Golden Time REVIEW [Talkisoba]

Welcome to the 26th episode of TakiSobo with our review for Golden Time. I'm the Anime Casual Nate, as always, here with the Anime Pro Milesh. Hey. Golden Time is the second true romance anime that I've seen, with the first being Toradora, which is made by the same person. This anime made me laugh and cry, and it was quite an emotional journey. What was the journey like for you, Milesh? I had a similar experience, Nate. Golden Time was one of the first romance anime I've seen, and I loved it, but it did have some noticeable ups and downs. Golden Time debuted in the fall season of 2013 with a great 24 episode run. It was adapted from a light novel series that ended right about the same time. The story follows Banditara, who is entering his first year of law school in a university in Tokyo. He is in a completely new environment, and must make completely new friends. But it is quickly revealed that Bandi actually suffered amnesia at the end of high school, and truly is a blank slate. From here, Bandi must live a life reborn, as he says. But he comes to learn that he can't completely leave his past behind. This dramatic element, mixed with Bandi's rollercoaster of a love life, made for a great story that I was glad featured college-age students instead of high schoolers. The story focuses on Bandi falling in love with a beautiful rich girl, Koko Kaka. Koko actually loved Banri's friend Mitsuo, but Mitsuo never looked her back. At first, Koko relies on Banri to get information on Mitsuo, which leads them to spending a lot of time together. Eventually, Banri realizes he loves Koko, and the two start going out, after it becomes clear to Koko that Mitsuo will never see her in a romantic way. From there, we see the trials and tribulations of Banri's and Koko's relationship as the show continues. One of the major issues for them was Banri's past self. Koko worries if Banri gets his memories back, he won't love Koko anymore. More drama continues in their relationship, as well as their individual relationship with Banri's social circle. I enjoyed watching the story on Twitter the first time, but re-watching it was not as fun. Already knowing how it plays out eliminates all the drama. Now let's discuss the characters. The main character is Bandi, the blank slate who comes to Tokyo, ready to start a new life. His first new friend is Mitsuo Yana, a caring guy who always has Bandi's back. At the same time, Bandi meets Koko, Mitsuo's crazy stalker plus childhood friend who has gone to extreme lengths to try and win Mitsuo's love. After Bandi and Koko get together pretty early on, their relationship takes up the bulk of the anime. It is filled with complex emotions, lovers' quarrels, and Koko's struggle to accept Bandi's past and his amnesia. Bandi and Koko both make huge strides in character development, but not just because of each other. While the rest of the cast sees less development, they all have an important role in improving both Bandi and Koko individually. This kept the romantic focus from getting stale or one-sided. In the rest of Bandi's circle we got Chinami, a quirky girl who becomes friends with everyone. Mitsuo initially falls for her and their relationship is what helps let Koko move on in Banri. Next we got 2D-kun, the best bro a person could ask for. He was a third wheel to Koko and Banri, and occasionally a fifth wheel with Mitsuo and Chinami, but he always had great comedic moments. The most important secondary character is Linda, an upperclassman to our group. She helps Banri early on, but later we see that she and Banri have a special connection that leads to some spicy drama. Lastly, I have to bring up the hilarious T-Club members that are always up to no good in random episodes. As well as Linda's friend Nana, a punk rockstar that helps out Banri and is totally a reference to the anime Nana. Now, we'll discuss the animation. Golden Time was animated by Studio JC Staff, who had previously worked on things like Toradora and Honey and Clover. The art style for Golden Time is fairly simple, with cute character designs and a usual anime aesthetic. There were nice touches of realism in the background art as well. Something minor I appreciated after watching plenty of high school anime was that the characters JC Staff was a hit or miss animation studio, but they did a nice job of Golden Time. The characters look nice, and they added some decent touches to particularly dramatic scenes. I also love the variety of outfits the characters wore. Now let's talk about the soundtrack and voice acting. I love the soundtrack for Golden Time. I was impressed with how often they would use awesome background music during the show. A lot of tender love and care was put into it. The first opening and ending themes are awesome, inversely the second opening and ending themes are whatever. The voice actors did a great job of bringing the characters to life, something that is especially important in romance shows. You could tell when Coco or other characters were furious over some issues. I also enjoyed the soundtrack. It was better than what I expected, and being a good drama, I'm glad the music enhanced the mood. I adored the first opening and ending themes, but I must say the second opening theme was actually one of the worst I've heard ever. As for the voice acting, I enjoyed this Japanese voice acting a lot more than I liked most. I could really hear the emotion across the language barrier, which shows how good it was. There were also some hilarious English scenes. The dialogue and subtitles are paced perfectly for any newbie anime watchers. Golden Time is an anime I haven't seen get much praise or discussion in general. It's well regarded, but just not a standout anime. I was very surprised to find myself so captivated by it, and Malesh was surprised at me as well. Something just struck a chord with me in this anime, and I loved it for that. The payoff for the ending was beyond worth it. If you like Toradora, or actually avoiding some romance anime for having a high school focus, I'd recommend this just for having a young adult cast that I could relate more to. If you know someone who loves young adult romance, even just novels, this would be a great starter anime for them. I watched Golden Time when it was airing in 2013. I instantly fell in love with it in the beginning, but in the later half some of the drama was a bit contrived to me. Also, re-watching Golden Time was not as fun as I thought. You'd have to have amnesia like Bari to love it a second time. Ultimately, I'd still recommend watching Golden Time if you're itching for an anime set in college that has great comedic bits. You can watch Golden Time for free on Crunchyroll or on Hulu with the paid subscription. As always, if you've already watched Golden Time, click the first link in the description for our post-review discussion, which includes some spoilers. Thanks for watching our review of Golden Time. Please, give it a like or a comment for feedback, and we'll see you guys next time with a review for Tsure Tsure Children. Ciao!