YMMV / Golden Time

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Linda's feelings towards Banri has resulted in a case of this. How much are her feelings legitimately romantic and how much is it a form of guilt for indirectly being responsible for Banri's amnesia. When they were in High School, Banri was a Dogged Nice Guy and when questioned on her relationship with him, Linda shot down the idea of dating because she thought he was too much of an emotional time bomb. And when given a straight confession by Banri, Linda was conflicted on how to respond. In the present it makes her actions much harder to gauge over whether the accident caused her to have a Love Epiphany or if she is now acting out of guilt.
• Base-Breaking Character: Banri's original personality. Either people feel bad for him, because of the bridge incident screwing him over; hoping that somewhere down the line, things will work out for him, or he's a pathetic loser that can't move on from the past, and blaming his current personality for all his problems.
• Broken Base: The ending. A well-deserved happy ending, or a forced Reset Button?
  • The supernatural aspect of the past/ghost Banri deter some people watching it because of the perceived unnecessariness of shoehorning supernatural aspect to a slice-of-life story seemingly out of nowhere.
• Die for Our Ship: Kouko to Banri x Linda shippers who consider her whiny, clingy and somehow mentally unstable. Linda who's been portrayed as a Nice Girl who wants her beloved to be happy gets it to a much lesser degree. Going the opposite way when Linda is shown to have her own flaws along with Kouko getting Character Development.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Takaya Sato, aka "2D-Kun," who a lot have made comparisons to being Keima from The World God Only Knows in another universe. Plus, in the original light novel series, there's an entire volume of side stories centered on him.
• Fan Nickname: Ghost Banri - Casper the depressing plot device.
• Memetic Mutation: Kouko's "WOW!" over discovering perverted stuff, which became a Stock Sound Effect in the likes of the red exclamation mark from Metal Gear Solid
• Narm:
  • The slap, which sends Kouko flying in episode 16 is so ridiculous you will laugh. And the fact that the whole scene is so over-dramatic (a rolling shoe and all) doesn't help much.
  • Some of Ghost Banri's melodramatic, meant-to-be-taken-seriously dialogue will either make you groan or laugh at the Wangst.
• Never Live It Down: As noted above in Die for Our Ship, a lot of Kouko's antics in the first couple of episodes, her lack of respect of personal boundaries with Mitsuo and petty bullying of Chinami, did not sit well with quite a few first-time watchers. While she does get better it's not uncommon to hear people state that the reason why the dropped the series is because they had low tolerance for Kouko's behavior.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Despite her genuine kindness and empathy, Kouko didn't endear herself to many fans at the very beginning of the series. She used to stalk a guy who tried to get away from her (and she hasn't entirely grown out of stalker tendencies with her current boyfriend), bully her "love rival", is an extremely Clingy Jealous Girl showing several signs of aggression and paranoia, and is in general rather spoiled, pushy, and controlling. Thankfully, she realizes her own faults, actively tries to improve herself, and goes through massive Character Development over the course of the show fairly early on, and proves to be the most layered Yuyuko Takemiya-written character this side of Ami Kawashima.
• The Scrappy:
  • Banri from the past for being whiny and weak during the time he was alive and eventually becoming rather petty and ill-spirited shoehorned antagonistic force in his ghost form.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Banri x Kouko vs. Banri x Linda.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The Ghost Banri element of the story may have been better received if the story focused more on Banri's former home life and his relationship with his family. The story drops hints that Banri's relationship with his parents has been strained since the accident, playing a role in him leaving town to go to school in Tokyo. Despite that everything about Ghost Banri is just limited to his pining for Linda and his resentment that the present Banri won't act on those feelings.
• Values Dissonance: Kouko's father slaps her hard enough to send her to the ground and her boyfriend and friends are just standing there, not even trying to defend her (or rushing to help her). So apparently it's an acceptable way to chastise one's offspring. The father is also never criticized for his action on-screen or shown regretting it, and several scenes later he's shown again playing a part in goofy comedic scenes and completely okay with Kouko sharing a private moment with Banri, implying he's been a "good" parent all along and there's no need to portray him as abusive. It is also shown later that he does truly care for Kouko.
• Wangst: Banri's original personality seems to have been defined by it, in addition to being a crybaby.