Bartender

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Review #1 : Bartender
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Intro :
My first review will be about Bartender. By the score already you must know my stance on this manga. It is a gem that I found. A truly spectacular reading. But I guess it is also the kind that will appeal to a certain audience. As such I will try to explain as well as I can why you should give it a try or let it sleep.

Story :
This manga is about Ryuu Sasakura, a young bartender who comes back to Japan after having going around the world for a bit. His philosophy is quite simple yet very interesting. As he ... says himself, there are two jobs in the world where you cannot lie to your customer. One is a doctor. The other is a bartender. A doctor will do his best to heal his customer's body, and a bartender will do his best to heal his customer's soul. Ryuu Sasakura shows incredible skills at figuring people out and what is going in their head, as he then manage to heal their worries or troubles with a drink and a lesson hidden within his very cocktails. Not only that but I also guarantee you that you'll learn a lot about alcohols too.

Art :
The art is just incredible. Not only is it well drawn, but it is drawn in a way that puts the right ambiance at the right moment increasing the strength of the emotions the characters are trying to make us, reader, feel about their situation. It is rather soothing and refreshing with a great attention to details too.

Character :
Probably, no, most likely Bartender's strongest point. The main characters are very well written and easy to like. But it also has a strong cast of other characters in each chapter, some of them who return later and some of them who we will see only once. But it doesn't stop them from being just as well made as the main characters. Each of them has a past, a personality that was worked on. They just don't get more character development but at the very least you'll remember them for who they were and they leave an impression. And it doesn't stop there. The way they interact with each other, especially with Ryuu Sasakura, the main character, leads to multiple interesting situations. It is a shame, truly, that it is hard for me to make justice to the way characters interact with each other, I just hope I could explain it better but it has to be read.

Enjoyment :
I knew a little bit about alcohols, just a bit and I wasn't particularly interested in that but I liked the things I learned, it was rather entertaining on its own, but the manga as a whole with the characters, the story and all, truly a masterpiece. Those who only like action based manga will probably fall asleep on it, but for those who prefer a more soothing and calm manga where words count more than how many sword hits one can do in a second, I highly suggest this manga. It has its share of funny moments too, don't forget about it, but really, the thing that I liked the more about it is just how easy I could go and read it without stopping or being able to notice the time pass.

Final words :
Give it a try, trust me, you will not regret it.

Bartender in short;
- Depressed customer arrives at the bar;
- Bartender knows exactly what you did last summer;
-*serves that 0,1% drink able to cure even cancer*
- HMM DELICIOUS !!
- all problems were solved.jpg
Repeat this for 160 chapters.

The art is amazing, the pages and panels are clean and easy to read, the information about the liquors are rich. However there's no progression, no development and barely a story.
If this manga had around 20 chapters it would be great, but unfortunatelly it's not the case.
... If you enjoy this ultra slow pace, give it a try, else skip it to another manga.

As an individual who visits a bar on a regular basis, this manga was a very interesting read: filled with information on a variety of cocktails, origins of liquor, and the relationship between a bartender and his/her customer. There is a sense of maturity (obviously it's about alcohol!) that will disregard the younger audience, however I think it's recommended for all ages.

After reading quite a bit of this manga, I went to my bartender with my newly acquired knowledge and we engaged in a full blown conversation about cocktails and the hardships of becoming a bartender. What I really like about this manga is ... the realism it ensues. It's an educational manga to say the least, you'll be surprised by how much you will learn about alcohol. It's a handy asset to have for social interactions.

The story is about a genius bartender, Sasakura Ryuu, known for his "Glass of God". He is an honorable young man who does not want money nor fame but to achieve perfection in the art of bartending. Throughout the story he works at different bars and at every place he is praised by the owner, his fellow co-workers, and the customers due to his kindness and his excellent skills as a bartender. He is a very likable character, always doing what is right, who is not afraid to admit his own mistakes.

The customers that visit his bar are usually feeling under the weather, something in their life has taken a turn for the worse. He serves them a drink along with a story like how the drink came to be, relating to the customers current situation he is able to give them hope. Sometimes, it back fires and he finds himself in a spot where he has offended the customer; but he does not hesitate to step up and deal with the problem head on.

Other than Sasakura Ryuu there aren't any other characters that leave a strong impression or have any major importance in this manga. Miwa Kurushima, for example, is the first customer introduced in the manga. She takes interest in Sasakura Ryuu and starts to visit his bar often. However, she has no real purpose, she just feels like another customer. They are good friends and help each other out in their time of need, but it didn't convince me enough that she plays a significant role.

Another issue I have with this manga is repetition. The manga follows this general line of events: a customer comes to his bar, Ryuu helps them with their problem along with a drink, rinse and repeat. I know it contradicts what I said, but by no means does it make this manga boring just a bit repetitive. There are other events that partake throughout the story but it feels more like fillers than anything.

This manga is an unpolished gem. It has the right idea with the art style and the overall setting, but it fails to keep things interesting. I find myself not being able to read more than 1 chapter at a time. Nonetheless, it is a manga that tries something different and as far as I'm concerned it works. An informative manga with a touch of slice-of-life. If you like alcohol or is interested in bartending definitely check this one out.

Im a big fan of slice of life mangas. As well as a big fan of different styles of alcoholic beverages. And this manga seemed to appeal to me when I first read the description of the story.

I found it a breath of fresh air when it comes to realistic manga. No love story of forbidden love, no sudden magic powers, no major plot twists. Just a good old story of a bartender, the life he leads, the customers he serves, and the advice he gives to the problems that they bring to his bar.

A lot of the drinks that are ... mentioned in this manga have inspired me to download a cocktail cookbook onto my tablet and go through it and I may also be trying out in future.

Overall I would give this a 9 out of ten. The point being lost as to me sometimes the edges round some of the things in the manga itself drawing wise seemed a little to sharp but thankfully didn't seem to take away the enjoyment of this manga.

For anyone looking a slice of life manga I would highly recommend them to try this manga and see for them self if this is for them

I gotta say, the amount of alcoholic drinks that I've learned from this manga, might as well be bigger than a thesis. I didn't even know there were actual drink names called Cinderella, Eye Opener, Red Eye, Didercar, Black Velvet, so much more that you just get overwhelmed so quickly haha! Honestly I just couldn't keep up with this manga with so alcohol drinks that involves different characters in every chapter! While this manga was different, it became just pretty overwhelming! Unless if you were serious about wanting to learn different types of drinks, you would find this particularly boring.

Also the design changes near the ... end so that was a big of a letdown cause I preferred the original art in the first place...

Btw to those wanting to give a read of this manga, drink responsibly and please don't drink until you're at the legal age in your country to drink alcohol thanks!

TLDR: read it, enjoy it, mull it over, and try not to become a drunk in the process (xD).

As is the case with stories such as these, Bartender is about the characters. A brilliant young bartender plays therapist/life coach to a vast variety of folks that enter his bar, they come with problems and leave with insights that help them face their life.
This type of story format has a lot of strengths:

- It is beginner friendly, there are few recurring characters and the plot relevant characters, change from story to story until about the end, so you can pick it from mostly anywhere.

- ... Flexibility in story telling, the cast of characters, save for the bartender, change every few chapters, so even if you may not be too wild about the current story, you wont have to stick with them forever. It also allows for vastly different sets stories to be told.

- You can pick up whenever, since the story is largely episodic, you dont have to keep reading it, you can read it between breaks, leave and then pick it up whenever the mood strikes you. Its a very forgiving read. If you're like me and have a bunch of long running manga/anime on your watchlist, and still have to do stuff irl. You can appreciate how such a manga might be something you wanna relax with.

- It offers endings, every couple of chapters the story ends, so you get that sense of completion, before the last like 10-20 chapters, the bartender manga could've ended within a couple of chapters and it would have been satisfying due to the nature of the story.

It's well researched, the cocktails are a gimmick but the author researched them pretty well and manages to tie it to the story being told. Usually the bartender makes a drink, he thinks sums up the person's situation and provides the story behind naming them. I also had a lot of fun trying some of them, since a lot of these are classic cocktails that most bars wont place on the menu but you can still order them.

The story telling is mature, there's no over the top antics, fan service, people punching others on a regular basis for the pursuit of a gag. If this sounds appealing to you go ahead.

By far one of the best stories, that has really drawn me. The story is also by far one the most different ones, even if all we see is customers having drinks at the bar, and Ryuu Sasakura is the one that serves them. But each inidivudal character, that finds themselves wondering into the bar, have such varied stories, which really makes you want to read on. Also, I find it quite interesting that some of the chapters, even include the recipes for the drinks, which is something that is rarely found in any manga. This makes it set apart from other mangas, with it’s ... varied content as well as characters that are unique, in their own way. The only pointer I have, is that the art of the manga could have been a bit more clearer at some points. Other than that, if you want a different story line, with a great leading character, and with each chapter introducing you to new stories, then you need to have a read of Bartender.

Story: 8/10 - the story gets kind of repetitive. Most of the story revolves around the history of a particular cocktail or liquor, what it means to be a bartender and the various troubles adults face. Little to no other topics are covered. Still, I found the story to be enjoyable.

Art: 8/10 - Nagatomo's art is kinda goofy at times when it comes to the characters. The main male characters all have detailed faces but the other characters have a case of the same face syndrome, especially the women who he loves to draw with that peculiar fish-like expression :D. Overall, I like his ... style but the character designs could be better, at times I honestly can't tell if I'm seeing a new character or someone who has appeared in a previous chapter.

Character: 7/10 - Bartender is a really mellow and calm story and because of that, character development moves at a snail's pace. This can be forgiven in a way, if one assumes the point of the story is to talk about drinks and people's troubles but I feel like these almost static characters are not enough to carry the story forward to such a length. Many main characters become soft versions of the Mary/Gary Sue because of this reason, nothing ever seems to go wrong for them, they just make passing references to how difficult their life apparently is.

Enjoyment: 9/10 - I liked it.

Overall: 9/10 - I started off with a 10 but as the series went on, I was left thirsty for more, more character development, a deeper exploration of the psyche and so on. For learning about cocktails, this would be a 10.