Turns Out My Online Friend is My Real-life Boss! Volume 3 Review
Office worker Hashimoto and his boss, Shirase, are secretly dating and have now lived together for a few months. Despite a few bumps on the road, they’re communicating more and growing as a couple, but when Hashimoto realises that Shirase is the one who always initiates dates and emotional intimacy, he panics and decides to be more forward. Can he get over this shyness and show Shirase he really cares?
Volume 3 of this geeky Boys’ Love is the thinnest volume so far, which means less content this time and not much progress in the story either. But what story developments we do get are a different flavour than we have had previously. The first two volumes made use of the ‘miscommunication’ trope thoroughly, especially between the couple, the third wheel Kumataro plus his older brother Atsushi, who is still under the impression that his brother is dating Shirase (while Shirase thinks Atsushi is in love with Hashimoto – oh the drama!) But this volume focuses more on the couple and their relationship than before, showcasing that they have grown, despite not being very physical with each other yet.
Hashimoto is a lot more emotionally aware in this volume, and makes the brave step to suggest that he and Shirase should go on a trip to Hokkaido for a few days. Although his big romantic gesture and plans to be more physical on the trip don’t exact go according to plan, it’s still really nice to see how much Hashimoto has grown as a person; not just in confidence in himself, but also in emotional intelligence. Shirase has less focus here, but we do get one very sweet moment towards the end of the book, where he gifts Hashimoto a special present for his birthday. It’s incredibly sweet, and well drawn too, allowing the two to be vulnerable with each other and super cute at the same time.
Moving away from the lovers, Atsushi ends up at Hokkaido too, and bumps into Shirase, trying to dig up on dirt on (what he thinks) is Shirase’s relationship with his brother, only to get nothing out of the stoic man. It’s funny to see Atsushi be completely oblivious, even if poor Kumataro ends up suffering more as a result. Speaking of, Kumataro does get a little bit of page-time here, giving Hashimoto a birthday present and ending with a moment where he realises that he will need to let go of Hashimoto eventually. I couldn’t help but feel my heart break for him, probably because he’s (so far) the most developed character in this manga, but I really hope he finds a boyfriend – the poor boy deserves it!
Outside of the Hokkaido trip, a good chunk of this book takes a detour into the past, where Kumataro recalls a memory of a time when he lent his umbrella to a child that he never saw again. The child is revealed to the audience to be Hashimoto, so the pair connected once before officially meeting in the manga. We also get a brief moment where a young Hashimoto briefly met Shirase outside school, recalling his first ‘crush’ as it were. I’m personally not a big fan of this sort of trope, the whole ‘actually met in the past but can’t remember each other’. It can be done well in the right context, but I don’t think every romance is made better for having it in. If anything, I think the main characters having met previously takes away from this particular romance, only serving to dampen the impact of their first encounter. The whole premise is that Hashimoto and Shirase were anonymous friends in an online game first, and the wacky twist was realising it was actually a work colleague all along, against all odds. So having them already met previously as kids, only takes away from that, in my opinion.
nmura’s art continues to be good. We’re not in the online game much in this volume, so we see less of the chibi character designs this time, but the cute close-ups of the boys being intimate and sweet with each other are well presented. Jacqueline Fung continues the translation of this book too; it’s an easy read, but with no translation notes this time.
This geeky boy’s love is still a fun, easy read, despite not a lot happening in this volume. The pair’s relationship continues to grow, but I look forward to the misunderstandings eventually blowing up and seeing how the characters react in future volumes.
Our review copy from Kodansha was provided by Diamond Book Distributors.
