Home Office Romance - Kintetsu Yamada - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Kintetsu Yamada

GENRE: Manga

PUBLICATION DATE: November 12, 2024

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A manga about a geeky IT guy who discovers love right next door during the lockdown. A sweet and funny story, though it takes too long to get going. The flashback-style narration also doesn’t do it any favours. But a good option for those wanting a light-hearted opposites-attract love story.

Plot Preview:

When Nokoru is told to telework from home during the pandemic lockdown, he views it as a blessing. His job as a system engineer is very demanding, especially because of clientele who don’t know what they want. Working from home comes with unexpected benefits, such as getting to wake up just ten minutes before work, or managing to find more time for hobbies such as gardening and gaming. What Nokoru doesn’t expect is to interact over his balcony with his new neighbour right next door. Natsu, a graduate student of archaeology, is everything Nokoru is not: impulsive, relaxed, chaotic, gorgeous, always smiling! Is there any hope for a relationship between such disparate souls, especially when social distancing is de rigueur?

The story comes to us in Nokoru’s first-person perspective.

This manga is the first standalone book by this author, which he has expanded from a one-shot story about two characters working at home during the pandemic. This manga is written in the traditional format, with a right-to-left story flow and B&W illustrations. (Making this explicitly clear for those who aren’t used to manga but might be tempted by the cute cover and premise.)

Nokoru is a fantastic character, though it takes time for him to grow on the reader. He comes across as extremely formal, even in dating and love. Always logical and disciplined in his approach towards everything, Nokoru can’t seem to do anything impulsively. He is also an overthinker, which leads to his questioning and analysing every single word and action Natsu makes. This leads to a lot of rambling thoughts, which can be either hilarious or annoying, depending on your mood. I have rarely seen a male character depicted with so many inner monologues! Luckily for him, I was in a good mood while reading this. 😉

Given Nokoru’s ultra-systematic personality, it is comically cute to see him stumble and fumble in his roundabout way to go out with Natsu. In fact, Natsu deserves the credit for getting the ball rolling, as is so often true in a relationship between an extrovert and an introvert. The connection between the two neighbours feels organic, though one might initially wonder what Natsu sees in Nokoru. She is such a brilliant character, as peppy as possible. I loved that she was an aspiring archaeologist – not often that we get to see such an unusual profession for a female character in realistic comics.

Their contrary personalities are put to good use in this somewhat episodic-plotline, leading to many laugh-out-loud moments. The fact that Natsu was a student threw me off at first. But as graduate students can be older and Nokoru’s age isn’t clarified, the connection does not come across as having too much of an age gap.

Nokoru narrates his love story through flashback, though we don’t get to see glimpses of his “present”. All we know is that when he is telling us these events, Natsu is already his wife. This was disappointing for two reasons. One: we don’t have any suspense about the end of the “relationship” (After all, it is set during the covid pandemic, so it could have been a tragic romance or a one-sided love story or even a short-lived fling between two opposite persons brought together by the exceptional circumstances. So knowing that Natsu was his wife killed some of the anticipation.) Two: what’s the fun to a flashback story if we don’t know anything about the “current time” of the characters? Other than the fact that the two are married after several years of the events of this love story, we get nothing. So sad!

The title made me assume that this would be some kind of virtual romance between office colleagues who connect online during the pandemic. But as they are next-door neighbours, there are often real-world interactions between the pair. The pandemic is very much there in the background, but because these two live right to each other, we mostly see them without masks. The story does show distancing and travel restrictions, but not the fear and gloom of the era. So I don’t think it will be triggering to anyone wary of covid fiction.

The illustrations are mostly great. Natsu was easily my favourite in the artwork. Her beautiful bespectacled eyes shine as bright as stars. I simply loved her expressions, whether showing shyness or laughter or mischievous innuendo. Nokoru was blander in comparison, though that also goes well with his character traits. The only thing I didn’t like was Nokoru’s eyes. Admittedly, this isn’t an issue with just this book because manga often depict (male) characters with microscopic single dots for eyes. Eyes depict so much emotion in graphics, so having them reduced to such teeny specks is always a killjoy for me. Those more attuned to manga might not even be bothered by this.

The translation notes at the end, offering a detailed explanation of the Japanese terms, are much appreciated by this reader: they are so helpful in getting some of the deeper nuances of the story!

All in all, this manga took some time to grow on me as I couldn’t get an initial handle on Nokoru’s standoffish personality. But once his behaviour became clearer, I got into the groove and enjoyed the story.

Recommended to NA and adult manga readers looking for a sweet romance set during the pandemic. Note that this is clean on-page, but there are references to sexual intimacy.

My thanks to Kodansha for providing the DRC of “Home Office Romance” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.