...and sexy! This is a story about a college student who's a seeker of truth...and women. Through its many chapters he finds some bits of truth and many fascinating women. And the drawing is fantastically expressive.

To understand what's going on in this seemingly over-the-top manga, please understand that when smart, thoughtful young students go away to college most are suddenly introduced to multiple new worlds simultaneously. They learn a lot of new information very quickly. Brand new ideas are learned and talked over with great intensity in long bull sessions. Formerly repressed "good" students, free of their parents' control for the first time in their lives, often suddenly get adult-level sexual lives. Egos struggle and contend, and the students often change a lot, usually remarkably quickly.

I remember this process. It was fascinating, tumultuous, disorienting, and thrilling all at once. Look at this mange as the creative product of such an intense period of growth and exploration in a person's mind and it will make sense to you.

I've been reading manga for three years now, and found it to be very formulaic most of the time. This manga is, if nothing else, something new and completely different! I think that's why it's so well-remembered by many.

... Last updated on December 19th, 2013, 3:07pm

The first volume (which the OVA is based on) may be a good enough read and the art has it´s moments but the rest is a horribly executed porno with piss drinking, lesbian orgys, heaps of rape and so on. The narrative further focuses on nonsensical "academic" conversations that all go nowhere, has truly disgusting leads and an ending that stops in the middle of a sentence. (The sequel is a directionless and quickly canceled waste of paper with no resolution too). Listen to the rest of the less than amused review section and stay away from Egawa´s further and comparable manga output at all cost or suffer the consequences. Read YOSHIDA Motoi´s stellar output instead if you are interested in reading a literate manga with a focus on graphic sex.

... Last updated on November 16th, 2015, 8:05am

As other have said, this series went from so good that you couldn't put it down to something so disgusting that you wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. The transformation happens so suddenly as well. You blink your eyes and the main character, possibly the greatest man of the century, completely flips his personality.

At first, the transformation seems like it would only last a few chapters. It was noticeably bad, and the faint hope that the author would make the necessary changes kept the readers around. There was the expectation that the main character would break free and leave like he always does. Instead, the main character deviates further from his personality and betrays those he loves.

Watch the anime instead or you'll be in for a lot of golden shower scenes.

... Last updated on June 2nd, 2019, 1:06pm

When I first started reading this several years ago it was just pure awesome, for the first 2-3 volumes that is... After that as so many others have said it just turned weird... Not only weird but it even started skipping stuff, not even between chapters but even in the middle of a conversation it suddenly skipped a major chunk of the events oO

Anime showed the first and awesome part, so you might just want to watch that... I really hope they bring it all together in the final 3 volumes that hasn't been scanlated yet... But judging from the past 3 volumes it's looking very very bad....

It's one of the few times that the anime industry has done sth correct.Yes,golden boy should have ended where the anime ended.It was great until then.Then the huge arcs with OVER THE TOP situations began where they had no meaning at all.Psychoanalysis my ass.When one talks and the other obeys all the time that's not called psychoanalysis,that's called a monologue and the one who obeys is called a pawn.

... Last updated on March 26th, 2011, 11:44pm

I first read this manga after hearing that it was hilarious. Personally, I find it groan-worthy or 'cute' at best. There are certainly plenty of funnier manga out there (Gokusen, for example... or Skip Beat, quite often).

But then I realized I was approaching this manga from the wrong perspective. You're invited to think about the situations presented, and the way Kintaro deals with them, instead of simply laughing and forgetting. This becomes all the clearer as the plotline develops and becomes more convoluted, more sardonic, and increasingly dark. So here's a warning - don't read this if all you want is laughs. There's plenty of disturbing material (and art!) in there.

So yeah, the thinking behind this manga is deep. But! There could certainly have been a better story behind it. All too often Kintaro's genius seems too much like a deus ex machina - a mere device to set everything right, without any explanation for its power. Particularly in the earlier volumes, the readers get too little access to the analytic, planning, or otherwise intellectual powers that are the main attraction of 'genius' characters. Since Kintaro doesn't usually act like an intellectual, the products of his 'genius' (devices, programs, and whatnot) feel too much like mere plot devices to be convincing.

That being said, Kintaro is still an endearing character, which leads me to my second complaint. In at least two extended arcs Kintaro disappears for several chapters at a time. At the same time, the readers are submitted to long guilt-tripping lectures and brain-washing sermons. So maybe these harangues give the manga (part of) its depth. However, their length, frequency, and repetitiveness feels seriously overdone, especially when paired with the almost incessant, hardcore sex acts in or around those chapters.

The lack of Kintaro is an evil which increases exponentially when one considers the pitiful lack of character development. What else could one expect, when Kintaro is the only character who appears in more arcs than one until the volume 6 'golden water' arc? And considering that the earlier volumes are mostly filled with short one- or two-chapter arcs? In fact, Kintaro is the only character who is (kind of) developed, which means when he doesn't appear, you're left with a bunch of supporting characters who you can't really identify with, and who are usually undergoing bizarre experiences that it would be difficult to imagine oneself sharing anyway. Now throw in a bunch of morally questionable lectures, and you're left with a narration which has an entertainment value lower than some essays.

I've already kind of touched on my third (and final... for now) complaint - the lack of coherency between arcs. The readers are told that Kintaro is always searching for something to learn, but how he jumps from one job to another, what impacts his earlier experiences have on later ones, how come no one ever seems to manage to catch him etc... none of that is touched on. Not until the 'golden water' arc do any supporting characters from earlier arcs appear again. The good thing about this is it makes it very easy for one to drop this manga after any arc. The bad thing is there's no great inducement for the reader to continue reading it after any arc. The plot seems to reset after an arc, and no real progress is made. Maybe I'm just impatient, but allow me to just say, it gets extremely frustrating after a while.

So, conclusion: Read this if you want to read a critical take on society and people's desires, or if you just want to see a lot of action 'in the bedroom' (and elsewhere...), but if you're looking for entertainment from some other factor, go away and read something else.

This is a great manga for anyone who's mature and open. I do agree that I skimmed an arc that was too much for me. And near the end, it was too fast and weird too. It's a fun read, and the concept is fresh.

My guy friend recommend this to me. He wasn't sure if a girl like me would want to read something such as this from a shoujo-manga background. I loved it! It's not like a whimpy guy or hot bishounen getting all the girls; nor was it about a naive and ignorant girl being swayed and influenced by hot bishies, and cries 3/4 of the time without standing up for herself. The explanation here is just beautiful. There's better but things are set up for a reason most of the time. If you thought it was "just a waste of time" like the below reviewer, I hope you're saying it after reading and understanding the story first.

To the person who said they've "I watched ALL KIND of animes and read ALL KIND of mangas, from shoujo to horror, action and even hentai if they've git a good plot," and still not understand where this is going is beyond help as the below reviewer states.

*I'm not going to recommend this to any readers but it won't do much harm to try a few volumes.

Getting a little bit too much weird in the end.
Still a very nice manga, don't mind the comment below mine... he complitely missed the point of this manga in so many way it's useless to even reply him.

I can't understand how anyone could find this good. I watch all kind of animes and read all kind of mangas, from shoujo to horror, action and even hentai if they've git a good plot.
Which this definitely hadn't. The hero was just a loser who had good luck. All the girls around him fell for him, because... Yeah that's the question, why? It's true that he sometimes helped out, but all he really did was stare at the girls and run away when he had seen enough of them. And they all just followed him because he was such a 'golden boy'. Sure.
The art was not as bad as the story, but that wasn't thanks to the boy who looked just like the loser he was. The women all had big breasts and of course as good as none clothing on. But that's typical for ecchi and mature mangas so it doesn't disturb me (though other women might find it degragading).

In my opinion this is great for boys who want to live in their little fantasy world where all women love them, but for all who want to read something more realistic there are far better mangas.
And like I already said I can't see any women with good taste in men liking this.