When trend-chasing college girl Nanase got the offer from her sister, she could hardly believe her ears! A chance to work at the same talent agency as THE Banri Narita―as his temporary manager, no less―is absolutely, completely a dream come true! That is…until she meets the man behind the stan. Alluring, amicable Banri is a cruel tyrant, incredibly demanding, and uncaring that he's working her into the ground! However, now that she's seen the star without his twinkle…are the embers of her celebrity crush igniting a new fire in her heart?

Thank You for Taking Care of Our Boy Banri features art and story by Chitose Kaido. English translation is done by Athena Nibley and Alethea Nibley. Lettering is done by Dietrich Premier. Published by Yen Press (June 23, 2026). Rated T.

Erica Friedman
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Nanase Akashi is not immune to the glitz and glamor of the stars she manages, but she is a hard-working young woman. It doesn't have to be that way, but even though this is just a summer job for her, Banri Narita is just such a jerk, and Nanase isn't going to roll over without a fight.

I was expecting this manga to be 80% verbal abuse and maybe 20% touching moments, and I found the whole thing a bit irritating, but I was completely mistaken. Banri and Nanase butt heads (literally), but Nanase is completely able to make her point understood—and she is as dedicated as a manager to the Banri-kun the public sees as he is. As a “reward,” Banri asks Nanase to stay on. With this two-edged request, Nanase will continue to deal with this beautiful, hardworking boy even though “his personality stinks.”

A manufactured scandal doesn't help, but even if Banri isn't worried, Nanase isn't going to put up with that shit.

The pacing here is perfect for this story. We know that Banri is a jerk to Nanase. We'll first see him admired by fans and respected by peers, see Nanase keeping up with him, and then he unleashes that charming personality in a 20-ton insult. Nanase will fight back and be competent enough that Banri won't let her go. It's a precarious balance of positive and negative tension. If it swings into too much abuse, it'll sour the story. Too much sweetness, and it'll feel cloying. I applaud Kaido for maintaining Nanase's strength throughout the entire volume. Nanase and Banri, despite the apparent animosity between them, actually make a great pair for an entertaining first volume.

Caitlin Moore
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It's my understanding from the people well-versed in such things that “idol boyfriend” is one of the big trendy genres in shoujo manga these days. Although I don't pay enough attention to the Japanese side of the industry these days to have a strong feel for it, that certainly wouldn't surprise me. So, if you're about to call Thank You for Taking Care of Our Boy Banri a Tamon’s B-Side rip-off, please understand that we're really only scratching the surface. Now, was Our Boy Banri licensed for English release because of Tamon’s B-Side? That's very possible.

However, it probably won't take you long to realize that Our Boy Banri is the inferior series in every way. That doesn't mean it's bad, because Tamon’s B-Side is a superlative story; it just means that this one is less good. It's a similar setup: Nanase's older sister asks her to manage the popular media personality Banri Narita while she's on break from college. Nanase eagerly agrees, since Banri's famous for being handsome and affable, along with his burgeoning talent as an actor. But wouldn't you know it, when it's just the two of them behind closed doors, Banri is a total asshole.

Our Boy Banri started its life as a one-shot short, which may ultimately have been to its detriment. The first chapter moves at a breathless pace, establishing Nanase and Banri's personalities and conflicts, then trotting straight into its conclusion. The rest of the manga picks up where it left off, fumbling to restore its sense of continuity and find a rhythm that works better for a long-form series. It gets close by the end of the volume, but there's a lot of staccato pacing until that point.

The bigger issue is that it's hard to like Banri. Nanase is great: hard-working and clever, and not afraid to speak her mind. It's not fun watching her get verbally abused by the man she's been hired to support. Even if he's actually really considerate to everyone else. Even if it actually means they're super close. Even if he's the consummate professional in every way. But, for as long as I've been a fan of manga, I've been perplexed by people who like jerk male leads, so this is nothing new.

Rather, Our Boy Banri is at its best when it's meditating on the fragility of celebrity. Banri is aware of how precarious his career is; no matter how talented he is, it can all come to a halt if he annoys the wrong person, if he's a few minutes late to a shoot, if he doesn't age just right, or even if the public just gets tired of him. Exploring that tension is where the manga shines the most.

Rebecca Silverman
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It's an interesting phenomenon when a strong heroine gets paired with an absolute twit of a male lead. Nanase, the protagonist of Thank You for Taking Care of Our Boy Banri, is a powerhouse of a character. Yes, she's a giddy fangirl at times, but that just makes her strength and professionalism stand out more when she's doing her job. While her fangirl tendencies tend to get a bit more page time, her skill is still very much in evidence, from her carefully filled in planner to her quiet offers of help…and her not-so-quiet moments of certified badassery, such as when she drop kicks a paparazzo on an escalator or proves that she could give Rei from Mars a run for his money on a motorcycle. If the story were just about her without the added burden of a romantic subplot, it would be phenomenal.

As you've no doubt guessed by now, the eponymous Banri is the problem. A rising young actor, Banri has a well-polished public face and a much more acerbic true self, something Nanase both definitely needed to know and deeply regrets having learned. To say that Banri is a jerk is at least a mild understatement, but at least he knows it. Does this excuse him from every unkind thing he says to Nanase? Absolutely not; instead, it's meant to be at least a bit funny that he can harbor two such wildly different personalities behind one handsome face. It's no Tamon’s B-Side, because Tamon at least meant well, whereas Banri delights in picking on the woman he clearly likes. That makes it a lot less thrilling when he's nice to her, because it shows that he can, in fact, behave like a decent person – he just chooses not to most of the time, opting instead to verbally abuse and harass his manager.

The story's really at its best when either focusing strictly on Nanase or looking at the myriad ways a celebrity's reputation could go off the rails. It's not outside the realm of possibility that Banri was once the nice guy he can act like, only to be crushed by a predatory industry. I'm not sure that this series is thinking that deeply or far ahead, but the potential is still there. But otherwise, I would really only recommend it to fans of the enemies-to-lovers romance trope, because if you don't like your beautiful young men to come with a heaping helping of meanness, it may be hard to really like this story.