My New Boss Is Goofy

 My New Boss Is Goofy (新しい上司はど天然) is a 12 episode slice of life comedy based on the manga of the same name by Ichikawa Dan.  The anime originally aired during the Fall of 2023.

    Momose Kentaro is nervous about starting his new job at an advertising firm.  He left his previous employer due to years of oppressive mental abuse at the hands of his supervisor.  The abuse has left him in a traumatized state, leading to ulcers and a break down of his own self esteem.  His first day of the new job is full of dread, as he walks on eggshells around his new supervisor, Shirosaki Yusei.  Momose struggles to understand Shirosaki's personality and defaults to him being abusive.  Shirosaki is a reserved person and his lack of excitement causes panic in the newbie.  He begins to suffer a panic attack, misreading his supervisors reactions as negative.  Out of concern for his new underling, Shirosaki rushes to get stomach medicine from a nearby convenience store only to bring him back period relief medicine instead.  This is the first of a continuing series of blunders Shirosaki makes, that help to ease Momose's concerns.

    As time goes on, Momose becomes more confident in his new roll.  Due to their close working relationship he spends a lot of time with Shirosaki, growing to trust and enjoy his strange boss.  Shirosaki is good at his job but suffers from rampant bouts of being oblivious.  He continually makes amusing mistakes and slip ups, from bringing unrelated items to work in confusion to being confused about aspects of a conversation.  While unreliable in that sense, he is good at his job and works in earnest to ensure his underlings work environment is one that fosters growth.  Even with a fresh start to his professional life, Momose struggles with the effects of his previous job.  He is reluctant to talk about it much with those around him, fearing it will change their opinions of him.  Instead his co-works and supervisors are incredibly supportive and encourage him to be the best he can at what he does.

    This is a cute and straightforward comedy.  It has some strong yaoi tones to it, but never goes in that direction.  The story's primary focus is the growing relationship between Momose and Shirosaki, who end up becoming 'hetero' life partners during the course of the show.  Another employee, who joins the firm for the same reasons Momose does and Shirosaki's direct manager, round out the primary characters.  Each of them have their own quirks and well defined personality traits.  Everyone is supportive of each other, with there being no actual drama outside of Momose's internal dialogue of doubt.  The series goes about putting the characters in normal situations and enhancing them with oddity and cuteness.  It's really a matter of, which either of the main characters admit they love each other, even though there are no overt tones to that being true.  

    The artwork is substandard in today's anime environment.  That may just be a product of the source material, but there is not a lot of detail in the art over all.  The characters are plan and unnaturally tall and thin.  Pretty boys in the style of a modern shojo manga.  If there isn't a marketplace for hardcore yaoi doujinshi around this story, I suspect its coming.  There is really not much to say about the show.  It's cute, the characters are amusing in their own right and it doesn't dwell much on repetition beyond Momose's ever present trauma.

The series was simulcast and is currently available on Crunchyroll.