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)
Golden Time has worked through some difficult material in the last few episodes, going for overboard drama in some moments but also some really interesting emotional areas to try and explore. With Banri realizing that he’s losing who he is now to who he was before, and seeing the way it was coming out, you got to see the impact on everyone and their reactions. I was glad in a way to see how Koko just went big with her reaction while trying to play it cool, even as she felt so completely filled with loss. It’s the kind of situation where it’s easy to say what you would do, but until you’re in it and with your own unique background, it’s impossible to know. With the kind of in-depth conversations we’ve seen between our two leads, you knew they were truly bonded and close and that she was just trying to protect herself, and him, in the only way she could by just shutting it all down.
With Banri having gone the hospital route and working through things, he’s now found himself in an interesting place where his old self has fully returned and he doesn’t remember anything that happened after the accident that lead him to his college life. He’s uncertain of what to do in a way, but figures that he should just move on past that life, drop out of that college and try and start again elsewhere since what happened there wasn’t really him. And you can understand some of the concerns in all of that as you may not want to revisit that life, being unsure of how it could impact how you are now that you’re back to normal. Even with all the notes that were left for him, there’s a bit of hesitancy in trying to reconnect with that life and what it all means. Especially when he sees some of the romantic emails he had sent, which feels totally unlike him.
It is interesting in seeing how Banri is still very much in love with Linda and believing that even though all this time has passed, she hasn’t changed a bit and that he can have a real relationship with her. The two are spending time together, but it takes an amusing turn when Koko shows up at the house in the country and Banri can’t really recognize her and is unsure about the whole thing. It’s just that kind of moment for Koko to see the man she loved, and it’s heartbreaking since even Linda really wants the two of them to get together properly. This has a kind of emptiness to it in a way as we see her going away quickly, not wanting to cause trouble but needing to see him. It can’t end like that of course and it ends up pushing Banri to chase after her as he realizes who she is, and the need to be with her is under the surface. But this also leads to a really curious kind of dream-like sequence when the bridge comes into play again as the two sides of Banri argue it out a bit and we finally get resolution for the old Banri, which allows the post-accident one to take control and move forward and go after his dream.
The relationship between Koko and Banri has obviously been the focus of the series and it’s been a real treat getting to see them engage in so many interesting ways as time went on. That they’d actually talk and work things out, struggle with each others needs and their own, brings us to the end point here where when Banri remembers who he was at college and goes after her, the two can have a proper emotional reunion and a chance to talk while making it clear their fears and worries with each other. But also the simple belief that they can make it past it, make it work and be utterly happy overall. It’s simple to be sure in the context of how the real world works and actual relationships, but once again we’ve got a series here that does more with character relationships in a single episode than multiple other series do as a whole. All while having a lot of fun along the way.
In Summary:
Golden Time has been a treat from start to finish and as a whole is a really engaging and fun work. Just moving us to the college age crowd, dealing with relationships and then actually having real discussions and talk about feelings, worries and hopes and dreams? Inconceivable! You can probably count those series on a single hand that do it and do it well and Golden Time deserves a very good spot with them now. This has been one of the best romantic comedy/drama shows of the last few years with its focus and character stories and it’s left a hugely positive impression on me, one that will have me singing its praises for quite some time to come as I don’t foresee another show being this open and honest with its characters.
Grade: A-
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.
