Golden Time Episode 16
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 offered a whole lot of fun and warmth in the previous episode with the way that the gang headed out to the ocean and really got close together in some great ways. The whole playing in the rain aspect definitely hit all the right marks and made for a beautiful bit of time between Banri and Koko while also allowing the others to connect well. But as much fun as we had overall with their trip to the ocean, it looked like it was going to end in tragedy as the car nearly goes off the road as they all fell asleep on the drive back. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case as Banri’s old self took control of the body and managed to stop them from going over. But how can that impact things is something that’s going to really be intriguing.
Interestingly, while Banri seems to be normal, the initial fallout comes from the fact that Koko is very out of sorts because of what happened and the way she feels like everything could have gone so badly. She’s just in a daze, which is made even worse when they get back and her father is waiting there, ready to slap her across the face to make it clear his disappointment in her. This ends up being the last the group sees of Koko for a bit as life goes on, though her father makes appearances with their parents to deal with things like the insurance, Oka’s injury and generally cleaning up after the minor mess of it all. But as he does this, Koko is completely out of the picture and not answering anyone’s texts or calls, which makes it a very difficult place for all them to be put in since they can’t really go and visit her for all the societal politeness reasons.
Banri’s only letting that go so far though as he does end up going to see her, but she’s just beside herself with anger and self-pity over what happened, taking it to an expected extreme as she beats herself up in such a significant way, no matter what Banri says. The two actually end up going at it with an intense argument, one that has Banri slipping his own worries into things, which just drives her nuts since she’s been so focused on what she went though, and that has lashing out at him and the way he’s lived his life since the accident. But like any argument, there are some good truths that come out of it and the intensity that they go at it is surprising at times, but it’s also good to see that they reach through to each other with their worries and fears, and that it manages to strengthen them overall.
In Summary:
Golden Time takes an interesting approach with what’s going on here as the initial idea that we’d see a change in Banri is pushed to the side and the focus is on Koko instead. The whole car accident is something that has really rattled here, which is made worse by how her father treats her upon return. What’s good to see is that while Banri doesn’t exactly handle it smoothly, the two have a pretty intense argument that helps to bring out their issues a bit more that each have with themselves and allows it to be put on the table for more discussion. But instead of where other shows would go in having them take a break, walk away from each other or some other kind of wedge driven between them, it manages to bring them closer together and reinforces things. Which just reinforces my love of this show.
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.