Not altogether different from some relationships, coming to terms with Golden Time was a bit like a mountain hike. For almost the entire first half of it, I was dismayed at how tiresome it became, and at how it seemed to fall short of the expectations I had held for it due to fan-hype. Namely:


- I despised the characters, with Koko's insecure obsessiveness, Banri's seeming lack of a soul or any interesting characteristics and Linda's totally ambiguous interventions which looked as if they were only around to create enough conflict for there to be a plot. Imperfect characters are a good show's bread and butter, but ones that outright piss you off? I should think not.

- The lack of truly memorable scenes and dialogue that had a real impact, made pretentious by the piano-laced cliffhanger endings, artificial drama and the "hey look everyone my hair is covering my eyes, that means that this is a serious moment" animation trope.

- The fact that Banri seems to have followed the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Friendzone' religiously when making advances on both Koko and Linda, professing his love to them in the most 'beta' (do hate that word but it applies sometimes) way possible, and yet they both freaking adore him for it! I told myself "oh boy, he's a rebound" and sympathized with him for the pain he was going to experience at Koko's hands. But nope, apparently her sudden falling for him was genuine as it's never really addressed down the line - the inception of their relationship seemed unnatural and forced because of this.

- The lack of good humour, animation, OP and ED to compensate for any of these defects.


As such, by around Episode 10 I was feeling a bit cheated, but something took me and I marathoned up to the then-latest episode (22 or so) in order to at least finish what I had started. Thankfully, because at least in my own experience, Golden Time grew on me in its latter half and ended up rewarding my keeping the faith. Some of the downsides mentioned above didn't disappear, but they were compensated for at least. The pacing improved and episodes generally felt less empty, the characters balanced out a bit, and my criticisms of how Banri got with Koko to begin with were smothered by later scenes that made me not really mind the way they got together any more: essentially, the show came together somewhat, in a way that made me dismiss the issues I'd had in the mid-season.

Moreover, the side-characters become decent auxiliaries and provide some good additions of their own, to the point that I wanted more for them by the end. The first OP and ED got replaced by versions that I found far superior, and I found myself starting to laugh at the comedy or feel more concerned by the dramatic turns too, regardless of my quibbles with the past-Banri subplot. I won't discuss the content of the finale, but I'll say that in terms of craftmanship I believe the creators did a pretty solid job conveying what they wanted to convey. I might normally say that it was rushed and that I felt a bit mystified by how a couple of subplots were conveniently wrapped up, but in this case I'll concede that they got away with it: when the creators manage to make their characters likeable throughout a show, you just kind of get taken in by the flow of a finale sometimes. The pacing doesn't really become great but to be fair it's a romance drama spanning over 20 episodes, so this is to be expected.

I'll add on another note that the university setting is like a cool glass of water in the arid landscape that is highschool anime and gives Golden Time an edge over many competitors from the get-go, even if the characters aren't in essence more mature. Furthermore, tasteless fanservice, exaggerated femininity and constant blushing/wailing were also given a good toss out the window and a middle-finger to boot.

To conclude, I'll say that this is the first time I went from really disliking a show in the first half to finding it engaging in the second. Made me feel pretty mercurial. Anyway, though I'll easily recommend it to patient viewers or romance veterans, I'll also insist that those of you who are wavering don't give up on it if you aren't fond of the way things look at first.

7/10

This anime was f*cking amazing, this is the exact type of romance anime that I've been looking for, the type where the show where it isn't just endless teasing of a relationship and it never happens until the final episode, this is the type of anime which actually Be's a love story and not an endless cycle of chemistry and will they won't they bullsh*t, it shows the functioning of the main characters relationship and the up's and downs of it, and I think they couldn't have ended it any better. And now that I've finished it I'm not sure what others like this there are. I guess you could say sword art online but only the first arc, as we all know how good it got in the second arc onwards.

Golden time is the perfect blend between romcom and serious romance, familiarity and new themes, a take on things that have been done before with a twist. It's basically about how the main character Tada Banri falls for Kouko Kaga, however he also has amnesia and eventually his old memories of his first crush are returning, and he current memories are disappearing. My words can't do it justice, it is very cleverly executed and plays with tropes like amnesia and college life, executing them perfectly.