REVIEW: ‘My Boss Is Goofy’ Episode 2 — “Should I Carry You Piggyback?”

My New Boss is Goofy (Atarashii Joushi wa Do Tennen) is a soft workplace comedy that uses romantic comedy elements to tell its story of Kentaro Momose (Koutaro Nishiyama), a man debilitated by trauma from his last boss and his new boss Yusei Shirosaki (Yuuichirou Umehara), who is as clumsy as he is compassionate. Last episode, Momose starts his new job, and the audience gets a look into some of the trauma he carries with him. On the other hand, we saw Shirosaki and how, despite his competence at work, he continually makes absent-minded mistakes that are just, well, cute. Now, in My New Boss is Goofy Episode 2, “Should I Carry You Piggyback?,” we learn how the two men are connected in a deeper way than Momose thought.

My New Boss is Goofy Episode 2 starts with Momose absent-mindedly mentioning his previous workplace. Worrying that he’s brought down the mood, he has to grapple with how much his old boss is still interfering with his new life. When the fire drill happens, Momose’s ulcer acts up again as he remembers what happened at his workplace, where he was pushed down in the stairwell. But in every instance, Shirosaki is there, not to question why Momose is freezing up, but to give him the support he needs to understand that life isn’t like that anymore.

Like with the last episode, it’s the little considerate gestures that Shirosaki makes that help break down Momose’s barriers and put him at ease. Only in this episode Momose starts to let his guard down and begins to truly understand who Shirosaki is as a person.

With Episode 2, My New Boss is Goofy leans even harder on the rom-com tropes by taking our leading duo to an amusement park. In what feels closer to a date, ending with a haunted house sequence that offers the bulk of the episode’s humor, Momose and Shirosaki get closer. While the two are on-site at the park to learn how to create an ad for it, they also get to enjoy themselves and each other.

Leaning into the rom-com tropes, My Boss is Goofy Episode 2 is purely excellent. Watching these two men’s relationships develop in a professional sense but also in a personal one is fantastic to watch. The use of the traditional amusement park date with the spin for work is masterful. A-1 Pictures understands how to balance traditional rom-com elements with workplace ones and never compromises either. This makes the series an excellent hybrid, or an office-rom-com.

But the episode’s largest emotional swings come in the final five minutes when their train breaks down. After a well-timed kabe-don, Shirosaki and Momose look at the night sky with stars clearly in view. While it reminds Shirosaki about his hometown, it reminds Momose of the day he chose to leave his old job. In an emotional story, Momose recounts how he found the courage to quit and how it all came down to deciding, “I want to find my light.” More importantly, he thought, grabbing hold of that determination was inspired by an ad made for a planetarium, which ultimately led him to wind up working for Shirosaki’s ad agency.

The kicker? Shirosaki was the one who designed that campaign, and Shirosaki heard this story while interviewing Momose. In that moment, everything clicks for Momose and the audience. Shirosaki is goofy because he is trying his hardest to be considerate of those around him. More importantly, he’s trying his hardest to give Momose a new experience that can capture the emotional connection of that first ad. While Momose has been worried about talking too much about his workplace trauma, Shirosaki already knows it. It all makes sense.

My New Boss is Goofy Episode 2 is a stunning look at work, life, and how consideration for other people can go a long way in healing trauma. By using the romantic comedy trappings of the genre as a window into the workplace, My New Boss is Goofy is unlike anything I’ve seen. I am all for media that showcases horrible workplaces and characters breaking out of the work cycle of capitalism completely. But that’s not realistic, and we can’t be saved by a zombie apocalypse killing our boss. In that way, this anime showcases a way forward within the reality of needing to work.

With Momose, we see the importance of finding a path that feeds your soul instead of one that depletes it. And with Shirosaki, we see how past traumas can begin to heal when new memories form instead. As Momose explains in his narration, his trauma from the fire drill vanished at the kindness Shirosaki showed him.

My New Boss is Goofy Episode 2 continues a stellar series and a fantastic glimpse into the connection two men share around work. Even if they aren’t intended to be boyfriends, the strength of Shirosaki ‘s care showcases how the little things you do for others can have larger effects than you can even anticipate.

My New Boss is Goofy Season 1 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.