YMMV / Golden Boy

• Adorkable: Kintaro fits this trope to a tee. Underneath the frequent perversion lies a clumsy, foolish, but kind-hearted and talented guy who really enjoys studying more than anything else. The start of the first episode further cements this fact, as two girl comment how dorky it is for someone to sing with their music playing and not even realizing it, with Kintaro doing just that!
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series is well beloved by Western-viewers, some calling it the best comedy anime.
• Memetic Mutation: "So... How do you like my swimming?" in reference to the scene where Kintaro attempts to show off his swimming skills, which very quickly turns into an Epic Fail, followed up by him asking that question confidently and completely seriously.
  • Kintaro's comical, pervy freakout in episode 1 when he erroneously thought "C-Base" was a slang term for "3rd Base" has been used as a GIF and in plenty of AMVS.
  • "Aww shit..." .
  • Kintaro's goofy, exaggerated facial expressions are an endless source of entertainment on the Internet, especially on forums & message boards.
• Moe: Noriko, who unlike the other girls isn't as independent and is very pure and innocent, the same can also be applied to Chie.
• Seasonal Rot: Mainly for the manga, as many fans criticize how it became a infidelity story with philosophical messages, with more of a large story approach compared to the episodic format of before, causing the entire story to suffer as a result. The shift mainly started when Kintaro encounters a cult that brainwashes people using S&M techniques.
• Signature Scene: The most popular scenes seem to be the swimming scene where Kintaro almost drowns himself, due to both the wonderfully exaggerated animation and the voice actor hamming it up like nobody's business. Kintaro's "C-Base" freakout and him beating Reiko in a race are also big contenders.
• Superlative Dubbing: Many old-timey anime fans prefer the English dub over the original Japanese for its hamminess and comedic nature, particularly Doug Smith's performance as Kintaro.

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