Rinko Nakama is a 24-year-old officelady and closeted otaku who lives alone in an apartment complex. Despite her busy work life, she finds time to unwind by reading her favourite manga, Bunny and Cat Club, and watching anime. But every time she watches anime, her neighbour to her right violently bangs on the wall, telling Rinko to keep it down. Rinko asks her gentleman neighbour to her left, Akito Satsuki, to speak to the other neighbout through the wall, but that backfires and the right-side neighbour ends up kicking the wall down. Rinko is surprised to see that her neighbour is actually, Haruma Usada, the creator of Bunny and Cat Club. Haruma also kicks down Akito's wall for some reason, and a weird new kind of "room sharing" begins among the three.

Rinko sure is a relatable lead, isn't she? Here she is, just trying to scrape by and make a living in this crapsack world, and all she wants to do after a long day at work is settle down and watch some anime. On top of that, her hot-yet-inconsiderate neighbour who just kicked straight through the wall separating their apartments just so happens to be the author of her favourite manga. There's also another hot guy living in the other neighbouring apartment that's roped her into some kind of elaborate pretend-we're-dating-except-we're-pretty-much-dating-for-real scheme, and the manga author kicked down this guy's wall too, just for shits 'n giggles I guess. So now Rinko the Hapless Otaku has been thrust into a wacky sitcom throuple scenario with a petulant manchild and a possible sociopath! That's... Uh... That's a universally relatable experience, right?

Rinko, sweetie, here's a bit of free advice for you: If your neighbour is refusing to let you live your life and they break down the wall between your apartments and start making demands of you, it doesn't matter if they're the creator of your favourite book. You call the police.

Of course, if Rinko did that, there wouldn't be much of a story, would there? I've complained before about Too Stupid To Live heroines, of which there are plenty this season, and I'm sorry to say that Rinko fits the bill--she has zero sense of self-preservation and a terrible case of hero worship. I can understand why she didn't stand up for herself at work when her boss suddenly dumped more overtime on her because he's in a position of power over her and they're Japanese, but Haruma is simply acting like an unhinged asshat. She was ready to do something about it, with the help of her other attractive neighbour Akito, until she saw who he was. This is plot-mandated stupidity.

There's admittedly plenty to like about Pardon the Intrusion, I’m Home!, but there's equally as much to dislike. Most of the issues come down to the execution of the show not living up to its premise's... Uh, well, I was going to say "potential", but the frankly bizarre and contrived setup is probably what doomed this series to its niche appeal in the first place. I wasn't entirely joking a couple paragraphs ago, Rinko is otherwise a relatable protagonist, and the show's bright, appealing art goes out of its way to give her plenty of funny reaction faces and humanizing moments. In any standard romcom, she'd make for an excellent lead. Here, however, her charming characteristics are weighed down by the neurotic tendencies and obsessions that just don't play as particularly funny or interesting, and that's before we get into the problem of the men starring alongside her. Something about the script and the episode's comedic timing causes otherwise decent jokes to fall flat.

But I could more easily overlook that if not for other factors, like how much of a doormat Rinko is, or the fact that both men just constantly and completely ignore what she wants. At least Haruma is supposed to suck, but that doesn't make him any less obnoxious, and he doesn't have the stunning looks or chemistry with Rinko to be carried on sex appeal alone. Then there's Akito, who I genuinely just do not understand. His whole deal seems to be that he's the kind of super-organized and vaguely intimidating man who could sweep a girl like Rinko off her feet and dazzle her with his force of will. As I alluded to earlier though, while he at first appears to be a better choice (assuming love triangle) than Haruma, his whole routine feels less like Edward Lewis and more like Patrick Bateman. He doesn't have any chemistry with Rinko either, since every scene he shares with the girl just makes him seem like a creeper. Notice how he digs in on the whole "I'll pretend to be your boyfriend" thing when Haruma mentions it. If he heard them through the damn wall before, he likely knows that this is an act. But Akito is unwilling to call it any such thing. Rinko thinks it's because he's still trying to protect her, but between that and his little trick of sitting closer than he knows she's comfortable with, the story tells us something different. He also may have flat-out lied to her about being a fellow otaku, but I dunno, perhaps he's an otaku for tasteful black-and-white decor. This poor girl is trapped between two options that are equally bad for different reasons, and she's barely aware of it.

Visually, the show is quite nice. The characters are attractive in their own ways, Rinko and her clothes are adorable, and the change in style between the show proper and the in-world anime Rinko watches is very well done. Despite this, I unfortunately can't recommend Pardon the Intrusion, I'm Home! as anything other than a morbid curiosity. Maybe you'll dig it more than I do, but I suspect that this is aother of those romcoms that'll fade from our collective memory not long after the season ends. As for me, I just hope Rinko can get herself out of this situation and finally watch some damn anime in peace.