Golden Boy reminds me of the infamous shower scene of Hitchcock's Psycho; it has been often imitated but never duplicated. It's an anime that I believe set the standard long ago on how to put together an ecchi anime title capturing practically everything that goes on in the minds of horny men, and manages to be incredibly entertaining without being completely over the top offensive. Golden Boy follows the freeter Kintaro as he jumps from job to job; not at all because he's constantly fired, instead, he always feels it's time to move on and learn something new.
When looking back on this title; I didn't realize how bad this thing could have been placing a lecher as the focus. Every job Kintaro lands finds him next to extremely beautiful women with all the right assets most of the time. He tries to learn everything about his job, perform at the highest level, all the while fighting back his sexual urges. He often thinks out loud what he would do and what he should do, in these situations that are not impossible for men to find themselves in. For example, he finds himself in a swimming race with a really hot instructor. While she's in the lead his focus is completely on her crotch with the dirtiest of thoughts, and there are plenty of situations like these with the second episode being a stand out, as Kintaro plays tutor to a young horny girl whom gets her kicks out of teasing men.
One of the often stated flaws of this series is that Kintaro never truly develops, which is kind of true in a way. However, we get to know the other side to his personality in which he does have a heart of gold. This is what keeps the anime from sinking like a stone, and is the reason why plenty others of this type usually fail. Kintaro will go through hell to help anyone, and despite the predictable endings to some of these episodes; it's the trip to the end wondering what he's going to do that makes it worthwhile. There's also one theme that occurs which I found to be pretty interesting, and it's the message in regards to learning. Parents and to my experience a lot of teachers, forget that learning isn't something that should be aggressively forced, it should also be entertaining and stimulating as well to motivate the individuals into wanting to do it.
Golden Boy can be and will be offensive to some, since there is plenty of fan service through crotch shots, nudity, and just plenty of sexual innuendo's. Thankfully, there are no serious hentai elements to be found, and everything is kept within the realm of good humor. My personal gripes would probably be the repetitive use of one joke, and the last two episodes are not as strong as the previous. Unlike many fans of the series; I'm happy with the short number of episodes, because this series could have easily grown dull regurgitating the same material.
The production values are pretty good with the character designs being the best thing the series has to offer visually. The women are drawn very curvy with loads of sex appeal, and Kintaro's overly exaggerated facial expressions can be hilarious. The camera work helps out especially when delivering the fan service. I enjoyed the voice work also, with the English dub outshining the seiyuu a great deal.
Now is Golden Boy something for everyone? Well, I definitely recommend it to guys who love fan service in their anime. Those who prefer lots of graphic sex in their anime shades of Kite or Mezzo Forte should look elsewhere. For the girls, I know some who didn't have much of a problem with it, because they got to see the non-lecherous side of Kintaro. If you have a disdain for the content described, then perhaps avoiding it will be best for you.
Highs: Funny ecchi comedy done right
Lows: Content will put off some, loses some steam towards end