Boy oh boy is that a name I won’t forget for years to come…though not exactly in a good way.
Golden Time. A 2013 comedy, drama, and love story that is currently scored an average 7.75 and ranked at #996. It has remained in the top 1000 animes on MAL for the last 9 years…and I honestly have no idea how.
I feel like I write reviews on mainly romance based animes, probably since it’s up there to be one of my favorite genres. I still don’t write many…just on the ones I feel deserve to be a little more criticized than the rest. And after taking close to a month to finish this 24 episode anime, I felt that that was the case here
I mean it when I say that I promise I’ll try to keep this as short as I can…but I do have quite a bit to say.
So let’s get started.
Story 4/10
Okay so…I’ve come across this plot before. Person gets amnesia, meets people, struggles with said people and relationships, and then gets their memories back and even sometimes loses them again. It’s a very tricky plot that can either fly high or plummet to the ground.
For me, it was the latter.
Banri Tada, our male main character and protagonist, ends up losing his memories in an accident, then moves to Tokyo to attend college. He meets new people while also rekindling some past relationships and even falls in love. Thing is, this happens in the first 4 episodes.
This was the first problem I found within Golden Time.The pacing. In some crazy, bizarre, miraculous way, this show managed to be so rushed but so slow at the EXACT same time. It was just back and forth events and reactions and circumstances all clumped together to create a story that while, was occasionally realistic, was also immensely scattered and random as well.
There were a lot of different aspects throughout the whole series and that’s something I usually appreciate. New occurrences to spice things up. Only problem here was that they didn’t make any damn sense. We had our 2 main characters get abducted by some strange club, we have some creepy tea club girls who are insanely weird and grabby towards anyone they can get they’re hands on and are VERY annoying to boot, love that was so bland and odd and every so often kinda sweet but yet so chaotic at the same time that it made my head hurt, and the memory ghost of Banri that promised to make Banri’s life a living hell after he made his previous relationship with Linda nonexistent.
Like…wut? I mean I get college life is crazy and I get that this is merely an anime with some very poor attempts at romantic comedy/drama but…come on. There were actually several instances where I believe adult life was captured rather well, but within the instances I just explained, I was constantly cringing at every bizarre moment during the show because of just how unnatural it was.
The whole love triangle…square…pentagon? You know the whole romance aspect of the show. It was certainly dramatic with a lot of uncertainties in the beginning, but the execution and upbringing was so bland and slow that it didn’t leave me on the edge of my seat up until the last 5 episodes when things actually grew to become decently interesting between each potential couple. There wasn’t enough…pure romance. Do you know what I mean? Not enough heartfelt kisses or hand holding or one on one moments to make me downright say “OMG THEY ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER”. I watched the final 5 episodes today and trust me when I say that that was the most I had actually watched of this show at one time. Honestly, those last few episodes were what saved me from giving Golden Time a 3 instead of a 4.
Was there any good parts to the story? Yes, I will admit. I liked the collage setting, the more adult aspects of the characters (that is when Koko wasn’t acting like a spoiled child but I’ll get to that later), and I also enjoyed some of the more serious moments. Golden Time was very good at cliff hangers. It was just a bummer that the continuation of said cliffhangers weren’t as good as they could have been in the episodes that followed them.
Art 6/10
By far the strongest aspects of the whole show. Although, that doesn’t really say much especially being rated as a 6. For a show from 2013, and from the studio J.C. Staff nonetheless, the animation and art in Golden Time was nothing special. Your classic looking hair, eyes, background art. Nothing really stood out to me. If anything, the biggest thing I noticed was actually the detail put into Koko’s clothes. Weird I know, but I’m being honest here.
Not amazing, not terrible. Just near smack in the middle.
Sound 5/10
Sound came close to a 6, but there just wasn’t enough of a reason for me to actually give it another notch up. Mediocre and nothing to boast about except the first ed which I found rather nice.
Character 5/10
Alright. Time for the characters. Kaga, Tada, Linda, Yana, Nana, Oka…
I think you can see where I’m going with this.
I know this is strange to say, but right from the start, I was irked with everyone’s names. I don’t know if the similarities in the sound of the names was intentional or meant to be funny, but even if it was, I found the execution extremely poor. Puns within a character’s name is something I’ve never had a problem with and I sometimes even find them enjoyable (like in Phoenix Wright) but in Golden Time, I just found the resemblances extremely annoying. And if I couldn’t even stand the names, then oh boy was I fearful of how the rest of the show would go. Luckily, I sort of got used to the names and they just flowed through one ear and out the other. But with the actual characters themselves? I have a lot to say.
Starting with Banri (I’m gonna use first names mostly here to save my sanity) A very generic male protagonist. Our boy with amnesia who struggled immensely with his inner self at several points throughout the show. I didn’t dislike Banri at all, despite how Plain Jane was. Honestly, it was his mediocre self that gave me the breaths of fresh air from time to time when I needed it. I will say that some of his memory episodes were a little…odd and I didn’t exactly like his behavior towards Koko when she treated him and the others like s*** for no reason, but other than that, I had no issues.
Now, let’s move on to our lovely Golden Girl. Koko Kaga. Talk about a headache and a half. I swear this girl pissed me off from episode 1. Y’know that whole argument when girls say “No means no” and that should be final? Well it’s the same the other way around! But no, this girl was dead set on Mituo’s ass and would not stop. She was all up in his business, whacked him with flowers, stalked him, had unnecessary outbursts, suffered the woes is me, and then ultimately ended up with someone else who I STILL feel is too good for her. Koko was just…the worst kind of female protagonist, and while there were a few moments where I appreciated her and the relationship she had with Banri, there were too many other moments where she just made me mad to a point of no return.
While we're talking girls, let’s move to Linda. Flat out, I really wished the roles of her and Koko were reversed, personalities and all. Linda, though she still had flaws, was a much better overall character who actually took people into consideration, including Banri. They were childhood friends which makes sense in the personal treatment department. She understood him, worried about him, and didn't bombard him unless it was necessary. She was very decent, sweet, and though generic as well, was very relatable.
Next we have Mitsuo, Oka, 2D, and Nana. I’m just gonna cover the four of them in a few little sentences. (Welp...all first names didn't last long)
Mitsuo- Cool but kinda bland. A little all over the place with whom he liked romance wise. I honestly wish he had had more screen time.
Oka- Annoying on several occasions. Didn’t like Mitsuo romantically but of course that changed once he had feelings for someone else. Not on my favorites list by a long shot.
2D - Yesssss my boi. Funny as hell. Carried a lot of the comedy that I actually laughed at in the show. Could check people appropriately when needed. Very relatable with liking 2D characters instead of actual humans >.<
Nana - Some random punk chick that didn’t leave much of an impression on me. In my opinion, almost unnecessary in the show and was occasionally kinda a b****
Enjoyment 3/10
So if it wasn’t already obvious, I didn’t enjoy Golden Time too much. Everything was borderline tolerable until we get to how everything came together. Story, relationships, and all. It was a snooze fest for me almost every episode until there was that little glimmer of something that made me push forward, but then it would fade and I’d be left disappointed. Like I said before, the last 5 episodes were by far the most entertaining, but that meant watching 19 episodes of a slow, bland, anime that only had a select few moments I actually enjoyed.
Drama was honestly the better part of the 3 genres Golden Time focused on. There was quite a bit of it, but then the events that followed the drama made it forgettable and almost pointless.
Comedy was barely there with exception of 2D and his shenanigans.
And the romance…that was by far the biggest disappointment for me. I was always paying attention to the obvious love triangle between Banri, Linda, and Koko, and with the end result, I wasn’t fully moved. Honestly, I got pretty ticked at how often my ship preference changed throughout the show when it’s usually something that doesn’t bother me. It just went along the lines of “Mk well Koko just pissed me off so now I ship Banri with Linda” to “Well Linda just pissed me off so now I ship Banri with Koko”.
I just never got a strong, heartfelt grasp of the story and everything within it in comparison to other shows, thus making my enjoyment of Golden Time as a whole falter quite a bit.
Overall 4/10
Several times I thought, “Maybe I just don’t get it. Maybe this show hits home for a lot of people and I’m not one of them.”
And that could very well still be the case.
Golden Time held a lot of promise and excitement for me in the beginning. It was fresh and new, though a bit older and different. For the first few episodes I respected that. But then, it slowly became a show that I knew wasn’t going to be on my list of favorites. Perhaps I missed something or didn’t understand the message. But there was only one I really received by the last episode.
Golden Time…was just bronze in disguise.
