Golden Time Episode 14
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 took things a bit further with some of the weather manipulation in the previous episode that was seemingly controlled by the ghost of who Banri used to be, but one has to wonder just how much of that was coincidence. Having Banri and Koko manage to work things out a bit better as time goes on has been one of the fun things about the show as their problems are definitely largely of their own making, but instead of it usually spiraling out of control, they do manage to talk it through and move forward in what seems like a realistic manner rather than either ignoring the events completely or just hammering it over and over. It’s not exactly filled with quick progress, but then again, there is progress and changes to their relationship and that alone puts it above so many other romantic comedies out there.
With summer break moving along nicely, the show delves into some of the supporting troubles that are going on, which is nice to change things up a bit in terms of focus. Yana has been trying to get together with Banri for a bit, but he’s been caught up in so many other things that it never connected well. So the gang heads over to check on Yana and see what’s up, especially since his going somewhat radio silent has them wondering if he’s got a girlfriend. While they don’t connect up with him at the moment, they spend some time with Oka and they talk about the pressures of being out on their own, which is nice to see since it’s often such a superficial aspect when it comes to some of the mundane aspects of college life. But with Oka involved, they decide that they have to celebrate their time a bit and that means planning for a trip to the beach.
Of course, all this celebration takes an awkward turn when they do see Yana, with Linda of all people, and that impacts a few of them kind of hard. But thankfully it doesn’t get horribly bad from there as it instead turns its focus to swimsuits as we get Koko and Oka going through the selection process and going back and forth with each other in a kind of amusing bit of verbal sparring over fashion choices. The two women are definitely different personalities and views on things, but also the physical differences have shaped them in particular ways as well which makes it hard for them to understand each other when it comes to presentations like this. But they also get into talking about relationships and sexuality a bit in certain aspects which makes an interesting impact on Koko, even if all we get is a butt-shot for it. It’s interesting to see the struggles that Koko is going through with this relationship as she really wants more, but is grappling with trying to take it slow because of what Banri has been through.
In Summary:
Golden Time is turning some of its focus away from Banri and Koko to others, which is nice to see as Oka gets touched on a bit more here and we see some changes in story for Yana as well which could be interesting. But there is a good bit of material about our two leads, with Banri dealing with being absent for a bit at first and then a second half that plays some fun time with Koko and Oka before having Koko really go into some of her worries when it comes to Banri. It’s pretty nicely done and really helps to show that she understands there are problems to worry about but also worries that could really impact her relationship with him. The group as a whole has a nice dynamic here and I definitely liked seeing Koko and Oka together, even if we get some swimsuit silliness.
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.