Glasslip

(This has been adapted from my reddit thread)

Teenage romance is a hot topic in the anime world. Some shows are able to capture this phenomenon quite well (White Album 2, Clannad, etc.) while others miss the mark. But even those shows that don't hit that bulls-eye at least land somewhere on the board. Glasslip is a show that not only misses the board but also hits some stranger passing by, causing a huge debacle that mirrors the contents of this anime. This is quite arguably one of the worst ones I have ever seen.

STORY

Glasslip begins in much the same way that Nagi no Asukara does. ... New transfer student David becomes friends with Touko. Touko then proceeds to introduce him to her main group of friends consisting of Yuki, Sacchi, Hiro, and Yanagi. Afterwards, the story begins.

And by begins, I mean begins and doesn't move from that position. It's best to compare this to Nisekoi. Nisekoi is infamous for its absolutely abysmal plot progression. But the difference here is that in Nisekoi, that is the whole point of the show. Glasslip tries to have things move forward, tries to instill drama or emotion. Yet when it does, nothing ever comes of it. It is not a stretch to say that literally nothing happens over the course of the entire season. Every episode is a chore and doesn't have anything interesting attached to it aside from what the show calls "future fragments."

What are "future fragments?" To be quite honest, I can't explain that to you. The show sets them up to be these premonitions that a couple of the characters have, but the problem is two-fold. One, it is never properly explained. As an audience member, I obtained some information about what could cause them but they never really made any sense as to why they occur or what purpose they serve. Two, they aren't even "future fragments." As is learned later, the name it was given isn't even appropriate. Meaning for the majority of the show, I am left to believe that this "power" is somehow special or at the minimum has some focus to it. In reality, it doesn't.

On top of all this, Glasslip also contains some of the worst dialogue I have ever seen from a show. A lot of what the characters say is either nonsensical or just plain weird. When watching them, it is rather awkward because everything they say just doesn't feel like they should be saying it to one another. This is kind of hard to describe. It's as if the characters were holding conversations with themselves even though they were talking to someone right in front of them.

ANIMATION

By this point, it's important to know that the studio behind Glasslip is none other than P.A. Works. Recently, they have gained fame for their crisp animation and art style and interesting plots. Not only is the latter gone this time, but I argue so is the former.

I give Glasslip one thing, that is that the art itself is gorgeous. The lighting is nice, the environments are pretty, and the character designs are modern.

However, there is little to zero actual animation present. Credit to /u/tundranocaps (a reddit user) for pointing this out. When you actually sit down and watch the show, it becomes apparent that what goes on is just talking. This causes the characters to be rather stiff. They don't have to be, but the show chooses to usually only move their mouths during the majority of the scenes. So while the coffee shop might be very detailed, the characters' movements are definitely not.

Beyond this, Glasslip employs this rather strange technique I call "still frames." They started occurring more frequently as the show went on, but basically the entire frame/scene would freeze in an artistic fashion. Sometimes this would occur randomly when looking at a tree. But the worst offenders were when it would happen while the characters were interacting with one another. I don't know what compelled the studio to use this "trick," but I found it to be rather lame and most of the time unnecessary.

As a final note, and something a bit more personal, but I hate their mouths as well. Each mouth has a slight slant to it that makes each of the characters look as if they have some sort of facial defect. Not sure why they chose this, but just another thing to add to the hate pile.

CHARACTERS

Glasslip's characters, like its story, are rather atrocious.

The main group of friends constitutes the main cast. Starting with Touko, her character development does not go beyond the word, "Ehhhhhh!?!" I understand that she is confused by a lot of the things that are going on, such as "future fragments" or confessions towards her. However, if the only thing notable about your growth as a character is you repeating the same, grating line multiple times an episode, you are just a really bad character.

Moving on, the worst character in the show is David (Kakeru). Seemingly Tsumugu's brother from Nagi no Asukara, David is extremely abstract and philosophical. He acts like a modern-day Plato, and for this reason, I completely hate not only his character but also this character type. I don't understand why P.A. Works enjoys it, but I cannot get behind someone who always has to spout something intellectual or only asks questions as opposed to giving answers.

Next up is Yuki, who early on actually seems to be one of the more sane ones. But in Glasslip-like fashion, he becomes a rather annoying character. After being rejected, he recedes into himself and for the rest of the show just runs. Literally the only thing you see him do is run from one point to another. Is this his way of dealing with things? Perhaps, but even if that is the case, I would much rather have that explained to me, rather than me having to make a guess as to how he is dealing with the situation. This is vital because the show doesn't have a plot, so it relies more heavily on its characters (meaning character interactions).

Sachi is an interesting girl. She is shown to have some type of illness, but like the "future fragments," it serves zero purpose within the narrative. She can actually be quite manipulative despite her appearance, but she too fails to communicate properly with the other characters. So much so that she relies on roundabout ways in order to convey her feelings. Much like Yuki, this is fine, but rather strange for a girl seemingly in her teenage years.

Yanagi is Yuki's step-sister. And that should set a flag off almost immediately. Because, true to Japanese anime stereotypes, she falls for him. I do not like this type of development whatsoever, and I will never understand why it is so prevalent in Japanese culture. This is me being somewhat ignorant, I get that, but it just does not sit right with me. Besides her feelings, she is generally the most mature among the group, but even she has her strange moments too, such as walking around her house naked because she can.

The last character to go in-depth with is Hiro, the boy who has feelings for Sachi. Among everyone in the show, he is the most level-headed/makes the most sense. His actions are believable given what happens to him, and he never does anything extremely strange. Besides pining after the girl who doesn't necessarily see him the same way he does with her, he is actually realistic. That is pretty sad, all things considered.

Much like the mouths, my final point I want to say is that the rest of the cast is pretty bad except for Touko's dad and sister Hina. They were the only ones to make me smile during the show. Whether it was from their terrible dialogue or their actual funny moments, I appreciated having them there to keep me sane.

SOUND

Arguably the strongest part of Glasslip, its music is at least okay. The OP is somewhat nice due to its relaxing melodies and nice use of the guitar. The ED is okay. It reminds me of Hanasaku Iroha with its singing, and while the show tries to be dramatic, the ED instead is rather upbeat.

The soundtrack is fine for what it is. Nothing stands out predominately but the tracks themselves are nice to listen to while watching the show.

As for voice acting, no outstanding performances are to be had.

ENJOYMENT

Many people started watching this show because it was tagged with the P.A Works label. And that's fine, because they have done a splendid job recently with all of their works. But something happened along the way with this one that just makes it hard to believe that it was made by the same studio that did NagiAsu, Hanasaku Iroha, and Angel Beats.

The show is never funny, its not dramatic as much as it tries to make itself seem, the characters are boring and unrealistic, and the story (for what is even present) makes no sense. While romance is abound in the show, I never cared for any of it. I love romance to death in anime, but the way everything was handled between the characters was so unbelievable that I didn't care if Touko ended up with David or Sachi with Hiro.

I really hope P.A. Works reflects on this project. Glasslip was an attempt at something original. They certainly obtained this goal but it is definitely not the outcome that was desired.

SUMMARY

Story: Terrible, completely nonsensical

Animation: Bad, pretty yet mired with "still frames" and zero actual animation

Characters: Terrible, characterization is non-present or extremely shallow

Sound: Fine, okay OP, ED, soundtrack, and VAs

Enjoyment: Bad, melodramatic and rather boring

Final Score: 2/10

What happened to my comfy slice of life series about glass blowing? I asked myself this question every single time I finished an episode and the ED started rolling. After somehow managing to finish this awful series about teenage angst, forced drama, and supernatural horseshit, I feel disappointed. Not only in this series, but also in myself. Somewhere deep inside me must reside a little masochist devil that enjoys watching me suffer through terrible anime.

Saying that Glasslip had a story is laughable. It's as if the writing behind the series just patched together random ideas and put it on the screen. Even upon completion ... I don't understand what this series was trying to convey. Be shallow and fall for the good-looking, up-and-coming sociopath transfer student? Believe in and follow your delusions, which realistically seem like mental disorders, instead of hauling ass to the nearest doctor? I just don't know.

If you thought my description of the story was bad, and that has somehow not put you off of this series yet (unless you've already suffered like I've suffered, God bless your soul), then this should do the trick. Let's talk characters. There are 6 important (who am I kidding?), main characters in Glasslip. They are: Touko, Kakeru, Yukinari, Sachi, Yanagi, and Hiro. Like most dramas and slice of life shows, the main driving force behind the series are its characters. However, with Glasslip, the only thing that will be driving is you. Off the nearest cliff.

Touko is the main female lead of the series, who honestly seems like she's not all there mentally. Touko constantly spaces out, has little to no awareness of her surroundings, and easily has the lowest IQ out of all of her friends. Half her responses to trivial things is, "EHHHHH!?" and it reeks of such stupidity that it hurts my brain.

Kakeru, or "David", the emotionless transfer student, basically has no understanding of socially acceptable human interaction. Instead of easing his way into joining Touko's group of friends, like any normal person would, he acts like a condescending asshole. Big surprise! All of Touko's friends hate him. It doesn't help that he rarely says anything besides Touko this, Touko that, or it's my fault Touko feels sad. Want to get a restraining order filed on you? Follow Kakeru's detailed step-by-step examples.

Yukinari is an athletic guy that has some real apparent issues with catching hints and simply talking in general. He gets jealous easily, has a real douchebag attitude, and runs a lot. I think I could have gone to the store and bought a pair of Nikes — which would not have only been more enjoyable than Yukinari's character, but also more interesting — and gained more entertainment value. Nikes also won't complain or get angry about their running performance either, so that's another big plus.

Yanagi is an alright character, though still pretty bland and generic. She seems normal enough compared to the others, which isn't saying much, but also still has problems of her own. She's got the hots for her step-brother and is extremely quick to jump to his defense whenever someone even hints at what an imbecile he is. I swear Japan, something is wrong with you and your infatuation with brother-sister relationships.

I don't really understand how Sachi even became friends with the rest of the group. All she does is read books, for the most part. She rarely attends the group activities because she has some sort of unexplained illness and rarely says anything of value. Apparently nobody seems to care that she lies to them and tries to play little, deceitful games to get what she wants either. Solid 10/10 would befriend material.

Hiro, you still haven't figured out that Sachi is a lesbian? You poor bastard.

Out of all the characters in this entire show, there were only a handful that stood out when given their time to shine. They felt like realistic portrayals of what they would be like in real life, which was a big surprise to me. I feel like screen time was lost on all of the 'main' characters when these guys were pushed off to the side and ignored for the majority of the show. Here's some insight as to why they were so great:
☑ Character interaction: As realistic as it gets.
☑ Voice acting: Morgan Freeman-narrating-a-documentary-tier.
☑ Character design: Can't even tell they're 2D.
So, without further ado, let's give a big round of applause to Jonathan, Husserl, Confucius, Roger, and Makuzu, the school chickens.

The only positive thing I have to say about Glasslip is that the OST is decent. I like classical music and most of the OST consisted of it, at least from what I recall. The animation for this series felt pretty lacking in comparison to P.A. Work's last scenery porn project Nagi no Asukara. There was a frequent use of stills, which was strange to me. It's 2014, come on now. The studio barely did any notably good animation for this series. Just how low was the budget?

If you couldn't already tell, I did not enjoy Glasslip. On a positive note, Glasslip does do something right aside from the OST. It gives perspective on what a bad series is. Comparatively, you can now probably say "(insert series name here) was better than that piece of shit Glasslip!" and therefore adjust your ratings accordingly.

When I think of Glasslip, the show reminds me of a candle melting. At first, the fire shines strong and bright. Then, as time goes on, it slowly burns itself out and eventually into ashes. Honestly, Glasslip isn’t too different. It’s a show that started off with a decent premise but slowly burn itself out. Glasslip doesn’t induce creative drama, laudable realism, or a genuine slice of life. Rather, it’s an empty series that is misguided by its story and characters that almost makes us feel sorry for what it created. Well, almost.

Produced by P.A Works with director Junji Nishimura involved, it’s no surprise that ... the show share some similar gimmicks with True Tears. The series is a standalone running 1-cour (13 episodes) that isn’t based off of any source material. Yet, this show exists as a confusion. And by that, I mean the show doesn’t really know what to do with itself. For a show that starts off with an intriguing premise, it quickly loses its way by turning it into some teenage abominable drama that is unable to capitalize on any of its composed ideas.

The show starts off simple at first with a small cast of main characters - Touko, Hiro, Sachi, Yanagi, Yukinari, and Kakeru. Five of them are already friends who have known each other for some time. The one oddball out would be Kakeru, a transfer student. The catch is that he didn’t come to town to study or follow a dream. Rather, he came with the reasoning that something in the future ties him together with Touko. As strange as it sounds, Glasslip essentially tries to adapt with an idea relating to the of future. The early episodes heavily implies that Touko is actually able to see into the future through pieces of glass. I suppose this is where the title of the show comes from as Touko has this supernatural-like ability. However, the show neglects most of this concept. Instead, Touko focuses more on her own interpersonal relationship with others. Sure, there are times when Touko is concerned about possible events of the future through these supposed premonitions. However, most of that is discarded instead for cliché-riddled teenage drama where romance takes over and story sinks down the drain.

A question that popped into my mind is ‘why would this series beget into such a weak story with a cyclone of generic clichés?” The answer is simple as the show focuses more on relationships rather than story. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what kind of romance the show is trying to accomplish though. It seems almost everyone has a crush on someone but nothing is reciprocated. One particular confession actually implies semi-yuri undertones or if it can be called that relating to Sachi. Nonetheless, the relationship is unworthy with so much drama going on. Actually, I wouldn’t of mind it if the show has realism but the supernatural element relating to future premonition derives from that. No, rather than realism, Glassip’s relationship dynamics focuses on formulaic and flawed logic that makes little sense at times. Love confessions are delivered with little development. Even if there was, I would call it as sappy because it lacks compatibility. There’s little relevance to some of the relationships. For instance, Touko and Kakeru seems to have some connections not based on similarities but more on fate. The breakdown is that there’s little foreshadowing while others seems to also get involved whilst making their relationship lacking. In the end, there really are concerns about what this show is trying to accomplish.

The story itself isn’t any better when it tries to explain the premise. Apparently, the tagline reads as “"On the other side of the glass, you can see tomorrow.” But really, what I can see is more like days by days going by with horrid development. The show fails to keep up what it tries to do with poor momentum. There’s also a sense of false advertisement when initial viewers may lead to believe on character building. If the series decided to focus on establishing a future of their characters (such as say, a career as an artisan), then I’d be content. But what it offers is nothing of such sort as the realization about this show is focused on love drama. And even when it comes down to that, the drama lacks convincing themes. There’s little focus on the motivations of the characters either. It shifts from character to character that with little credibility on back stories. In fact, back stories are hardly dealt with. In essence, it leaves most viewers in the dark on what we may really know about the characters. It creates that illusionary image that the show depicts slice of life but in reality is more like a generic teenage drama without fluency. There’s just too much going on without proper explanation that creates a stab in the heart. Even True Tears had some parts that people can relate and knew what it was doing at times. However, this show disconnects from reality by relying on its fantasy tropes in inadequate balancing between fiction and reality. To be honest, that’s almost laughable. I only give credit for a few moments when emotional drama induces real dilemma. But even then, its forced dialogues can be an annoyance. By the time the show tries to wrap up everything together, it feels like a point where there’s no redemption as result of weak buildup.

It’s no Nagi no Asukara but this show nailed its technical artwork when it comes to artwork. P.A. Works creates visual porn with the backgrounds including its countryside atmosphere, the sea coastlines, and natural mountains. It feels like nostalgic and brings a melody that makes you feel like a kid all over again. Character designs are generic but maintains balance especially with accessories that some of the girls are wearing. Nonetheless though, artwork is a strong point of Glasslip for its ability to convey communication through gestures. There are also minimal fan service as most of the show relies on more innocence and youth. More importantly, seasonal changes adaptation such as Spring and Winter depicts sincerity with what it’s trying to do.

Although not as strong as the artwork, the soundtrack of the show definitely stands above the shallow relationships that the series tried to craft. Melancholy is a main theme played throughout the show with quiet moments when characters convey their thoughts or feelings. More emotional scenarios has piano-like tunes playing in the backgrounds to show what characters are going through. Occasional comical comments are less noticeable but still makes sense more than the main story. I give some praise to both the OP and ED songs for keeping with its melancholic style. Finally, we have the character voice mannerisms of the main cast. I find little to talk about for this section since none of them really stand out at all. The girls often has that dramatic voice that is pushy with valley girl-like tones. The guys aren’t worth praise either as most of them hardly has a voice that are worth remembering. Kakeru’s voice easily wants me to forget what he says because of his personality while Touko’s expressive voice sounds like an emotional teen who is worried about almost everything. Oh wait, she is.

So in the end, what exactly is Glasslip? Surely, it at least has the word ‘glass’ as part of the show so naturally, we see its usage. The problem is the pacing and balance between what it’s trying to accomplish. For a slice of life show, the fantasy trope doesn’t fit in. If they wanted to focus on relationship building, then at least keep the momentum going. No, instead the show decides to jump around everywhere between characters. In retrospect, the show digs itself further and further into oblivion. Its lackluster comedy and love dramas are questionably unfavorable that can leave a bad taste in a viewers’ mouth. I’m not questioning the drama as some parts of it does command attention. But ultimately, this show is a stinker to what slice of life is. Besides visual porn quality and a tolerable soundtrack, Glasslip is a depressing show to watch.

And no, I’m not even talking about sadness as an emotion. It’s more like how sad this show has fallen apart while burning away like a candle….

The hugely negative reviews that this show is getting is mainly because this show is aimed at a specific audience. it is neither flashy nor has twists and turns like many other anime. It is a slice of life, a very thin slice and not everyone can connect to it. In real life things do not progress fast. In real life you dont have stereotyped characters like tsunderes and danderes. In that way the characters in glasslip are very real. I do not understand why the wort of an anime or character is measured by how interesting backstory it has or the struggle of each ... character. Yes, those anime are inspirational and hit us hard but just because an anime caters to the ordinary people with ordinary life does not mean its bad. The artwork is brilliant in this anime btw and that is one point everyone agrees.
Verdict:- If you want a thriller, a plot with huge twists and turns, characters with backstory etc. stay away from this anime. If you want to enjoy mundane lifestyle and complex romantic love life of a few teenagers, this anime is for you. Personally I could connect a lot to this anime, it was almost like school life all over again and I believe many can.

Like a light summer breeze, Glasslip, which looked to be a tranquil slice-of-life, floated onto the summer anime scene.
Like summer itself, Glasslip was something that many viewers, including me, looked forward to. I think a lot of us were weaned on the gorgeous visuals, intricate plot, and superb character development found in Nagi no Asukara, which was created by the same studio that made Glasslip. A very sparse summary and teaser video only served to increase the enthusiasm for Glasslip. What I expected was another wonderfully drawn anime with a touch of supernatural and profound character progression.
There was just one thing that was, as I ... would discover, incredibly erroneous in that assumption.
Well, you know how it works! Keep reading for a flow of text; scroll down for categorizing through numbers. Read both if you like, but information can and will be repeated between the two sections.
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The key word is ‘progress’.
Now, see, I don’t have a huge problem with slice-of-life, but one would hope to see significant changes in the characters and the plot. Glasslip is characterized by an utter lack of character development. I’m upset that I wasted my time watching this anime ( which my friends have termed ‘Glasshit’ ); I think the reason why I ended up watching the whole thing is that I hoped something would happen. In the first few episodes, it seemed like some interesting events would take place; it was that hope for something to change that kept me going through the tortuous second half of the series. My hopes were only to be dashed into shards of glass at the end, as the finale tried to put on the premise of being deep and philosophical but just ended up being really confusing.
It’s a bit difficult for me to write a review for this anime without venting my frustration, so to temper that, I’ll state that Glasslip isn’t horrible through-and-through. The art, as expected, ranks among the best I’ve seen in an anime. The characters have decently attractive personalities for perhaps the first several episodes. The soundtrack is absolutely wonderful ( and I loved the addition of classical music ). The issue with Glasslip is that it tries too hard and then fails miserably. Perhaps I should compare it to Icarus? I simply imagine that PA Works tried to follow up on Nagi no Asukara but ended up creating a disaster. All the right elements were there in a complete disarray. I think that everything in Glasslip could have been adjusted to have worked better, and it would have been a great story. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
And I’ll concede that there will be people who like this anime. I actually have a friend who loved Glasslip ( and even compared it to a Miyazaki film, which provoked some skeptical reactions from me ), which helped give me a perspective into the, albeit few, good aspects of the series. So, if you really do want to give this anime a try, don’t expect any plot development, but it is a slice-of-life and a romance in which basically everyone falls in love with each other at some point or another. The art is superb, the soundtrack equally so. Slice-of-life with a hint of fantasy is what I would describe Glasslip as if I enjoyed it.
But I do have substantial reason to believe that most people disliked Glasslip. A small anecdote-
My mom watches Chinese dramas.
Usually, she starts by watching the first one or two episodes.
Then, she skips right to the very end and watches the last episode.
Part of it is to conserve time [ after all, Chinese dramas can drag on for a very long time ], but she's said that honestly, there isn't much she's missing by not watching the bulk of the series. From the ending, she can pretty much piece together everything that happened.

I feel like the same thing, sadly, applies to Glasslip. It's a pity; I really wanted to like this anime and I had high expectations based off of what I had seen from P.A. Works before. What makes an anime more interesting than others is that way of making the viewers second-guess themselves, to get absorbed into the characters and then find that not everything plays out as they expected. That's something that P.A. Works achieved with Nagi no Asukara, but for some reason, they fell short here, using hackneyed storylines and characters so predictable that watching them interact incredibly boring.
The relationships in Glasslip are largely forced. The romance comes out of nowhere, especially between Touko and Kakeru. If I were to sugar-coat things, I would call it spontaneous, but really, I’m just going to call it utterly unprecedented. Their relationship basically goes from “you remind me of a Renaissance statue and I enjoy chickens” to “let’s spend the night together in a school”. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for hilarious or unconventional boy-meets-girl ( or vice versa ) situations, but after that, there was really no relationship development to merit their decision to go out with each other. One would imagine that they would be united by a common power that they share...but really, that power contributes to more awkwardness between the two, and thus I really don’t understand where their relationship comes from.
I could rant about Touko and Kakeru’s relationship all day, but let’s talk about everyone else. I think the most genuine person here is Hiro, who actually shows that he likes Sachi and acts on it. And, following from that, I was interested to see a possibly? bi character in this anime, but turns out that she’s incredibly jealous and rude to everyone. But with a sickly glasses-girl trope, it seems like Glasslip is trying to compensate and thus make you feel sorry for her instead of hate her. Ah, but to no avail. I expected a tragic or angst aspect involving Sachi, but really, she just sat in her hospital bed and brooded like an old witch over how to destroy everyone’s lives. Come on, you could have just killed her. That would have been more character development than evidenced by anyone else in the entire series.
Yanagi and Yukinari are a strange pair; I thought that Yanagi’s attraction to her stepbrother was incestuous until I found out about their relationship a little too late for my own good. But anyway, I really don’t think that it benefits your relationship with your brother to be walking around the house naked ( I suppose that was for fanservice, but it was out-of-place and totally unwarranted ). Yukinari was my favorite at the beginning because I’m always rooting for the underdog type, but...? He didn’t come to terms with his romantic attractions for anyone; you would imagine that even a bit of closure might be attained by the end of the anime.
Haha, who am I kidding? Nobody comes to terms with their romantic attractions at the end. Watching the anime to see how the love isododecahedron plays out is absolutely fruitless. Everyone is still in love with the same people, nobody progresses except for Touko and Kakeru ( and in the end, that’s also pointless ), and even though they try to take middling steps in the direction of forming relationships, nobody really learns from such experiences. At the end of Glasslip, everyone is largely the same as they were at the beginning.
Let’s move on to a small snippet about the ‘supernatural’ element of this anime. Supernatural! Fantasy! It would probably be a crucial part of the plot, don’t you think?
Turns out that the supernatural powers possessed by Touko and Kakeru are ab-so-lute-ly useless. Touko uses her power to just make everything worse; instead of using it to save the world or whatnot, she uses it to help, but actually ruin the teenage drama in her life. Kakeru uses his power to embrace his tent fetish and alienate his parents. I got fooled into thinking that something was happening when the supernatural powers revealed the premise of something dark, but...who am I kidding? Nothing happened, as expected.
So, character development and plot development were a shame, but how about the other aspects of Glasslip?
I think I did mention before that I wholeheartedly enjoyed the art and soundtrack of Glasslip. Art first, look up pictures of Glasslip and you’ll be treated to PA Works’ wonderful art. The landscapes are impeccably drawn and detailed, and the lighting does a wonderful job in portraying a relaxed summer world looked at through a lens. I enjoyed the vivid and bright palettes of this anime; just looking at the screenshots of the scenery reminds me of summertime. The characters are drawn in the same style as those of Nagi no Asukara - big eyes, simple features. I would say that such a style doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I do enjoy how many different tones and aspects of lighting were included in the eyes, and the characters were distinctly drawn such that I didn’t have any trouble differentiating between them. The one fault in the art was those awkward still frames. What were they doing there? Where did they come from? ( cotton-eye joe? ) And you would imagine that such frames would be used for emphasis in important scenes...quite the contrary. They were seemingly randomly placed, which I found quite irritating.
Similarly, the OP and ED also remind me of summer. I particularly enjoyed the opening theme, which has an acoustic guitar and background beat that definitely feels like a summer breeze ( though it may be because I listened to the song quite a bit during the summer ). The OST had quite a bit of classical music, including many pieces that I’ve played before, so I was really enthusiastic about the music in Glasslip. Overall, in terms of setting the mood for the warm environment of the series, the art and soundtrack were wonderful toward that purpose. However, Glasslip also does a wonderful job of proving that a great soundtrack and art can’t redeem a terrible anime, for at the end of the day, it’s the plot and characters that stand out the most.
This is precisely why- I’m sorry to say- that I think Glasslip is one of the worst anime I’ve ever seen. The infamous Sword Art Online had more interesting plot and character development than this series, which is to say that Glasslip had none of those things. If you’re a sadist or you just really, really like slice-of-life anime, then maybe you would enjoy Glasslip. It’s far from a lighthearted and easy watch, though, not because it’s dark or depressing, but because it’s frustrating to try and follow a nonexistent plot and sympathize with terribly developed characters.
On that note, let’s go on to a numerical analysis of Glasslip. ( I’ll provide some statistics of my own- I dislike this series so much that I wrote all of what’s here so far in about fifteen minutes at probably a record pace fueled by rage, and somehow I’ve also managed to consume a pint of ice cream while doing so. )
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Story :: 3
I’d like to give the creators a gold star for trying...
The plot seemed interesting enough at first, and I was definitely excited to see what would unfold as the series progressed, but after around episode 5 or so, it became obvious that this story was going nowhere fast. The finale tried to put on the premise of being deep and philosophical but just ended up being really confusing. The issue here is that since Glasslip is a slice-of-life that centers around a group of friends, the character development is basically the plot. A pity that there was neither.

Art :: 9
I’ll have to dock a point here for the awkward still frames, but Glasslip, despite its shortcomings, retains PA Works’ characteristic detail in visuals. The art really stands out in the parts involving a lot of scenery, with lighting portrayed perfectly. A vivid and cheerful palette lend themselves to the summery theme of Glasslip, which brings back nostalgic memories of the time when I wasn’t trying to balance 6 APs, maintain good grades, and cram for college exams. The characters are attractively drawn, and I really enjoyed the amount of detail put into their eyes, which again lend to the suggestion that not everything is completely realistic in Glasslip ( like the fact that they expect us to believe that there’s a plot ).

Sound :: 9
Relaxing classical music abounds in the OST, and the OP and ED were catchy and, like the art, give me that nostalgic summer feeling. This was one of the first anime in which I actually paid a lot of attention to the soundtrack, since I recognized a lot of songs ( having heard them or played them myself ). So, while the classical music portion was completely unrelated to the plot, I thought it was a nice touch and personally, I really enjoyed the music. In a romantic sense, Glasslip is a very peaceful anime ( in other words, nothing happens ), and I think that the classical music suits the relaxed setting and pace.

Character :: 1
Oh, god.

Okay, I wasn’t going to go back and add anything to that, but anyway, the most outstanding feature of Glasslip is the lack of character development. I entered the anime hoping to see a heartwarming coming-of-age story and got characters who ended up being largely the same as they were at the beginning, even after facing fruitless romantic relationships. One by one, each character proved that they weren’t misunderstood, just totally irredeemable.

I hope that with this review, I’ve sufficiently convinced you to not waste any of your time on this anime. But hey, people don’t like being told what to do. To them, I say ‘the best of luck to you’!

Ganbatte
- palladia

Starting episode one of Glasslip, the impression is given that the journey you are about to partake will be artistic, dramatic, and truly memorable. This is to say, on the surface, Glasslip is all of these things. However, once you tie your laces and start down the slippery slope, the series proves to have none of the above characteristics. Instead, the anime leaves you severely starved of the deep, intriguing elements it tries sparingly to mimic. In short, the thirteen-episode production was a disappointment.

During the first episode you are introduced to a gaggle of main characters, specifically, Touko and her party of five friends. When ... the new kid comes to town--as one often does in manga and anime--the group decides to remove the 'no dating' rule, for some reason vaguely related to the new kid being apparently a fine piece of ass.
Predictably, one thing after another goes wrong, and while I can tolerate love triangles, the ones utilized in Glasslip were poorly handled and did not create satisfying conflict.
Each issue that arises is solved in an incredibly calming way that, instead of delivering relief, leaves you bored. No one develops any particular hate for another character, nor do any of the characters interact enough for unique relationships to form.

Mostly, I belief Glasslip was riding on the artistic portion of itself. This may have worked for the show, if not for the art being just as uncomfortable and even a touch sloppy.
While you are introduced to scenic backgrounds, clouds, glass and stills episode to episode, the characters themselves are left out to hang, complete with strange ruffles in clothing, the frequent change of appendage proportion and an irritating, lopsided mouth.
The most the art does is add to the atmosphere, complimenting the artisanal theme with softness and a brushstroke-like quality. This is a success in a pile of ruins.

Sound is also used to compliment the aesthetic, and a wide use of classical violin and piano remains in the background at almost all times. It seems as if it is trying to make the tone of each episode dramatic, coming off as a sort of mock-soap opera soundtrack.
The OP is a sweet tune that fits the show, especially in that it is something you could easily fall asleep to. In all honesty, some of the best Glasslip footage is in the opening credits.
Contrarily, the ED is incredibly misleading. I have encountered the stylings of Nano.RIPE in many series, and have heard both slower and peppier songs--unfortunately, the choice was made to go peppy at the end of Glasslip, which does not suit the show whatsoever. Sure, it may be fun, but I believe something calmer, like the ED to Hataraku Maou-Sama, would have done Glasslip more justice.

Above all, the anime takes a big hit in quality because of its characters. The impression is given everyone will be fun and unique, but this is not at all true. Each character, from the supposedly forgetful, indecisive Touko to the blunt Yuki, does not fit the bill for the personality they need to level out the show. The screen time for each of them is so severely divided that you can barely start to care about anything they are doing.
For an anime, their reactions are bland and underplayed. While you may think it is better and more realistic to leave out the misunderstandings and the obnoxious 'uwaaahhh's, without them, there is nothing grabbing to keep anyone invested in the plot. By the final episodes, you barely see Touko's friends at all, and praise god if they get one or two lines. The romances and understandings Glasslip works hard to build shatter with the disappearance of everyone under the shadow of one of the show's main flaws:
Kakeru Okikura.
Scene after scene is spent trying to understand Kakeru, the new kid, and to bring out his complexities and sense of self, only to play it out to the point he becomes a one note, overbearing, pretentious loner. He begins as a mysterious new addition to the town and ends with a sudden amount of melancholy on his back that you're supposed to feel sorry for--they only problem is the script surrounding who and how he is is vague. The fatal flaw of Glasslip is the fact that the conflict of the show starts out as 'two kids who can see the future' and ends with 'no one loves Kakeru'.
Glasslip handles characters like a man with greased hands juggles: everything ends up in a disappointing mess by the end, and the worst part is, the mess is just a touch anticlimactic.

I wanted to enjoy Glasslip, I really, really did. Sadly, here I am at episode thirteen and without the romantic drama I was so looking forward to.
Glasslip is a relaxant. In being such, it does not stand even close to the other series premiered this summer, and it's usefulness extends to only about a good computer background.

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

"The next Nagi no Asukara?” I can’t tell you how many times I heard this anime advertised as the next smash-hit romantic drama series by PA Works following the monumental success of their previous entry into the genre. As a result, there was a LOT of hype behind this anime among fans of rom-drams. While I can’t exactly call myself a fan of the genre, I couldn’t resist giving the show a try considering that NnA was the best rom-dram I had ever seen. What I got not only didn’t meet these (unreasonable) expectations, but it left me in awe of just how ... much of a disaster the writers managed to make out of what is one of the most basic concepts in writing: love polygons. Whether it’s the horrible execution of the supernatural elements that the show tries to sprinkle in or the fact that they completely fail to properly introduce us to the characters, Glasslip is just an absolute and undisputed failure.

Synopsis: 6 teenagers are in love, but none of them are in love with each other! Shocking, I know! (The rest of this synopsis is complete guess:) One of them, Touko Fukami, works as a glass artisan and that somehow enables her and a strange boy named Kakeru Okikura to see into the future, I guess?

Now it’s at this point you may be asking yourself: “What the hell do love polygons, glass artistry, and the ability to see into the future have to do with each other?” Well friends, you are not alone in that regard. Nobody has any clue what they have to do with each other because the show doesn't take the time to bloody explain ANYTHING, particularly this whole foresight garbage. Let me make something absolutely clear: writing a romantic drama is not hard. It’s as formulaic as it gets; if you’ve seen one, you can guess the direction and outcome of 90% of the others. Therefore, in order to stand out from the crowd, rom-drams need to add a little something extra in order to be considered noteworthy. NnA had its engrossing and imaginative setting, while Glasslip went for supernatural-future-sight. The only problem is that apparently didn't have the slightest idea of how to incorporate this into the "story" (did this show even have a story?). This is because they completely failed to make this mystery the slightest bit interesting or endearing to the audience. They don't explain a single, and I literally mean one SINGLE element or detail of ANYTHING in the entire show! Particularly not this whole “future sight”. We don’t know how it’s done, we don’t know how many people can do it or why, we don’t know who has the ability to do it, we don’t know what is being seen, we don’t know how far into the future they are looking, we don't know the relevance to the plot, we don’t know a goddamn thing, and that is inexcusable. This is one of the stupidest fucking shows I've ever seen. Slowly unraveling a mystery is one thing, but they just butchered the execution by completely confusing their audience and refusing to clarify even the most basic details. The worst part is that the basic love-polygon drama of the show is also terribly executed, contrived and confusing. I don't know who wrote the script for Glasslip, but that person should never work in the industry again. Either I'm watching a bad translation, or this anime has the worst script since Fate/Stay Night's "People die when they are killed". When such a simple concept is so unbelievably hard to follow, you know that you are doing something terribly wrong. To wrap it up: It's hard to imagine a possible way that the plot could be any worse than it ended up. Glasslip's "plot" is as bad as it gets; it's a complete joke.

While the plot may have been botched, the characters are where this anime truly and utterly fails. This anime made the unwise and downright stupid decision to jump right into the drama without taking the time to introduce us to the characters. The result? Nobody cares about anything that is happening. Guy #1 loves Girl #1, but nobody cares. Girl # 2 loves Guy #1, but nobody cares. Guy #3 loves Girl # 3, but nobody cares. Girl # 1 loves chickens (?), but NOBODY. FUCKING. CARES. The main character, Touko, is literally the only character that isn’t one-dimensional, but she is CERTAINLY no saving grace (she might have some sort of mental disability). This show betrays the very basics of story-telling 101: “If the audience doesn’t know who the characters are, they don’t care what happens to them”. For a rom-dram, this is arguably the worst mistake that can possibly be made because these kinds of shows are VERY character driven. In Glasslip, the audience could care less if, say, Guy #3 died in a fire next episode, so how are we supposed to care about if he gets a girlfriend or not? Additionally, the character chemistry is awful. We are supposed to get the idea that the main characters are all close friends, and yet they are only shown together in about 3 episodes. Really, it is just truly baffling how awful the execution of this show is.

In conclusion, Glasslip is a complete disaster. Sure, it has a beautiful OST and pretty visuals, but those are not even close to enough to save this catastrophe from the bowels of shitty rom-drams. Glasslip doesn't know how to use a fucking plot device, it doesn't know how to introduce characters, and it doesn't even know how to write a basic love polygon. Needless to say, I don’t recommend this show to anyone. It's garbage. My god it's garbage.

Some critics argue that the most integral part of a story is the climax. It displays the turning point of a certain situation that had been building up from previous events (or episodes) in an attempt to evoke a certain emotion or reaction from the audience. Whether or not this is the most integral part of a story, most would agree that the climax, in most cases, overall helps the story in overall worth. One should also keep in mind that what causes the climax to become as integral as it could be is essential in understanding how a good story works. A story is ... similar to that of a recipe; if everything is put in at (roughly) the exact amount with the appropriate time allotted to let it bake or stir or settle, then the finished product turns out at a higher quality.

How the concept of a story's climax relates to that of Glasslip is simple: Glasslip is a show that tries to produce results by skipping certain ingredients. A good climax requires good build-up, good tension, and most of all, the audience's attention and empathy, along with other accessories. When a storywriter looks to the climax too earnestly, they are more likely to miss what comes before; like planning a trip before worrying about the luggage. I believe this is Glasslip's biggest flaw: it tries to play the drama factor before building up the drama.

What is most noticeable about Glasslip is the attention to its scenery. Everything looks crisp and clear and certainly has the appearance of a somewhat light-hearted teenage drama. Not to discredit the production values, but with a studio such as P.A. Works, this is almost guaranteed. As the story progresses, however, the attention to detail begins to diminish. Not in the scenery itself, but to those who inhabit it. The faces of the characters, as I had noticed, barely change in expression. Even if they do change, they don't seem to look like they acquire the emotion behind the change in expression. I think this plays most prevalently with their eyes. Their eyes barely change. Nothing happens to their pupils, their size; everything seems to stay course. This is where the flaws in the outer region of Glasslip end, but where the inner regions begin to show signs of disarray.

The story of Glasslip begins rather innocently. A group of friends are introduced and spend time with each other doing whatever life entails them to do. It is only when the appearance of Kakeru, a strange, transfer citizen, does a crack in the group begin to show. This results in another sub-plot to the show simply stated as "the fragments of the future" appearing as if by pure coincidence. Kakeru and Touko, the main female protagonist of Glasslip, are allowed to see these so-called "fragments."

In regards to the previous claim about the climax of a story, what is almost essential in having one be effective is through the story's characters. Glasslip's characters can all be summed up through the use of one word: mundane. Whatever they choose to do throughout the course of the series ends up meaning nothing or being quickly forgotten by the beginning of the following episode. The major characters' use of dialogue with the other major characters, who are all supposedly great friends, give the audience no reason to think they are actually friends. There is no chemistry between any of these characters, whether it be with friends, family, or romantic partners, as some of the characters do (or hint) at a current or future romantic relationship. By the end of the series, the viewer is likely not concerned with the characters' wishes because neither are the characters on-screen. It is almost as if the characters were still infants, trying to form an identity of their own through their environment while the show was still airing.

After understanding the characters, the viewer is brought back to the main story of Glasslip: drama. If Glasslip were to attempt any build-up whatsoever, some of the attempts at genuine drama could have been fruitful. Unfortunately, it tries to fill in the amount of wasted space in running time by showing cheap amounts of dramatic tension. Things such as jealousy, possessiveness, and betrayal are explored in this series, but are shrugged off the instant they arise. As stated above, everything that is said or done seems to mean nothing by the beginning of the following episode. Only the "fragments" are given any attention for more than a course of an episode, and even so, we know nothing more about the phenomenon by the end of the series as when it was introduced in the beginning of the series. When taking everything into account, this series is, simply put, a diorama, filled with pale, clay dolls moving from place to place.

I believe that the climax of a story can make or break the worth of a show. So when Glasslip tries many, many times to provide worthwhile build-up to the climax of the series, it felt like nothing had been done, nothing had been accomplished. The dull characters and convoluted story only equate to a miserable and strenuous viewing. Not to overinflate the amount of analogies already present, but one last thing Glasslip could be an example of is an unfinished story. It is the outcome of someone's haste and overwhelming desire to get to the flashiest part of a story. It's quite a shame; it looked so pretty, too.

"The next Nagi no Asukara" quickly turned into the disappointment of the summer for most, but actually entertained me. Are you raising your brow yet wondering, "why give an anime a 7 that's heavily hated on?"

With Nagi no Asukara ending a few months before Glasslip was released, we had high expectations for it thinking it would live up to the hype that Nagi produced. By no means am I saying this anime is perfect, it isn't, it has a bunch of flaws, but still doesn't deserve that amount of hate it's getting in my opinion.

It opens with the group of friends having fun at ... a summer festival and showing each of their names, along with a unique event that the main character experiences. From there you're introduced to a new transfer student and he causes a stir within the group of friends and it begins to kick off from there. One flaw that this anime opens up with, is no character introduction. No one is properly introduced and you're literally just thrown into the story.

The story was driven by the concept of Touko, the main character, being able to see visions or hear voices that may hint to the future. The "fragments of the future" are the main thing that drives the story, but it doesn't exactly get told what it is or why it's even there. With the obvious love cycle that this group has, feelings get told and nothing happens, the group just spreads apart and it stays that way for most of the anime.

One big flaw in the entire anime is that nothing does happen, it's sad to say, but things just go in a big circle and end in a big unclear ending that answers absolutely nothing. The entire situation that all the characters went through with their heart breaks and confessions, just goes nowhere.

With the anime having a bad story, you have mediocre characters to really back up it up. I won't say these are the worst characters that i've seen, cause i've seen worse, but some things they do are really questionable and just tend to make the overall anime confusing, but did entertain me. Due to the show being a slice of life, it's heavily character driven, and the cast isn't exactly the best for what the show was trying to do. Mainly the anime focuses on Touko and "David". Those are the two with the ability to see "fragments of the future" and share the ability. They drive the story with the curiosity to figure out why they have it and what it does, which never does get answered.

Touko is a typical teenage girl and probably the most prominent of her group of friends. She's very curious and tends to be oblivious to the situation tending to make things worse. She had potential to be a great character, but didn't shine as much as she could have and really just made the anime repeat a bunch of things that already happened.

Next you have Kakeru, or David, the transfer student who just shows up. Like literally just shows up and is thrown into the story. With his appearance, he throws the group into conflict and even admits that hes messing with them to some extent on purpose. He's a lot like Tsumugu from Nagi, but less emotion. He does have his moments of why he does things, but it feels like he was just placed there cause they needed another character to fill the spot.

The rest of the group is diversely made up and is one of the things that I enjoyed. Though they all literally just made more conflict and served no purpose in the story whatsoever, they made a lot of entertaining moments and gave the anime more life than what was given. You have characters who aren't even involved in the drama and have their own love story, and characters that mess up the drama further, by doing actions that are just questionable, but adds for a whole lot of interesting interactions and situations to keep the story from dying off.

Art is possibly one of the best things this anime has to offer. The art comes from the famous P.A Works who has previously worked on Tari Tari, Hanasaku Iroha, and Nagi no Asukara. The scenery from the hikes, to the fragments and visions that Touko sees are all beautiful and give the anime a lot more entertainment to it. One thing i'd like to point out was the detail given to the entire environment that they were in. You can definitely feel the sea side thanks to the detail in moss on the walls, to the waves moving and animals surrounding it. With all the praise i'm giving the art, it's not perfect. A lot of scenes aren't fluid due to the characters. They're all drawn beautifully, but all lack facial expressions. They tend to have only one straight face through out the entire scene except for the occasional angry face, or confused face.

Classical music has always been one of the things I love listening to and this anime has a lot of it. The soundtrack for this anime is possibly one of its biggest strengths and things that keep it going. From the sound effects of the fragments to just the beach or animal sounds, the anime did a splendid job making you feel like you were there and brought life to anime. The voice acting was nothing too great, but actually wasn't bad at all. If the characters showed the emotions that the voice actors were giving off, it would have been much better.

Overall I think this anime is being judged much harsher than it deserves to be. It does have many flaws, but a lot of points to cover it up. This series is definitely a hit or a miss for many people, but also has bad timing of its production. With the previous anime of P.A works just ending and getting a lot of praise, you're given a lot of expectation for their next work to be of the same caliber. Then with the strong line up that this Summer season has had, from Barakamon to SAO 2, you have something that lacks from the pack and is being pointed out on all of it's flaws. I think anyone can like this or have an unbiased opinion going into this, if they don't compare it to something else, cause this is it's own anime. It's not suppose to be a copy of something else.

When I saw the trailers for this show, I like most of the anime watching community were expecting this to be either one of two things, 1. To be the next Nagi no Asakura, one of the most well known romantic dramas to have come out recently, or what I was expecting, a slice of life story of a girl who wishes to be a glass artisan like in the synopsis. Let me just say it dropped the ball for either one of these mindsets. For a romantic drama, everything feels forced and it uses love triangles and polygons that have been done time and ... again, and as a slice of life about glass artisans it shows only 3-4 minutes worth of screen time in which the main character is heating glass and messing it up on multiple occasions at the place she works at and it never even talks about her goals to become a glass artisan IN THE LAST FOUR EPISODES. The show instead uses glass as some kind of plot device that allows our main character to see the future for some reason. I wouldn't mind if it did this if it did it properly, but they don't. When this future sight happens I am left clueless as to what future events are going to happen despite seeing them myself but for some reason the main character gets the entire gist of it.

Speaking of characters most of them are one dimensional and forgettable except for the main one, you got the new guy in town, a bookworm girl, and a few others. That's right there's 5 side characters we as viewers are supposed to care about in addition to Touko, the main lead, and three of them don't have any distinguishing traits or personality. And Touko only has a few traits, like caring for chickens and sketching them and making glass stuff and being the main reason romantic tension randomly happens. The reason I am sort of ranting on the characters is that if the genre is romance or slice of life, having good characters matters more then usual as they are what we focus on during romance and dramas. In my opinion this show is not the worst but there is better out there

My alternate recommendations would be the currently airing Ao Haru Ride or the just finished airing Soredemo Sekai wa Utskushi due to both of these shows being better in the romance genre then this show.

"Glasslip," a Slice-of-Life with the potential for greatness, crashed and burned.


I'll admit I was looking forward to "Glasslip" this season. The art seemed clean and fresh, and an anime with a nice concept. Not only was I cruelly deceived by the anime's initial summary, but was completely caught off guard once some supernatural elements were added into the storyline.

Let's talk a little voice actors, shall we? Touko got to be voiced by the lovely Seria Fukagawa (Aloalo [Happiness Charge Precure!]). She has actually only had two roles so far in the anime industry. It is a pity this had to be one of her jobs--nevertheless, ... she did a marvelous job! Her voice captured Touko's innocence and rather rude bluntness perfectly. Although a bit annoying at times, Fukagawa has a sharp feminine voice that's sure to land her more jobs. Moving onto Kakeru, he is voiced by Ryota Ohsaka (Marco [Attack on Titan). No longer is he a blue haired idol, a wimpy teenager in charge of a deadly mecha, or a dead man (too soon?). Meet Ohsaka, reborn as emotionally fragile, perhaps emotionless, but probably depressed Kakeru! Ohsaka uses his breathy voice to play out all the emotions very well. His voice perfectly fits the role, and I feel he did a great job.

While "Glasslip" had the potential to become something great, it stopped in the middle of character development and decided to say 'Hey, let's add that people can see the future!' Which turns out to not even be the future at all. Confusing? I know. Most anime fans watching this show were desperately in need of manly explanations, and were probably thinking 'P.A. Works, what the hell are you thinking?!' The relationships between characters especially seemed forced. Touko went from being slightly interested in Kakeru, to liking him, to hating him, back to liking him, and then...it's just left hanging. Other relationships form in the series, some expected, others not, but character development was definitely not one of the leading factors to the show. Suffice to say, I was not happy with this anime. But not only was the story confusing, but it seemed like the animation quality degraded around the third episode. It regained its grace in the lat couple of episodes, but for a moment there I was seriously wondering why the characters' eyes were so lopsided and their bodies so undefined. The backgrounds were very detailed though. Along with the fantastical, magical, supernatural things that never gets explained. It all leads me back to my very first complaint; What are these fragments of the future?!

And so, if you like confusing animes who use up all their budget on backgrounds and magical swirls in people's eyes, then you will enjoy this anime very much! However, I'm not sure a lot of people want to be left hanging with their questions never answered. But if that's your cup of tea, then have at it.

-

Story - 3
The story is poorly executed, diverting from a potentially good storyline to just a god-awful combination of random thoughts. If the aim was to show the chaos going through a child's head before they become an adult, then that was inadequately done.

Art - 7
The art started out as wonderful, but in the middle of the series it seemed like all the budget was spent on the backgrounds. Bodies were weirdly shaped, eyes were oddly positioned, and it was just a few degrees short from a mess. However, the animation quality got back up in the last few episodes.

Music - 7
The music was good. The opening was pleasant, and followed the Slice-of-Life theme. The ending was also cute, reflecting Touko's innocence. However, the music wasn't amazing.

Character - 5
There was little development, and that's what is always necessary for a good score. There were some romance themes going on, but the main characters' romance seemed a bit forced. It went from interest, to love, to hate, back to a more hesitant love, and then it was just left hanging.

Enjoyment - 5
For being an anime I had really looked forward to, it disappointed me, and watching the episodes became a chore.

Overall - 5.4
As previously stated, and I will state again, this anime had lots of potential to be a really sweet Slice-of-Life with a bit of romance mixed in. Instead, Supernatural elements are thrown in, and I'm not even sure if it's meant to be taken literally, or if it's all just a metaphor for a teenager struggling to grow up. This anime was a definite hit and miss for me.

When I read the description of Glasslip on AniChart while picking shows to watch for the summer season, I was hoping for a more casual anime (meaning believable, realistic circumstances - a change of pace from what I usually watch) which focused on a young girl's dreams to become a glass artisan. However, that's not the case. We have seen very little time of glasswork at all. Furthermore, in the five of thirteen episodes of Glasslip that have aired thus far, the show has failed to capitalize on what it has to work with - albeit not much for how much time ... this anime wastes on situations which do nothing for the progression of the story, cliche love polygons and the main character's (Touko) ability to see the future.

Story - 3
What makes this story poor? There is very little story that exists in Glasslip so far, and for what story does exist, it's poorly paced. I'm okay if a SoL is slow paced, but because of how poorly paced this show is, something's probably going to wind up incomplete, or leave gaping plotholes. The story that exists so far is cliched love polygons that still don't seem to matter - in fact, nothing in this anime seems to matter so far. As I jokingly said to a friend I'm watching the anime with "it's as if Glasslip makes it a point to make everything meaningless."

Art - 10
The artwork and animation seems to be where most of the budget for this show went. This anime is eye candy. High detailing and a lot of stylization exists all of the time.

Sound - 7
No complaints to be made about the sound quality. The voice actors and actresses match the emotion of the characters in the animation well, and the sound quality is crisp and clean. There's nothing that makes this sound distinct amongst production of other animes. Regarding the music, nothing really stands out.

Character - 2
Touko is the only character who has had any character development that the anime makes out that you're supposed to think is important? - honestly I can't even fucking tell man. This anime's writing is a train wreck all around. Anyways, she can see into the future through a trigger, shiny objects such as glass, and she likes to draw chickens. Honestly, the bike that falls over when Touko is confessed to by forgettable-character-whatever-his-name-is, that bike has more character development than most of the characters so far.

Seriously, check this bike out: http://38.media.tumblr.com/7691e6ddb1be8a9ff7d41604c734a5c3/tumblr_n8l3bl7k101syr5r5o1_r1_400.gif

Enjoyment - 4
I'm only watching this show because I'm watching it with a friend while it's airing. If we weren't pointing out the obvious flaws in the writing most of the time and laughing at it, we probably wouldn't be watching it even then.

Overall - 5
This score is still too high, but in the 5 catagories, it was carried by animation and sound, even though the sound is only on par. Really, don't waste your time watching Glasslip. Hell, School Days probably is better than this just because the direction of the show wasn't so fucking obscure.

I'll update this review later on when the Glasslip has finished airing if the show changes any in story quality and character development.

I can see the future. Nah, just joking.

STORY (3):

The story takes place in Hinodehama where Touko's family runs a glass-working business. Touko Fukami hangs out with her friends at a cafe called Kazemichi. The story at first sound interesting just when Touko sees the future by looking at the glass. However, this wasn't brought up again in the remaining episodes. The rest of the episodes are Touko hanging out with her friends.

It basically seems that everyone is doing their daily lives with no consequential events that happen. Everything in this anime is insubstantial.

ART (6):

As always from PA Works, the animation is serene and beautiful ... just like the sea. However, the animation wasn't fully utilized to its full potential which became a bit stilted. Recycle animation.

SOUND (4):

They use classical music in the anime itself, without coming up with their own music. The opening and ending song were good.

CHARACTERS (3):

There was barely any development from the characters or backstory. The characters that I liked are Yanagi Takayama and Hiro Shirozaki. However, it is sad that they have not enough screen time compared to Touka and Yukinari.

Jonathan, the chicken is also an interesting character.

The problem with Touka and Kakeru is that they are bland characters, there wasn't any substance between them. I know they hang out and build a relationship but that relationship has to have some meaning behind it. However, it wasn't explained in the later episodes.

I barely remember all the casts.

By the way, Touko's "EEEEHHHH" is the most hilarious line I have heard from her.

CONCLUSION (3):

Traditional storytelling is setting up a character, sending them on their journey and learning more about them. Glasslip, this anime is just chess-piece storytelling. Characters goes here, there and back and forth with no reason or meaning.

PA Works, you have done good anime in the past, why suddenly you didn't put much effort in this anime? Even if it's a slice-of-life, you need to put in charisma and flare between the characters just like Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun did. Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is a well executed comedy with great characters. What made Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun awesome is their relationship makes sense and the comedy is well-executed. In this anime Glasslip, characters are just going through their daily lives as if nothing had happened. I will not tolerate lazy work even if it's a slice-of-life anime.

I have to give this anime a 3 out of 10.

I REALLY wanted to like this anime. I picked it up randomly because it looked well drawn and animated. Needless to say, it was well drawn and animated. There were a couple of times that if you were looking you could see some strange CGI usage but it wasn't anything that detracted from the enjoyment.

Here's the problem with the anime. I'm going to real talk you here. No one realizes that it's a set up as you're watching this. I was sure it was gonna be good even up to episode 11, but it dawns on you, episode 12 and 13 make it all ... to obvious. You've been baited.

Don't Watch this. Please. Please, don't watch this. There isn't a story, nothing happens. the "story" if you can call it that, that does happen will throw you for such a loop you are bound to hate yourself for ever clicking episode one.

I would not recommend this to anyone. I feel like a link to this anime needs to be posted to /r/im14andthisisdeep.

I decided to give this anime a try,thinking that it would be good.But as I start watching it, I found my expectations slowly deteriorating,to the point of boredom.Still,I continued watching it,Clinging to the hope that it would become better.But,it didn't and in the end I deemed it to be one of the most boring animes I have ever seen.

Story(3/10)
The story originally showed promise,As the first few episodes are executed well.After the first few episodes.However,The story seems very forced and some subjects regarding the story gets drawn on for many episodes.But they do not really give a proper explanation on why it is happening,Making me more ... and more confused,as more episodes passed.At the last few episodes,the plot finally seem to be building up to something,Only to have no resolution at all.Rendering it useless,and having the anime end with no proper resolution.

Art(8/10)
The art is very captivating,I really like the character designs and how the backgrounds are drawn.

Sound(9/10)
The soundtrack is nice and I found it to be the strongest point of Glasslip

Character(2/10)
To me,The weakest point of Glasslip are the characters.In my opinion,they are very one-dimentional,boring and forgetful.They get no character development whatsover,As they focused too much on the story and romance to properly develop the characters.Touko and Kakeru's romance in particular,Has no chemistry and development.And most of all it is very forced,The same goes for Yanagi and Yukinari's relationship.

Enjoyment(2/10)
I do not enjoy Glasslip,there are many moments where I just wanted to drop it and stop watching.

Overall(4/10)
Glasslip is a bad anime,It has potential to be better and improve. But they did not use it.

SPOILERS UP TO EPISODE 6 YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
How P.A. works disappointed me:

When I started watching this I was confused why this show received such an undeserved horribly low rating (even kiss x sis had a better score, srsly ppl?). However episode 6’s drama really unclouded my judgement as a PA works’ fanboy and made me realizes how much of a mess this is.

STORY
Each episode generally composes of scenery porn, walking, the occasional chicken, and the show diligently trying to keep the plot from progressing. We are half way through and nothing has been revealed about the tacked on supernatural element whether its importance to ... the characters or why do those characters have it. You would think they would develop at least SOMETHING if they are not developing the characters. I wish they had spent less time for the characters attempting to meet up somewhere to talk, because apparently the theme of saving your mobile credit is more important.

I actually quite enjoyed the earlier episodes because of its relaxing slice of life nature along with living vicariously in a perfectly gender balanced group of friends that I never had. Alas, that peace was ruined thanks to the poorly executed drama followed by the revelation of why these characters are bad.
In the followings list I will attempt to explain why:

CHARACTERS

Yukinari – Possessive, jealous, sulky and somewhat violent. Seriously needs to learn to accept things and control his emotions. His emotions are probably one of the most forced and overreacted and thus became a catalyst for this bad melodrama.

David Kakeru Stoic-kun – The show tried so hard in making him mysterious that there has been absolutely no backstory about him, his family situation, his childish back-yard camping habits, his foresight ability and its significance to him as well as his ability to tolerant listening to the same song over and over again. I was thoroughly disappointed to realize he had feelings for Touko despite my denial of their romantic undertone. His interest for Touko wasn’t evident in his emotions at all. His advancements towards Touko such as inviting her to that forest were straightforward but misleading and that I honestly couldn’t tell what his intentions were romantic or is he just interested in her power. His way of thinking also makes no logical sense to me from his wise philosophy of chickens’ feelings to his roundabout way in provoking Yuki with the race to receive a reaction from Touko. Even he himself admitted he had no clue why he did that. Probably one of the messiest characterization of the show.

Hiro – A slick and smooth talking sonuvabitch that’s scoring chicks left and right. Maybe if he didn’t wear a girl’s hair band he would get even more girls. Honestly what’s his and sachi significance in the show?

Sachi – Emotionless yuki nagato clone but actually not emotionless because she likes to constantly smile politely? But we all know she’s secretly and sadistically stringing along Hiro with the friend zone leash

Yanagi – Her actions actually made logical sense and I could understand her intentions as well as her emotions. Although her unwavering affection for yuki displayed in Ep 6 despite his aggressive tendencies brews concern as a domestic violence victim.

Touko – Your everyday oblivious moe character. She is the type of girl to tell a nice guy to not change because she likes them for who they are but then friend zones them and run off in the sunset with the bad boy on a motorbike. Although I can’t say that Yuki is a ‘nice’ guy but just her urging Yuki to confess but backfiring and her not knowing what to do annoys me. Mainly because of how contradictory she is and that using the excuse of a character being overly oblivious to other people’s feelings is getting quite old. Another example in episode six is that despite the fact that Kakeru treated her friends like crap and wagers Touko and Yanagi like possessions with Yuki in a race, she still decided to side with him. Her lack of ability to understand her own feelings is frustrating and really slows down the pace of the show. Her interest for Kakeru is not justified well enough even if she shares a similar ability with him.

To conclude in a tl;dr version of why I am disappointed. Characters are poorly established, there is no chemistry or justifications for their affection for each other. Kakeru is a very poorly written character with zero percent emotions and background thus making the audience difficult to understand him and his motivation. The pacing is also very slow. However, that animation and kawaii desu anime girl designs tho.

After seeing a lot of good romance animes this year such as Nagi no Asukara, Golden Time, Ao Haru Ride, I thought romance/Slice-of-Life anime this year would be great, that is why I gave a shot at Glasslip, believing that there would be some quality in this work, after all it is the work of Kenji Horikawa producer of Angel Beats, I mean c'mon this must be good!

... Boy I was wrong...

After watching each of the 13 episodes, I felt more confused than when I started the anime, but let's break it down

~CONTAIN SPOILERS~

- Story - 1/10

The plot starts ... when a new transfer student David arrives to the small town where this group of friends are just beginning their summer vacation. Ok it isn't horrible at this point, it pretty much starts like any other cliche anime. So let's begin the reasons why this anime went downhill.

This anime is all about the development of relationships throughout the summer vacation.

The main characters David and Touka become 'friends' i think (because i still don't know what they are) and both them have this strange connection regarding these ''future fragments''. I thought the show would spin around this theme but it doesn't and you at least expect the show to explain what these are, well they don't as well. Not only that but you discover somewhat in the anime that even the characters don't know what these fragments are...

The other 4 remaining engage in their relationships throughout the anime but at the end ALL relationships seemed not to have change... So... You might ask... What exactly happens during the anime, the answer is nothing. Not only you end confused but the story doesn't actually develop from where it started.

Not only that but most of the time (especially in the last episodes) you stay disoriented in most conversations along the anime. It only helps you get more lost than you were.

- Character - 2/10

The show itself provides next to no character development or information about the past... I think the most that I learned from the past of character was from Yukinari and that he hurt his knee one day and couldn't run as well as he did... But that is it. So let's the characters:

Firstly there is Touko, who doesn't do much in the show even though she is supposed to be the main character along with David. She pretty much spends the whole anime thinking what are the future fragments, and in the end she doesn't even understand it...

Then there is the weirdest character of the whole summer line-up(might have exaggerated a bit) he is the main cause along with Touko to why you can't understand the dialogues, it seems like he has some deep understanding and knowledge by the way he talks, again No. Plus, he is just plain weird... Sleeps in a tent outside his house, i mean c'mon ...

Now one of the characters that most surprised me during the whole series, and that is Sachi. At first you just see common sick bookworm girl that uses glasses, very common. But then she suddenly turns into the most manipulative character in the series, and in a way that will only get pissed. Not only that it seemed, for me, that she was breaking up with her ''boyfriend'' while making a confession to another character, lol what!?... yeah this is the part that surprised me.

Then there is Yukinari, which at first seemed a well rounded character, but then as the show passed turned into a boring depressive character after getting rejected, and he pretty much stays like that from mid to end of the show.

Next up, is Yanagi which was pretty much was simple character... At first during the show she seemed jealous of Touko because Yukinari had confessed his feelings for her best friend not her. But then tries to act all grown up like doesn't care and it stays like that until the end of the show.

Lastly, there is Hiro which is by far my favorite character of the show along with some support characters. The reason why he is my favorite is just because he was the most sane person in the group, and that had some pretty interesting interactions with the other characters, such as Sachi when she does something to harm DavidxTouko's relationship. And that is it.

- Art/Animation - 5/10

Even though the anime sucked, I got give some points in the art, nothing that stands out though... It doesn't match up to Nagi no Asukara, another work of P.A. Works but still it wasn't to shabby to complain. Even though, most of the show was slow and focused on the weird dialogues, the art compensated it.

- Sound - 7/10

Indisputably the best part of the anime. The OP/ END were nice, along with the OST's throughout the anime, but nothing remarkable as well.

- Enjoyment - 1/10

Didn't enjoy the show at all, mostly because the show was pretty horrible. But also because I didn't feel anything throughout the show sadness, laughter (being aside the part with Touko's Sister =D that cracked me up) anything at all...

- Overall - 1/10

The show purely sucked a lot. I just can't believe something like this was created by the same producer of Angel Beats! And that P.A. Works responsible for the animation of Nagi no Asukara and Angel Beats! agreed to make this...

I am astonished that no one looked at the script and the final result of the project and said ''Yeah this sucks ass hard, are we really making this?'' (Sorry for the rudeness but that is pretty much what the show is)

I really wanted to like Glasslip. I really did. The first few episodes had me convinced that this would be a great series.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

What's happening? Why is it happening? Who are these characters? Why do they all seem to have some kind of psychological complex? What are they talking about? Do they have real emotions? What the hell does that line mean? Where is the story? What's the point? Is this some deep, meaningful metaphor for living life?

These are all legitimate questions I asked while watching Glasslip. And I got zero answers. Glasslip makes no sense whatsoever and it appears that ... whatever story premise they were trying to establish simply got thrown aside so that they could include scenes like a girl "confessing" to both a girl and a guy, who both casually accept it and laugh it off, and lines like "It's your fault Yuki isn't attractive anymore." Ooooh, mystifying.

I stuck it out because I was half-expecting some kind of plot twist or other resolution that would tie everything together and finally make the show make sense. Nope, didn't get that either. Regarding the story, there is really nothing to say because it appears to be nonexistent beyond two people occasionally "seeing the future." Don't be fooled--this plot device goes nowhere and apparently serves no purpose whatsoever. Regarding the characters, there is also nothing to say because they're all dull, wishy-washy, and they seem to be speaking in code 80% of the time because I have no clue what they're talking about.

But hey, at least Glasslip is nice to look at. Unlike the characters themselves, the character designs are actually incredibly appealing. The seaside town where the show takes place is nothing short of beautiful, and each episode features several great-looking stills. The soundtrack is also very pleasant and is often more interesting than listening to what is actually happening on-screen.

Overall, Glasslip is probably one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory and I'm amazed that such a mess received a green-light for production. Avoid it like the plague.

I had been anticipating Glasslip since I first saw the preview for it. I thought that this slice-of-life anime would be something to mark the Summer 2014 season. Sadly, that was not the case.

Let's start off with some positivity. Obviously, the art is the best aspect of Glasslip. I mean c'mon, it's P.A. Works! This was probably one of the reasons why this anime held much potential. We've all seen the mesmerizing effects of the animation produced by this company from previous animes, so it's not at all a surprised if Glasslip's art is what motivated us to watch the anime in the first place.

This ... may not be true for all, but I believe that Glasslip's soundtrack deserves some small credit. I like the OP and the other songs in the OST aren't half bad either. However, I think the creditability of the OST would be more enhanced if not for the half-assed story it had to accompany.

Let's see now, shall I talk about how Glasslip went from a blooming bud full of potential to become a beautiful flower to a bud that was crushed under the heedless feet of the producers? Honestly, after watching the first four episodes, Glasslip's path was blatantly leading into the downward spiral of disappointing anime. However, as a devoted P.A. Works fan, I continued to grasp onto the possibility that this downgrading anime would redeem itself. Alas, my hopes were crushed completely in the last couple episodes.

You might've thought that Glasslip would be a slice-of-life anime about glasswork. That is not exactly a lie. The "glass" part of the anime is definitely there, but it is not dominant. Instead of a easygoing SoL that we thought would soothe our conflicted hearts with its pure story, we got a half-assed romance with half-assed supernatural elements thrown into the mix, along with a exasperating female protagonist that goes "Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh?!" with an annoyingly oblivious voice in every. single. episode. The plot was just so very unconvincing and unsatisfying. It's like there was no development worth mentioning between the characters, and that they were merely running around in circles, searching for an answer that was literally right in front of them. The characters dwelt too much on the trivial matters, which is normal in anime, but there should at least be some solid conclusion to it, right?

Well, too bad. We were left with a vague ending and no idea on what will happen to our fair protagonists. Sure, you can just "imagine" what happens to them, but that isn't the point, is it? And I do not want a second season.

Disappointing story. Disappointing characters. Utterly disappointing results. My enjoyment for Glasslip rides as low as the scores I give it. I yield a warning to those who have not watched this yet.

As always, I suck at reviews! If u want a good review then. . . . read something else! I'm still sick, so I excuse any typos. . . .

This series was pretty much a way to kill time while waiting for Tokyo ghoul and Zankyou no terror (which wraps today noooooo!) every Thursday. Did it waste my time?. . . Let's see!

Story:
Our main characters and her friends live in a seaside town where all there is to do is to apparently draw chickens! A new guy shows up who stirs things up a bit aaaaaaand it's a basic slice of life from there. ...
While I don't think it's a bad setup for an easy going slice of life there really isn't anything going on until the last 3-4 episodes. The main learns through the new guy (let's call them Girl #1 and guy #1) that she can sorta see glimpses of the future when looking at something sparkly. They don't use this for anything big until like I said the last episodes, which is a shame since it could have given the series a bit more dept.

The characters:
Girl #1 is the basic boring main. She loves to craft glass tough which is an interesting hobby for a main character. She pretty much only makes pearls to put in bracelets tough, which is a bit of a shame.
Guy #1. . . . I swear. . . HE HAS NO SOUL!! He show little to no emotions until the last 2 episodes, and even there it's super stiff! Without any hint he decides that he's in love with girl #1 halfway through. Could have fooled me! I never even saw him smile at her! He can sorta "hear" the future the same way girl #1 sees it and. . . .I never understood that. His seiyuu is the same guy who voices Eijun in Ace of diamond and Nice in Hamatora. This soulless character is a waste of his talent!
Girl #1 have 4 friends; Girl #2 and #3, and guy #2 and #3. They are all pretty much on the same level of blandness. Guy #3 can be a little funny at times, but really this series doesn't have any humor. Guy and girl #3 get together halfway through the series, but there is little to no chemistry between them.
Anything I have to say about any of the characters are pretty much rants, so I'm gonna leave it there.

Art and sound:
The coloring of this is pretty nice, and the backgrounds can be very beautiful! They really know what to do to make this town and the surroundings feel a bit real around the bland characters. The music is what makes this for me. They have a lot of piano in this, which quite frankly I could just sit down and listen to a calm summer night without connecting it to the series at all. The character can look a bit derpy at times. The eyes are a bit misplaced and the proportions can seem a bit off, but if you don't look at them(the bgs are prettier anyways) it's fine!

Overall:
This is not the type of series that I usually watch, so I'm not sure if I have the rights to judge it. Anyhow this is a bit too boring for my tastes. Nothing really happens until the last couple of episodes, and the characters are blander than toast. Was it a complete waste of time??. . . . .Not exactly. I could find it a bit soothing to watch before getting into the darker series that I mentioned at the top. I would never watch this as a completed series tough, that's for sure.

If country side slice of life is your thing then you can check it out! You'll like it ok!
If you don't watch them so often then leave it.

I will now go to Mc Donalds before getting depressed that the last ep of Zankyou aired today. I bet it'll be epic!

Have a good one!