Golden Time, is an Anime that I’m sure you may have known about. According to MyAnimeList, it is known to just over 334k people. Sitting at a rating of 7.90 it is also an Anime that aired many years ago, 2013 Fall Season to be exact!
Personally, I believe Golden Time is one of the underestimated romance Anime that has aired thus far and I’m a fan of romance Anime. So today, I will give you my reasoning as to why I think this Anime is an underestimated romance Anime.
Episode Count: 24
MyAnimeList Synopsis
“Due to a tragic accident, Banri Tada is struck with amnesia, dissolving the memories of his hometown and past. However, after befriending Mitsuo Yanagisawa, he decides to move on and begin a new life at law school in Tokyo. But just as he is beginning to adjust to his college life, the beautiful Kouko Kaga dramatically barges into Banri’s life, and their chance meeting marks the beginning of an unforgettable year.
After having a glimpse of college life, Banri learns that he is in a new place and a new world – a place where he can be reborn, to have new friends, fall in love, makes mistakes and grow. And as he begins to discover who he was, the path he has chosen leads him towards a blindingly bright life that he will never want to forget.”
My Reason 😮
Story: 7
The story follows a kid named Banri who just started college in Tokyo. He would have had been a second-year student at this point but he had to be hospitalized from a head injury. He fell off the side of a bridge and lost all of his memories prior to that point. His family, his friends, his girlfriends, and his children were all lost, so he decides to start anew and become a new person. However, as the story progress, Banri starts have an internal conflict with his past self and the new person he becomes in college with causes a lot of problems with his current relationships.
The overall setup of the story is nothing special but the storytelling of the show is where Golden Time shines. The dialogue and the situations the main characters go through each episode is what makes this show. I wouldn’t say Golden Times is episodic but at times it feels as though it is because there is always something different going on every episode. They don’t dwell on problems for too long (except for the main psychological conflict) which I like. What really stood out was just the relationships ups and downs rather than the overarching story.
Art Design: 9Â
After watching Golden Time and other anime that came out that year, it’s clear that the animation during that year showed that with time, the animation was getting better each year. Golden Times animation is so good. The amount of animation in the setting alone was amazing. The city, inside of buildings, the school, and any setting the main characters were in had a considerable amount of detail in them. Even small things like water movement, barber poles, leaves, and even blinkers on cars were noticeable and moved naturally. The character designs were also on point. All you have to do is look at Koko and your mouth will drop. All you can say is that Mitsuo is an idiot for not wanting her because she..is..hot (even for animation)
Soundtrack: 9Â
The sound for this anime was also good. I listened to the OST after I watched the show and there were a couple of tracks I liked alone. However, most of them were eclipsed by the opening/ending themes. With that note, the songs in the themes were amazing. They grew on me even though it’s not really my style of music. I liked the songs in the first opening and the second ending the most. As for the sound in the show, they mostly used mood setting chords and sound queues. They where subtle but were not able during memorable scenes.
As for the voice acting, I didn’t expect it to be so good. The actor in the anime had a lot of talent and fit their characters very well. They also managed to use English in part of their speech which confused during certain scenes. All of this was insignificant compared to the emotional scenes, however. As the characters started to yell and argue with each other you can feel the amount of emotion the actors had in their voices. It wasn’t overpowering or unrealistic which I thought was amazing. Also during the sad scenes when someone would start crying, their voices sounded so realistic that you get completely captivated by the scene. The cast did an amazing job.
Character Design: 8
All of the main characters in this show had great synergy with each. This is mostly due to the fact that this show is so realistic but I thought that it’s worth mentioning. The relationships everyone had with each other was different for specific reasons. Everyone wasn’t just friends with each other because they knew each other like in other animes. There were ups and downs between all of them. As for character development, I thought it was well done for most of the characters. There was one character in particular that just pissed me off after a while but everyone else developed nicely as they had to face numerous situations. As for the character I was talking about earlier, it is the main character Banri. At first, I thought his development was great.
He starts off as a clean slate and then gradually changes as time goes on. Towards episode 17, I thought Banri as the main character was at its all time high. He changed so much from the first episode. Then towards the end of the series, he did a 180. I don’t want to spoil anything because his change is caused by how the story is set up but he changed for the worst. He pulled a Shinji from NGE out of nowhere which I just didn’t like at all. That part could have had been executed better imo. As for Koko, I thought her development was the best throughout the series. At first, she was just a crazy stalker then she turns into a character with so much depth and emotion. This only gets better towards the end while Banri development gets worse. Linda developed in a similar way as well.
Conclusion
This is why I think Golden Time is an underestimated Romance and Anime overall. I believe it should be watched, it’s a really good Anime for what it is.
Stamp of Approval Earned,
– OOCentralÂ
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3 responses to “Golden Time | Underestimated Romance Anime?”
I really love Golden Time. The romance is nicely done but I mostly love watching the characters just dealing with their lives while they try to figure out who they are and their relationships. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
Agreed, I especially liked it when it got into the later episodes.
Great article, totally what I needed.