Golden Time - Episode 7

Nothing punctuates a confession of love quite like being arrested for theft immediately after - well, it certainly makes for a memorable event if nothing else...

So it goes that Koko's confession to Banri is quickly followed by her arrest for the bicycle she stole to chase after Banri, leading to some time in questioning followed by the rite of passage that is having your father come to collect you from the police station.  Still, Koko isn't too worried about all of this - after all, she has herself a wonderful boyfriend now!  As you might expect given her previous behaviour around Mitsuo, Koko is a very.... dedicated girlfriend, wanting to spend every possible waking second with Banri, who somehow manages to be passive enough to deal with that, even if Koko still loses her cool when Mitsuo is around.

Such is Koko's reaction to the former apple of her eye that is begins to seem like all of the major characters are still running away from something (or rather, someone) - Koko is still trying to gloss over her previous feelings for Mitsuo, who for his part is avoiding Chinami after his botched confession.  That brings us to Banri, who is still avoiding Linda like the plague despite her constant attempts to contact him.  When these all fail, a friend who just so happens to live next to Tada forces both of their hands, bringing them together into a tearful reconciliation - not that we have much time to consider the ramifications of this, as Kaga reports that Mitsuo is in trouble.

Following some of the strong dramatic moments in last week's episode it was always going to be tough to follow it up, and as a result this seventh instalment of Golden Time doesn't quite hit the mark with its most emotional moment - it still holds some ability to tug at the heartstrings once Banri and Linda are forced to talk to one another again, but perhaps not quite as much as it should.  That aside, this episode does at least do a good job of making the relationship between Koko and Banri, and their feelings for one another, feel natural - it has all of the awkwardness inherent in the change of their relationship status, but the two normally rather different characters fit together pretty well as they bounce off of one another.  Taken as a whole though, this was another satisfying episode that at least keeps up some of the momentum brought to bear by last week's instalment.