichijinsha's seinen manga magazine Manga 4-Koma Palette since 2014, and has also been collected in three tankōbon volumes. An audio drama was released on July 22, 2016, and an anime television series adaptation by Silver Link aired from July 5 to September 20, 2018.

Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou
Volume 1 cover, featuring Aki Shiina (left) and Ayaka Sunohara (right)
すのはら荘の管理人さん
(Sunohara-sō no Kanrinin-san)
GenreRomantic comedy[1]
Manga
Written byNekoume
Published byIchijinsha
MagazineManga 4-Koma Palette
DemographicSeinen
Original run2014 – February 2020
Volumes5
Audio drama
StudioIchijinsha
ReleasedJuly 22, 2016
Anime television series
Directed by
Produced by
  • Hirohiko Kanbe
  • Hayato Kaneko
  • Shota Watase
  • Hirotaka Imagawa
  • Ryoichi Ishibashi
  • Shousei Ito
Written byFumihiko Shimo
Music byRuka Kawada
StudioSilver Link
Licensed byFunimation
Original networkAT-X, Tokyo MX, BS11
Original run July 5, 2018 – September 20, 2018
Episodes12[2]

The series follows Aki Shiina who, wanting to reaffirm his identity as man after being teased for his feminine looks, moves to the Sunohara-sou lodging house in Tokyo to enroll in a new school. He develops a crush on Ayaka, Sunohara-sou's proprietor, who along with the other girls living there frequently tease him and make him dress like a woman.

Synopsis

The series follows the shy Aki Shiina, whose feminine looks often cause him to be teased and mistaken for a girl. Wanting to reaffirm his identity as a man, he moves to the lodging house Sunohara-sou in Tokyo, and forms a crush on its motherly caretaker Ayaka Sunohara; his plan does not go smoothly, as Ayaka and the other residents – Yuzu Yukimoto, Sumire Yamanashi and Yuri Kazami of the Tanamachi student council – often tease him and make him wear women's clothes, while he keeps getting read as a girl.

Characters
Aki Shiina (椎名 亜樹, Shiina Aki)
Voiced by: Eri Kitamura (Japanese); Haleigh Todd (English)[3][4]
A shy boy who moves into Sunohara-sou and develops a crush on Ayaka.
Ayaka Sunohara (春原 彩花, Sunohara Ayaka)
Voiced by: Rina Sato (Japanese); Sara Ragsdale (English)[3][4]
The motherly proprietor of Sunohara-sou, who treats Aki like a child.
Nana Sunohara (春原 菜々, Sunohara Nana)
Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (Japanese); Sarah Wiedenheft (English)[3][4]
Nana is Ayaka's younger sister, and a gyaru.
Yuzu Yukimoto (雪本 柚子, Yukimoto Yuzu)
Voiced by: Natsumi Takamori (Japanese); Lara Woodhull (English)[5][4]
Yuzu is the student council president, and is an assertive girl who wears a plush chicklet-topped hair loop on her head out of insecurity over her height. She denies to have a crush on Shiina.
Sumire Yamanashi (月見里 菫, Yamanashi Sumire)
Voiced by: Asami Seto (Japanese); Amber Lee Connors (English)[5][4]
Sumire is the student council vice-president, a tall girl who has a crush on Yuzu, however she has a good siblinghood relationship with Shiina.
Yuri Kazami (風見 ゆり, Kazami Yuri)
Voiced by: Yume Miyamoto (Japanese); Kaitlin Moon-Jones (English)[5][4]
Yuri is the student council secretary and Yuzu's childhood friend, who wants to dress Aki in women's clothing because of his feminine looks.
Nishiki Yatsuho (錦や つほ, Yatsuho Nishiki)
Voiced by: Shizuka Ito (Japanese); Mallorie Rodak (English)[6][4]
Nishiki is the proprietor of a liquor store, and a close friend of Ayaka.
Matsuri Shiina (椎名 茉莉, Shiina Matsuri)
Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese); Hayden Daviau (English)[6][4]
Matsuri is Aki's doting older sister who treats him like a little sister rather than a brother.
Maiko Osonoi (小薗井 舞子, Osonoi Maiko)
Voiced by: Megumi Nakajima (Japanese); Emily Fajardo (English)[7][4]
Maiko is one of Nana's schoolmates, and is a cheerful girl interested in younger men.
Mea Uchifuji (内藤苺愛, Uchifuji Mea)
Voiced by: Juri Nagatsuma (Japanese); Heather Walker (English)[7][4]
Mea is one of Nana's schoolmates, and is described as a "perverted" girl interested in younger men.

Production and release

Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou is written and illustrated by Nekoume, and is serialized as a four-panel manga by Ichijinsha in their seinen manga magazine Manga 4-Koma Palette since 2014.[1] The manga has been collected in three tankōbon volumes in Japan,[8] the second of which included an audio drama.[3]

Volume list
No.Japanese release dateJapanese ISBN
1 June 22, 2015[8]ISBN 978-4-7580-8238-9
2 July 22, 2016[8]ISBN 978-4-7580-8268-6
3 November 22, 2017[8]ISBN 978-4-7580-8299-0
4 September 21, 2018ISBN 978-4-7580-8314-0
5 October 23, 2019ISBN 978-4-7580-8335-5

Anime
Megumi Nakajima performed the opening theme.

An anime television series adaptation of the series is produced by Silver Link, and is directed by Mirai Minato, with Shin Ōnuma as chief director, Fumihiko Shimo in charge of series composition, and Kazuya Hirata designing the characters. The music is composed by Ruka Kawada at FlyingDog.[9] The series aired from July 5 to September 20, 2018 on AT-X, Tokyo MX, and BS11.[7] The series ran for 12 episodes.[2] The opening theme song is "Bitter Sweet Harmony" by Megumi Nakajima,[7] and the ending theme song is "Sonna no Boku Ja Nai" (そんなの僕じゃない。, "I'm Not That Kind of Person") by Shino Shimoji.[6] The voice cast from the audio drama reprised their roles.[3]

The anime was announced in a promotional video for the third manga volume in November 2017,[1] and an event was held to promote it in June 2018, prior to the series' premiere, where the show received blessings at the Kanda Shrine in Tokyo;[10] a theme café was also held from June to July.[11] A life-size figure of Ayaka was additionally created to promote the show; the design was chosen through a Twitter poll for fans of the series, between two drawings by Nekoume,[3] and the figure was shown off for the first time at the Kanda Shrine event.[10]

The series was released across four DVD and Blu-ray volumes in Japan from September 28 to December 21, 2018, with three episodes per volume; limited editions were also be released, which included acrylic figures of characters from the series.[2] The ending theme was released on a single on August 1, 2018.[12]

Funimation acquired the series, and released it with an English dub weekly through their website starting from July 25, 2019.[13] Animelab licensed it for Australia, and made it available in January 2020.[14]

Episode list
No. Title Original air date[15]
1"Spring Breeze, Arrival in Tokyo, and Miss Caretaker"
"Harukaze joukyo kanrinin-san" (はるかぜ上京 管理人さん)		July 5, 2018 (2018-07-05)
Aki Shiina, a shy boy who is often teased for his feminine looks, moves to Tokyo to enroll in a new school and reaffirm his identity as a man; on his way to the Sunohara-sou lodging house, however, people he pass all mistake him for a girl, including the liquor store proprietor Nishiki who gives him directions. The Sunohara-sou proprietor, Ayaka Sunohara, also mistakes him for a girl, not realizing that he is a boy until taking him to the bath. Aki develops a crush on Ayaka and wishes she would treat him like a man, but she teases him by saying that she will not until he kisses her on the cheek; just as he is about to, they are interrupted by the student council coming home, introducing themselves to Aki. Later, Aki is nervous about going to his new school for the first time, so Ayaka dresses up in a school uniform and pretends to be a student, so that Aki can practice talking to fellow students with her.
2"Special Training, Snip-Snip, Something Scary"
"Tokkun choki choki kowai mono" (特訓 ちょきちょき 怖いもの)		July 12, 2018 (2018-07-12)
After living in Sunohara-sou for a month, Aki does his homework while Ayaka teases him by cheering him on in a revealing cheerleading uniform. The girls tell Aki how he will do a three-legged race with Ayaka at the upcoming school sports day: they practice, including teamwork exercises like feeding one another dinner, brushing one another's teeth, and sharing a bed; Ayaka also cuts Aki's hair and bathes with him. Being together so much makes Aki too exhausted for the race, however. Later, Aki and Sumire try to remove a spider from Yuzu's bathroom but are overwhelmed, until Ayaka does it and asks Aki to go shopping with her. He is unsure what to wear, so the girls make him try a dress. Aki and Ayaka buy cooking sake, and learn that Nishiki still thought Aki was a girl. At home, Yuzu, impressed with Ayaka handling the spider, tells Aki to figure out Ayaka's weakness by watching her reactions to a horror movie, but the film scares Aki instead. Aki asks Ayaka directly, and she reveals she had concealed being scared of the film for Aki's sake; she makes him sleep in her bed, saying she cannot fall asleep alone.
3"Senpai, Change of Clothes, a Boy"
"Senpai o kigae otokonoko" (先輩 お着替え おとこのこ)		July 19, 2018 (2018-07-19)
Yuzu reads in Aki's bedroom and invites him to read along over her shoulder, but she eventually leaves in embarrassment. Aki does not understand, so Ayaka replicates the situation with him in Yuzu's place, and he understands when feeling body contact. Later, Sumire watches Aki, jealously trying to learn why Yuzu talks about him so often; she ends up helping with his homework, and they get closer to one another. Later, Sumire locks herself up in her room, upset over having taken Yuzu to an amusement park only for Yuzu to be too short for the rollercoaster. The girls want Aki to help Sumire; he is unsure about entering a girl's bedroom, so they make him crossdress as "Akiko", and he cheers Sumire up by riding on her shoulders like Yuzu usually does. Later, Yuri makes Aki model women's clothes she made specifically for him, under the pretense that only he is close to her size. Despite protesting, he poses for pictures in many different outfits, until Yuri demands a bikini picture; they argue, and Ayaka almost catches him crossdressing. Yuri puts one of the pictures next to a photo of the other residents, saying that they are finally together.
4"Start of the Rainy Season, Weddings, Lap Pillow"
"Tsuyuiri Kekkon Hizamakura" (梅雨いり けっこん 膝枕)		July 26, 2018 (2018-07-26)
The Sunohara-sou residents talk about how they want their marriages to be, and Ayaka says she is happy with her lifestyle and not currently looking to get married. Aki fantasizes about marrying her, and, after reading in a magazine about how men who can cook are popular with women, helps Ayaka with the dinner; he is shocked to hear Yuzu call him a better girl than she is and that cooking typically is a wife's job in a household. Later, Yuzu tells Aki that she is insecure over her breast size, and he helps her research how to stimulate growth. She feels better after seeing Ayaka's swimsuit from when she was younger, realizing that Ayaka's breasts used to be smaller, too. Later, Aki helps Ayaka repair the roof before the rainy season starts, but the ladder falls over. They are stuck on the roof while it starts to rain, until the girls come home and help them down. Aki wants to bathe, but Yuzu, Yuri and Sumire end up taking a bath together before Aki, after winning rock-paper-scissors against him. While the girls bathe, Ayaka takes care of Aki, letting him rest on her lap.
5"Watermelon, Teacher, Drunk"
"Suika Sensei Yopparai" (西瓜 せんせー 酔っぱらい)		August 2, 2018 (2018-08-02)
The girls bathe in an inflatable swimming pool outside the house while Ayaka and Aki prepare watermelon for everyone. Aki does not want to bathe with the girls, feeling embarrassed, but ends up bathing with Ayaka while Yuri photographs them in secret. Yuri later tricks Aki into believing she is photographing spirits, but turns out to secretly have been photographing Yuzu, and is selling the pictures to Sumire. As school is over, Ayaka helps the residents with their summer homework, spending a whole day with each person. Nishiki delivers a crate of beverages to Sunohara-sou, and Ayaka and Aki open a bottle of juice each to celebrate finishing Aki's homework; Ayaka ends up drinking an alcoholic beverage instead, however, and drunkenly kisses and hugs the residents before falling asleep, having forgotten it all when waking up.
6"JK (High School Girl), Swimsuits, Summer Break"
"Jieke Mizugi Natsuyasumi" (じぇーけー 水着 夏休み)		August 9, 2018 (2018-08-09)
Aki enters his room, and sees an unknown woman changing; seeing her near-exposed breasts, he exits in embarrassment, thinking it was the wrong room, but she lets him in, saying that she lived in his room before. She turns out to be Ayaka's sister Nana, who immediately teases him by proposing to strip, calling him feminine, and trying to see his genitals. She is staying over the summer, and shares a bed with Aki; he awakes in shock, having accidentally touched her breasts. As Aki has never played video games, Nana plays with Aki while making him sit in her lap. Feeling her breasts pressing against him, he faints; waking up resting on her lap, he thinks she seems nice. During a trip to the public swimming pool, Nana's friends Maiko and Mea hit on Aki, and say they thought he was a girl. Nana brags that Aki is like her pet, but Ayaka interrupts to teach Aki swimming; Nana challenges Ayaka to a swimming competition, where the winner gets to do anything they want with Aki. As they are equally fast, the pool closes before a winner is determined. Meanwhile, Maiko and Mea spend the day flirting with Aki.
7"Ghosts, Homework, Massage"
"Obake Shukudai Massāji" (お化け 宿題 まっさーじ)		August 16, 2018 (2018-08-16)
Aki and Yuzu watch a television show about ghosts, and Aki teases Yuzu about being scared of it until Nana scares him by sneaking up on them. Later, Aki is scared by a noise from the storage room, but learns that Nana is using it as a gym. Nana organizes a test of stamina between herself and Yuzu, where the loser has to keep the gym equipment in their room. Aki, Sumire and Yuri are the judges, but Sumire keeps declaring Yuzu the winner due to finding her attractive, and Aki is embarrassed by seeing Nana exercise. Eventually, Ayaka lets them keep the equipment in the storage room. Later, Ayaka and Aki do garden work, and Aki is embarrassed over seeing Ayaka's shirt get transparent when wet. He wants to help Ayaka more, and Yuri suggests giving a massage. She ties Sumire up in a bondage rope harness and has Aki practice on her, and he eventually massages Ayaka. Nana's friends visit to get help with their summer homework, and Nana proposes using Aki as a reward to help them focus. During a break, they play the king game, and Nana's friends end up kissing Ayaka and each other.
8"Ear Cleaning, Lost Child, Fireworks"
"Mimikaki Maigo Uchiagehanabi" (みみかき 迷子 打ち上げ花火)		August 23, 2018 (2018-08-23)
9"Sweet Potato, Nursing, Poster Girl"
"Yaki imo Kanbyō Kanban musume" (やきいも 看病 看板むすめ)		August 30, 2018 (2018-08-30)
10"Costume, Penguins, Pretend Sister"
"Kasō Pengin Ane-gokko" (仮装 ぺんぎん 姉ごっこ)		September 6, 2018 (2018-09-06)
11"Invasion, Sickly-sweet, Hospitality"
"Shūrai Betaamai Omotenashi" (襲来 べた甘 おもてなし)		September 13, 2018 (2018-09-13)
12"Heated Table, Year's End, Santa Claus"
"Kotatsu Nenmatsu Santa-san" (こたつ 年末 サンタさん)		September 20, 2018 (2018-09-20)

Reception

By May 2018, the manga had passed a total of 350,000 copies sold.[16]

References
  1. Loo, Egan (November 16, 2017). "Miss caretaker of Sunohara-sou 4-Panel Dorm Life Manga Gets TV Anime". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  2. "『すのはら荘の管理人さん』佐藤利奈さんと喜多村英梨さんが登壇したTVアニメヒット祈願祭の公式レポートが到着！　BD＆DVDの発売も決定！". Animate Times. Animate. July 3, 2018. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  3. Loo, Egan (December 28, 2017). "Silver Link Animates Miss caretaker of Sunohara-sou for Summer Broadcast". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  4. "[Master Thread] Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou English dub cast". www.funimation.com. Retrieved 2019-07-27.
  5. "Miss caretaker of Sunohara-sou Anime Adds 3 Cast Members". Anime News Network. April 18, 2018. Archived from the original on April 19, 2018. Retrieved April 18, 2018.
  6. "Miss caretaker of Sunohara-sou Anime Reveals More Cast, Ending Theme Artist". Anime News Network. May 24, 2018. Archived from the original on May 25, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  7. "Miss caretaker of Sunohara-sou Anime's Video Reveals More of Cast, Opening Song, July 5 Debut". Anime News Network. June 5, 2018. Archived from the original on July 21, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  8. "すのはら荘の管理人さん" (in Japanese). Ichijinsha. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  9. "Miss caretaker of Sunohara-sou Anime's Promo Video Reveals Staff". Anime News Network. March 15, 2018. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  10. Trlica, Martina (July 3, 2018). "Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou Gets Blessings from Kanda Shrine for Hit Anime". Manga.Tokyo. Gradus Inc. Archived from the original on July 5, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  11. Grainger, Jennifer (May 22, 2018). "Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou Releases New Visual". Manga.Tokyo. Gradus Inc. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  12. "声優・下地紫野さんが歌う『すのはら荘の管理人さん』EDテーマ「そんなの僕じゃない。」より、楽曲＆MV（short ver.）公開！". Animate Times (in Japanese). Animate. July 3, 2018. Archived from the original on July 29, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  13. "Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou is coming to Funimation Now with an English dub". Anime UK News. July 23, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  14. Walker, Alex (January 25, 2020). "All The New Anime On Animelab This Month". Kotaku. G/O Media. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  15. "放送情報" (in Japanese). Tokyo MX. Archived from the original on July 22, 2018. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  16. Dennison, Kara (2018-05-24). ""Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou" Reveals More Cast and ED Singer". Crunchyroll. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
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