Reviews

Goldenboy is an anime that, for some bizarre reason, seems to have a fairly large fanbase. Due to it's age, it is probably one of the first animes to really push the boundaries of ecchi while still being able to retain a fair rating. While it does succeed in providing mindless fanservice, the series lacks severely in story development as well as character design. The story is fairly nonexistent but is supposed to follow a wandering student through his encounter with beautiful women on his personal soul search. The setting itself isn't a bad idea, but the development in the anime itself is lackluster to say the least. The story doesn't progress in any fashion, but instead only seems to serve as a slap-job way to tie the different encounters together.

The artwork in Goldenboy is well dated. Hard edges with old-school styled shading and lighting effects are similar to what you would find in an early 90's eroge (hentai game). The backgrounds are drawn in a sketchy fashion and not really appealing, but are suited to the characters themselves. The overabundance of black white fields for "shining" effects is a bit overdone, giving characters a very plastic looking feel. Even for an anime of it's age, the artwork is fairly poor amongst other animes of it's generation.

The soundwork in the series is fair, but nothing spectacular. The opening theme is easily forgotten and usually skipped amongst DVD viewers. Background sound effects are placed where they should be while background music is left to a pretty laughable presentation.

The characters are about what you would expect to find in any standard eroge. All are very flashy with large endowments with very little personality. The schoolgirl is flirty, the office women is hard-up, and others fit their genres well enough, but they're hardly memorable. Viewers will be taken from character to character so often that they'll hardly even remember a character's name, much less anything else. Development for each of these characters is pretty poor as well. The development for the protagonist is actually poor as well, despite following his personal adventures. They show that he smart, lucky, and good hearted despite his extreme perversions, but that's about it. No background information is shown, no purpose to his travel, or much else is given to allow viewers to relate to the character.

The apparent fanbase for this series is more than likely the same that find enjoyment with Iketeru Futari. The fanservice is abundant and the series short enough to get through in a single sitting, but the development and characters themselves are fairly laughable in terms of presentation. The series itself just seems to focus more on ecchi idiocy than anything, and fails to deliver in any other sense. Sensible viewers will find a more enjoyable experience with series such as Love Hina or similar titles.