Hello and welcome to the next installment of the Pockey Reviews Ecchi show!

From the the number of ecchi shows I've watched since I've started reviewing, to my glowing praise of Interspecies Reviewers, it should be clear that, for better or for worse, I find myself drawn to sexual works. With this in mind, it was inevitable that Golden Boy landed on my radar. On Myanimelist, nearly all of the 1995 OVA's reviews are glowing and it has a respectable average score of 8.03 from 118,934 users. Those who've seen it come to regard it as one of, if not the, best ecchi shows they've ever seen. As I recently heralded Interspecies Reviewers as the bar all ecchi should aspire to reach or surpass, I decided to give this show a shot to see how my view of it aligned with the common perception.

In brief, it's certainly different from Interspecies Reviewers, so if you didn't like that show, you may find something to enjoy in this one. Personally, while there are aspects of Golden Boy I liked, it's not exactly my cup of tea. I might drink some of it, but not the entire mug.

Golden Boy follows Kintarou Ooe, a vagabond who dropped out of a prestigious university after he completed all of his graduation requirements. Now, he travels across Japan in pursuit of knowledge, hopping from job to job and writing down everything he learns in his notebook. The only thing bigger than his hunger for knowledge is his hunger for women, with his lecherousness often landing him into trouble.

At first glance, Golden Boy is a lighthearted ecchi without much to say. This is quite intentional, as the first episode plays up the comedy of Kintarou's life and uses its female characters as little more than setpieces. ~~However, as the series progresses, we begin delving into the psyche of Kintarou and those around him, revealing that under the goofy, carefree facade is an insecure, broken man. He dropped out of school when he was on the cusp of graduation because he feared the unknown and wasn't sure if he could make it in the cut-throat Japanese work force despite his excellent grades. His pursuit of education is essentially a security blanket; he seeks to learn because it's all he's ever known and he doesn't know if there's anything for him beyond that. Similarly, his listlessness is bourne out of a fear of being tied down because Kintarou truly cannot see himself being a part of a community. His lecherousness is how he keeps his guard up, ensuring that no one gets too close. He uses sex as a crutch, for he's afraid of genuine human connection. When he or someone else begins to "catch feelings," he makes himself scarce. As the possibility of fatherhood looms over him, Kintarou must finally face his fears before they swallow him whole.~~

That first glance is the same as the last glance; what you see is what you get with Golden Boy. It's an ecchi with comedic elements; that's it. The simplicity of the show can be seen via its main character; Kintarou. I can describe him in ten words: a (somewhat) kind and skilled nomadic lech who likes studying. Now, if I'm being perfectly fair, even if there aren't that many, there are several aspects to Kintarou's character. However, they're largely overpowered by his pervertedness, so whether or not you can enjoy or ignore this part of him will dictate if you enjoy this show. Unfortunately, I couldn't stand Kintarou a good portion of the time. While he was better in some episodes than others, I found his constant sexual fantasies both creepy and annoying. When he's hot and bothered, he has very little self-restraint and very little social moors. Plus he has a penchant for spazzing out near toilet seats as he imagines a woman sitting on it. As I don't kinkshame, if that's your thing, then all the power too you, but it was kind of weird for me. I think of characters like Dragon Ball's Master Roshi, Ranma 1/2's Happosai, Naruto's Jiraiyaand (to a lesser extent) Inuyasha's Miroku. All of these characters are just as, if not more perverted than Kintarou. While it's reductive to state that perversion is their entire character (okay, it's fine in the case of Happosai), it's undeniable that it's a defining character trait. What makes them all more bearable for me is the fact that they aren't the main characters. Their antics aren't always front and center, while Kintarou is inescapable. That said, there are other aspects of Kintarou and I like when these are highlighted. For example, I enjoyed his kindness towards Naoko and Noriko. Kintarou's pursuit of knowledge is something I can admire.

The hypersexual-ecchi-protagonist is probably a trope of its own, as this is the third time I've encountered it. In my previous tangos with this sort of protagonist, I described them as being addled by lust and questioned how they even functioned in society. Funnily enough, Golden Boy seems to answer this. The answer is apparently that they don't. More often than not, Kintarou has to change jobs because his perversion landed him in trouble. I couldn't help but find the realistic depiction of what would happen to someone like Kintarou hilarious. I appreciated how he never ended up getting with anyone. This outcome works for an overbearing, lustful character.

This is offset however, by his aptitude at anything he does, which I found quite annoying. Even with the throwaway line that he was good in school, it's very hard to believe that a man with no knowledge of the fields he delves into becomes better than trained professionals in a matter of weeks. Plus, everyone is so impressed by his skills that nearly every named female character wants to jump his bones by the end of their episode; the only reason they don't have passionate sex with him is because Kintarou's long gone by the time they realize their want for him. It just seems Mary-Su-ish.

Golden Boy is a comedy and this is reflected in every aspect of the show; from its simplistic characters, its episodic nature, its voice acting, its animation, to its very genre. Golden Boy is an ecchi, but it prioritizes being funny over being sexy. While characters such as Madame President and Ayuko are drawn pleasing enough and we even see some exposed nipples courtesy of Reiko, these moments are few and far between. Most of the time, characters look dopey and nose-less. Madame President's "casual" outfit looks so sexy that it's almost a parody of sexiness and thus unsexy. I can appreciate this, as it allows the writers to focus more on the comedy instead of having lackluster ecchi and relying on sex appeal. The question then becomes how funny is Golden Boy?

The comedy in Golden Boy is based around the absurdity of Kintarou; how funny you find this show hinges on how much you enjoy Kintarou. I cannot say I was the biggest fan. The jokes surrounding Kintarou come in four flavors: highlighting Kintarou's sexual fantasies, how Kintarou's hypersexuality clashes with the environment, comedic faces, and Kintarou's voice acting.

As stated before, I didn't really enjoy Kintarou's sexuality as a joke; it was either a bit too over-the-top or creepy. It's fine when it's inconveniencing him, but not so much when it affected others in some way. While Golden Boy is an OVA, you'd be forgiven if you couldn't tell from the animation and art. Golden Boy is of a very inconsistent quality, animation-wise. Characters are either very basic or they sport weird, detailed faces for comedic effect. Finding these faces funny was quite hit-or-miss. More than the animation, however, the anime employs voice acting to carry the brunt of the comedic weight. This can be very, very hit or miss. Unfortunately, it was mostly misses for me.

Now, bear in mind that I'm someone who loves dubbing; it's the default for me and I generally get more enjoyment from watching animation in English than in Japanese. With all this said, I could not stand Kintarou's English voice.
I'm sure Doug Smith is a decent voice actor, but Kintarou's loud, hysterical, inane voice drove me up the wall then made me want to bash my head against said wall. It's always at 1000% and rather than make me laugh, it simply irritates me. When he's more subdued it's somewhat fine, but overall, I found the English voice annoying.
The best thing about the dub is that it gave us this gem.

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As I said before, there's not much to the show. It's a simple, somewhat raunchy comedy. There were both episodes I didn't care for (Kintarou is at his most obnoxious at episode one, he's marginally better in episode three due to his positive qualities really offsetting his negative ones, and episode six isn't about much besides how awesome he is) and ones I quite enjoyed (episode two's comedy is from Kintarou explicitly trying to suppress his horniness for altruistic reasons, episode three is really sweet while still being funny, and episode five is a riot as Kintarou gets to use his insanity in a way that's satisfyingly kinetic, plus he gets someone as insane and horny as he is to bounce off of).

As I like half of the episodes, if we're using a full, ten-point scale, logically, Golden Boy should get a 5/10. I don't think that's quite fair, however. I certainly didn't hate any of the episodes. Some annoyed me, sure, but they didn't offend me. While the highs weren't terribly so, the lows weren't abyssal, either. The show doesn't just coast by, it's clear effort was put into it, just not enough areas I'm interested in. It's obvious that there are many who love this show. I'm not one of those people, but at the very least, I can acknowledge that it's a competent show even if it's not quite for me. While I prefer the in-your-face sexuality and the more subdued, larger cast of Interspecies Reviewers, that's probably just a product of taste. Junk Boy has the same goals as Golden Boy but ends up being way off the mark. It's neither sexy, nor funny, nor sentimental, while Golden Boy focusing on comedy, can garner a few laughs. It helps that Kintarou is more fleshed out, never gets the girl, and has some honest-to-God skills while Ryohei Yamazaki is a waste of air yet still strikes out in the end.

At six episodes, Golden Boy certainly doesn't overstay its welcome, so it can't hurt to at least check it out. If you're a fan of ecchi, over-the-top comedy, goofy characters, and a show that doesn't take itself seriously, then Golden Boy might be the show for you.

6.9/10

D+