Dude, take my advice and run far away
- Last week, Banri had an emotional meltdown and Kouko confessed her love for Banri.
- Summary of Episode 7: Banri and Kouko are both in a police precinct after Kouko was detained for stealing a bike at the end of the last episode. Her father comes to get her, and once they’re about to leave, she calls Banri her boyfriend. From that point on, Banri and Kouko start dating, much to everyone’s shock. As Banri and Kouko both go out and do everything together, Banri keeps getting text messages from Linda, which he constantly ignores. He then gets a call about a leak in his apartment from a woman who turns out to be Nana, and made up the leak so that she could force Banri and Linda to talk and work things out. After the two finally start discussing their past together, Banri gets a call from Kouko saying that Yanagisawa might be in trouble.
Yanagisawa must have watched the opening to this anime
- My Take: It has come to my attention that I should start calling Tada “Banri” and Kaga “Kouko” (not as much to be more correct, but mainly because I’ve confused the two while writing reviews. Go figure). Anyway, my character naming conundrum aside, this week’s episode of Golden Time was both very enjoyable and very annoying.
- The first thing I should note is that there is no spirit giving us backstory in this episode. This is a good thing. Because Banri is finally going around and asking questions about his past, so hopefully we don’t have any need for his spirit to spoon-feed us information about his past.
- I knew that Kouko was going to go all psycho-girlfriend on Banri. Even her own father has no faith in her, saying that he doesn’t want Banri to be her new “target”. I’m all for this because Kouko is just so unstable. Also, the portrayal of Kouko’s obsession with Banri this early in their relationship was 1,000,000% accurate of young people so infatuated with each other at the beginning of a relationship. Admittedly, the interactions between Banri and Kouko were the best parts of the episode. It was hilarious listening to Banri explain the most elementary aspects of relationships to Kouko, giving advice like, “You don’t have to wait for me, we can just meet somewhere” and having that simple concept incomprehensible by Kouko! Moments like that are great, and there should be more of that.
- But these two take it way too far! They just started dating, then they decide they want to run off to Paris for the sole purpose of having sex! That’s incredibly excessive, and it reminds me of how young teens would act in a relationship. But then I got to thinking, and said to myself, “Kouko has never had a real relationship, and Banri doesn’t have a past.” This means that their overzealous attitude towards the relationship is actually not too out of the ordinary. I don’t know, perhaps I’m looking too far into it.
If you didn’t want this to get discovered, you should have just used the internet, Banri
- Negatively, it’s so easy to get Banri to cry. I know him learning about his past is emotional, but he’s starting to make me realize just how weak of a main character he is. We’ve seen him cry in a flashback where he thought people intentionally left his name off of a shirt. Now, he cries when Linda tells him he’s sorry that she hurt him so much. That’s the problem with this character! He jumps to conclusions so fast and never asks any questions! That has to be the most aggravating character trait I have ever seen in any show. Ignorant characters aren’t fun to watch, especially if they’re our main focus! People will say, “Ben, you’re wrong! It’s because he’s sensitive!” No, it’s not that he’s sensitive, it’s because he’s oversensitive. His relationship with Linda would normally be very emotional. But if Banri weren’t so overemotional about how she was connected to his past, he would keep his composure and try to interact with her normally. Wow. I’m ranting. I should stop doing that.
- Yanagisawa looks like he might be getting more screen time in the future. Yay! But his rejection from Oka seems to be taking its toll on him. Maybe he’ll start acting out in a way similar to the way Kouko did when he rejected her. Only time will tell.
- Nana has returned, and apparently she is good friends with Linda. Now, I really like this character. She is shown to be reliable and willing to help her friends, albeit very annoyed by ignorance. I really want to see more of this character.
- After Banri stopped being a total jerk to Linda by completely ignoring her instead of actually talking to her like any likable main character would do, he finally starts to learn about his past. He learns about the flaws and the positives of his past self, and how they’re reflected in his current self. But all I could think during this scene with the two of them together was, “How long until they get together?” If they somehow don’t get together in this series, that’ll be truly shocking.
You’re surprised? He’s cried in most of the scenes you two have shared, Linda
- I’ve come to the conclusion that the fundamental flaw in this anime at this point is just how weak of a character Banri is. First off, he wants to learn about his past, but he continues to push away the people who can tell him about it. Not only that, but they’re also his friends. So he pushes away his friends because he jumps to conclusions. I have no sympathy for characters who push away their friends when they need them the most, especially for the weak reasons Banri does it. Ugh, I’m ranting again.
Okay, I officially love Nana
- As of now, this show has me completely interested in the supporting characters. I have faith that, given some time, we will see a more solidified Banri who will become more likable. Right now, he’s the biggest flaw in this anime.
