A romantic dramedy derived from manga comics, Golden Time is set at a Tokyo law college, where guileless student Tada Banri is looking forward to a new life—literally. Tada suffered a head injury the night of his high school graduation and is a blank-slate amnesiac, with no memory of his past (a minor paranormal note crops up with a ghost version of the earlier Tada, watching sadly as the world goes on without him). After befriending new college classmate Mitsuo, Tada finds out that Mitsuo is trying to escape from Kaga, an obsessed childhood girlfriend. Although she's rich and beautiful, Kaga is seen by Mitsuo as a stalker who has enrolled at the school in order to continue trailing him. Despite Mitsuo's warning, good-hearted Tada starts up a relationship with the friendless Kaga, who soon transfers her infatuation to him, just as Tada discovers that another girl at the university is his forgotten first love. The frequent break-ups, make-ups, declarations of love, and “let's just be friends” developments could be insufferable but turn out to be fairly entertaining. Also, this is that rare teen anime in which student characters are actually shown in class—at least briefly—although bizarre clubs and cliques tend to predominate (including an amusing bit with Kaga and Tada accidentally recruiting themselves into a religious cult). Compiling the first 12 episodes from 2013 in separate DVD and Blu-ray editions, rated TV-14, presented in Japanese with English subtitles, this is recommended. [Note: Golden Time: Collection 2 is slated for release on Feb. 3.] (C. Cassady)
Golden Time: Collection 1
(2013) 2 discs. 300 min. In Japanese w/English subtitles. DVD: $49.98, Blu-ray: $59.98. Sentai Filmworks (avail. from most distributors). Volume 30, Issue 1
Golden Time: Collection 1
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