Golden Boy was largely acceptable anime entertainment

Finally got around to watching this series. I had heard anime fans singing Golden Boy’s praises for years.

There is a metric ton of fan service in this OVA. Like, a gratuitous amount. I don’t get offended easily, though. It fits the general concept of a recent university graduate navigating newly single years.

The main character is somewhat of a lech, but hey, everyone has their weaknesses. We’re talking about the same medium that includes mass murderer Light Yagami, so this is fairly innocent. And, besides, this stuff is a reflection of a fictional character’s value system, and not the author or ourselves.

As for the actual story, it’s a six episode OVA created in the mid-90s based on a manga series. There’s a fairly common scenario here: the manga outlived the OVA by a substantial amount, and the anime doesn’t provide an ending to the story. What we get instead is a curio of stories that loosely tie together at the end.

The main character, Kintaro Oe, drops out of law school and travels from district to district on his bike, taking on a series of off jobs. Each of the episodes revolves around some woman who is initially dismissive of our hero, but ends up impressed with his hidden intelligence and acumen by the end. By the time the woman notices his talents, he’s already moved on to the next city.

That’s basically it. On the upside, there’s only six episodes and they’re fairly entertaining as self-contained showcases. Other than the last episode, they can be watched in any order. On the downside, it’s extremely lightweight fare. It’s not Kimagure Orange Road or Maison Ikkoku by any stretch.

The main draw is the humor, I guess, which comes entirely from Kintaro. He is the beneficiary to occasional exaggerations in his animation, and they’re all targeted to him being pathetic. That is, there’s a basic pattern to each episode:

1. Kintaro finds new employment
2. He feigns incompetence at the basic job
3. He’s dismissed as an idiot by the “love interest”
4. He wildly succeeds
5. “Love interest” finds out he’s brilliant and inventive, but Kintaro has already left

This is a basic litmus test on whether you’ll enjoy this OVA:

On a personal note, I do like that sort-of early 90s anime art style. There are a lot of sharp stylized angles at play, to include angular hair, chins that come to a perfect point, and wildly diverging character designs. Some characters are also impossibly lithe, while others are bulky and strong.

There’s less control exerted over the use of color compared to the 2000s also. In other words, we’re not yet at the point where anime art appears to be plug-and-chug into a generic industry “house style.” The show hasn’t yet felt the pressure to wash itself over with grey sheen. Golden Boy has a semblance of artistic character of its own, which deserves plaudits.

Ultimately, I liked the series enough but was disappointed that it didn’t have any sort of satisfactory conclusion or, failing that, some eventual continuation.

Rating: