520https://pbs.tw.com/media/CwxFeieUkAAA2qO.jpg Hello and welcome to the next installment of the Pockey Reviews Ecchi show From the the number of ecchi shows Ive watched since Ive started reviewing to my glowing praise of Interspecies Reviewershttps://anilist.co/review/6280 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 OVAs reviews are glowing and it has a respectable average score of 8.03 from 118934 users. Those whove seen it come to regard it as one of if not the best ecchi shows theyve 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 its certainly different from Interspecies Reviewers so if you didnt like that show you may find something to enjoy in this one. Personally while there are aspects of Golden Boy I liked its 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. 520https://pm1.narvii.com/5730/b242e37ded13ec53ea5b2e4407ed60b0fa645bbd00.jpg 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 Kintarous 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 wasnt sure if he could make it in the cutthroat Japanese work force despite his excellent grades. His pursuit of education is essentially a security blanket he seeks to learn because its all hes ever known and he doesnt know if theres 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 hes 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. Its an ecchi with comedic elements thats 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 Im being perfectly fair even if there arent that many there are several aspects to Kintarous character. However theyre 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 couldnt 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 hes hot and bothered he has very little selfrestraint 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 dont kinkshame if thats your thing then all the power too you but it was kind of weird for me. I think of characters like Dragon Balls Master Roshihttps://anilist.co/character/6167/MutenRoushi Ranma 1/2s Happosaihttps://anilist.co/character/17171/Happosai Narutos Jiraiyahttps://anilist.co/character/2423/Jiraiyaand to a lesser extent Inuyashas Mirokuhttps://anilist.co/character/1356/Miroku. All of these characters are just as if not more perverted than Kintarou. While its reductive to state that perversion is their entire character okay its fine in the case of Happosai its undeniable that its a defining character trait. What makes them all more bearable for me is the fact that they arent the main characters. Their antics arent 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. Kintarous pursuit of knowledge is something I can admire. 520https://media1.giphy.com/media/QR0qVENyy1gDS/giphy.gif The hypersexualecchiprotagonist is probably a trope of its own as this is the thirdhttps://anilist.co/review/2975 timehttps://anilist.co/review/3931 Ive 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 dont. More often than not Kintarou has to change jobs because his perversion landed him in trouble. I couldnt 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 doeshttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheAce which I found quite annoying. Even with the throwaway line that he was good in school its 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 dont have passionate sex with him is because Kintarous long gone by the time they realize their want for him. It just seems MarySuish. 520https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/goldenboy/images/9/96/Naokoswimsuit.jpg/revision/latest/topcrop/width/300/height/300?cb=20091129213219 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 noseless. Madame Presidents casual outfit looks so sexy that its 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? 520https://i.ur.com/yJDTg5l.jpg 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 Kintarous sexual fantasies how Kintarous hypersexuality clashes with the environment comedic faces and Kintarous voice acting. 520https://iv1.lis.com/image/7815609/640fullmadamepresident.jpg As stated before I didnt really enjoy Kintarous sexuality as a joke it was either a bit too overthetop or creepy. Its fine when its inconveniencing him but not so much when it affected others in some way. While Golden Boy is an OVA youd be forgiven if you couldnt tell from the animation and art. Golden Boy is of a very inconsistent quality animationwise. Characters are either very basic or they sport weird detailed faces for comedic effect. Finding these faces funny was quite hitormiss. 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 Im someone who loves dubbing its 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 Kintarous English voice. Im sure Doug Smith is a decent voice actor but Kintarous loud hysterical inane voice drove me up the wall then made me want to bash my head against said wall. Its always at 1000 and rather than make me laugh it simply irritates me. When hes more subdued its somewhat fine but overall I found the English voice annoying. The best thing about the dub is that it gave us this gem. https://www..com/watch?v=ITRsqFdMF3k As I said before theres not much to the show. Its a simple somewhat raunchy comedy. There were both episodes I didnt care for Kintarou is at his most obnoxious at episode one hes marginally better in episode three due to his positive qualities really offsetting his negative ones and episode six isnt about much besides how awesome he is and ones I quite enjoyed episode twos 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 thats satisfyingly kinetic plus he gets someone as insane and horny as he is to bounce off of. 520https://pbs.tw.com/media/EP4eW08U8AgV15M.jpg As I like half of the episodes if were using a full tenpoint scale logically Golden Boy should get a 5/10. I dont think thats quite fair however. I certainly didnt hate any of the episodes. Some annoyed me sure but they didnt offend me. While the highs werent terribly so the lows werent abyssal either. The show doesnt just coast by its clear effort was put into it just not enough areas Im interested in. Its obvious that there are many who love this show. Im not one of those people but at the very least I can acknowledge that its a competent show even if its not quite for me. 520https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/goldenboy/images/4/4a/AyukoHayami2.jpg/revision/latest/topcrop/width/300/height/300?cb=20200211105212 While I prefer the inyourface sexuality and the more subdued larger cast of Interspecies Reviewers thats probably just a product of taste. Junk Boy has the same goals as Golden Boy but ends up being way off the mark. Its 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 honesttoGod skills while Ryohei Yamazaki is a waste of air yet still strikes out in the end. At six episodes Golden Boy certainly doesnt overstay its welcome so it cant hurt to at least check it out. If youre a fan of ecchi overthetop comedy goofy characters and a show that doesnt take itself seriously then Golden Boy might be the show for you. 6.9/10 D+ 520https://media.kitsu.io/anime/posterimages/243/large.jpg?1421246628