Bartender: Kami no Glass

Miwa Kurushima and her colleague Yukari Higuchi hunt for a skilled individual to run the counter bar at the famous Hotel Cardinal. The chairman of the hotel demands only one thing of the potential hire: the bartender must be able to craft the ultimate drink known as the "Glass of God." Because Miwa does not fully understand the requirement, her search runs dry after everyone she has scouted cannot get past the chairman's scrutiny.

Nestled in a quiet and secluded place among the bustling alleys of Ginza is Eden Hall. This cozy bar is maintained by Ryuu Sasakura, a prodigy mixologist who knows exactly what drink will ease his customers' worries at any given time. Every glass that he serves is garnished with humility, providing much-needed solace to people from all walks of life in their time of need.

In a chance encounter, the chairman is left speechless by Ryuu's astute bartending skills and is determined to have him join Hotel Cardinal. He becomes one of Ryuu's regulars, attempting daily to convince Ryuu to leave Eden Hall. But even with the assistance of Miwa, it is more difficult than expected to recruit this particular bartender.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sasakura, Ryuu Main

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Kurushima, Miwa Supporting

Nanjou, Yoshino Japanese

Kurushima, Taizo Supporting

Mugihito Japanese

Kawakami, Kyouko Supporting

Matsui, Eriko Japanese

Kitakata Supporting

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Higuchi, Yukari Supporting

Shiraishi, Haruka Japanese

Chen, Kelvin Supporting

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Kinjou, Yuri Supporting

Shiraishi, Ryouko Japanese

Chief of Lapin Supporting

Maeda, Hiroki Japanese

Kase, Gorou Supporting

Horiuchi, Kenyuu Japanese

Cao, Cong Producer

Kuraya, Ryouichi Director

Aketagawa, Jin Sound Director

Kamishiraishi, Mone Theme Song Performance

Reviews

Jun 19, 2024

rikiki109

Recommended

“What would a man drink of if there is no alcohol in a moment where work and life disappoints you” -Junichiro Kurosawa

After this somewhat depressing quote, we're left with only the difficult parts of living adulthood in our minds, with alcohol as a remedy (or perhaps, just an halt for now ?). My plan isn't to discourage you to not drink alcohol either way, if you're here checking if a bartender anime is interesting or not to watch, you probably already have your own opinion of it. When you think of Japan, you think of omurice, maid cafes and overworking their employees (wait what), that's ... when the Japanese drinking culture comes to play, it starts chill in the evening with an Isakaya, and in the middle of the night, you get a call (Call of the night reference) to get the fuck up inside a Nijikai (thanks Abroad in Japan), the afterparty where you sit at a counter bar to drink a bunch of cocktails while smoking a big cigar, finally finishing at 3 am and wake up at 5, the cycle repeat. It's a funny story, somewhat real or not, but drinking a very nice cocktail in a dimmed room with only you, maybe one of two fellow drinker and the master of the craft, the bartender, is an immaculate vibe that makes you appreciate the present moment and forget the harsh life. Bartender : Glass of God is this anime, where the theme is just a bartender being there to cook you (let him cook) the perfect cocktail for you, the Glass of God, and this review is there to explain why it's good to drink (this is not medical advice).

Thinking how chill this anime is, for the most part, it's almost an Iyashikei, the genre of healing anime, tho it's quite humorous that you get healed by cocktails, as the customer. However, it's not always an episodic event where someone enters the bar, our main character Sasakura Ryu preps up the perfect cocktail for any situation and they talk about mundane or adult stuff life crisis, it's sometimes more than that. What I especially like about this anime is the characters that you get to see more than once, they all get a nicely crafted story with real human struggles, from maniacs events to depressing ones. Ryu even describes his bar, the Edenhall (what a fitting name of something magical and out of this world, is this dude the representation of god helping human kind to survive ?!), as an hospital, helping people out with an outstanding cocktail, while he is a jack of all trade, also able to do therapy while talking and using that sick metal bottle to (insert the onomatopoeia of ice cubes in the shaker doing Tsk Tsk Tsk Tsk Tsk in an ASMR fashion) to do a powerful and majestic liquid. In addition to this feeling that I especially like, there's two things that I like about this anime, it's a gold mine of sick cocktails to do yourself, because you know, Food Wars food looks very good, but who has 5 hours to prep something like that, while (some, because a few of those cocktails are hella hard to make) cocktails is just mixing things and shaking, I made a nice list of cocktails to try thanks to this anime, it even explains the creation story of the cocktail and has a nice taste review, it's always fun to cook something unique and very different from what you have usually. The other thing that I like about this anime is the adult cast. It's kinda obvious with the theme, but everyone in this anime is an adult, and it's sometimes a breath of fresh air not seeing the 13 years old overreact and anime shenanigans. The discussions are mature, mostly profound with adult events, like love, work, death even. In this heartful event, the Edenhall is the perfect place to go.

As for the visual and music part, overall it's not bad ! This anime is the second project that studio Liber did, after another adult cast story, they have their demographic in view. For a visual stand point, it's not the same level as the best visually pleasing anime this season, but I've seen way worse. It's consistent and looks clean for 99% of the anime, it even has some nice shaking shaker sakuga (albeit it's reused a few times), it's not a worry to have. What I find exceptionally good however is the music department, the OST and always so calming, yet portrays well the emotions in the current scene that you're watching, it's very well done. The OP and ED are pristine for a relaxing song, it makes you feel like drinking that 88% vodka cocktail is child play lmao. Overall, small paragraph, it's a good sign of something effective and average. I haven't seen the old anime adaptation, but I guess it's similar and this anime is probably making the visual better than in the old time, probably not as good as Spice and Wolf, but still.

In the end, Bartender : Glass of God is the perfect anime to watch after a hard/long day of work/school, while opening a cold beer like Gigguk did when seeing the preview of this anime, or your favourite drink. It will either ease your mind and install a very calm atmosphere, or suck you into an interesting story taking it's time about a lot of characters and their various events in life. Almost just like installing yourself at the bar accompanied by our main character the bartender. Watching one of two episode a day max is probably also my recommendation. The magical powers of cocktail and the almost magical abilities of Ryu to make the perfect cocktail will guide you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 20, 2024

Tyrraell

Mixed Feelings

Bartender is one interesting piece of media, which provides us with insight of the nightlife bar venues in Tokyo, the people whose work is to manage them and the people who provide their service to the customers. As much as the bartenders serves drinks, they also provide entertainment for those who desire it, and could be good listeners for the more somber customers - this is one of the many more points that this show proves.

This protagonist of this show is Sasakura Ryu - the prominent and charismatic bartender of Eden Hall, the so called "Glass of the Gods". In his representation, we ... see a lot of the before mentioned traits that his line of work expects him to have, but on top of that he's person who is extremely perceptive of his surroundings, and his clientele's physical and mental state, which is his personal style. On top of that, he uses his craft to cater and refine the cocktails he makes so that they'd cater to everyone's personal desires, altering or straight up re-imagining the drink in new form and way to provide perfect service to those that are in need of it.

But this story is one that is not focused on him alone - rather, it presents a view point to the whole bar entertainment industry and the proper etiquette while being in that kind of establishment, which is certainly a reflection of the experiences of Jou Araki, the mangaka that this work is inspired from.

It's impossible to not mention the first adaptation of Bartender from 2006, and their differences. The newer work sticks closer to the source material, and presents us one more inexperienced and flamboyant version of our protagonist - his laid back demeanor and more carefree attitude is hardly evident in the previous version, in which we saw him as this gallant, refined and soft spoken gentleman. The support cast is far more evident and has much more screen time than in the original series, but they feel like much different people, more playful and silly. In short, the current adaptation feels as it is much more lighter, relaxing watch, but in the same way, a bit more prone to fit in tropes - many of the characters behave and express like caricatures of their former selves, including the protagonist. Also this adaptation is much more focused on the story's plot and it's development, while the original show provided more of an episodic, self contained vignettes of stories, but the way that they were developed, and the way that it used clever, often mind-bending cinematography, as well as much more somber, almost psychological approach, made the series absolutely phenomenal for the niche of watchers that enjoy exactly this, myself included.

The dark and enveloping night, the bright street lights in defiance of that, the soft and comforting voice of the narrator, exploring yet another human fate on the canvas of this episode - a well defined character, often lost in his desires that they can hardly express properly, and the feint, gentle smile of Ryu, accepting their presence as yet another customer he'd provide his craft for, by this way alleviating their anxieties. In contrast to this, the remake of Bartender provides story that is a bit more simple to consume, and is a bit more cheerful and joyful. In the same sense it also means that this newer interpretation is more appealing to the casual watchers who are not quite ready for the contemplative psychological approach to the version that 2006 has, but in the same sense that doesn't diminishes the current adaptation's qualities.

In a sense, both adaptations provides two sides of the same coin, and in my opinion, both deserve our attention and praise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 19, 2024

Goeli

Not Recommended

This show tries to be deep but comes over very pretentious when they are spouting things like:

"There are two types of professions that absolutely must not deceive the customer.One is a physician or pharmacist and the other..The bartender."

"Do you know the meaning of the word "bartender". A bar is a perch upon which to rest. Tender means gentle or kind"

"When a man is considering suicide, he'll choose one of two types of people to be his final companion. One is a priest and the other is the bartender"

In the first episode you meet a clumsy and forgetful Sasakura sleeping on a bench in the ... park he wakes up flustered because of a call from his phone and this is the most emotion you will see from him throughout the whole show. Afterwards he is always calm and collected.

As soon as a customer walks into his bar within one glance he knows their entire background, struggles and what they ate for breakfast.

The art is very bland and animation is mostly just camera panning around while they talk.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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