Rinko's one respite from the doldrums of office work is her apartment―a perfect piece of paradise where she can wash away the day's worries with a generous dose of her favorite otaku pastimes. But the walls of her sanctum come crashing down (literally) when her home is unexpectedly connected to those of her neighbors! To her left, a pleasant mystery man who's oddly kind to her. To her right, a not-so-pleasant mystery man who―hold on, she's seen this guy before! With her peace disturbed and her secret hobby out in the open, can Rinko handle the excitement of two new unexpected roommates?

Pardon the Intrusion, I’m Home! has a story and art by watomura. English translation is done by Team Solmare and Andria McKnight and lettering by Katie Blakeslee and Lys Blakeslee. Published by Yen Press (September 22, 2026). Rated OT.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

I am pleased to say that I liked the original manga of Pardon the Intrusion, I’m Home! more than its anime counterpart. I am less pleased to remind you that that is not high praise, because I truly detested the anime. In large part, the reason why I could get through the manga and wanted to turn the anime off and throw my computer into the sun comes down to the simple fact that manga is a silent medium. Without Rinko shrieking and Usaharu yelling, it's much easier for sound-sensitive me to find something to enjoy in the story. Still not a ringing endorsement, but if you were put off by the sheer loudness of the voice acting as well (note: this does not refer to actual volume) but were intrigued by the plot, the manga is the way to go.

What the change in medium can't take care, however, is how very TSTL Rinko is. If you're not familiar with that acronym, it stands for “too stupid to live.” She does, it must be said, get better as the volume goes on, albeit marginally. And there is an attempt to make her very weird trust issues – as in she's way too trusting – seem like they come from a natural place. Rinko has apparently spent her entire life cocooned within her otaku interests, which mainly run to children's media. As someone with a degree in that very field because I love it so much, I can understand that – children's programming and books can be very reassuring and feel safe. You don't even have to engage with them on an adult level, which is soothing. But you do need to live the rest of your adult life in the grown-up world, and that's something that Rinko seems not have figured out, at least in the social sense. I don't mean that she needs to go out drinking with her coworkers (believe me, I have mastered coming up with excuses to stay home), but she perhaps ought to realize that even if a guy is your favorite manga creator or author, having him kick down the walls of your apartment and refuse to let you fix it is not okay. His status as your favorite creator does not make him trustworthy.

And that's the problem with this book in a nutshell. Rinko is almost a Candide figure, cheerily believing that Satsuki and Usaharu have only the best intentions and that Satsuki is pretending to be her boyfriend (“pretending”) out of the goodness of his heart, that Usaharu is laying down next to her in her bed solely because he wants breakfast. It's clearly meant to funny, but I just can't see it that way. It feels too dangerous to be funny or romantic.

On the plus side, the art for this is absolutely beautiful. The entire book is in full color and watomura does a phenomenal job of creating soft, lovely art that almost distracts from all the giant red flags. It's worth at least getting at a library to look at, both on the art and to see if you like this flavor of romance fiction more than I do.

Bolts
Rating:

Wow, I never thought I would read a modern manga with a female protagonist exhibiting worse survival instincts than a shoujo protagonist from the early 90s. The title of this book, Pardon the Intrusion, exhibits an air of politeness. Oftentimes if you invade another person's space, it's generally a good idea to at least offer that type of courtesy. However, I didn't expect the title for this book to be so intrinsically ironic, since this entire story is all about three people constantly invading each other's personal spaces and I don't like it.

This is a love triangle where a young naïve woman is literally and figuratively sandwiched between two men on opposite sides of the personality spectrum. One is deliberate and borderline manipulative, while the other is rash, impulsive, and very unreasonable. Meanwhile, protagonist Rinko is naïve, has no survival instincts and seems to be willing to forgive any type of behavior, even if it crosses criminal or personal boundaries. The difficult thing about this love triangle is that I genuinely don't know what character I'm supposed to root for since all of them are awful in some way shape or form. No one in the story talks like an actual person, dodging responsibility whenever making a tense situation worse, and even when someone makes an astute point or observation, the manga immediately follows it up with a declaration that no reasonable person would be OK with.

There are a lot of points in the story where it almost feels like this is supposed to be read as a parody. Even the art style and the over the top actions of some of the characters could lead me to believe that. But at the same time, the story plays its love triangle tropes so incredibly straight, especially towards the ladder third of the volume. In fact, it plays up those tropes so straight that the random seriousness in tone kind of sneaks up on me out of nowhere. I don't think this is the type of story that I'm supposed to laugh at or laugh with; I genuinely believe the author wants me to really be invested in the cute silly drama of all the characters, but I can't.

In order to do that, I need to at least find someone in the main cast likable or their struggles relatable. Here, there isn't really an emotional arc or theme to any of the characters. There's a practical, physical circumstance that forces all of them together and while that can be funny, it also means that I have to watch the characters willingly ignore explicit red flags, some of which that the story will even go out of its way to point out, just for the sake of having a story at all. There is suspension of disbelief, and then there is whatever the hell this story wants me to swallow just for the sake of justifying its own existence. I cannot do that here and neither should you.