Review for Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-Life Boss!, Vol.1
I received this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange of an honest review.
What if your best friend in a game turns out to be your evil/demon boss? That is what happens to Hashimoto! And that sets the premise to this really fun and great manga that I seriously enjoyed tons!
Meet Hashimoto, he has a not so fun job, mostly because of his demon boss who is constantly on his case about things (later we learn that his boss just wants Hashimoto to find his full potential, but yeah, he is not going about it that well). But he has a place to escape to, a game! It is an online RPG-ish game and he has best friends there (Uma and Kuma). He vents to them about his demon boss (which I would do as well) and he has a great time doing quests and getting better and higher in rank. But what when Uma and our MC decide to meet up? And what if we find out what not just Uma, but also Kuma is someone close to Hashimoto (or at least they have met up, still not entirely sure if they have known each other for longer)? I just had such a laugh how all of these three online were actually in the same region/same city. I mean, we knew it of the boss, but that another online friend of Hashimoto is also someone who is nearby? That just made me snort. I love it.
The meet-up and all that followed after was just a delight. A chaotic delight because a lot of misunderstandings happen. Remember Kuma? Well, he is also around as he also had a meet-up at the same place just for his guild, though he doesn’t tell them his username, instead plays with an alt. And he doesn’t know that Uma and Hashimoto know each other as boss-employee. Oh no, he thinks they are dating (he was part of their conversation and then also heard some other things that can easily be misinterpreted afterwards when he came back)… and he has had a crush on Hashimoto in the game for ages. This leads to many hilarious moments as Uma/the boss has no clue what is going on and why Kuma is attacking him/having this attitude, and Hashimoto is also clueless (though that is just Hashimoto’s default setting, I felt for Uma/his boss). There are a ton of misunderstandings and what makes sense to one person doesn’t make the same sense to another, and yes, at times it gets a bit much (and annoying), but I also didn’t mind it entirely. In fact, it mostly just made me laugh seeing the chaos develop and grow more and more.
I loved how it all came together in the end, how everything gets solved in the end, and I loved that Uma/the boss and Hashimoto got closer as the story got further along. I was definitely rooting, especially when you find out that the boss isn’t the worst. He just needs a bit more human skills. Haha.
Oh, I did like that we got to see the POV of the others as well (and see the chaos multiply).
I also loved that we got to see plenty of game bits, chats, and more. I was afraid that with Uma/the boss and Hashimoto knowing each other we would lose that, but no it stays and that just made me very happy!
The art was also really fun!
All in all, a manga full of misunderstandings, hilarious situations, an oblivious MC, games, and more! I would recommend it!