Golden Boy - Reviews

Story
Golden Boy follows the story of Kintaro, a 25 year old man who dropped out of school because he finished early. On a quest for knowledge, Kintaro decides to become employed in a variety of jobs, to learn everything he can about the world. Each episode takes him to a new profession, as well as a new girl, and new challenges to overcome.

There are two aspects of the story I'd like to talk about. The first is the actual plot, which I felt was very well done. Golden Boy is a lot like Great Teacher Onizuka, so you'll see me compare it in this review. Like GTO, Kintaro is misunderstood, but really is a good guy at heart. In each situation he finds himself in, he has to prove himself to his co workers, as well as the female interest of the day. By the end of each episode, indeed, he's won over the hearts of all involved, and usually has helped someone in the process. Kintaro also learns valuable lessons at each workplace, and teaches the people there important life skills as well. For someone that comes across as bumbling and insensitive, this is a nice way to end each episode. I liked the good feeling you get when you watch Kintaro save a business or person, and I liked seeing a little bit of a few kinds of workplaces in Japan. Unlike GTO, which I felt was way too long for its randomness, Golden Boy is a short six episodes, which is a good length for the content.

The other aspect of the plot is the humor, which unfortunately (in my opinion) was extremely excessive ecchi. GTO was great because it had random humor, whereas Golden Boy relied solely on the ecchi for laughs. As a person who doesn't necessarily enjoy ecchi, this wasn't terribly exciting, but nonetheless, I *can* enjoy ecchi sometimes. The problem with Golden Boy's ecchi, I felt, was the extent of how extreme it was. For example, watching a woman get herself off from the vibrations on a bike (naked, even) is excessive in my book. The humor also extended to such things as showing Kintaro's erections on a regular basis, extremely jiggling breasts with nipples that looked like rubber, and of course, nakedness. Granted, there were some aspects of the humor I enjoyed, such as Kintaro constantly worshipping the toilets that the women used, but for the most part, I don't think ecchi humor needs to be that prevalent. If it is, I think it detracts from the overall plot, which WAS good. Because of the distractions, I rated the plot lower than I would have otherwise.
Animation
Animation-wise, Golden Boy had fairly crude visuals, but they were very appropriate for the style and mood. The character designs were somewhat minimal at times, with a palette of colors that was bland and varied. The facial expressions are very reminiscent to Great Teacher Onizuka, and were shown on a regular basis to make you laugh. For example, if Kintaro messed up with something, he'd get this extremely grotesque and horrified expression. Sometimes he'd look like a sunken skeleton, and other times, he'd look like a revved up fighting machine.

The ecchi was definitely a point of interest, since it dominated a large part of the series. The women tended to have very large jigging breasts (with very defined, scary looking nipples), and also tended to be naked a large amount of the time. Panty shots abounded, which tended to make Kintaro's nose bleed for the umpteenth time. Standard stuff for an ecchi series, really, though Kintaro's expressions definitely were the most hilarious of all the animation features.
Sound
The audio for Golden Boy was light and comical, which fit the mood perfectly. The tracks were synthy with occasional instruments such as light guitars. Besides the music (which there isn't much to say about), the voice acting was good for everyone involved, especially Kintaro, who had a very intense set of tones to use in various situations. Golden Boy is notorious for having one of the best (and most hilarious) dubs around. I've seen episode one of the dub, and I can agree with this. The English voice actor sounds SO incredibly excessive that it makes every scene hilarious, regardless of if it was supposed to be or not. Keep that in mind when you choose to watch this, you might want to watch the dub for one episode at least to get the full effect.
Characters
Golden Boy's characters are varied, given the fact that every episode is involved with different characters, but there is one that remains throughout the entire series: Kintaro. He's a bumbling genius who wants nothing more than to get laid, and always gets himself involved in interesting circumstances. Kintaro might be a horny guy, but he's also good at heart, and helps people out wherever he goes. Though I could have done without the excessive horny nature, Kintaro was a great character.

The other characters were not as exciting to me, especially the useless ones like the bouncy woman in the first episode. The ones that contributed nothing to the story except a naked body and ditzy personality just didn't do it for me, as I felt the ecchi could have been curbed a lot to make for a better story. Some of the other secondary characters, though, were a lot more interesting and you could tell they grew in a short period of time (with Kintaro's help, nonetheless).
Overall
Overall, Golden Boy was good, but it could have been better. I admit that had I liked strong ecchi, I probably would have rated this a tad higher, but personal preference does have some part in a review, doesn't it? As I've said, I do like ecchi sometimes, but not this extreme. The story would have been much more effective, in my opinion, had the ecchi been toned down a little. Besides that, though, the music and animation were good for the type of show this was, the characters were decent, and the story besides the ecchi was good as well. Even had there been zero ecchi, I probably wouldn't have rated this extremely high to begin with. Golden Boy was good, but wasn't inspiring enough to be excellent or one of my favorites. If you want a short watch that has a decent story and interesting characters, try out Golden Boy. Just be forewarned: if you dislike ecchi, the experience will probably be lessened for you.

Story

This OVA series is basically about the misadventures of the main character Kintaro and he goes from one job to another and gets involved in various ecchi situations.  This series is mostly episodic with a new job (and a new girl) in each episode (though the last episode does tie in with the previous episodes a little bit).  Now, I'm not a big fan of ecchi series but this is definately one of the better ones.  Most of the ecchi scenes are hilarious and this series just has a certain "heart" to it that many ecchi/fanservice series lack.  Each episode is a well paced self-contained story that has enough resolution at the end to be satisfying.  While the stories aren't real complex, they are entertaining for what they are.

Animation

The animation is actually pretty good for a mid-90's OVA.

Sound

The background music is pleasant, but forgettable.

Characters 

The main character, Kintaro, initially comes off as a perverted idiot.  While he is indeed a pervert, he's a likable pervert.  Also, while he does have his idiot moments, he also has several redeeming traits as well.  Not to mention that the various ecchi situations he gets in are hilarious.  As for each episode's main girl, they vary in likability (some are more likable than others).  They all seem to fall in some sort of trope or other.  However, they all do get at least some degree of character development, which is impressive considering they all get only one episode to shine (though the previous five girls do make a brief appearence in episode 6).

Overall 

As I said, this is one of the better ecchi anime I've seen.  Of course, if you absolutely hate ecchi with a passion then might want to avoid this series since there are plenty of boobs and panty shots (as well as some rather explict scenes in episode 5).  However, if you're like me (some one who isn't too fond of ecchi but is willing to give ecchi series a chance) then you may enjoy this series.  While there is plenty of fanservice, this OVA is also genuinely funny and has more going for it than just the fanservice.  And if you like ecchi, then you will definately enjoy this OVA. 

ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

Golden Boy is a legend amongst retros. Not for its production values, or its complicating stories, or its amazing directing, or its mesmerizing soundtrack. All those are just average to good but nothing close to giving it an epic title. So basically all us veterans loved it in our younger years simply because the main character is a COMPLETE PERVERT! You think harem protagonists are boring only in few last years? Even as far as a decade ago we were fed up with those wastes of meat. And then we see what this guy is doing to a toilet and… LOL instant fondness!

So we basically have Kintaro, a complete sleazeball who constantly runs from one job to another and does all sorts of things to impress the hot babes he meets there. And… that’s pretty much it really. Each episode is a stand alone case and down to its fundamentals the exact same thing happens. He is hired to do something, fails hard to it, the chicks starts to hate him, he does all sorts of deviant things, then he gets serious, does it right, and runs off while leaving them behind all horny and wet for him.

You may be wondering why is this premise any better than the dozens of super ecchi shows we get today. Well, simply said the chicks here are all over him in just one episode and they “seem” to be willing to drop their pants for him the moment they find him. No goofing around with embarrassment and holding back for a thousand episodes. At the same time he, like the perfect male specimen, manages to win their attention, do his job right, and then run to the next chick after he is through with his current one. No sir, he does not stick to just one chick or one job. He doesn’t settle down and turns to another worker nobody. He is not content with what he has like an average man. He strives for forever more knowledge and experience around the world and for that he keeps going like a Duracel bunny. HE IS MY HERO!

So yeah, if you try to see this from a more realistic point of view then this makes no sense. Why wouldn’t he settle down with a job he is good and a hot babe who is crazy about him? Why wouldn’t he have several nights of passion with them before running away to the next adventure? How does he even manage to live if he constantly travels with just a bike and no money? Sure, most of us would definitely not do that and just… settle down. But that is what makes him such a great guy after all; his love for the journey and not of the destination. He wants to be constantly on the move, constantly learning and doing different things, constantly dealing with different people, different jobs, different SEX FETISHES! He is the perfect Homo Universalis who wants to know and deal with everything! As for the erotic part, although the anime adaptation didn’t show any the manga version on the other hand does show how actually DOES occasionally have some jiggy-wiggy. So don’t make the mistake of considering him just another spineless virgin. KINTARO IS DA MAN!

Apart from him though, all other characters and the story in overall don’t mean much. Being episodic and even formulaic has this problem and thus apart from Kintaro’s charisma and wild gimmicks everything else is left on a very basic level. We do see how most of the women feel and act but by the time some sort of development is about to happen, Kintaro runs away on his bike like the “hit and run” commando he is.

Making up for that, the production values are quite good considering the time it was made. Being in OVA format allowed for higher budgets and far bolder humor than most tv series of the era would allow, thus it is great if you see it for what it is. It doesn’t have any sort of weird settings or artistic overtones; it is almost of an average erotic comedy/slice of life with more attention to shading and outlines. It is very good in overall if you are not 2013 quality whores.

In all, it is a very enjoyable and memorable little series. Nothing that complicating or that different in the long run but it definitely offered A MAN in an era when spineless idiots were already starting to feel lame. Recommended.

And if you like something similar, there is always Irresponsible Captain Tylor.

And now for some excused scorings.

ART SECTION: 7/10
Analysis: General Artwork 2/2, Character Figures 1/2, Backgrounds 1/2, Animation 1/2, Visual Effects 2/2

SOUND SECTION: 6/10
Analysis: Voice Acting 2/3, Music Themes 2/4, Sound Effects 2/3

STORY SECTION: 3/10
Analysis: Premise 1/2, Pacing 1/2, Complexity 1/2, Plausibility 0/2, Conclusion 0/2

CHARACTER SECTION: 6/10
Analysis: Presence 2/2, Personality 2/2, Backdrop 1/2, Development 1/2, Catharsis 0/2

VALUE SECTION: 6/10
Analysis: Historical Value 2/3, Rewatchability 1/3, Memorability 3/4

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 5/10
Analysis: Art 1/1, Sound 0/2, Story 1/3, Characters 3/4

VERDICT: 5.5/10

This anime doesn't really have a story , but is definitely entertaining to watch .He's going through a lot of cities , doing different part-time jobs , always leaving a girl waiting for him to return, blablabla .

The graphics are old but Kintaro's facial expressions are really funny .

The voice acting is fine , could have been batter but still ok .

The characters.. well beside Kintaro the characters aren't much of a thing , about all the girls he meets are perverts or freaks , except for one who was the really-nice-and-simple-shy-girl type and the girl in the last episode , but if they weren't that way probably the anime would've been plain and boring.

Overall it is definitely worth watching , don't expect much of a story , it is an episodic series of ovas , but you should expect bewbs and loads of laugh. Have fun watching.

Secret Santa 2013 review

Golden Boy tells the story of a 25 yr old perverted guy named Kintaro Oe, who is a dropout of the law school because he mastered the whole curriculum in one year, and now he’s doing a variety of jobs and meeting a wide variety of women (going from a Shrinking Violet to a woman who loves her bike “a bit too much”.

The episodic structure of the series makes it a bit repetitive, since the only thing that changes in the episodes are the job, the girls and the circumstances around them.  That doesn’t mean it’s boring, actually it’s quite entertaining, but there’s no plot progression. This also harms the character development, since all the characters (save for Kintaro) appear in just one episode.

The animation, while not being great, is well done and fits the tone of the series.

The opening and ending, as well as the OST, are ok, there’s nothing much to say here. Where I have a lot to say though it’s about the different dubs. After switching to the English dub out of curiosity to hear how they did the VA in “that scene” and I realized it was one of those weird cases where the dub surpasses by a huge margin the Japanese dub (and the rest of them of course). The guy who voiced Kintaro gave it an special touch making his pervertedness over the top and extremely hilarious. I seriously recommend you watching the English dubbed version.

Overall Golden Boy is a funny story which surely will make you crack some laughs (especially if you watch it dubbed in English and perverted humor is your thing).