Golden Time ep11: the Misadventures of Robogirl and Maid-Boy

This show is quickly showing that it doesn’t care much for secrets, whenever someone gets one, it’s immediately sent packing as one way or another it’s discovered by someone else. And any attempts at secrets are just a pathway to trouble. So far the main secret of this show has been Banri’s lingering love for Linda. But then there’s the mystery of the missing photo of the two of them. And then there’s a new problem, money.

Yeah, you wouldn’t think that would be a problem for a dude with almost no spine and a rich girlfriend, but Banri really does want to pull his own weight in the relationship.  He made the promise he’d take her, so it wouldn’t be the same if she just ended up paying the whole way.

How did this even come up?  Well Banri and Koko are a Festival Club meeting getting an update on the next big performance.  The leader of the club and Linda will be up front at the performance, and while they’re smiling and giggling at each other and being all friendly, Banri actually gets jealous.  It’s just another bad sign of his divided and confused heart.  His mind tells him that he has no right to feel that way, but it’s far too late to rationalize the feelings.

Anyway, once the meeting is over Banri meets with some of the guys in the club including its leader to talk about choices for going to a nearby beach.  His inquiry is stopped dead when his club mates clue him in on the difficulties of going to a beach by train exclusively.  They’re appalled at his lack of planning and resources, and don’t suggest he make the attempt until properly prepared.  The solution they bring up is to get a part-time job.  It will allow him the resources he needs to properly impress his lady.

After the meeting, Banri and Koko hang out together at a cafe.  When he brings up the idea of a part-time job, she shoots it down, fast.  As she states to him clearly, she only wishes to spend as much time with him as possible, and she’ll gladly pay for the trip to the beach for both of them.  It’s simultaneously adorable and disturbing when she talks about how she wishes she could shrink him and take him with her everywhere, and even put him in a sushi roll and eat him.  I almost got one of those Futurama “Death by Snoo-snoo” faces.

“AH!  I’M GOING TO DIE!”

“Awww, but she’s so pretty!”

“Ah!  She’s going to crush my bones as she chews me alive!”

“But I’m get to touch her pretty lips and tongue….  I bet her breath is heavenly.”

*ahem*

Kouko’s plans are shot though, when Chinami shows up and says that having a part-time job is a perfectly normal thing, and that she loves her job.  She even tells Banri about an opening they have.  Kouko being overly protective as usual suspects Chinami of trying to move in on her man, calls her a pervert and tells Banri that they need to leave.  But Banri does end up visiting her job, which is a very nice place.  And Kouko, who doesn’t look happy at all, of course has followed along.  I’m really hoping that she doesn’t physically attack Chinami at some point.

Later that evening, Banri visits Nana to pay her back for all the hospitality when he got sick.  After doing so, she hears him talk about needing a job.  And after inquiring if he’ll be able to bring Mitsuo, she offers him a job which only lasts for a night, and will be quite lucrative.

The next day Banri finds Mitsuo and tells him about the job.  Mitsuo is understandably worried, as the whole thing sounds sketchy.  Though the idea sounds a hell of a lot more appealing once they get scouted again by the pushy horny and skeevy girls of the Tea Club.  That night, they head over to the destination of the party by train.  Banri reminds Mitsuo that Kouko can’t find out.  Mitsuo comments on how lucky Kouko is to find a guy who can tolerate her stalker tendencies.  Though Banri of course says he doesn’t mind the treatment at all.  In his head though, he’s still wrestling with his recently reborn attraction to Linda.

At the party, things get weird fast.  It should have been a dead giveaway when Nana lifted up Mitsuo’s shirt to inspect his abs.  Once they’re inside, Banri is quickly made to crossdress as a maid, and then subsequently sexually harrassed by the guy who is throwing the party for his lady friend (and by that I mean a lady purely as a friend, if this guy isn’t gay then I don’t know the definition of the word).  In contrast, Mitsuo is given the choice of manly, and manly as the guy throwing the party gives him the choice of two tiny pairs of underwear as his only real dress for the night.

As they go about their jobs as ridiculously dressed waiters at this party, Banri runs into Nana and then Linda at the party.  They’re both dressed as devils to match.  It seems that as the night goes on, Linda and Banri are really hitting it off.  But as he makes his money, we see Kouko is trying to get a hold of him, and we’re shown that on her desk she has the missing picture of Banri and Linda.

End of episode.

I hate to say this, but this show is somewhat boring me right now.  There are some decent moments of drama, but it mostly seems to like this series is strolling through its story, throwing in weird club related activities at times to keep things going between relationship drama.  It may seem bad, but perhaps things may get better as the characters suffer more, or becoming worse people.  I’m actually waiting for Kouko to flip out turn into that dark, obsessive b*tch she was at the beginning of the series.  And Banri at this very moment is giving her just the fuel to do that.

All the elements are there to make her paranoid and eventually cause another emotional explosion from her.  She’s most likely overheard Banri and Linda’s balcony conversation.  She’s stolen Banri’s photo of him and Linda.  She’s seen Linda take care of him long before her when he was sick.  And now she’s searching for Banri, while he’s out doing something she implored him not to do, while canoodling with the very woman she’s most in competition with.  If Banri slips up anymore, then there are going to be real fireworks (and perhaps I won’t be so bored anymore).

I’m also a little disappointed that Chinami has been put on the sidelines for so long, too.  Despite the falling out between her and Mitsuo (who is being a complete sissy about the whole situation), I was hoping we’d be able to see them slowly work through their problems.  Instead, they’re not even in the same scenes together right now.  There’s no way I’m going to believe this show can’t juggle a love triangle and another relationship.

So far, the past several episodes have been nothing but slow setup, and much faffing about.  When other shows this season are stepping things up, I need more than a wishy~washy protagonist who obsesses over his non-harem and memory issues.  If he can’t be satisfied with even attempting to master a relationship with a beautiful woman who pays him lots of attention, then I don’t know what to say.  Actually, this brings something else to mind.  Up to this point, I don’t think Linda has paid him any mind romantically.  It really does seem like a dead end looking at it that way.  This whole series, she’s been nothing but nice to him.  She’s been a great friend.  A FRIEND.  And any time Banri pokes around past that point, she shuts him down.  The more and more presses for her, the more of a failure their romantic chances seem to be.

It really is frustrating to watch.

Further Reading:

• Episode 10