Atarashii Joushi wa Do Tennen

My New Boss Is Goofy. What a unique title. With that, I chose to give the show a watch out of curiosity.

I'm glad I did. The show is based around the lives of Kentaro Momose, who has quit his old job working under a powerdrunk and abusive boss and his new boss, Yusei Shirosaki. Momose starts working under Shirosaki and at first is worried about possibly getting on the bad side of his new boss. It soon turns out, however, that Shirosaki is nothing like Momose's old boss and is a kind-hearted, yet extremely goofy guy and the two strike up an immediate friendship. ... The two are joined by their friendly, yet quirky and attention-starved section chief, Mitsuo Aoyama and new employee who jumped ship after talking to Momose regarding his own abusive boss, the extroverted bisexual Aigo Kinjou. Along with the four human members of the cast, we also have a little white kitten who Shirosaki names Hakutou after finding him abandoned. Hakutou's internal dialogue reveals him to be a tsundere to the highest degree, which only serves to make the little guy cuter.

What we have from there is a 12 episode slice of life anime with next to no drama in spite of the set-up. While Momose's old boss is mentioned quite frequently and shows up a couple of times, there is next to no conflict in the show. There's certainly none among the main characters and even though Aoyama can get a little bit much at times with his neediness, what we get is a fun, charming, relaxing and honestly healing workplace slice of life comedy mostly based around the extremely close friendship of Momose and Shirosaki, their cat and their colleagues. All of the characters have their own charm. All of their dynamics work and even Hakutou add to the plot and are a draw.

The animation is perfectly fine, the soundtrack works for what it is, but neither are really the focal point of the show. There's certainly nothing bad enough to detract from the overall quality of the show, the animation and art style suit the show perfectly and the background music, opening and closing themes do their job and again add to the charm of the show.

My New Boss Is Goofy isn't an action-oriented anime. It's not particularly plot-driven either. The central charm is the characters and the goings-on in their lives in any given episode. Whether it's Shirosaki and Momose finding Hakutou and Shirosaki being the best cat dad he can be, Shirosaki and Momose visiting Shirosaki's grandmother and Momose meeting Shirosaki's older brother, Momose and Kinjou hanging out bonding over past relationships or even Hakutou trying to find Shirosaki's lost shirt button as a thank you to Shirosaki for loving him from the second he adopted him, plots are very character driven which is helped by the fact every single one of our central characters is likeable and has their own quirks. The show doesn't try reinventing the wheel, and it doesn't have to or need to.

As you can tell from my review, I really enjoyed the show. There are heavy BL overtones that the show never follows through with, which may disappoint some people, but given the charm of the shows and the warmth of everything, it's not something which detracts from the show too much. Some may even find the fact it's simply a show about two extremely close guy friends, their friends and their cat with no romance *more* of a draw. All you have is a purely wholesome, warm, pleasant, soul-healing slice of life anime you can just sit down, watch, whether as a marathon or an episode at a time and feel good after watching. My New Boss Is Goofy may never get the acclaim of say, Vinland Saga season 2, and it certainly doesn't aim to be the epic that is. But as an entertaining, feel-good anime, it does its job perfectly and is my favourite anime of this current season. Do yourself a favour and check it out.

Art/Animation - 8/10: Solid, smooth animation. Indicative of a good-quality animation studio. Drawing style is cute.

Sound/Audio - 7/10: Not many OSTs throughout the episodes. OK opening and ending themes.

Characters - 8/10: Love how each character has their distinct backstories and personalities.

Story - 7/10: Not much plot to it. It's one of those simple, funny, slice-of-life shows. Each episode can be a stand-alone, but definitely makes more sense when you watch the whole series together.

Overall, I recommend this show to anyone who wants something light-hearted to watch while eating or before going to sleep, but this would be too slow for people who ... aren't looking for that.

Everything about this show comes across as low effort. From the outset, I got the distinct impression I was watching a drama CD that was then animated completely independently after the fact. The animation is minimal. The storyboarding is cut-and-paste. The performance is perfunctory. The frigging lens flare-esque filter that's thrown on top of every scene is super ugly. Why did they do that. I would honestly be more offended if someone did put effort into writing this, because god, the first episode of this has our main dude explain his backstory like every time a new scene starts. If you're not just throwing every ... manga panel into your storyboard one-to-one with no changes to be lazy, how little must you respect your audience?

Adaptation quality aside, the substance is weak. The show has your typical one-joke premise comedy problem, but it frequently tries to be touching and profound, and it only succeeds in coming off as patronizing. Every setup basically boils down to our protagonist telling some sob story to his boss who then comforts him while everyone watching cries and claps. That sounds like I'm making a joke, but no, they literally do clap. Multiple times! For complete strangers! They even have background extras comment multiple times verbatim how they are "healed" by this viewing experience, and it's so hollow. You don't know these people! You don't know this situation! What are you connecting with?! The fact our main characters work in advertising is the superficial cherry on top, like they're taking credit for the hard work other people do. Inspiring the public at your planetarium or aquarium? Eh, whatever. Telling people about the planetarium or aquarium? Now that's the ticket.

Our cast of characters is full of caricatures: the downtrodden protagonist, the kind and understanding new boss, and the vile, evil, nefarious, heartless ex-boss. That's all they are. There's zero depth to any of them. People are just good or bad. It's black and white morality—literally, look at their names—and never tries to be anything more. It's shallow to the point of being cynical. The side cast is equally disappointing, featuring a cat so fake I doubt the mangaka has ever seen a cat in real life and an insecure man whose gimmick is inserting himself into conversations to be insecure and who loves an insecure mascot. If I had to pick one single thing I detest most about my viewing experience, it'd be him. Seriously, what is the appeal.

I know people watch this primarily to daydream and draw hearts around the boyfriends, and more power to them, but come on. There's better shows for that. You're better than that.