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.
(-145)
(+190)
