Golden Boy

Golden Boy is a 6 episode comedy OAV set from the mid 90’s based on the manga by the same name. It was released commercially in the US by AD Vision in both dub and sub formats.

    Kintaro Oe dropped out of college right before graduation. He decided at the last moment he didn’t want to be a lawyer and instead turned his eye towards the life of a freeter. His occupation would be that of the wandering temporary worker, traveling across Japan on his trusted bike, picking up odd jobs. His entire purpose for making this drastic career change is to experience life to its fullest.

    Our introduction to Kintaro is as he is on his way to his next job, that of a computer programming intern. He is run off of the road by a woman driving an exotic sports car. The woman throws a wad of cash at him for any damages that might have been done then speeds off. He heads off to fix his bike at a local bike shop and finds the owner being harassed by yakuza thugs. He offers the shop owner with the money the woman gave him to help with his yakuza problem and heads on his way to the job. Upon arrival he finds the business has hired only beautiful women and the president, his new boss, is the crazy woman who ran him off of the road. His perceived idiocy, lack of experience in programming and inherent perversion causes the president to deny his hiring. He then pleads his case and she instead turns him into the office lackey. During the course of his servitude he learns the basics of programming but one night as he is cleaning late he shuts down the mainframe. The president has been working late and finds he has erased month’s worth of work that is due the next week, she immediately fires him. As the week progresses the entire office puts in all-nighters to recreate what Kintaro inadvertently destroyed.  Just before their deadline he leaves a disk for them at the lobby. When the president opens the program he singlehandedly built, she frantically leaves to search for him, to bring him back to the company and give him the respect his abilities deserve. Kintaro on the other hand is happily on his way to the next town and next job experience.

    Kintaro continues on his adventures, stopping into a new town, working a unique job then leaving again for the next job before his employers realize how special and talented he is. He continues to make the most of his experiences and keeps a positive outlook on everything, selflessly helping everyone he can, even if they don’t realize his good intentions right away. Eventually he has a large cast of women after him to apologize for treating him like garbage and to bring him back to work for them

    You may be asking your self how this series is considered a comedy when it seems to be serious from my brief synopsis. In fact it is an incredibly infectious and perverted comedy. Kintaro is one of the worlds biggest closet perverts who has a penchant for toilet fetishes and bondage. All of the women he deals with are well endowed and sexually charged. The original boss from the computer programming firm wears revealing and somewhat impossible clothing. Kintaro is both frightened of her and lusting after her, fantasizing about being her sex slave. The comedy is all in Kintaro’s odd ball reactions to everything about him. His perversion, his sincere want to help everyone and his ability to overcome any odds. When it comes to pure comedy this show is best watched in English if you are a native English speaker. While the dub job leaves something to be desired it isn’t bad. The reason it is suggested to watch it in English is for the idea that you can pick up on the vocal nuances that appear in English. There are similar nuances in Japanese but unless you are very familiar with how they work and what they represent you will miss a portion of the comedy. So much of the humor is with Kintaro’s reactions. While the Japanese is good, most people won’t feel the full effect in a foreign language. One thing that is entertaining to do with the dub, which was done by AD Vision, is to compare the voice actors in Neon Genesis Evangelion as the dubs were made in the same time period, utilizing the same in-house talent.

    Golden Boy is perverted, adolescent comedy. I say adolescent in the fact that its perverted humor dealing with bra sizes, toilets and bouncing breasts. Aside from all of this the show is fun to watch and will leave you with aching sides. The only other series that made me laugh as hard was Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. The animation is nice for the time, hand drawn, nicely detailed for the mid 90’s and a good color pallet. The music is forgettable and the opening theme sounds like something out of some galge. All in all this 6 episode OAV set is worth watching if you enjoy stupid comedy. Kintaro is an easily likable goofball pervert who is just naive enough to survive anything thrown at him. The DVD is hard to find but does exist. The manga is even harder to find as it has never been licensed in America. The OAV’s cover 5 stories form the first tankobon with the 6^th episode being wholly original.