The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord

What's It About? 

Asako Suga needs a change to get over her recent breakup and decides moving to a new home would be just the thing. She finds a great little place a little removed from the city with a lovely garden, but there's a catch―the house also comes in with a live-in landlord! Having a charming girl lazing about would be distracting enough, but it seems she's keeping a secret as well...

Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord has a story and art by Yodokawa. The English translation is by Stephen Paul with lettering by Elena Pizarro Lanzas. Published by Yen Press (October 24, 2023).

Is It Worth Reading?

Christopher Farris

Rating:

The cumbersomely titled Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord purposefully plays the hits for a particular crowd. It's a yuri series with actual adults as its leads! It's centered around the cutesy domestic antics of these ladies! I can snark about it yet still be quite suckered in by its charms! Yes, this manga can get the basics right in its setup, seeming more successfully chill than author Yodokawa gives themselves credit for by the end of this first volume. Anything resembling romance is almost entirely consigned to incidental vibes at this point. Instead, the focus is mostly on the two new roommates getting to know each other and how that speaks to the experience of forging new connections as an adult.

Other than that, Monthly in the Garden mostly begs the question of whether a volume can be carried by those kinds of vibes alone. There is some core character appeal, as in Asako being a shamelessly open lesbian who can't help but be attracted to her live-in landlord despite herself. And said landlord, Miyako, has her charms as a hot mess, particularly in her flippant and flighty indulgences. Her eventual reveal of what "comes with the landlord" in her ad meant got a great laugh out of me. The women have plenty of cutesy chemistry so far, though I wonder if they aren't infantilizing Miyako at this point. The chapter where Asako waylaid her by buying a tent stuck out, even as it ultimately provided a sweet moment for the women to share.

The book also stops short of exploring any plots that might interfere with its drifting depictions of domestic life. A chapter about Miyako dealing with an apparent stalker just has the situation trail off, though I wonder if that plot point might return. The reasons Miyako might have left the idol industry are barely brushed against, with her grandmother's interference at the end of this volume alluding to things as an oddly overly antagonistic distraction. It feels like Yodokawa doesn't want to get by entirely on slice-of-life sweetness but can't fully commit to harder plotlines. They ought to be more confident, as huge panels with cozy backgrounds carry out the presentation well, which lets readers still take their time going through this manga rather than breezing by too quickly. And all the cute domestic moments do land. I can see this one becoming richer if it can settle in as it goes on, though as-is, it's still an entertaining, if very uneven, time.

Is It Worth Reading?

MrAJCosplay

Rating:

Two young adult women find themselves living together due to misunderstandings and extenuating circumstances. Will a budding romance between the two grow as they spend time together? Probably, but I was surprised at how much the story took its time to develop the obvious romance between our two leads. That's not a condemnation because I genuinely liked our two leads' laid-back, casual interactions. One is a bit spoiled and doesn't know how to take care of herself, while the other is trying to create a fresh start but finds herself slipping into the old habits of being too kind to people.

While the inciting incident that originally put these two together feels a bit forced, I can't say I was disappointed with many of the interactions. The writing is simple, but it has a lot of heart. It's nothing extraordinary, but it doesn't fail to elicit a smile with each passing chapter while also leaving little hints that there's probably a more serious revelation eventually coming down the road. Because these moments were so lovely and I bought the friendship between the two characters, I was OK that the story didn't rush any romantic developments. They still need to figure some things out about themselves first. Nothing remarkable, but there's enough to keep a consistent yet casual investment.

P.S. Also, the title is a lie because we only get three pages of gardening in the entire volume, so I have no idea why it's called this!