Bartender: Kami no Glass

This anime fit the qualifications within the 'Slice of Life' genre, placing a great deal of effort to come across as wholesome, sentimental and providing special care to each character's emotional state. Unfortunately, it was also highly pretentious, with a weak plot and ultimately led to an underwhelming experience.

There were positive aspects of the series. It was highly knowledgeable on the creation, ingredients and presentation of alcoholic beverages, as well as how bartending is conducted on a world-wide scale. A lot of detail was given to the proper edict behind bartending and what a seasoned customer would come to expect from a high-end bar.

However, ... the characters were dry and their interactions felt artificial. None undergoing any growth or deepened character development. Dialogue was needlessly boring (while attempting to be eccentric), the animation was low-budget and often cut-corners with pointless montages, as well as the OST being bland (actually, matching the series well).

The plot did touch on rather serious issues, but the resolutions were overdramatized and too simple. The concept that each person's situation or perspective could be altered by a single cocktail was uninspired and lacked sincerity.

All and all, if a viewer had a great understanding of alcohol, then this may have been a good anime to watch. From an outsider's viewpoint, it was difficult to connect with and the writing didn't provide the realism that many 'Slice of Life' anime typically do.

I was looking forward this series so much since I loved the 2006 version. However, it was a let down. Yes the graphics are better but the whole romanticizing a "bartender" and the side stories, were so cliche and lacked the depth of the original one. Also it supports the idea that you need to be the "best" in order to validate what you do, which is ridiculous. Tons of people have won prizes or achieve high-level of educations, but they lack common sense, making them useless. When you do things because you actually love them, that makes you the best, because you are ... doing it for your own gain and not because what others will say about you. I hate this mentality of power over craft. A lot of people can BS but just a few can actually do. Sadly the BS usually wins in this society. I also despise people who "always get what they want", imposing your will into others despite their feelings makes you an ass. Respects goes both ways. The original series on 2006 was centered on the craft and how the bartender helped people, but this one is more on background stories, which are LAME and so incredibly SAPPY. It is ridiculous overall. Anyway, it is ok if you have the time to waste, but definitely a let down.

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.