The first problem with Glasslip is likely its attempt at subtlety. There is a very fine line between conveying a message with few words, and saying a few words to pretend you have a message. There are a lot of really "deep" sounding lines in Glasslip- things no teenager would ever rightly say, or that are too purposefully vague to be meaningful. It takes a lot of thinking to work out coherent theories for what exactly was happening in Glasslip, and even when you come upon something you think is consistent, it's really just conjecture; the show doesn't give us, as the audience, enough to work with. We know that there's some strange love triangle (square, pentagon, hexagon- I've lost count) going on, and in the end, it feels sadly unresolved. We can speculate as to what the characters were thinking and feeling, but because the showed decided to be so vague, we can't say for sure. Sometimes that's not a bad thing... here, it just comes off as confusing.
As for further criticism... It was hard to relate to the characters at times, especially the main girl. She's quirky for the sake of being quirky, and naive to the point where you wonder if she's "all there". In the last few episodes, the storytelling aspect of the show really falls apart. A lot is left unexplained. There was a long buildup with no climax, and I think that's what throws a lot of people off.I n the end, you get the feeling that there was never a correct answer to the question the plot proposes, and that is very unsatisfying. It feels like the author wrote a story that was complex, but never had a way to tie it all together. I'm not sure how it was all explain in the light novels, or if the endings differed, or if the anime was just too short to cover the entire story- but on its own, it really doesn't stand up to criticism.
Now for some praise. The show had beautiful art and sound. It wasn't the best I've ever seen, but it was well above average- especially the scenery. It looks a lot like Nagi no Asukara, and that's a good thing. The anime's main faults are its storytelling- it has the technical aspects down. And despite all of the flaws I've mentioned above, I didn't hate the story. It was needlessly vague at points, but their was, in fact, a fair bit of character development over the course of the anime. The change in their relationships is actually fairly coherent, although the reasoning is never clearly stated. In fact, if they had thrown out the whole "magical" aspect of the show, it probably would have benefited. The main plot was clumsy, but the character dynamics were alright.
I also wasn't very bored when I was watching Glasslip. As I approached the last episode, I had a sinking feeling that nothing was going to be resolved, and that was immensely disappointing- but otherwise, I never thought the series got too stale. It was fairly fast paced, and a lot happened between episodes. I think that's another thing that makes the story somewhat hard to follow; the passage of time isn't very clearly explained, although it's obvious that several weeks must be passing between episodes. Still, it kept me entertained, and I think that's a principle value of anime.
There are better dramas you can watch. If you want action or something a bit more exciting, this obviously isn't the place to look. Glasslip isn't a great anime, but it wasn't that bad. It sits anywhere between a 6.5 and 7 for me.
