Anime Log – Golden Boy

When I started watching Anime from a young age, I binged through many different genres. As I got older this naturally diversified and exposed me to many works of art that held deep meaning and detail in both story and animation. Golden Boy is none of that. No, Golden Boy is something entirely different. It’s an Anime that had me genuinely laughing out light at the perverse main character and his ridiculous antics.

• Format: Anime
• Language: Japanese
• Status: Complete
• Author: Tatsuya Egawa
• Genre: Comedy, Ecchi, Adventure

A friend suggested to give it a shot and vouched for its absurd hilarity. Not quite knowing what to expect, the first episode turned out to be a rib tickling treat. For the record, I watched this in English dub at the time and it was the better decision of that month. The dub fits our goofball MC so well I was in tears at certain scenes. I rarely watch Anime in English but there are select few with decent voice actors without seeming cringe. – Believe it!

The series is short and sweet, a six episode journey following Kintarou, a college student who decides he needs to find some meaning in life. So off he goes on his bike - with a backpack and stuff. The plot isn’t too deep here and there isn’t much to think about, at least not when watching Golden Boy. The MC is a downright pervy and completely loses it when around pretty women (there seem to be many in this show. Every episode sees Kintarou face a new challenge valiantly as he battles with the struggles of life and his lust.

So you might be wondering what on earth makes this worthwhile. Underneath the obnoxious plotline there lies some true talent in production. The facial expressions in this show were priceless and some scenes were so well executed I had to burst out laughing. Look out for the swimming scene, that was probably the my favourite part.

While the MC seems like a depthless lunatic, there are moments that show his true feelings and I felt some similarities to Onizuka from GTO. Ketarou is kind hearted and is overly fond of women, in a way he develops in his own way, slowly maturing.

The animation style, facial expressions and general stupidity mixed with moments of brilliance really align these two shows (Golden Boy and GTO). If you can hack a bit of fan service, ecchi and all the other things mentioned above – Golden Boy is a fun watch.