An adorably cute modern love story.

While the title kinda gives the game away, it honestly doesn't matter as the chemistry between the characters is excellent.

The online personas vs Real life people is capture in a believable way, right down to how people are so much more confident online.

I loved all the misunderstandings and sudden relisations by each of the three protagonists. It adds an amusing edge to this already delightfully funny modern romance.

Trying to stay up on new manga coming out, this was a really fun last minute read. I might have mentioned it before, but I am a pretty avid videogame player—it’s actually part of my normie job—so I’m always extremely excited when I find a narrative that centres around that. In terms of shounen-ai (anime and manga that feature m/m romantic relationships), this was a really sweet low-spice option that perfectly captures the obliviousness of someone used to interacting through a screen.
Story-wise, Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! is pretty much what it says. Hashimoto is a recent graduate working an office job under a demanding boss, Shirase. In his spare time he plays an online game alongside a few internet friends, Salted Salmon and U.M.A, to whom he confesses all the highs and lows of trying his best but failing to impress Shirase. U.M.A, in turn, talks often about a co-worker he thinks has potential, but lacks skill who he doesn’t know how to properly motivate. A chance real-life encounter reveals the truth, unbeknownst to either they were in fact talking to each other all along.
I really enjoyed the relationship progression in this. It moves from enemies to friends and then to lovers, but neither Hashimoto or Shirase are particularly good at communicating or picking up on signals. Normally miscommunication isn’t my thing, but instead of acting as an obstacle in this story, it felt more like a means for the pair to get closer to one another and build trust as they worked through those misunderstandings. The result is something incredibly cute and very funny.
Personally, I would thoroughly recommend this as a quick, feel-good read.

I wanted to read this for a while! I actually forgot it was BL, which is a bonus, but it would be cute and good as a platonic comic as well!

What do you do when you find out your bff in-game is your hard to deal with boss? (You date him! Just kidding, that is like way after they're friends first.) This manga is rife with miscommunications but in a comedy-style and all of them get worked out sooner or later anyway so it's not the BIG STRESS of the miscommunication trope in some romances since it's mostly meant for laughs (usually with one party figuring out what's up while the other is clueless). A cute manga for fans of friendship and online games and little gay stories and oblivious but here for it love interests. Enjoyable!

Thank you Kodansha and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this story.
SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

THIS WAS SUCH A CUTE STORY AND I WANT MORE OF IT AHHHH!!! Shirase and Hashimoto are so damn cute together and it was really fun watching them fall for one another. Hashimoto is just like me though COMPLETELY CLUELESS so all the misunderstandings in this volume. felt on a personal level lol. Kumada was a really great character too. I was glad to see that all three of them were friends in-game and offline. I'm hoping there's more volumes of this that will be published and that this isn't the only one because I really enjoyed it and I want to read more of their story!

A cute G rated, slice of life, BL. Highlights the miscommunication trope, two men after the same guy, hapless MMC. Sweet book, fast read, no spice.

A super cute read about two gaming pals who meet IRL and find out they're actually Boss/Employee. *Gasp!* It ultimately presents little in the way of angst or drama. Instead we get to see them slowly start to spend more time together as they game their way into love. There are tons of misunderstandings but they're not important and don't lead to real hurt so it says fun and cute the whole time. Hashimoto is SO blissfully unaware and oblivious to how much people like him. Two people ask him out and he doesn't immediately realize either time. It's amazingly dense. But when it comes to Shirase, he realizes quickly and literally runs to clarify. Their trial dating is fun as well, it's never easy to shift a dynamic from friends to more. I enjoyed the minor uncertainty and awkwardness there.

Hashimoto hates his boss. But in his free time, he loves playing an online game with friends. It just so happens that his best online friend is the boss that he hates. After a meet and greet from Hell, the two men forge a friendship and improve their work relationship as well. Pretty soon, things take a turn again when they realize that they can be so much more.

I don't normally go for BL manga, but this was quite good. I love the characters and the art. It was funny and sweet. Just so good. I may actually continue this series.

-- 2/5 Stars -- ★★☆☆☆

Trigger Warnings for Turns out my Online Friend is my Real-Life Boss 1: Quid Pro Quo, age gap

Turns out my Online Friend is my Real-Life Boss 1​ is the first volume in the Online Friend series by Nmura. In this volume we follow Hashimoto and his boss, Shirase. Based only from the title, it's pretty safe to say that Shirase ends up being Hashimoto's online friend for almost a year.

First let me say, Nmura is an absolutely fantastic artist. The design of each of the characters in this manga are stunning. That being said, the story has been hashed again and again in other novels and relies so heavily on a completely unaware protagonist. Hashimoto was so sweet, but it was such a stretch to believe that he was that unaware of both Shirase and Kumataros' feelings.

Overall, Turns out my Online Friend is my Real-Life Boss 1 is a very pretty manga. The story just wasn't there for me. Special thanks to NetGalley, Nmura, and Kodansha Comics for access to a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

A fun silly little BL Manga with a classic painfully oblivious MC. It has pretty illustrations and clear writing. It was an enjoyable read.

I really enjoyed this manga. The premise is very interesting and is literally in the title - what if your online friend turned out to be your real life boss.

And the execution is actually very good. I'm not an expert at manga, but the drawings were cute, and I didn't have trouble following the story.

As for the plot, I would like to see more implications of them working together in the second half. I think the story should focus more on this than on the weird love triangle.

There's a lot of miscommunication and characters being oblivious as a plot device, but I didn't mind it.

Overall, it's a nicely written and drawn manga with a lot of funny and cute moments. Great for a quick read.

One of my best manga reads.
It is a fun boss-employee romance with a love triangle, 100% recommended

"Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss!" is a sweet and simple BL manga. The plot utilizes common tropes such as misunderstandings and miscommunications, as well as hidden identities. The art is nice and clean, and the ending is quite sweet. I do feel it had a slow pace, and a bit of an anti-climatic ending in terms of their relationship progress (spoilers: the kiss at the end is only implied, not seen by the reader). However, I would still recommend this manga to readers looking for a more wholesome experience.

I really liked this manga. It starts with a gaming partnership and turns into a boss and a employee meeting up for a gaming event. I enjoyed how they started as friends first instead of just getting into a relationship immediately like a lot of BL do. Those are boring and I will be reading volume 2. I want to see how their relationships grows!

La historia empieza con el típico cliché de un protagonista que no soporta a su jefe, ya que lo considera insoportable, para después dar con el alivio cómico de que su jefe es también un gran amigo suyo, al que solo conoce por medio de un videojuego, es decir, un amigo online. Ahora bien, ¿qué me gustó y qué no? Aunque he de decir que realmente me encantó este libro, creo que es importante comentar dos cosas:

1. Me gustó mucho que el jefe y el protagonista fueran verdaderos amigos en primer lugar, y que todos los nudos de la trama se resolvieran de una forma muy sana, sin complicaciones. Sin duda, puedo asegurar que se trata de una historia con 0% de toxicidad.

2. También me gustó como se desarrolló el triangulo amoroso durante la trama, opino que estuvo muy bien escrito, a pesar de que, si tuviese que hablar sobre algo que no me gustó, diría que lo encontré un poco innecesario, pero que sin duda, he de admitir que no se sintió forzado y que me reí un montón cuando cierto sujeto no se aguantó las ganas y le preguntó al prota un: "your guils's a couple's guild, isn't it?!". Dios mío, morí y amé como se aclaró todo.

Para terminar, creo que es importante agregar que, sin duda, fue una de mis mejores lecturas en manga.

This book was simply frustratingly adorable. Everyone in this book had the awareness of a toddler and it led to funny miscommunications all throughout the book. If you are in the mood to just turn your brain off and just read a cute and wholesome little book about gaming and loveable characters then this book is definitely the one for you

2.75/5 stars

I’m relatively new to reading manga, but this sounded interesting, but just wasn’t for me. I found the character’s miscommunication borderline annoying. The happy ending was cute, but I felt like the whole time I was waiting for both characters to actually communicate clearly with one another. And when they finally did it was at the very end.

This book was given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This manga was super cute! Of course one of the main characters is incredibly dense and doesn't understand that every person is in love with them as is tradition with this type of manga. I hate that trope, but the rest of the story was so cute and sweet that it makes up for it. The art is beautiful as well.

A cute manga! I liked the characters and was an enjoyable read, however I feel like there could be more to the story (although, granted this is only volume 1!). So I guess it does leave you wanting more! I enjoyed the misunderstandings between the characters. I think you need to have an interest in online gaming to fully enjoy this story. The manga illustrations are great.

This is a really cute manga with a great premise, but I really wish the l33t speak had been toned down a bit as it got really old. I think gamers would get more out of this manga than non-gamers.

A huge thanks to Netgalley for an eARC if this Boys Love Manga in exchange for my honest review. I have been enjoying the Boys Love manga genre since 2007, so I can easily tell when I like or dislike a manga. Even if I can't always put it into words. Giving 3⭐️ to a BL manga is about the lowest rating I will give to a BL. I thought this BL was cute and sweet, good but just okay. I did find it a bit funny at times but I was not enthralled by the plot as I wanted to be...However, I would still recommend this manga to Fujos who love BL, especially the light and fluffy ones.