Glasslip

Title: Glasslip
Japanese Title: グラスリップ
Genre: Romance, Slice of Life, Comedy, Drama
Premier: 3rd July 2014
Animation Studio: P.A. Works
Director: Nishimura Junji
Official Website: http://glasslip.jp/

Some Info:

Opening Theme: "Natsu no Hi to Kimi no Koe" (夏の日と君の声; A Summer Day With Your Voice) by Choucho
Ending Theme: "Tōmei na Sekai" (透明な世界; Transparent World) by nano.RIPE

Plot:

Touko Fukami's family runs a glass-working business in a small seaside town. She hangs out with her four best friends at a cafe called "Kazemichi." During the summer break of their senior year in high school, they meet a transfer student named Kakeru Okikura, who claims that a voice from the future talks to him, and that it's led him to Touko. His arrival sets off a series of events that will make their final summer together one full of hope and heartache.

(~from ANN~)

My Thoughts:-

If it's anything like Kokoro Connect, this could be great. The premise slightly reminds me of a manga that is just devastatingly good called "ORANGE".

Hum...another one I hope proves entertaining. Gonna grab it before heading out to the beach.
Gracias, Capitano! Looks like you are on a roll this summer season, what with all these threads by you popping up...well, brings back memories from like 2007.

@ Barbo-san!
QUOTE Aside from the "mysterious transfer student" trope that I feel takes it past interesting and into annoying "people don't act this way" territory 
Your first impressions are not too encouraging. Hoping it is not another run-of-the-mill series that's all looks and no brains. I will see for myself later tonight.

Edit:
It was Meh for me. 5/10 first episode. Pretty to look at like all P.A. Works but not much else at least not for me to want to keep watching it.

What we talked about on MAL, you are right on, Barbo-san. I will give it one more episode before I consider dropping it.

Aside from the "mysterious transfer student" trope that I feel takes it past interesting and into annoying "people don't act this way" territory, it was entertaining. A very pretty looking show which is to be expected of PA Works.

Seen the first Episode, *First Impression* : Sold!
Compared to stuff such as Golden time, This 1 has already made a few things clear/obvious from the beginning, Which is nice!
I won't be going into characters stuff, seeing as it is to early for that. The (Scenery/background/landscape etc) on the other hand... Oh my god Marvelous! It felt as If I was watching Spirited away/Howl's moving castle , but more modern!! Good job Studio: P.A. Works! Love the animation!

QUOTE (Masich @ Jul 03 2014, 10:14 AM)Compared to stuff such as Golden time, This 1 has already made a few things clear/obvious from the beginning, Which is nice!
I won't be going into characters stuff, seeing as it is to early for that. The Scenery/background/landscape etc... Oh my god Marvelous! It felt as If I was watching Spirited away/Howl's moving castle , but more modern!! Good job Studio: P.A. Works! Love the animation!Let me see (This is a serie that has somehow lost attention), which is not a good sign ...
Either way let me go back to my first Quote : This 1 has already made a few things clear/obvious from the beginning, Which is nice! Sure it was nice for the first episodes to be obvious, but it has lately become Ridiculous!!!.
Next : I won't be going into characters stuff Well, I still won't... It spoils to much, But! I will say: What you see is what you get.. (Fragile/Jerk/Oblivious/Jealous much/Annoying/Immature/What the hell is your problem!?). You will See.. or Know..
Lastly The Scenery/background/landscape etc... Oh my god Marvelous! That is the only thing which is making me want to continue watching!! that and the music...

Aside from all of this... To who ever is following this as well... Try...And I really mean try.. and explain the recent episode (8). What was the use of it!!!!?

So in episode 10, we finally get Sacchi's big confession to Touko... which turns out to be a request to stay friends.

What. The. Hell. This is a show in which heterosexual attractions are completely out in the open, but the one potentially lesbian crush turns out to be just a "deep friendship"? I'm getting so fed up with this "bait-and-switch-lesbians" bullshit that anime makers feel the need pull do over and over again. Why, Japan, why do you hate lesbians so much?

I was hoping for a scenario in which Touko finally kicks that creepy Kakeru in the curb, and opts for enjoying long romantic walks on the beach with Sacchi. Well, there's still Hina who seems to be crushing on Yanagi for some reason, but she's just a bit too young to be a serious option (plus Yanagi still hasn't realized that Yuki is a drooling imbecile not worth her time).

Seriously... what the heck?

So I finally started watching Glasslip, it was either this or the following:-

Sabagebu, Jinsei, Rail Wars, Hanayamata, Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance (I keep forgetting about this anime) and Majimoji Rurumo.

I have been trying to decide which one to start out of all these but I just couldn't commit to starting one because I was thinking if there was any point. However, at this point in time, it's probably best to just watch it instead of procrastinating....I have some extra free time for the next 2 weeks before I get busy again with life.

Anyways after I catch up with this, I'm going to start watching Nobunaga Concerto, which I have heard is fantastic.

Oh yeah, I forgot I'm suppose to talk about Glasslip here, I'm on episode 05 and there really hasn't been much happening despite it being a love polygon anime. I'm shocked that this series is done by the same group of people who worked on Nagi no Asukara but I seriously have to distance this anime away from that masterpiece.

This anime is okay, it's not particularly great in any specific factor....I honestly think the art is not that amazing compared to Nagi no Asukara, where the art just stood out and felt like it meant something, whereas in this show, the art doesn't really bring much emotion to it....they keep using that "sparkly" effect as well.

This show is okay to waste your time on but it's probably okay to pass it since there is a hell of lot of "love polygon" animes that tramples all over this one. Regardless, I'm going to finish this series and see if anything worthwhile becomes of it.

EDIT #1:

Crap...now I'm watching the episodes and I'm looking more closely to the artwork....darn it reminds me of True Tears.

EDIT #2:

Does this dude have multiple personalities or something? It could have come about as a coping mechanism of him constantly moving about because of his mother's job/career (I presume) and he's mistakenly calling it the future but that theory doesn't technically hold when both the male and female protagonists see those "flash-forward scenes".

I'm on episode 07 right now and I can't wait to see how "confusing" episode 8 is suppose to be.

Okay episode 08 wasn't really too confusing as a whole but yes, some of the events clearly don't make much sense when the anime doesn't really analyse that side of the story....the supernatural part of the story but instead focuses on their mundane "slice-of-life" that's outside school. School is mostly a background in this series apart from being an excuse for the characters to wear their school uniforms.

But back to the point, the reason we as viewers are puzzled with this series (after episode 08) is because there has been a general lack in exposing the other side and the "main plot point" of the series, which is whether what Touko is seeing the future or not. You see that vision of Sachi being at hospital, that's really a thought that's out of the blue but a logical possibility because Sachi's poor health and her already regular visits to the hospital, it's not that far-fetched that she would be hospitalized at some point. However, the imaginary crows, possibly symbolising the death of Yanagi, or the "snowing", this one I have no clue as to why, probably that something traumatic or that their relationship gets more serious around the Winter period.

Anyways 3 more episodes before I catch up.

EDIT #1:

I was watching episode 10 and thinking that this series is actually quite pleasant and then the last 5 or so minutes of the episode just demolished that thought with confusion. This anime is desperately trying to force the supernatural aspect onto the show and I as a viewer don't care about it anymore as it is just too weird. The relationship between Fukami and Kakeru...doesn't really make much sense than Kakeru "feeling at home" when he's nears Fukami and Fukami feeling a weird connection mixed with pity towards Kakeru......basically their romance is whack.

EDIT #2:

Episode 11....yea, I completely forgot about the plot point of whether Kakeru actually has feelings for Touka....they like talk about it for a few minutes and then the conversation is completely forgotten. This show is just weird.

Right... with the Recent episode 12... It took me 15 Whole Minutes... To figure out WTH was going on >.> (And I mean 15minutes of watching). My God!! was this a useless episode!! fine!, I understand that they filled this whole episode as there is only 1 last episode left... But, Come on! what was the Point of showing a alternative universe /or future???

its has been 12 episode of this anime and i still don't know what this anime want to show.
and i still wondering why i still watching it every week..

QUOTE (Masich @ Sep 16 2014, 10:51 AM)My God!! was this a useless episode!!
Actually, I think episode 12 was extremely important. It supports my suspicion that Touko and Kakeru are actually the same person in different realities, or that they at least share aspects of the same person. Their roles in that snowy reality were almost completely reversed, and I felt it was especially important that it was Touko who felt abandoned by her friends, instead of Kakeru.

This may also explain why Touko and Kakeru have so much trouble talking about their feelings for each other, since they are basically discussing loving themselves.

QUOTE (motormind @ Sep 20 2014, 05:46 AM)QUOTE (Masich @ Sep 16 2014, 10:51 AM)My God!! was this a useless episode!!)
Actually, I think episode 12 was extremely important. It supports my suspicion that Touko and Kakeru are actually the same person in different realities, or that they at least share aspects of the same person. Their roles in that snowy reality were almost completely reversed, and I felt it was especially important that it was Touko who felt abandoned by her friends, instead of Kakeru.

This may also explain why Touko and Kakeru have so much trouble talking about their feelings for each other, since they are basically discussing loving themselves.First of all, If you simply mean, it was as you said : to make Touko feel abandoned by her friends, instead of kakeru, then yes. But...I got a big issue with that seeing as Kakeru has never even felt how it is to be abandoned by friends (we don't know). It is still a guy with 0 feelings, who is without emotions and does not know if he feels anything for Touko. That part also counts for the whole loving themselves. As the problems still remains, He has no feelings nor do we even know a solution for it or something. It would have been better if Touko was to be showed what made Kakeru become emotionless.

It does not matter what episode 12 meant, as it would have made 0 difference anyway, because it was a imaginary world. rendering it Useless. My earlier reply still stands. Hope that the last episode does make some sense out of all of this >.>

Edit 2#

QUOTE (motormind @ Sep 21 2014, 07:06 AM)The whole point is that it is not an imaginary world, but an alternative one, which is very real to both Touko and Kakeru. Touko is basically the same as all the other Kakerus, but she is special in that she is a girl who can share the same realities as the Kakeru we see in the series..(18 - 20th minute of episode 12) Touko: So you're the Kakeru-kun that I imagined? Kakeru : Yeah, and I'm different again from my earlier self. You could say I'm a projection of myself from your reality. Touko: So you are Kakeru-kun from my imaginary world. Kakeru: That would be correct (My proof).

QUOTE (Masich @ Sep 20 2014, 03:03 PM) It does not matter what episode 12 meant, as it would have made 0 difference anyway, because it was a imaginary world.
The whole point is that it is not an imaginary world, but an alternative one, which is very real to both Touko and Kakeru. Touko is basically the same as all the other Kakerus, but she is special in that she is a girl who can share the same realities as the Kakeru we see in the series..

I was under the impression that this series had something to do with future fragments as they call it. But with this episode, it totally lost me on that hypothesis. So hope last epy enlights us as to wth is goin on.

.....
Glasslip
... Last episode... I could follow it till the 17th minute... Afterwards I was confused for 1-2mins and after that, I accepted the rest as skipping summer vacation to the point of school beginning again...Already saw the hint of No Kakeru... and that ending at the end...What the hell!!! This whole Anime has been 1 hell of a pain in the story!! , In the end...Is it me or has the whole *Future Fragment thing* been 1 hell of a imagination? + sadly to say again Episode 12 was indeed useless. It was brought up, but did it make a difference? No. This got the worst ending/open ending/ What the hell type of ending? you could call it!!

Overall, my rating for Glasslip: 5,3/10
Animation: 10/10 (+the music , I can't find a flaw in that).
Story: 3/10
Characters: 3/10 (There was like... 0 characters progression or development!).

I have been *Today* at 17 forums, viewed over 100+ twitter comments and in the end? I would say 97% found it the most confusing and idiotic anime of this season? You can say what you want about my comments, but, I'm not the only one thinking this way. Seriously, everything I have said has been mentioned by others already >.>
Even the fact that the animation + music was the only good part...

So, this was it then. I liked it. I still have no clue what happened for the most part, but I think this show is a beautiful, evocative mood piece. I had some truly touching moments, helped a lot by the excellent animation and music.

The ending is a rather sad though (why did Kakeru have to leave ?) and I really wished the rest of the relationships had shown a bit more development. I couldn't help myself from rooting for Hina in her admiration for Yanagi, but I guess I saw more than was actually there

I will likely watch this again. Actually, I am thinking of paying Mikuni a visit next time I'm in Japan, so I can see some locations from the show. It must be a hoot to cross that bridge, and to see the view from that old building.