Medium: OAV (6 episodes, 25 mins each)
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Based on: Tatsuya Egawa's manga
Director: Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Studio: Production I.G
Release Date: 27 Oct. 1995 – 28 Jun. 1996 (Japan), Nov. 6, 2007 (ADV – N.America)
Rated: PG-13

Kentaro Oe is a 25-year-old genius who leaves college just before graduation in order to travel on his bicycle and work odd jobs, studying the real world and gaining experiences beyond any textbook. A pervert with a heart of gold, he wanders into people’s lives, writes everything he learns in his precious notebook, and moves on before his employers can thank him — like something between a rōnin and a temporary laborer. He goes from being an office temp at a software company to a noodle chef to a children’s swimming instructor, each time using his brains off-screen to win the day. Golden Boy itself is a beloved anime from a generation of American otaku before mine, and even fans like me refer to it as a classic. With its US distributor, ADV, vanishing last year, Golden Boy has all but become an obscure taboo that rarely finds itself mentioned. This is a tragedy.

Before FLCL came along and converted pre-teen sexual anxiety into metaphorical robots and rip-cord-powered guitars, Golden Boy openly addressed male sexual fantasy. There are times when this series borders on hentai; there is certainly enough female nudity in episode 4 when Kentaro meets a woman who can only get off on her motorcycle.

Golden Boy is pure fun to watch. Fanservice everywhere. No, no, I mean it this time. Put your mouse down and lean just a little closer to the screen: FANSERVICE EVERYWHERE. You think Colorful is about sex? If I were still fifteen this would be the greatest thing since Sailor Moon. Golden Boy has girls in swimsuits, kimonos, high school outfits, and just about everything else in between. Kentaro’s aggressive lust puts him in the most awkward situations; although to be honest, it could be avoided if he wasn’t almost molesting empty toilets, like he does in half of the episodes.

What I like most about Kentaro is his absolute moral integrity, honesty, and bottom-line desire to get his job done. The series’ final episode illuminates these virtues as he saves an animation studio from bankruptcy by calling in favors from nearly every woman in the series and proving that selfless teamwork and a little volunteering can pull off miracles. With the sun rising before him, Kentaro hits the road again. He may not have gotten the girl, but he changed all of their lives for the better.

Considering its age, (released in 1995) Golden Boy still looks and moves great. This is a series made by otaku in tribute to those big-haired action series like Fist of the North Star, where challenges were met with lighting-streaked backgrounds, and teeth were unnecessarily sharp for the fun of it. Whenever Kentaro begs for a job, he enters a shōnen parody animation style that is played purely for laughs.

What hasn’t aged well is the dubbing, which tried to copy the over-the-top (even for anime) voice performance of the original Japanese actors. I watched the entire run in English the first time because of my convention interaction with artist and voice actor Doug Smith, who plays Kentaro in the English translation, and I found his goofball voice too close to Barney the Dinosaur to enjoy. Most of the women portrayed are breathy or soft-voiced stereotypes you’d expect from a strict male fantasy, but most of the actresses still leave room for pathos and the good old-fashioned flashback monologue.

If I haven’t said it yet, Golden Boy is for any guy who wants a great sense of the anime fandom tradition: this is a boob-tastic series with plenty of laughs and odes to older series with just enough of a vague moral lesson to preserve and endure.

[Recommended]

---

This review is based on DVD purchased by the reviewer.

It is a sad day for the anime industry. We have watched far too many companies go out of business in the past two years, and last week, another was officially added to the list of the deceased. A.D. Vision (parent company of ADV Films) has joined the ranks of Geneon and Central Park Media as it has dissolved its entire organization, splitting its assets and most of its employees between a network of companies, many of which are owned by former ADV VP of Business and Legal Affairs Griffin Vance.

Some significant translation of the PR-speak in ADV's September 1 press release reveals that "selected programming from ADV's film library" has been transferred to an "AEsir Holdings, LLC," though it is currently unclear which anime titles are now owned by Aesir. (Evangelion and CLANNAD are a few titles we're curious about.) However, the "account servicing" and distribution (i.e. the stuff consumers care about) for these Aesir titles will be handled by a separate home video distribution company called SXION 23, LLC (Section23 Films). The Anime Network, ADV's anime television channel subsidary, has been acquired by Valkyrie Media Partners, LLC, while ADV's dub and DVD production unit, Amusement Park Media, has been acquired by Seraphim Studios, LLC.

So, looking beyond the simple doom-and-gloom predictions that this news provokes in the minds of most anime industry pundits, let's consider what this actually means for consumers and the industry as a whole. The most pressing concern that comes along with this split that ADV has performed is not that the company is out of business (they've been struggling for a long time), or that there are a bunch of people in the industry who are out of work (many employees from ADV have been hired back by the companies that now own ADV's respective parts). The real concern is that, even though ADV is technically out of business, the company is STILL NOT GONE. Rather than selling their assets to anime companies that are nearly guaranteed to distribute them to the masses, they have sold them off to a company that, as far as I can tell, has never worked in the anime industry before. What's left over in this deal is a "zombie" ADV, split into various parts but refusing to die.

Luckily, it looks like Section23 is off on the right foot, with fall releases already planned for Blue Drop, Polyphonica, Special A, Tears to Tiara, and You're Under Arrest Season 2. With ADV's significantly shrunken catalog, I'm happy to see that Section23 has been left with something to release while Aesir (hopefully) works on acquiring new licenses from Japan.

But Section23, Aesir, and the other pieces of this puzzle still face some looming, long-term problems: namely that the split between licensing and distribution that has occurred thanks to the nature of ADV's breakdown is the kind of thing that is bound to backfire years down the line if anything ever comes up between Aesir (licensing) and Section23 (distribution). The last thing we want is Evangelion or some other big former ADV show to be caught in a licensing black hole for the next couple of decades.

Now I definitely don't mean to discourage the efforts of Section23, who could turn out to be a great anime distribution company – to be honest, I wish them nothing but the best! I only fear that their existence represents not a new force in the anime industry, but a headless ADV zombie, an entity that exists only as a last-ditch effort to save what is left of a broken company. As this zombie lumbers on, we can only hope that all of the pieces of what was once A.D. Vision can work together to bring themselves back from the brink. We cannot afford the cost of them slowly decomposing as ADV did, holding onto stagnant licenses and sapping the optimism from a market already steeped with pessimism.

[via Anime News Network]

Wow, I blink and all the news flies past me. In the last couple weeks, we've seen some nice expansion of the anime industry with video distribution and theatrical plans announced for a whole slew of new shows. First off is today's announcement from Disney of a release date for Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea, the newest anime movie from award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. Disney will release film in a currently unspecified number of theaters on August 14, 2009, the only week when it will face no major box office competition in the animation category. I haven't gotten a chance to see Ponyo yet (seeing as I don't live in Japan and didn't indulge in fansubs), but it looks like a movie that can really sell to the American family audience. Make sure you support Ponyo by going out to see it this summer!

In celebration of Hulu's first birthday, FUNimation has announced three new titles that will stream on the website, now the second-most-popular video streaming site (behind only YouTube). Those three titles are the baseball anime Big Windup (a.k.a. Ookiku Furikabutte), the sci-fi Heroic Age, and the full-length film Origin: Spirits of the Past. Clarissa of the Anime World Order podcast is a pretty big fan of Big Windup, and Uncle Yo recently gushed over Origin in an Ani-Gamers review, so I'm excited that FUNi has given us a chance to watch these titles for free.

On the topic of GDH (Gonzo Digital Holdings, the studio behind Origin), FUNimation has finally solidified a new deal with the struggling studio, which cut its anime production in half just a few months ago in response to economic and industry pressures. The company has been attempting to reap a profit from streaming its shows for free on websites like CrunchyRoll, but most reports are saying that the endeavor has not brought in much money for Gonzo. Oddly enough, the move to CrunchyRoll was seen by many as a betrayal of FUNimation, which has so often handled the American distribution of Gonzo's properties, but was now out of the loop as the studio dealt directly with video distributors.

In response, the apparently forgiving (or just smart) folks at FUNimation have agreed to pair up with GDH and take over North American distribution for all of its properties. That includes video streaming sites, presumaly meaning that FUNi would regain its place as the middleman between GDH and CrunchyRoll, which Hulu would probably also see an increase in Gonzo titles hosted on its service. The first titles to be taken over by FUNimation are The Tower of Druaga and Blassreiter, the first series that GDH ever broadcast simultaneously.

I think that it is simply amazing that Gonzo took such a risk in moving to a simultaneous broadcast, streaming video model, and despite their losses, were able to hold out until this new development. Now FUNimation has followed in GDH's footsteps and even supported the studio, and the entire anime industry (FUNi pretty much controls the whole thing) is finally participating heavily in the video distribution market – the true future of the industry in this blogger's opinion.

Finally, AD Vision, once the most preeminent anime distributor in the country, now nearly license-less and struggling to maintain relevance, has put some of its Anime Network titles on the iTunes store. While I don't think that this will have a big effect on the company's fortunes, it should be able to provide some income from their anime properties, since the sales through the iTunes Store are almost pure profit. The titles now available for download are Angelic Layer, Mahoromatic, Pet Shop of Horrors, Saiyuki, and Tsukihime.

And with that, I think that I can confidently say that the anime industry is finally moving in the right direction, with video streaming, simultaneous broadcasts, and direct downloads all options for those who want to watch their anime for free or cheap online (and without fansubs). Now that's change we can believe in. (I couldn't help it!)

While it has been available in Europe for what seems like ages, Club Nintendo finally launched in North America today. The rewards program encourages you to register your Nintendo products in exchange for loot, which is a brilliant marketing campaign, but the launch has been a bit harsh.

If you can get beyond the bugs, crashes and errors, you'll be able to link your My Nintendo account to the Club, or create a new one with which to register and earn. Answering surveys for registered products nets you more coins with which drop on the less-than-outstanding rewards. For anywhere between 300 and 800 coins, you can grab yourself a sweet Wii Remote holder, DS game-case, or themed playing cards. If you're nostalgic, you could even trade your gold coins for a Game and Watch DS collection.

Further encouraging you to fill your DS and Wii library is the Gold and Platinum program. If you stick enough games in to your collection, you'll qualify for Gold and Platinum status, which earns you "special" prizes. How do you get in? Find out after the break.

"Gold or Platinum status is based on the number of Coins earned in a Club Nintendo year. Each Club Nintendo year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30. If you earn 300 Coins during a Club Nintendo year you will reach Gold status. Earn 600 Coins during a Club Nintendo year and reach Platinum status!"

It doesn't seem too difficult to earn a lot of coin if you're an avid Wii or DS gamer, as the breakdown of earning coins offers a decent amount per product:

• Wii games = 50 Coins
• Nintendo DS games = 30 Coins
• Wii Shop Channel games and Wii Channels = 10 Coins

You can also earn additional cash for indicating your intent for buying a game or registering the product within a month of its release.

So if you're interested in grabbing some grab-bags, check it out at Club Nintendo. The Ani-Gamers staff will surely be suckered in to this marketing gimmick in order to earn rad free goodies as well, and we'll be back with reports on product quality for those who are curious.

From: Case Man <caseman457@gmail.com>
Subject: Armacham must be stopped!
Date: December 11, 2008 11:47:48 AM EST
To: tips@anigamers.com

---

Reliable sources have informed me that anigamers.com and its readers may soon be targeted by a mysterious corporation. Please help me.

Armacham has corrupted the FEAR 2 game module but it seems they are determined to unveil LEVEL 3 of their testing whatever the consequences. Despite disastrous results in the initial testing they are currently looking for 13 candidates to test the module in a device called the FEAR LAB in New York City.

I fear for the safety of anyone who becomes involved in this test and I'm determined to stop it all costs.

I've hidden additional evidence at http://www.armacham.com/rf3437, which I've had to encode for my safety. Once you unlock the files you will see what I'm talking about.

I'll be in touch

R

According to firsthand sources, Matt Greenfield (ADV Films' Vice President of Marketing and Communications) and Greg Ayres (voice actor) both confirmed ADV Films' license of the anime CLANNAD while at Sogen Con 2008 in South Dakota. While there are no details on if this is the TV anime, film, or second TV anime, the most likely case is the first series, since the others are offshoots of the original.

This begs quite a few questions. First off, did nobody want CLANNAD? ADV has been losing licenses to other companies left and right, so it seems that everybody else backed off on CLANNAD, perhaps because of the idea that "moe doesn't sell." Not to mention, does the license of CLANNAD signal ADV Films really making a comeback? I doubt it, since the show will not be a big moneymaker, but we can all hope that Matt and company will be back in action as soon as possible.

The strangest thing of all is that instead of having a presence at this past weekend's huge industry event, the New York Anime Festival, where they might have received more press for their CLANNAD license, ADV chose instead to announce it at Sogen Con in South Dakota, meaning that this license will almost surely go under most people's radars.

[via Anime News Network]

Mere months after the abrupt end of ADV's Newtype USA magazine, its successor, PiQ magazine, is reportedly ending its four-month publishing career. ICv2 reports that the primary reasons for the magazine shutting down are "low advertising revenue, poor business management, and a lack of proper marketing and promotion."

Regardless of PiQ's more diverse, less anime-centric approach and the fact that Newtype subscribers carried over to the new mag, it apparently failed to achieve a large enough readerbase, and the magazine's staff calls it "an exercise in futility."

ADV's website is under maintenance right now, so we have yet to hear from them on if they will be replacing PiQ with yet another magazine. However, prospects seem grim for this once-giant of the American anime scene as it grasps to make some sort of revenue from a sinking market.

[via ICv2]

(Sorry for the lack of images, but Blogger is being dumb right now)

I can't believe that we missed this rather important bit of news, but a big announcement came out on May 22 in the long line of CrunchyRoll evolutions. ADV Films, one of the largest anime distributors in North America, announced their agreement with online video streaming website CrunchyRoll, in which the site will stream the official ADV dub of the GONZO anime Welcome to the NHK for free. This means that anyone in the United States, United Kingdom, or Canada can watch Welcome to the NHK on CrunchyRoll for free, and ADV will make money through ads included in the video and its enclosing page.

Just months before, GONZO (creators of WttNHK) formed their own agreement with CrunchyRoll to allow streaming video of their newest television anime, The Tower of Druaga and Blassreiter, to be published on the site directly after they air on Japanese television.

This new agreement will likely face similar criticisms as the former, due to concerns over the clearly illegal business practices of much of CR's site. (They feature fansubs but make money off of site ads, which is both illegal and contrary to the "Fansub Code of Honor") In addition, it seems that the only Japanese animation studio willing to make the jump to digital distribution as of yet is GONZO, prompting fears that, at the end of the day, the controversial studio may fail in this ambitious experiment.

Nevertheless, this deal makes ADV the first North American anime company to distribute an anime title over a third-party video-streaming site. It is the hope of many fans (including myself) that this will put pressure on its competitors (namely FUNimation and BANDAI) to move into the same realm of distribution. This change could potentially turn around the faltering worldwide anime industry, and might specifically help ADV Films move out of the seeming rut they have been in since canceling many of their titles this past January.

[via Anime News Network]

For those who don't know, two anime dubs had trailers released. The first is Gurren Lagaan, and the other is Lucky Star. They were given out to the general anime public about two weeks ago, and have been a hot topic for us crazy otakus.

First, the Gurren Lagaan trailer. It doesn't take itself seriously at all, which is actually fitting for the anime. It's quite funny actually, especially because they advertise the "Gainax Bounce." For any who don't know, you should, and it's the fact that girls in Gainax anime have extra bouncy chests. Sadly no actual voice-acting was shown, so it's just basically an announcement.

Next, it's the Lucky Star trailer, which actually has voice-acting. Wendee Lee takes up the voice of Konata, and Kari Walghren is the voice actress of Kagami. The dub is not looking to be as great as Bandai's previous dub, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but hopes are not crushed just yet. Updates for these two shows will be posted probably 2 weeks later than they were announced.

[via ADV Films,Bandai Entertainment]

In a tale of increasing woe for ADV Films, the seemingly struggling American anime licensing company today saw the mysterious removal of over fourteen [EDIT: Now 37] titles from their online store and nearly all sections of their website. Some of the trailers for these titles are still viewable on ADV's trailers section, but they do not appear anywhere else on the site.

The missing titles include (emphasis on important new licenses added by me):

• 009-1
• 5 Centimeters per Second
• Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy
• Air Gear
• Air movie
• Air TV
• Best Student Council
• Blade of the Phantom Master
• Comic Party Revolution
• Coyote Ragtime Show
• Devil May Cry
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
• Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor TV
• Innocent Venus
• Jing, King of Bandits: Seventh Heaven
• Jinki:Extend
• Kanon
• Kurau: Phantom Memory
• Le Chevalier D'Eon
• Magikano
• Moeyo Ken TV
• Moonlight Mile
• Nerima Daikon Brothers
• Pani Poni Dash!
• Project Blue Earth SOS
• Pumpkin Scissors
• Red Garden
• Tokyo Majin
• UFO Princess Valkyrie
• Utawarerumono
• Venus Versus Virus
• The Wallflower
• Welcome to the NHK
• Xenosaga

This represents a startling turn in the fates for ADV, once (and most likely still) one of the biggest anime distributors in America. The company has shut down a variety of their programs recently, including their Anime ADVocates anime club program, Newtype Magazine, and parts of the Anime Network. To many, this has signified a substantial drop in profits for the company. (Though it should be noted that ADV Films has not yet released any official information on their financial status)

Will they go the way of Geneon, essentially defunct until a way can be found to bring them back into the industry? I sincerely hope not, since the anime industry definitely cannot take another blow in the form of a failed company. Good luck to all those at ADV in these turbulent times!

EDIT 1: More titles disappeared yesterday, bringing the total list to 37 missing titles. Soon after, an ICv2 article detailing financial problems between ADV Films and their parent company, ARM Corporation, appeared. According to the article, ARM has pulled funds from ADV, placing the company in a temporary limbo. ICv2 has since pulled the link from their site (read it cached on Google), claiming that it was a draft not meant to be published.

Finally, ADV Films replied to Anime News Network's attempted contact, and made the following statement to the website and anime fandom in general:

"We know there are a lot of rumors swirling about, and that fans are looking for assurances that ADV will continue to distribute the anime series they know and love.

While we can't go into any detail at this time, please know that ADV is working through a few short-term challenges and fully intends to continue our releases.

We thank you for your patience."

[via Anime News Network]

ADV's wildly popular anime magazine Newtype USA, in publication for five years and 66 issues, will cease publication this February, as its last issue hits newsstands. Word is that ADV will be replacing Newtype with another magazine. No information has been provided as of yet on the currently untitled publication. Newertype anyone?

This is definitely good news for the competing American anime magazines, namely the veteran Protoculture Addicts, Anime Insider, and the startup Otaku USA. Newtype has been a significant force in the American anime industry for the past few years, and it will be a shame to watch it disappear.
[via Anime Explosion]

ANN reports that the previously mentioned ADV Films-Geneon deal in which ADV would market and sell all of Geneon's current holdings, has been officially cancelled by the two American anime companies. Geneon reportedly laid off much of its marketing department in preparation for ADV taking over that department. Now many are left jobless while Geneon remains unsure of its future plans to market its anime. This quick turnaround could prove very dangerous for the financial future of Geneon, one of the biggest names in the American anime market.
[via Anime News Network]

According to ICv2, ADV Films has officially taken over all marketing, sales, and distribution of Geneon products. This means that while Geneon will still license and produce its own anime, ADV will be in charge of advertising, manufacturing, and selling the anime. That means, for anyone who is confused, that the companies are still separate, and Geneon still produces anime on its own, but ADV will be the ones who handle selling the anime.

Since ADV now sells Geneon's merchandise, ADV's catalog just got a whole lot bigger. With two of the biggest names in licensed anime banding together, they will stand to make considerable extra profit as a "semi-merged" company. This is, of course, a little troubling, since it is competition between companies that increases quality in their products, and with ADV and Geneon essentially not competing, that lowers the amount of competition on the market by a lot.

Anyway, I'm just a pessimist. The new plan seems like it will work well with both companies, and hopefully we will see the quality of ADV and Geneon's work improve from their already high level.
[via ICv2]