Golden Boy (very educational anime)

[Papa Wheelie]

This seems like the archetypal CaB show. Only ever made six episodes, tonal whiplash aplenty, true auteur work.

What do you think of this 90s Japanese comedy?

Animation is far better and more absurd than it needs to be, and is therefore a blinding highlight. Excellent 90s bloom and vibrancy. Soundtrack is ridiculous. Characters and narrative are not especially layered. Narrative keeps you guessing.

Any fans here?

[madhair60]

boobies

[samadriel]

How is anyone watching this?  A few years back, the only torrent I could find named "Golden Boy" was a US drama about a police chief.

[Mister Six]

Is this a sex comedy about a lad with a bicycle? I think I watched a bit of it in uni on the fancy new broadband before putting on some actual pornography.

[Consignia]

How is anyone watching this?  A few years back, the only torrent I could find named "Golden Boy" was a US drama about a police chief.

I got the DVD about 20 years ago, so it's out there at least.

I read a bit of the manga in the Kyoto manga museum about 15 years ago. Iirc starts to get proper filthy towards the end, like borderline proper porn. Take this with a slight pinch of salt considering the age of the memory.

[buzby]

I got the DVD about 20 years ago, so it's out there at least.

I read a bit of the manga in the Kyoto manga museum about 15 years ago. Iirc starts to get proper filthy towards the end, like borderline proper porn. Take this with a slight pinch of salt considering the age of the memory.

The OVA is available on the dodgy streaming site I frequent.

There were actually two series of the manga - the 'Lesson' series which is the first 9 chapters, each of which are about 30 pages long and are the 'girl/job of the week' format, which was partially adapted into the 6-part OVA. This was followed by the 'Study' series, of which there are a lot more shorter chapters that form longer story arcs, before ending abruptly at Chapter 94.

The Study series is where it basically changes into full-blown hentai featuring every fetish the mangaka's fevered mind could imagine with some Psychology 101 and sixth-form anti-establishment politics thrown in.

[bgmnts]

I did hear that it was a fun little sex-comedy romp about this guy who cycles around, learns new skills and defies expectations.

Sounds like a fun, engaging concept but potentially also the type of adolescent crusty anime people think about when they think about anime with jiggly boobs all over the shop.

[Papa Wheelie]

How is anyone watching this?  A few years back, the only torrent I could find named "Golden Boy" was a US drama about a police chief.

It's all on YouTube.

Sounds like I need to check out the manga!

[buzby]

Sounds like I need to check out the manga!

That wasn't an endorsement, by the way - the 'story' in the 'Study' part gets increasingly incomprehensible from the random few chapters I read (the artwork also seemed to massively fall off a cliff in the 'Study' series). The abrupt ending has all the hallmarks of the publisher finally pulling the plug. It's honestly don't think it's worth anyone wasting their time trying to read it, and even if the fetishes it panders to are what gets you off, I'm sure there are probably a million other better drawn options out there.

I'm not a fan of ecchi anime or manga (B Gata H Kei is about where I draw the line), , but this definitely seems to be a case of the anime production team cherry pickng the 'best; bits for the OVA (and even then, the fast episode was totally anime-original).

A few years later the mangaka tried again with a sequel series (Golden Boy 2) set 10 years later, but restarting the 'plot' from about half-way through the 'Study' series, as presumably even he realised there was no way to make any kind of coherent story if he continued on from where it ended. It lasted 2 volumes before getting canned again, and from what I've read he gave up manga and became a scriptwriter for porn films.

[The Mollusk]

Damn, missed this thread.

I quite shamelessly love Golden Boy, although the series - limited as it already is - is very top loaded, with the funniest two episodes at the start. Still when it's funny it is absurdly hilarious to me, and this is a rare case of the English dub being better than the Japanese original as the dude playing Kintaro has incredible comedic range.

Kind of annoying that it spends its duration being overtly sexist in its portrayal of women with Kintaro as the central white knight who saves them from peril, but the payoff at the end when they all save the day for him is sort of worth it, I guess? At the very least I'm glad there's no actual hentai in it like the manga supposedly has.