Adventures in Anime #8: Golden Time

 

It's time for more Adventures in Anime! My best friend Rachel & I team up for this collaboration where we pick out an anime, watch it together and then answer a series of questions about it for the blog. Since we featured Magic Knight Rayearth last time, it was time for us to find a new-to-us anime to watch. We ended up picking out Golden Time, an anime that had popped up a few times when we were looking for new options online. We never really know how it'll turn out when we pick out an anime to try together, but in this case, it ended up being such a great show!

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Summary: Banri Tada is about to begin his freshman year at a law school in Tokyo, a fresh start after the accident on the night of his high school graduation that caused him to lose his memories. On his very first day, he befriends fellow freshman Mitsuo Yanagisawa and his childhood friend Koko Kaga (who has followed Mitsuo to school because she believes they're destined to be together). His own friendship with Koko flourishes (despite having to mediate between her and Mitsuo quite often at the start), and eventually, the pair's relationship becomes something more. The anime explores their relationship, as well as their friendships and the aftereffects of Banri's memory loss.

Brief Thoughts: I didn't expect to end up loving this show as much as I did! The first episode had me convinced it was going to be a fun, easy-to-watch, lighthearted anime. And while in many aspects, it was precisely that (seriously, there were so many hilarious moments that made me laugh out loud), it was also so much more. There was a surprising maturity to the way that the complicated emotional ties between the characters were depicted; there were many entanglements that felt complex and real and made my heart ache for everyone involved. And Banri's memory loss was handled in a way that really tugged at the heartstrings because watching him struggle to figure himself out, to make peace with the past and go on with the present -- it was definitely tearjerker material.

Favorite Character(s): This is a really hard question to answer because I genuinely adored the entire group (and yes, even Koko, who definitely had some wild antics). But Banri has to be my pick at the end of the day! Not only is he just a wonderful person who tries his best to be there for the people he cares about and embrace what life has to offer, but also because he's the main character, we spend a lot of time in his head and really get the chance to know him on a more intimate level than anyone else.

Favorite Episode: The beach episode (AKA Episode 15) is my favorite! While it seems like Banri's spirit (yes, he's around) is out to ruin a perfectly good day for the gang, they end up making the best of the circumstances they're in and having a lot of fun anyway. It made my heart happy (though the ending, admittedly, made me freak out)!

Favorite Scene: One of the scenes that really got to me is when Banri ends up admitting to Mitsuo and their other friend Sato Takaya about how anxious and scared he feels about the possibility of forgetting who he is in the present, and the pair promise that they'll always do their best to find him and make sure he isn't lost. (That's basically the gist of it anyway.) It made me super emotional, and I really loved the emphasis on the friendship!

Favorite Quote(s): I'm going to cheat and pick two for this! The first one is "Once you miss the opportunity to say something, the words become increasingly toxic. The best thing to do is just say everything." And the second one is "My heart will always look toward you."

Favorite Setting: I'm going to go with Banri's apartment! While a lot of very difficult emotional moments occur there too, I can't help but think fondly of the fun times Banri is able to have with everyone, especially the night they all end up really cementing their friendship as a group.

Favorite Kiss: I'm going to pick the kiss scene in the very last episode of the anime of course, because I'm a sucker for a happy ending!

Have you watched Golden Time?