What They Say:
Banri Tada is a newly admitted student at a private law school in Tokyo. However, due to an accident, he lost all of his memories. During his freshman orientation, he encounters another freshman from the same school, Mitsuo Yanagisawa, and they hit it off at once. Without any memory of each other, their lives become more and more intertwined as if set by the hands of fate. But what is their fate, and will it lead to happiness or another memory to forget…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Though the focus as of late has been mostly on Banri and Koko, we’ve also had some decent material with Linda. There’s a strong connection to the past to be sure to what he was like before his memory loss and having her in the present has obviously brought up a good bit of it. Linda has a certain darkness to her as she’s coping with the secret of what happened and seeing that unfold on her face has definitely been interesting to watch until we get to more of the reveal. That starts here right in the prologue as we see how, when cornered by a few friends, Linda talks about how she could never be interested in Banri even though they spend so much time together. His overhearing it causes him to largely shut down and shut her out since it hits him hard considering her feelings for her. Of course, she was really feeling the opposite, but peer pressure is a terrible thing that most have a hard time handling.
While that sets the stage for things nicely, Banri actively says early on here that those are the problems of someone else in a way and has little to do with the Banri of now. That Banri now finds himself caught up in some other problems as Koko is letting him know that Yana has started leaving early and his hiding from people, largely because he’s having such problems with girls in general at this point in time. Amusingly, he’s being accosted by one woman when Banri goes to visit him and find out what’s going on and he takes on the role of being Yana’s boyfriend. It’s a bit much and certainly outgoing, but seeing Banri being so upbeat and outgoing like this in a fun way is hugely comical. And seeing how quickly Yana manages to understand what’s going on and runs with it is just as much fun.
The episode is admittedly a bit unfocused in some ways as it goes on with Banri wanting to help Yana, but we also get a few other nice areas, such as Koko being told to be very aware of what she has in her possession with Banri. Seeing the group out together at the amusement park definitely is nice because there’s no competing going on here. Banri and Koko are together, nobody is trying to split them, and she’s on his arm and he’s loving the time with each other. It’s just so heartwarming to see because it’s so rarely seen in anime. This is good to see as is the quiet time we get later between Linda and Banri as they take what we saw in the past in the flashback and bring it full circle here, allowing Linda to really get the chance to say what she wanted to say before the accident. It’s still a bit hard to tell what she’s really thinking, if she’s just trying to salve his wounds or not, but it’s definitely something that feels like it’s done realistically in its conversational tone.
In Summary:
While I’m still unsure of where Golden Time will go and if it’ll hit some terrible notes along the way, I am absolutely loving the show in its small parts and hopeful that it’s a great work as a whole. We’re getting such moments here that are rarely seen in most shows involving romantic couples or people that could be getting together that it’s hugely refreshing. Getting more of Banri and Linda’s back story here is very well done and bringing some of how Banri is in the present into focus only reinforces it. Koko has certainly settled a lot since the early episodes as we get to know who she really is, but we also see there’s a whole lot to her that’s engaging and fun to watch. This is another strong episode that’s building a fantastic larger narrative.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
