Pardon the Intrusion, I'm Home! (ただいま、おじゃまされます!) is a 12 episode slice of life romance based on the manga of the same name by Watomura. The series originally aired during the Spring of 2026.
Nakama Rinko is a 20-something office worker who keeps to herself and hides the fact that shes an anime otaku. One of her favorite shows is the Bunny and Cat Club. She has found recently that if she watched other anime than that one her next door neighbor pounds angrily on their adjoining wall. Her other neighbor, the kindly man named Satsuki Akito comes to her aid one day when he notices the disturbance. He brazenly calls out the unruly person, hoping to put an end to the trouble they give Rinko. Instead the neighbor angrily busts a hole in the wall to have a face to face confrontation with the person pushing against his aggression. The unruly neighbor...nothing less than the other of the Bunny and Cat Club manga, Usada Haruma. Rinko professes her worship of him as the creator of one of her favorite media franchises. He understands this adoration and explains that he doesn't appreciate her enjoying anything other than his creation. Satsuki can't stand by and let the belligerent manga author dictate Rinko's life and decides to step in to try and protect her.
One thing leads to another and another hole is broken in the wall separating Rinko and Satsuki's apartments leading to Usada demanding that she cook all of his meals for him, in order to maintain his creative focus. Unhappy with the abuse of power Satsuki has Rinko pretend that they are dating, so he can more easily keep an eye on the tyrannical Usada. Satsuki fears that the author will take further advantage of his worshiper and wants to protect the innocent woman. Yet, Satsuki himself has an ulterior motive. After their casual interactions over the time they have become neighbors, he has begun to develop feelings for Rinko and hopes that this will give him an opportunity to win her over. Usada is skeptical of the situation but continues to coerce Rinko into becoming a sort of assistant to him...on top of her actual job. As the trio spend more time together the men begin to realize that they are actually battling each other for the same thing, Rinko's love and attention. But what does Rinko want?
The premise is fun but quickly it stalls and largely becomes devoid of development and progress. For all of the primary characters being established adults and professionals, they sure act like teenagers in every aspect of their daily lives. I quickly lost interest in the series a few episodes in and only completed it out of boredom, hoping that something would happen that would be interesting. Unfortunately nothing really pans out and the minimal obstacles peppered in ended up posing no real threat to anything. The only thing keeping Rinko from choosing her suitor or either guy being honest is their own unwillingness to change anything. There were small windows into potentially deeper story, with the potential to create more development for the characters. The most glaring is Rinko's childhood of what appears to be abandonment by the rest of her family. Instead of this being used as a way to explore sadness in her, it is instead used as a way to really just explain her tendency to love being alone/otaku. Though it does a little bit to show her sadness at being alone...but too little way too late.
On top of the wasted space and time with the story just spinning its wheels for most of its run the artwork is a little bad. Especially when it comes to Usada's parents. Terrible terrible character design work. The backgrounds and lived in space is also way to clean and devoid to deeper context. In general, I was not really happy with this series. It could have been a ridiculous comedy or a deeper story with some casual drama. Instead it spun the same concepts again and again, refusing to push the characters into any sort of growth or progress. Would not recommend honestly.
The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.
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