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)
With Banri almost living in a dream for a moment with the way that he thought he and Koko hand’t broken up, everything came crashing down hard for him as the reality started to set in. Not that there wasn’t denial of course, and concern from friends over what’s going on as well as some calling her out as crazy, but it just kept getting worse for Banri. But he was trying to do right by things and that had him getting a bit upset in his own way when he realized Koko was quitting the club, ostensibly to let him have that positive thing, but having that without her hurts him a lot since he knows it meant a lot to her. His chase after her is simple, but it does manage to drive a small wedge into the door to see some emotion out of her since the whole breakup started.
Even when all that has gone down has happened, Banri is still understanding of what happened between them since he knows he’s disappearing. It’s difficult enough for him of course, but he’s also concerned about her and how she’d handle it, which is something she plainly says she can’t, even with a touch of emotion, because it’s just too much. The two come to a kind of false friendship at this point, to let things end in a way as if there was nothing there, but also reinforcing that should he remember her, that they’ll be together forever. It’s a really difficult situation overall, not one that people can cope with well, but seeing the two of them try to find this sort of in between may feel weird but it’s what works for them. It’s easy to berate either of them, especially Koko for not standing by him as he goes through it, but there are so many conflicting emotions to it that unless you live it, it’s truly hard to judge.
The situation as a whole is difficult for a lot of the friends to handle and even Yana avoids Banri for awhile and others like 2D-kun can’t seem to figure out what’s going on with Banri. And for poor Banri, his life is slowly slipping away from him at times and he keeps reverting back to who he was before the accident, causing himself a significant panic since he’s in a place he doesn’t know or understand. The emotions are so real, so well done, that you can feel it strike a chord. Things do turn a bit, such as Yana agreeing to talk with him, but mostly Banri has realized that it’s time to go get checked out and cope with this, going so far as to talk to his mother. He wants to do the festival, and you can understand that, but it also feels like a recipe for disaster. It is good to see that as it goes forward, it’s mostly a very positive experience, as Banri does his best to live in the moment, but that fear is just under the surface and is so profound.
In Summary:
Golden Time works through some very difficult material here and it’s very easy to see just how judgmental one can be about the situation based on experience we all have and views of how supportive relationships should be. I rather appreciate that we get the honest fear and worry – and self-interest – that Koko presents and just how hard the situation will be on her. Too often, it’s a do anything to support the person your with mantra and that is entirely valid, but you also have to look at the toll it takes on others. Ask anyone with elderly parents and they’ll talk about the toll as one becomes a caregiver for the other. This is similar in a way and it’s tough to watch, especially as we also get more of Banri backsliding into who he was and experiencing his own very real fear.
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.
