Notes of Golden Time Episode 4

The insecurity is strong with this one

Last week, Tada and Kaga both almost joined a brainwashing cult which fronted as a club, but ran away together and got to know each other a little more.

Summary of Episode 4: Tada, Yanagisawa, 2D, and Oka are all sitting down together talking about the cult they were almost inducted into when Yanagisawa reveals that he texted Kaga to see if she was alright during that ordeal. Kaga then finds the group, declared that Yanagisawa is her boyfriend, and threatens Oka for just talking to Yanagisawa. Once everyone but Tada leaves, Kaga confesses to Tada that she went too far with her threats. After that, the two of them meet up with Linda, and they all proceed to go to the Festival Club’s meeting where they dance. Once that’s done, 2D, Tada, and Yanagisawa are in class, and Yanagisawa tells both of his friends that he wants to have a relationship with Oka, and that he plans to tell this to Kaga. Later that week, Yanagisawa, Tada, and Kaga all meet in a cafe where Yanagisawa tells Kaga that he can never have a relationship with her, and that he likes Oka. Through a series of events, Tada proceeds to tell Kaga that she shouldn’t feel too bad about Yanagisawa and reveals that he himself likes her. Then, Tada decides to go home to look through his old yearbook where he discovers that he and Linda were friends in high school.

My Take: Confessions! Verbal abuse! Hardcore punk concerts! Dancing! Crying! These are just some of the things that happened in this week’s episode of Golden Time, and not one of them felt out of place. Even some aspects of this episode gave me genuine discomfort while sitting down and watching.

Why? What’s better than being caught between two friends discussing why they can’t be together?

Kaga has a revelation in this episode. She finally realizes that her obsession with being with Yanagisawa is completely a one-sided pleasure. Yanagisawa basically said that her idea of how life together will be so miserable for both of them because they would constantly be putting up a front of false affection towards each other just to satisfy what they would consider a normal relationship. They would essentially become actors in their relationship. That’s no fun for anybody. Maybe it’s like the chase being more fun than the catch? That’s how I see it.

Tada confesses that he likes Kaga. Ooooh, the drama! I don’t know how anyone could see this coming (although the opening is a pretty good clue). Even if the opining didn’t blatantly give this away, I could still see it coming. We see Tada and Kaga hang out with each other quite a lot, and the types of conversations they have with each other where they open up about hopes and fears seemed to indicate this, too.

So Yanagisawa likes Oka. Well, the two of them did start spending a lot of time together. It was pretty obvious to see this coming. But we don’t get to see a lot of them, as the series focuses more on Tada’s relationships and not Yanagisawa’s relationships. Who knows where this will go? Personally, I hope that in the future, they’ll expand upon these two and make them a more integrated part of the story.

I started to feel so bad for Tada again this episode. Near the middle of the episode, where he was playing the role of the “witness” between Yanagisawa and Kaga “breaking up”, I couldn’t help but feel the discomfort he was feeling. We all know that rejection hurts and it’s hard to cope with sometimes, but it’s even harder when you witness it and can’t do anything about it. This one was bad, too. Not only were the three of them in a public place when it happened, but Kaga’s fantasy came to a sudden stop and it made her sort of lose it for a brief period of time. What I liked about this scene is how Kaga shows no remorse for anybody’s feelings (which is completely in character for her) until she stops to think about what she said. It’s as if this is the first time in her life that she’s ever stopped to really think about the impact she has on the lives of others.

I liked how Kaga wanted to go the that hardcore punk concert right after getting rejected by Yanagisawa. It’s so out of character for her.

Plot twist! It turns out that Tada and Linda knew each other back in the past! I knew there was something more to these two, and I can’t wait to see how their pasts together are revealed, and what they plan to do in the future.

On the right of the screen. I love the Ranqnfgs

Personally, I thought the three previous episodes were very well done in all aspects. However, with episode four, I couldn’t help but feel that the pacing was a little bit off. I mean, just think of everything that happened in this episode; Yanagisawa destroyed Kaga’s perfect future with him, Tada confessed that he likes Kaga, and Yanagisawa told everyone that he likes Oka. I can see some of the things that happened this week being appropriate for this early in the series, but some other parts maybe could have waited.

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