As everyday salaryman Tsukasa Atsumi walks home from work one night, he looks up, startled by a loud noise, and sees steel beams falling from atop a construction site. Thinking that this is it for him, Tsukasa is surprised to instead witness a beautiful kunoichi saving him. Even more peculiar, is her explanation that the misfortune that follows Tsukasa is because he’s from a warrior bloodline, leading to monstrous, invisible yoma attempting to kill him. Tsukasa agrees to employ Shizuri, thinking that he has no choice and that the young woman will be taking him for all he’s worth; what he later discovers is that his actual agreement with her is to house Shizuri, whose one wish is to spend any time she’s not defending him as an otaku NEET!
What an unusual little series—the kind I didn’t expect I’d see in 2025. But before I explain what I mean, I should note that the first episode of I’m Living With an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!? is technically divided into two short ones; I wasn’t entirely expecting this, so you can imagine how confused I was when the opening song, first played near the end of episode one, was played again two minutes later, denoting the start of episode two! The format works fine, though, for a series such as this that is gag-oriented and focused on telling short stories. The peculiarity sets in through the tone. This anime has a really heavy dose of old-school romcom corniness to it; with early 00s character designs, an old-man narrator, and spacy sound effects and music, it feels more like it should have aired in 2005 than 20 years later. The fanservice also feels old-school; it’s very spandex-y and honestly isn’t terribly distracting—not until the last five minutes, that is. Up to that point, I was ready to pronounce this series as harmless and perhaps worth recommending to fans of older anime (and of cute, nerdy leads like Shizuri), but there’s a creepy and highly sexualized part at the end of episode two that changed my mind. That scene makes me want to warn you that while the series mostly conveys a wacky but warm and iyashikei-ish vibe, it is clearly adult (it’s streaming on HiDIVE, after all). I’m not sure how often those bits of over-the-top sexuality will find their way into the rest of the series, but I found this one to be disruptive enough. So I’m out.
I’m Living With an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!? can be streamed on HiDIVE.
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