Golden Boy

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

So I'm a big fan of the OVA series that this Manga was based on and after watching it all over again one day when I was going through my favorite manga scan site this came up and I figured I'd give it a read and man was this something.

Before I get too into things I'd like to make note that every thing I look up on this seems to give the impression that after the first volume all this story does is devolve into porn and while yes there's a lot of sex and yes things get graphic beyond comprehension (Seriously if there was ... an ecchi scale from 1 to 10 this would be a 14 this book both literally and metaphorically get's the fuck in there) I feel the need to inform you that the at times overwhelming amount of sex that happens in this story has a purpose it's just something I'll have to explain but like I've done before here's the TL;DR for those just scanning reviews:

TL;DR

This is an interesting look in the psychi of a free spirit as he explores a wide variety of topics from the worshiping of false idols, the meaning of life as he knows it, and the after effects of the people who's eyes he's opened to the wonderful mystery that is the world.


Story:

What we have here is the tale of a guy that wonders town to town doing odd jobs and getting into a series of perverted scenarios and while at the first volume is more a woman of the week affair similar to the 6 episode OVA at points just outright feeling like panels of the show it quickly devolves from that as it then turns into an overarching tale of large proportions.

Around the second volume is when we get a small glimpse into Kintaro's past and we start to learn that it's within his nature as a person to help others out and do what's best for them while still making sure to shove his dick into anyone that moves and of course making their lives better possibly because of that but this volume is where one of the first things this Manga's advantage over it's OVA counterpart really starts and that's it's overarching plot of characters with the introduction of Masamue Kongoji who for lack of a better way to word it is a metaphorical god that is the embodiment of the theme of manipulation through false hope and the desire for sheer comfort that we all have and that Kintaro is the polar opposite of and this arch continues on and off through the rest of the series only concluding at the very end which without spoiling too much leaves you at a loss for words.

There's an overarching theme of the same story getting told just taking longer and longer to get there throughout the 10 volumes and in between the most graphic of sex scenes you get a lot of moments where characters are giving really long monologues about a multitude of really series topics like the corrupt nature of government, how people are numbed to the harsh realities of their very futile existence of life through false idol worship, the fucked up nature of the educational system and how it doesn't actually teach but rather force us to follow someone else order and to put our own free thought on the back burner, and it even covers just how sex is both a true means of expression and a really easy way to manipulate an individual.

This manga is surprisingly deep and there's quite a bit of quality sections here and there with the biggest sting against this being the arch involving golden showers.

Kintaro as a character is a fascinating case study and when he was the focus this story was just the absolute best but I'd hate to say I can't really rate the story too high just because of the, "Golden Water," arch around Vol. 5 and a lot of the parts involving Naoko Katsuda who was already my least favorite character in the anime.

7/10

Art:

It's 90's manga and with that you have really solid environments, characters that are a lot closer to reality in terms of overall looks, the expression work on the characters faces are pretty funny, and the ladies....they aight you get more than enough *Cough* STUDYING material if you uh know what I'm saying.

I happen to like old anime visuals but if you don't knock my score down about half.

8/10

Charactrer:

Best noble pervert ever, his first true love we meet near the end of the book is excellent, and everyone else does their job well with only a couple of people I wish would be thrown down a well.

Yes there was a good amount of awful people but the good one's make this story worth it.

9/10

Enjoyment:

I'm a be blunt this story dragged to high hell at a lot of points but when it hit ya it fucking hit ya and for me this was a just one more chapter kind of read where I found myself up late really wanting to go further and just keep reading and it's ending while a bit what the fuck felt just right for one of the most surprisingly deep things I've read in a while this story is a roller coaster of crazy that I can only really recommend to folks just wacky enough to read it but for everyone else I'd say be weary.

This story isn't just porn it gets the fuck in there trust me but it's actually a real story.

9/10

After watching the OVA, I was surprised that this manga had many chapters not yet animated and was keen on reading it. Unfortunately, my expectations were shattered when I read past the first chapters.
This manga starts off strong and surprisingly inspirational, Kintaro is a hard working man who studies life itself, at least in the first chapters, it does have its charm. But then came the rest of the manga and it took a complete turn for the worse, instead of Kintaro learning about life while hopping from different part time jobs, it becomes a storm of fetishes and the authors weird projections and insecurities. ... This manga had so much potential but in the end, it settled for being mundane and disgusting.
If you want to read it, go ahead. I had to stop many times while reading it because things either made no sense at all or the story at the time was focused entirely around weird sex practices. I'd recommend watching the OVA instead though.

Golden Boy is the worst manga I've ever read. While I wouldn't really want to recommend it in general, I think that reading at least some part of this could still be entertaining because of just how weird it is.

And this manga is very, very weird. I personally did not love the anime, so I started reading the manga with no prior information hoping that it would get better. Instead, the manga only gets worse the more you read it. It reached a point where I was physically cringing during almost every chapter, and I had to take multiple breaks from reading because it was ... just too much.

I think Golden Boy works best if you just show out of context screenshots to people. Some insane (and I mean insane as in I seriously think the author has some kind of mental illness) things happen in the manga, and those things are pretty funny if you just take them out of context. Over the course of the series, however, I found that the antics of the manga just got tiring.

At some point in the manga, the author seems to stop caring about writing a coherent story, or even writing a coherent anything. Instead, he just has the characters have sex and start ranting about society and life, usually all at the same time. I got tired of those real fast, but the author seriously has some pretty delusional (and a bit hypocritical) takes sometimes. Some of those rants honestly sound like the stuff you'd hear from a crackhead out on the street at 2 am.

The sex is also just really weird. Some things that happen in the manga include, but are not limited to: mind control, statutory rape, rape in general, NTR, crossdressing, and urophagia. If you're into that, go ahead, but I think you would be better off reading a doujin.

I see that other reviewers online have hated the art. Personally, I thought it was decent enough, as the quality of the art fit everything else pretty well. It's not the best, but I think the art is just a product of it's time.

There's a lot of things that happen in the manga that I could talk on and on about, but I don't know if I can even remember them all, so I don't want to list them all out. Other reviewers on MAL do a pretty good job of doing that already. I will say, however, that the ending is pretty atrocious, as the series just abruptly ends without concluding anything in the middle of a story arc.

For most of the series, I was feeling a pretty strong 2/10. I only give 1s out to series that completely piss me off, and the first half of the manga is just plain bad, but not bad enough for me to actually get annoyed. That started to change more towards the end of the manga when literally every page became a struggle to read.

Final Rating: 1/10

tl;dr: probably not worth reading unless you want something that is so bad its entertaining, except it's not that entertaining most the time