Golden Time - Episode 3

Having had her complaints about being left alone with nobody to talk to at university heard, Koko has herself a club to join thanks to Banri, and without further ado it's time to set off on what promises to be an enjoyable club getaway with both new and existing members of this vague but intriguing outfit.

However, the reason for the lack of clarity surrounding this club quickly becomes clear, as the new prospective members are picked up, bundled into vans, asked quite forcibly to write down all of their contact details and then driven into the middle of nowhere.  When the religious proselytizing begins, Koko and Tada's mistake becomes clear - they're inadvertently signed up for a religious cult.

With seemingly no way out, it's Banri who takes the initiative, making use of other prospective members discontent to become (ironically) a martyr for them by expressing his deep interest in the group and suggesting that the other heathens be allowed to leave.  As plans go, this works perfectly as the group agrees to his suggestion - the trouble is, his real motivation for doing this is to let Kaga escape, and she's the one person who ultimately refuses to leave him alone.  Thus, a more drastic escape plan is required, which ultimately leaves our two lead characters in the middle of a forest with no phone signal, and nothing to do but discuss their pasts - or lack of, in Banri's case.  The result is a discussion that should bring the two closer, were it not for the fact that Koko is still so obsessed with Mitsuo.

For a show that already sports a girl obsessively in love with someone who doesn't want to reciprocate and an amnesiac, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see Golden Time throwing them both into the midst of a religious cult in the name of plot development.  It's surprisingly heavy-handed stuff and its a scenario which stretches the show's already thin credibility, but the lead characters still just about manage to keep it on track by the skin of their teeth - memory loss or not Banri is a likeable fellow, and Koko's eventual honesty and small but noticeable hidden depths keeps things interesting on her side of the fence.  Whether this will be enough to build from and create something more memorable than we're currently witnessing remains to be seen, but I'm hopefully that these are simply some clumsy first steps towards something more impressive.