Hmm I almost DNF’d this based on all the “lololol”s. It was over the top and gave the story more of an immature start and prevented me from getting hooked right off the bat. The art is good but I feel like I got characters confused in the beginning due to them looking too similar.

I like the potential the plot has and my only wish is it was executed a bit differently.

When I sat down to read Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! on my lunch break, I did so intending to read only the first chapter. Next thing I knew, I looked at the time and my break was over and so was the book. Distraught doesn't even begin to cover my feelings. The first volume isn't available in print yet and I already need the second volume like yesterday.

I'm not surprised that this manga hooked me in the way it did. It contains many of my favorite elements: the acquainted in real-life trope, video games, and workplace romance. Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss! by Nmura and published by Kodansha, is a story of an office worker Hashimoto who can't stand his boss Shirase. He escapes from his annoying work life by playing an online game and chatting it up with one of the other players. Little does he know, the other player is his real-life boss.

Off the bat, this reminded me of another series that include online gaming and the acquainted in real-life trope: Recovery of an MMO Junkie. Except in this manga, it's a BL and the discovery of each other's real identities happens quickly. Which, as a person who hates long drawn-out mishaps, I heavily appreciated. But that is not to say there aren't other mishaps and a myriad of misunderstandings.

On top of being funny, this manga also feels fresh and timely. With the rising popularity of games and communities centered around gaming, this story could almost be taken out of someone's daily life. It's also a fun fantasy to indulge in: your seemingly hardass boss is your favorite partner in a game. As a result of the game, you get closer in real life too. It's a win-win!

Aside from the gaming aspects and the adorable meet cute of it all, Turns Out also has some tender moments between Hashimoto and Shirase as boss-employee. (This is before the ethically questionable romantic relationship develops.) Hashimoto complains about his boss a lot, but he just feels insecure and a bit jealous of Shirase. Shirase as a boss sees Hashimoto as someone who has potential but is not quite there yet. This gaming mishap led to them crossing over this bridge.

Volume one does a great job of getting Hashimoto and Shirase from online friends to a couple in the chapters it contains. I am excited for the next volume and to watch the relationship between these two progress. I also would love to see them attend more gaming events or try other games together. Overall, I wound up loving this story and I can't wait for the next volume.

This was a sweet and short manga, with a cutesy and fun art style and equally cute characters.
Hashimoto has to be the most oblivious and dense character I’ve ever encountered, and all the misunderstandings were both extremely silly and really funny.
It read a little YA, but it was still pretty fun.

I'm so disappointed I didn't love this! This is a romantic comedy between two online friends who come to find out they are co-workers. It's a lot of mistaken identities and misunderstandings. While these do get solved by the end of the volume, I found myself uninterested to move forward. I don't feel like I got a good sense of any of the three main characters. Things feel like they're going to move very fast in future volumes but we didn't get enough foundation for that to work. I don't know who they are outside of the game/how they know each other. It's a shame, but this didn't work for me. I'm sure others will enjoy it!

This was actually really cute, and a nice change of pace from some other BL office romance mangas I’ve read. I love the element of the online game and how things slowly progressed between the two main characters.

I didn’t love the added third character, he’s very pushy and I don’t love the fact that he’s a high schooler (even though the love is unrequited, but still).

There’s a lot of the miscommunication trope, which I don’t always love, but I mostly found it funny in this and it didn’t bother me. I’ll definitely want to read the next volume whenever it’s published.

The plotline was quite interesting as the characters were meeting eachother in two different scenarios and were not aware of it. But the sudden meeting plan clears it all.
I love the fact the writer focuses on the gamers' perspective too, its one of my favourite characteristics of a character and each time I read a character with this talent, I fell in love with it.
I am looking forward to read the upcoming volumes in this manga.

The story in this romcom is really cute; I enjoyed it and the artwork. If you like stories where one of the guys is completely oblivious, you’re gonna love this one. It’s hilarious, lighthearted, full of misunderstandings, and is over way too fast!

This was a super cute slow burn filled with silly misunderstandings that had me laughing a lot. As someone who used to love MMORPGs and made a lot of friends through them, it felt pretty realistic and nostalgic. My only wish was that we saw them a bit more in the office afterward/more of their dynamics after becoming friends while still navigating the work issues that had them originally opposed to each other. It felt like a pretty well-wrapped story, so I'm interested to read the second volume as well.

I really liked the art for this one it was really digital manga? Idk how to describe it but it just matched the story really well.

I found the beginning to be quite funny, especially how they are both flirty with each other online but hate each other in person. Hashimoto figures out fairly quickly that he’s actually talking to his boss, so that element of the plot doesn’t drag on for too long. The miscommunication trope is used quite a bit, but not in a way that would normally frustrate me and make me want to pull my hair out.

There is kind of a ‘love triangle,’ but I think it’s clear that neither Hashimoto nor Shirase takes him seriously since he is, after all, a high schooler. It ends up feeling more like they adopted him, which is quite amusing.

I also realized that fist bumps give me the ick lol

The pacing is good, though it does slow down a little in the middle, but nothing major. I do wish we got to know more about the characters outside of work and gaming.

There is no spice in this at all; it is truly a lighthearted and wholesome read. It’s definitely not a ‘must-read’ and doesn’t bring anything exceptional to the table, but it was a pleasant read.

dnf 11 pages in. the dialogue felt too juvenile and immature for my liking, and i wasn't the biggest fan of the art style :/

This was HILARIOUS, I'm so glad I gave it a try! This is not so much an office romance, but a screwball romcom set in a gamer community, with misunderstandings galore because of the online IDs - they just happen to be a boss and a direct report. This angle doesn't get belabored needlessly, especially after the identities come to light, but I was very pleased to discover that the hilariousness doesn't stop. As far as screwball comedies go, this was time well-spent!

This story was lighthearted, fun, and very cute!

Hashimoto’s cluelessness is so silly and it’s probably one of my favorite manga tropes — the character who is silly and clueless to the point where they don’t realize people like them but the other people just keep gushing over their cuteness.

Definitely a fun, fluffy story that I would recommend to anyone looking for a cute, quick, and silly read, especially if they like BL.

This is an adorable romantic/slice of life manga about Hashimoto, who finds out the person he has been playing an online game with is his strict boss. The plot is adorable and so found myself loving the three main characters. I do hope more characters are introduced later on, as there is no female representation in this series.

The cover drew me to the manga right away. I really liked the art style, and especially loved any scenes of their online characters.

Super cute! Misunderstandings galore, which made for a very funny romcom love triangle. I felt like the pacing might’ve been too fast but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley!

This was something, like I how the art in this one and the story was a little bit slow for me. I do think this book wants to create a love triangle eventually. I'm not sure if I will continue. I liked how the boss listened to the complains without getting mad and tried to change a bit.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this much more than Nmura's other standalone work!

Hashimoto and Shirase had a cute relationship procession -- it was slow and steady and full of heartwarming moments.

Nmura did a wonderful job bridging the power dynamic between them and I loved how patient Shirase was with Hashimoto upon realizing his romantic attraction, how he never abused his power or stepped out of line -- there was no discomfort there (but instead, they got even more wholesome?).

My main grip is that, despite a drawn-out storyline, I never fully felt connected to Hashimoto, our basic hardworking MC, and in turn, I also felt little chemistry between him and his love interest. Don't get me wrong, their interactions are very cute (!!!)... on a surface level only, I would have loved to be able to root for them more and that there would be more depths to their characters -- but perhaps the next volume would change that.

I can't say that this one is a banger but even then, anyone would have a good time reading this, I promise!

Thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the E-ARC!

It was okay, but I didn't believe in the romance between the two main characters. Maybe if there has been some chapters where it shows them fancying eachother at work before they know they are online friends.
Also the time jumps threw me a lot.
And the love rival was uncomfortably agressive about winning over the main character. Even when they get rejected in a very clear way they don't respect the decision and say they will keep pursuing them and look for issues with the relationship.

I discovered this manga on NetGalley and thought it looked cute. From my understanding, Nmura published this story on Twitter like a weekly webcomic originally in Japanese. The episodes were then compiled into a book, which was published in 2021, and this ARC is for the English translation. This version contains episodes 1 through 19 and two bonus ones.
I think it is easy to tell that this book comes from a weekly upload project and that the author is somewhat inexperienced. The episodes don’t always flow together and are fairly short. The original comics were meant to fall into Slice of Life and Young Adult Romance, which I think it achieves. The overarching conflict alluded to in the title is faced about a third of the way through and mostly resolved shortly afterwards. The author/artist does add other minor conflicts along the way, relying mostly on miscommunication due to Hashimoto’s dense nature (the main character). I found it cute, but some people may start to get annoyed by it. There is also a conflict centered on a high schooler pursuing a romantic relationship with an adult, which I felt was a little strange, and there are no minor or major female characters (the few that exist are basically in the background). The artwork is what I would consider the standard manga style, though I did have to use hairstyles to differentiate the 3 main characters from each other. I also commend the artist for being able to mix in the cuter animation of the video game and show us interactions in the digital world.
Overall, I liked the story, but didn’t really emotionally connect to the characters and it’s not something I would re-read. I think lovers of yaoi manga and webcomics will enjoy this book, but probably not people looking for a deeper or more complex story.

Super cute!! It’s not super fast paced but it’s nice in that very innocent sort of way. The character art is great and it was easy to follow along. Great start to a story!

This is a fun enough series, the plot is fairly typical and straightforward, with fast pacing as relationships progress. There's a reliance on miscommunication that seems like it's supposed to be played for laughs, but generally didn't add much beyond prolonging parts of the plot. The characters are fine if a bit bland and i felt like their development was too quick and not depicted well enough.