Golden time ep 6
After blowing up the central romance and putting the brakes on all the secondary ones, Golden Time has been determined to break our hearts in its home stretch, then stomp on the pieces. It isn't even as if we weren't warned on numerous occasions by Banri himself, but that doesn't make it any easier a…
Finally, drama! After weeks and weeks of teasing us with hints of Banri’s past, light has finally been shone on the situation, lifting the veil of mystery and providing me with the emotion I have been longing for. No kidding, a small tear began to well up in the corner of my eye for the first time in a while. Far too long I have waited for a good old fashioned romance that can invoke that kind of emotion in me. Ironically, the last one that reached that level was Toradora. Yuyuko Takemiya really knows how to play on my heartstrings with her light novels and J.C. Staff seem to always do a fantastic job of translating them onto the small screen. Golden Time has the potential to be the anime of the season and considering that it is going toe to toe with Kill la Kill as a 2-cour anime, ending as spring begins to break through the clouds, that is extremely high praise.
As for Kouko’s reaction to his advances, I am unsure of how to feel. Undoubtedly, rejecting him and then sprinting after and crashing into him on a bike when he was about to jump off of the bridge was incredibly romantic. Hell, I sat up from my warm bed, embraced the cold English air, and declared, “Yes! YESSSS!” to the world because I couldn’t be happier that they are finally going to get together… However, I am unfortunately burdened with the knowledge of how that would end in real life. Clearly Kouko is not entirely over Mitsuo since it was her outburst at him that caused Banri to finally break, and beginning a relationship with someone when you are not ready is never a good idea. She said herself that her emotions were still paralysed and she took shelter in Banri after realising that he was the only one that understood her. Maybe I give women a bit too much credit, or I am secretly caring underneath my asshole exterior, but nurturing her recovery seems more important than Banri being able to wear the coveted ‘I-Have-A-Girlfriend’ badge. Having been on the receiving end of the friendzone, I can understand Banri’s pain, but realistically she needs more time and I hope that Golden Time addresses this issue, especially considering how true-to-life it has been thus-far.
Conflict with a chance of rain is my forecast for the future of Golden Time. Maybe not next episode since I can only assume that will exhibit the newly in love Kouko coming to terms with everything and most likely being exaggeratedly in love which, I can only guess, will be adorable and hilarious. The spirit of Tada Banri loved Linda for a reason and now that the chance is there I can’t imagine he’ll be quiet about it even though he can’t speak to him directly. Kouko and Banri are together, but for how long? Stay tuned and find out.
Could Golden Time one up the excellent episode 4 that it delivered? The answer is YES.
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well. both start a relationship of friends while loving others. an thats when the good story begins for both of them. Golden Time master piece. Toradora well tsundere dere. so if you are a fan of tsundere pls watch both if not then watch at your own risk.
That said, though, my every instinct when watching the first ten minutes of this episode was "Run, Banri – run!" Kouko and Banri may indeed genuinely love each other and have a future together (it’s still very much an open question) but my feeling grows stronger every week that she’s in absolutely no shape to be in a romantic relationship. At best she’s taking things way too seriously, too fast – but at worst, she’s simply transferring her feelings for Yana to Banri – with the important caveat that Banri actually said "yes". The degree to which she’s clinging too him is simply neither normal or healthy – there’s no sugarcoating it. if Banri were more experienced he’d no doubt be alarmed but it seems very likely that this is his first romantic relationship (we all know what happened the first time he tried to form one) and he’s still flush in the euphoria of having a girlfriend.
In Banri’s case,I don’t think it’s really an issue right now as he only just started dating Kouko.In time,we’ll hopefully see him offering some constructive feedback on her behavior every once in a while and won’t just go with the flow.I think he has to take care of his own issues first,although his talk with Linda this episode gives the impression that he (kind of) did just that or at least,it’s a step in the right direction.
Just to clarify, my issue is more with what the speed all this is moving at suggests about Kouko (and Banri to some extent) than in the way it was portrayed in the episode. I actually thought the pacing this time was fine, and it did a pretty good job depicting people rushing too fast into a relationship neither of them is ready for.
Kouko’s only moments of true honesty have been few and far between, like sunshine peeking out through clouds – and every time we see it she is usually crying. Kouko has put up her ‘perfect’ facade for so long that she probably doesn’t know how to act around others – she’s lost part of herself just like Banri, only in a different way.
