The seasonal premiere of I Have a Crush at Work aired this past Monday, January 6. The anime is adapted from the manga of the same name by Akamaru Enomoto. The original manga drew me in before the adaptation was even announced—with its adult cast of characters and work setting, it was easy for me to pick the title up.
I knew as soon as an anime was confirmed, I’d pick that up too, and the first episode didn’t disappoint. If you’ve grown tired of teenaged characters or school settings for your romance anime, I Have a Crush at Work is proving, so far, to be a light-hearted comedy that’s easy to watch and enjoy.
It’s important to note that the I Have a Crush at Work anime was not licensed in English outside of Southeast Asia countries.
Can You Keep A Secret?
Yui Mitsuya and Masugu Tateishi work at the same company in the same branch, but they seemingly don’t get along at all. Yui displays a fierce personality and takes cold shots at Masugu in front of other coworkers, and Masugu shows the same disdain for her. However, this is all an act. Yui and Masugu are instead head over heels for each other, but Yui wants to keep their dating life a total secret from their company and coworkers.
From the very first few minutes I Have a Crush at Work, it’s easy to tell where it’s going. Yui and Masugu will need to navigate work and all the crazy scenarios that can come with working in an office while trying to hide their secret. The two make sure to use different train stations when commuting, not make eye contact at work, and show no signs of affection towards each other while on the clock. This makes for some tense situations, such as being squished together on an elevator for an extended amount of time or trying to dodge coworkers while out and about.
Studio BLADE is animating I Have a Crush at Work, and it is directed by Naoko Takeichi, who has also worked on hits like Re:Zero and Steins;Gate. There’s nothing to gawk at when it comes to the show’s animation—it’s fitting for a slice-of-life office romance, but when compared to the stunning animation of Blue Box, another slice-of-life romance, for example, I Have a Crush at Work is visually average.
Even if I hadn’t read the original manga beforehand, I probably would have naturally picked up watching I Have A Crush At Work. The show may not be at the top of my list for the season, but it could be a nice break in between more visually involved episodes from the winter season. If anything, the anime is reminding me what I loved so much about the manga, so it’ll be easy to pick it back up after a few months away from it. It’ll be interesting to watch Yui and Masugu attempt to keep up their facade week by week.
It has not yet been confirmed how many episodes I Have A Crush At Work will run for, but the manga has ended serialization as of January 2023, and the entire story is compiled in 15 volumes. It would be nice to see the anime adaptation follow through to the end of the original story instead of keeping us hanging—something that anime unfortunately commonly does.
I’ll keep this one on my watch list, as I can never resist a cheesy and steamy adult romance. If you liked I Have a Crush at Work, you can vote for it in our Winter 2025 anime poll for the week.
© Akamaru Enomoto, Kodansha / “There’s Someone I Like in This Company” Production Committee
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