Recap

Koko struggles to control her obsessive urges as she waits for Tada Banri to return home, catching Nana’s attention in the process. At the reunion, Linda does her best to help Tada Banri face his classmates.

Jel’s Thoughts

While I loved the bizarre comedy bit with Koko and Nana and the overall positive message of this episode, part of me felt a little disappointed in the lack of drama or conflict. I should really say continued lack of drama or conflict as these past two episodes have felt like the story is in epilogue mode. Sure Tada Banri was a bit apprehensive in seeing his classmates again, but that was immediately washed away by their good natured efforts to make him feel comfortable. Again, I love the message but I still feel like Golden Time is missing some of the bite it used to have.

Maybe the real issue is with my brain that has seen too much anime and not the story itself. Rather than focusing on the lack of conflict you could really look at the relationship Tada Banri has with Linda as incredibly refreshing. In lesser stories Linda would storm away heartbroken and even if she did remain in the cast she would be relegated to the sidelines. Or even worse, they would continue to push the Love Triangle angle and continue making her a threat to Tada Banri’s relationship with Koko. So on that front I give Golden Time a lot of credit for depicting a much more realistic relationship between the three characters than we would normally see, and I must emphasize that any complaints I have about the current peaceful state of things are very minor.

That said, the glimpse of Amnesia Ghost near the end really drove home how completely comfortable I’ve felt watching Golden Time these past two weeks. Whereas I was constantly on edge in weeks’ past, at this point I feel like there’s nothing he could do or say that would affect Tada Banri’s path to becoming a whole person again. Even if his memories did return, would there be anything buried in there that would change him back? Maybe that’s why Amnesia Ghost looked so defeated. We still have enough time to stir up a little more drama before the series comes to an end, so I hope we head back in that direction soon.