Glasslip

(This has been adapted from my reddit thread) Teenage romance is a hot topic in the anime world. Some shows are able to capture this phenomenon quite well (White Album 2, Clannad, etc.) while others miss the mark. But even those shows that don't hit that bulls-eye at least land somewhere on the board. Glasslip is a show that not only misses the board but also hits some stranger passing by, causing a huge debacle that mirrors the contents of this anime. This is quite arguably one of the worst ones I have ever seen. STORY Glasslip begins in much the same way that Nagi no Asukara does.New transfer student David becomes friends with Touko. Touko then proceeds to introduce him to her main group of friends consisting of Yuki, Sacchi, Hiro, and Yanagi. Afterwards, the story begins. And by begins, I mean begins and doesn't move from that position. It's best to compare this to Nisekoi. Nisekoi is infamous for its absolutely abysmal plot progression. But the difference here is that in Nisekoi, that is the whole point of the show. Glasslip tries to have things move forward, tries to instill drama or emotion. Yet when it does, nothing ever comes of it. It is not a stretch to say that literally nothing happens over the course of the entire season. Every episode is a chore and doesn't have anything interesting attached to it aside from what the show calls "future fragments." What are "future fragments?" To be quite honest, I can't explain that to you. The show sets them up to be these premonitions that a couple of the characters have, but the problem is two-fold. One, it is never properly explained. As an audience member, I obtained some information about what could cause them but they never really made any sense as to why they occur or what purpose they serve. Two, they aren't even "future fragments." As is learned later, the name it was given isn't even appropriate. Meaning for the majority of the show, I am left to believe that this "power" is somehow special or at the minimum has some focus to it. In reality, it doesn't. On top of all this, Glasslip also contains some of the worst dialogue I have ever seen from a show. A lot of what the characters say is either nonsensical or just plain weird. When watching them, it is rather awkward because everything they say just doesn't feel like they should be saying it to one another. This is kind of hard to describe. It's as if the characters were holding conversations with themselves even though they were talking to someone right in front of them. ANIMATION By this point, it's important to know that the studio behind Glasslip is none other than P.A. Works. Recently, they have gained fame for their crisp animation and art style and interesting plots. Not only is the latter gone this time, but I argue so is the former. I give Glasslip one thing, that is that the art itself is gorgeous. The lighting is nice, the environments are pretty, and the character designs are modern. However, there is little to zero actual animation present. Credit to /u/tundranocaps (a reddit user) for pointing this out. When you actually sit down and watch the show, it becomes apparent that what goes on is just talking. This causes the characters to be rather stiff. They don't have to be, but the show chooses to usually only move their mouths during the majority of the scenes. So while the coffee shop might be very detailed, the characters' movements are definitely not. Beyond this, Glasslip employs this rather strange technique I call "still frames." They started occurring more frequently as the show went on, but basically the entire frame/scene would freeze in an artistic fashion. Sometimes this would occur randomly when looking at a tree. But the worst offenders were when it would happen while the characters were interacting with one another. I don't know what compelled the studio to use this "trick," but I found it to be rather lame and most of the time unnecessary. As a final note, and something a bit more personal, but I hate their mouths as well. Each mouth has a slight slant to it that makes each of the characters look as if they have some sort of facial defect. Not sure why they chose this, but just another thing to add to the hate pile. CHARACTERS Glasslip's characters, like its story, are rather atrocious. The main group of friends constitutes the main cast. Starting with Touko, her character development does not go beyond the word, "Ehhhhhh!?!" I understand that she is confused by a lot of the things that are going on, such as "future fragments" or confessions towards her. However, if the only thing notable about your growth as a character is you repeating the same, grating line multiple times an episode, you are just a really bad character. Moving on, the worst character in the show is David (Kakeru). Seemingly Tsumugu's brother from Nagi no Asukara, David is extremely abstract and philosophical. He acts like a modern-day Plato, and for this reason, I completely hate not only his character but also this character type. I don't understand why P.A. Works enjoys it, but I cannot get behind someone who always has to spout something intellectual or only asks questions as opposed to giving answers. Next up is Yuki, who early on actually seems to be one of the more sane ones. But in Glasslip-like fashion, he becomes a rather annoying character. After being rejected, he recedes into himself and for the rest of the show just runs. Literally the only thing you see him do is run from one point to another. Is this his way of dealing with things? Perhaps, but even if that is the case, I would much rather have that explained to me, rather than me having to make a guess as to how he is dealing with the situation. This is vital because the show doesn't have a plot, so it relies more heavily on its characters (meaning character interactions). Sachi is an interesting girl. She is shown to have some type of illness, but like the "future fragments," it serves zero purpose within the narrative. She can actually be quite manipulative despite her appearance, but she too fails to communicate properly with the other characters. So much so that she relies on roundabout ways in order to convey her feelings. Much like Yuki, this is fine, but rather strange for a girl seemingly in her teenage years. Yanagi is Yuki's step-sister. And that should set a flag off almost immediately. Because, true to Japanese anime stereotypes, she falls for him. I do not like this type of development whatsoever, and I will never understand why it is so prevalent in Japanese culture. This is me being somewhat ignorant, I get that, but it just does not sit right with me. Besides her feelings, she is generally the most mature among the group, but even she has her strange moments too, such as walking around her house naked because she can. The last character to go in-depth with is Hiro, the boy who has feelings for Sachi. Among everyone in the show, he is the most level-headed/makes the most sense. His actions are believable given what happens to him, and he never does anything extremely strange. Besides pining after the girl who doesn't necessarily see him the same way he does with her, he is actually realistic. That is pretty sad, all things considered. Much like the mouths, my final point I want to say is that the rest of the cast is pretty bad except for Touko's dad and sister Hina. They were the only ones to make me smile during the show. Whether it was from their terrible dialogue or their actual funny moments, I appreciated having them there to keep me sane. SOUND Arguably the strongest part of Glasslip, its music is at least okay. The OP is somewhat nice due to its relaxing melodies and nice use of the guitar. The ED is okay. It reminds me of Hanasaku Iroha with its singing, and while the show tries to be dramatic, the ED instead is rather upbeat. The soundtrack is fine for what it is. Nothing stands out predominately but the tracks themselves are nice to listen to while watching the show. As for voice acting, no outstanding performances are to be had. ENJOYMENT Many people started watching this show because it was tagged with the P.A Works label. And that's fine, because they have done a splendid job recently with all of their works. But something happened along the way with this one that just makes it hard to believe that it was made by the same studio that did NagiAsu, Hanasaku Iroha, and Angel Beats. The show is never funny, its not dramatic as much as it tries to make itself seem, the characters are boring and unrealistic, and the story (for what is even present) makes no sense. While romance is abound in the show, I never cared for any of it. I love romance to death in anime, but the way everything was handled between the characters was so unbelievable that I didn't care if Touko ended up with David or Sachi with Hiro. I really hope P.A. Works reflects on this project. Glasslip was an attempt at something original. They certainly obtained this goal but it is definitely not the outcome that was desired. SUMMARY Story: Terrible, completely nonsensical Animation: Bad, pretty yet mired with "still frames" and zero actual animation Characters: Terrible, characterization is non-present or extremely shallow Sound: Fine, okay OP, ED, soundtrack, and VAs Enjoyment: Bad, melodramatic and rather boring Final Score: 2/10

What happened to my comfy slice of life series about glass blowing? I asked myself this question every single time I finished an episode and the ED started rolling. After somehow managing to finish this awful series about teenage angst, forced drama, and supernatural horseshit, I feel disappointed. Not only in this series, but also in myself. Somewhere deep inside me must reside a little masochist devil that enjoys watching me suffer through terrible anime. Saying that Glasslip had a story is laughable. It's as if the writing behind the series just patched together random ideas and put it on the screen. Even upon completionI don't understand what this series was trying to convey. Be shallow and fall for the good-looking, up-and-coming sociopath transfer student? Believe in and follow your delusions, which realistically seem like mental disorders, instead of hauling ass to the nearest doctor? I just don't know. If you thought my description of the story was bad, and that has somehow not put you off of this series yet (unless you've already suffered like I've suffered, God bless your soul), then this should do the trick. Let's talk characters. There are 6 important (who am I kidding?), main characters in Glasslip. They are: Touko, Kakeru, Yukinari, Sachi, Yanagi, and Hiro. Like most dramas and slice of life shows, the main driving force behind the series are its characters. However, with Glasslip, the only thing that will be driving is you. Off the nearest cliff. Touko is the main female lead of the series, who honestly seems like she's not all there mentally. Touko constantly spaces out, has little to no awareness of her surroundings, and easily has the lowest IQ out of all of her friends. Half her responses to trivial things is, "EHHHHH!?" and it reeks of such stupidity that it hurts my brain. Kakeru, or "David", the emotionless transfer student, basically has no understanding of socially acceptable human interaction. Instead of easing his way into joining Touko's group of friends, like any normal person would, he acts like a condescending asshole. Big surprise! All of Touko's friends hate him. It doesn't help that he rarely says anything besides Touko this, Touko that, or it's my fault Touko feels sad. Want to get a restraining order filed on you? Follow Kakeru's detailed step-by-step examples. Yukinari is an athletic guy that has some real apparent issues with catching hints and simply talking in general. He gets jealous easily, has a real douchebag attitude, and runs a lot. I think I could have gone to the store and bought a pair of Nikes — which would not have only been more enjoyable than Yukinari's character, but also more interesting — and gained more entertainment value. Nikes also won't complain or get angry about their running performance either, so that's another big plus. Yanagi is an alright character, though still pretty bland and generic. She seems normal enough compared to the others, which isn't saying much, but also still has problems of her own. She's got the hots for her step-brother and is extremely quick to jump to his defense whenever someone even hints at what an imbecile he is. I swear Japan, something is wrong with you and your infatuation with brother-sister relationships. I don't really understand how Sachi even became friends with the rest of the group. All she does is read books, for the most part. She rarely attends the group activities because she has some sort of unexplained illness and rarely says anything of value. Apparently nobody seems to care that she lies to them and tries to play little, deceitful games to get what she wants either. Solid 10/10 would befriend material. Hiro, you still haven't figured out that Sachi is a lesbian? You poor bastard. Out of all the characters in this entire show, there were only a handful that stood out when given their time to shine. They felt like realistic portrayals of what they would be like in real life, which was a big surprise to me. I feel like screen time was lost on all of the 'main' characters when these guys were pushed off to the side and ignored for the majority of the show. Here's some insight as to why they were so great: ☑ Character interaction: As realistic as it gets. ☑ Voice acting: Morgan Freeman-narrating-a-documentary-tier. ☑ Character design: Can't even tell they're 2D. So, without further ado, let's give a big round of applause to Jonathan, Husserl, Confucius, Roger, and Makuzu, the school chickens. The only positive thing I have to say about Glasslip is that the OST is decent. I like classical music and most of the OST consisted of it, at least from what I recall. The animation for this series felt pretty lacking in comparison to P.A. Work's last scenery porn project Nagi no Asukara. There was a frequent use of stills, which was strange to me. It's 2014, come on now. The studio barely did any notably good animation for this series. Just how low was the budget? If you couldn't already tell, I did not enjoy Glasslip. On a positive note, Glasslip does do something right aside from the OST. It gives perspective on what a bad series is. Comparatively, you can now probably say "(insert series name here) was better than that piece of shit Glasslip!" and therefore adjust your ratings accordingly.

When I think of Glasslip, the show reminds me of a candle melting. At first, the fire shines strong and bright. Then, as time goes on, it slowly burns itself out and eventually into ashes. Honestly, Glasslip isn’t too different. It’s a show that started off with a decent premise but slowly burn itself out. Glasslip doesn’t induce creative drama, laudable realism, or a genuine slice of life. Rather, it’s an empty series that is misguided by its story and characters that almost makes us feel sorry for what it created. Well, almost. Produced by P.A Works with director Junji Nishimura involved, it’s no surprise thatthe show share some similar gimmicks with True Tears. The series is a standalone running 1-cour (13 episodes) that isn’t based off of any source material. Yet, this show exists as a confusion. And by that, I mean the show doesn’t really know what to do with itself. For a show that starts off with an intriguing premise, it quickly loses its way by turning it into some teenage abominable drama that is unable to capitalize on any of its composed ideas. The show starts off simple at first with a small cast of main characters - Touko, Hiro, Sachi, Yanagi, Yukinari, and Kakeru. Five of them are already friends who have known each other for some time. The one oddball out would be Kakeru, a transfer student. The catch is that he didn’t come to town to study or follow a dream. Rather, he came with the reasoning that something in the future ties him together with Touko. As strange as it sounds, Glasslip essentially tries to adapt with an idea relating to the of future. The early episodes heavily implies that Touko is actually able to see into the future through pieces of glass. I suppose this is where the title of the show comes from as Touko has this supernatural-like ability. However, the show neglects most of this concept. Instead, Touko focuses more on her own interpersonal relationship with others. Sure, there are times when Touko is concerned about possible events of the future through these supposed premonitions. However, most of that is discarded instead for cliché-riddled teenage drama where romance takes over and story sinks down the drain. A question that popped into my mind is ‘why would this series beget into such a weak story with a cyclone of generic clichés?” The answer is simple as the show focuses more on relationships rather than story. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what kind of romance the show is trying to accomplish though. It seems almost everyone has a crush on someone but nothing is reciprocated. One particular confession actually implies semi-yuri undertones or if it can be called that relating to Sachi. Nonetheless, the relationship is unworthy with so much drama going on. Actually, I wouldn’t of mind it if the show has realism but the supernatural element relating to future premonition derives from that. No, rather than realism, Glassip’s relationship dynamics focuses on formulaic and flawed logic that makes little sense at times. Love confessions are delivered with little development. Even if there was, I would call it as sappy because it lacks compatibility. There’s little relevance to some of the relationships. For instance, Touko and Kakeru seems to have some connections not based on similarities but more on fate. The breakdown is that there’s little foreshadowing while others seems to also get involved whilst making their relationship lacking. In the end, there really are concerns about what this show is trying to accomplish. The story itself isn’t any better when it tries to explain the premise. Apparently, the tagline reads as “"On the other side of the glass, you can see tomorrow.” But really, what I can see is more like days by days going by with horrid development. The show fails to keep up what it tries to do with poor momentum. There’s also a sense of false advertisement when initial viewers may lead to believe on character building. If the series decided to focus on establishing a future of their characters (such as say, a career as an artisan), then I’d be content. But what it offers is nothing of such sort as the realization about this show is focused on love drama. And even when it comes down to that, the drama lacks convincing themes. There’s little focus on the motivations of the characters either. It shifts from character to character that with little credibility on back stories. In fact, back stories are hardly dealt with. In essence, it leaves most viewers in the dark on what we may really know about the characters. It creates that illusionary image that the show depicts slice of life but in reality is more like a generic teenage drama without fluency. There’s just too much going on without proper explanation that creates a stab in the heart. Even True Tears had some parts that people can relate and knew what it was doing at times. However, this show disconnects from reality by relying on its fantasy tropes in inadequate balancing between fiction and reality. To be honest, that’s almost laughable. I only give credit for a few moments when emotional drama induces real dilemma. But even then, its forced dialogues can be an annoyance. By the time the show tries to wrap up everything together, it feels like a point where there’s no redemption as result of weak buildup. It’s no Nagi no Asukara but this show nailed its technical artwork when it comes to artwork. P.A. Works creates visual porn with the backgrounds including its countryside atmosphere, the sea coastlines, and natural mountains. It feels like nostalgic and brings a melody that makes you feel like a kid all over again. Character designs are generic but maintains balance especially with accessories that some of the girls are wearing. Nonetheless though, artwork is a strong point of Glasslip for its ability to convey communication through gestures. There are also minimal fan service as most of the show relies on more innocence and youth. More importantly, seasonal changes adaptation such as Spring and Winter depicts sincerity with what it’s trying to do. Although not as strong as the artwork, the soundtrack of the show definitely stands above the shallow relationships that the series tried to craft. Melancholy is a main theme played throughout the show with quiet moments when characters convey their thoughts or feelings. More emotional scenarios has piano-like tunes playing in the backgrounds to show what characters are going through. Occasional comical comments are less noticeable but still makes sense more than the main story. I give some praise to both the OP and ED songs for keeping with its melancholic style. Finally, we have the character voice mannerisms of the main cast. I find little to talk about for this section since none of them really stand out at all. The girls often has that dramatic voice that is pushy with valley girl-like tones. The guys aren’t worth praise either as most of them hardly has a voice that are worth remembering. Kakeru’s voice easily wants me to forget what he says because of his personality while Touko’s expressive voice sounds like an emotional teen who is worried about almost everything. Oh wait, she is. So in the end, what exactly is Glasslip? Surely, it at least has the word ‘glass’ as part of the show so naturally, we see its usage. The problem is the pacing and balance between what it’s trying to accomplish. For a slice of life show, the fantasy trope doesn’t fit in. If they wanted to focus on relationship building, then at least keep the momentum going. No, instead the show decides to jump around everywhere between characters. In retrospect, the show digs itself further and further into oblivion. Its lackluster comedy and love dramas are questionably unfavorable that can leave a bad taste in a viewers’ mouth. I’m not questioning the drama as some parts of it does command attention. But ultimately, this show is a stinker to what slice of life is. Besides visual porn quality and a tolerable soundtrack, Glasslip is a depressing show to watch. And no, I’m not even talking about sadness as an emotion. It’s more like how sad this show has fallen apart while burning away like a candle….

Like a light summer breeze, Glasslip, which looked to be a tranquil slice-of-life, floated onto the summer anime scene. Like summer itself, Glasslip was something that many viewers, including me, looked forward to. I think a lot of us were weaned on the gorgeous visuals, intricate plot, and superb character development found in Nagi no Asukara, which was created by the same studio that made Glasslip. A very sparse summary and teaser video only served to increase the enthusiasm for Glasslip. What I expected was another wonderfully drawn anime with a touch of supernatural and profound character progression. There was just one thing that was, as Iwould discover, incredibly erroneous in that assumption. Well, you know how it works! Keep reading for a flow of text; scroll down for categorizing through numbers. Read both if you like, but information can and will be repeated between the two sections. - The key word is ‘progress’. Now, see, I don’t have a huge problem with slice-of-life, but one would hope to see significant changes in the characters and the plot. Glasslip is characterized by an utter lack of character development. I’m upset that I wasted my time watching this anime ( which my friends have termed ‘Glasshit’ ); I think the reason why I ended up watching the whole thing is that I hoped something would happen. In the first few episodes, it seemed like some interesting events would take place; it was that hope for something to change that kept me going through the tortuous second half of the series. My hopes were only to be dashed into shards of glass at the end, as the finale tried to put on the premise of being deep and philosophical but just ended up being really confusing. It’s a bit difficult for me to write a review for this anime without venting my frustration, so to temper that, I’ll state that Glasslip isn’t horrible through-and-through. The art, as expected, ranks among the best I’ve seen in an anime. The characters have decently attractive personalities for perhaps the first several episodes. The soundtrack is absolutely wonderful ( and I loved the addition of classical music ). The issue with Glasslip is that it tries too hard and then fails miserably. Perhaps I should compare it to Icarus? I simply imagine that PA Works tried to follow up on Nagi no Asukara but ended up creating a disaster. All the right elements were there in a complete disarray. I think that everything in Glasslip could have been adjusted to have worked better, and it would have been a great story. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. And I’ll concede that there will be people who like this anime. I actually have a friend who loved Glasslip ( and even compared it to a Miyazaki film, which provoked some skeptical reactions from me ), which helped give me a perspective into the, albeit few, good aspects of the series. So, if you really do want to give this anime a try, don’t expect any plot development, but it is a slice-of-life and a romance in which basically everyone falls in love with each other at some point or another. The art is superb, the soundtrack equally so. Slice-of-life with a hint of fantasy is what I would describe Glasslip as if I enjoyed it. But I do have substantial reason to believe that most people disliked Glasslip. A small anecdote- My mom watches Chinese dramas. Usually, she starts by watching the first one or two episodes. Then, she skips right to the very end and watches the last episode. Part of it is to conserve time [ after all, Chinese dramas can drag on for a very long time ], but she's said that honestly, there isn't much she's missing by not watching the bulk of the series. From the ending, she can pretty much piece together everything that happened. I feel like the same thing, sadly, applies to Glasslip. It's a pity; I really wanted to like this anime and I had high expectations based off of what I had seen from P.A. Works before. What makes an anime more interesting than others is that way of making the viewers second-guess themselves, to get absorbed into the characters and then find that not everything plays out as they expected. That's something that P.A. Works achieved with Nagi no Asukara, but for some reason, they fell short here, using hackneyed storylines and characters so predictable that watching them interact incredibly boring. The relationships in Glasslip are largely forced. The romance comes out of nowhere, especially between Touko and Kakeru. If I were to sugar-coat things, I would call it spontaneous, but really, I’m just going to call it utterly unprecedented. Their relationship basically goes from “you remind me of a Renaissance statue and I enjoy chickens” to “let’s spend the night together in a school”. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for hilarious or unconventional boy-meets-girl ( or vice versa ) situations, but after that, there was really no relationship development to merit their decision to go out with each other. One would imagine that they would be united by a common power that they share...but really, that power contributes to more awkwardness between the two, and thus I really don’t understand where their relationship comes from. I could rant about Touko and Kakeru’s relationship all day, but let’s talk about everyone else. I think the most genuine person here is Hiro, who actually shows that he likes Sachi and acts on it. And, following from that, I was interested to see a possibly? bi character in this anime, but turns out that she’s incredibly jealous and rude to everyone. But with a sickly glasses-girl trope, it seems like Glasslip is trying to compensate and thus make you feel sorry for her instead of hate her. Ah, but to no avail. I expected a tragic or angst aspect involving Sachi, but really, she just sat in her hospital bed and brooded like an old witch over how to destroy everyone’s lives. Come on, you could have just killed her. That would have been more character development than evidenced by anyone else in the entire series. Yanagi and Yukinari are a strange pair; I thought that Yanagi’s attraction to her stepbrother was incestuous until I found out about their relationship a little too late for my own good. But anyway, I really don’t think that it benefits your relationship with your brother to be walking around the house naked ( I suppose that was for fanservice, but it was out-of-place and totally unwarranted ). Yukinari was my favorite at the beginning because I’m always rooting for the underdog type, but...? He didn’t come to terms with his romantic attractions for anyone; you would imagine that even a bit of closure might be attained by the end of the anime. Haha, who am I kidding? Nobody comes to terms with their romantic attractions at the end. Watching the anime to see how the love isododecahedron plays out is absolutely fruitless. Everyone is still in love with the same people, nobody progresses except for Touko and Kakeru ( and in the end, that’s also pointless ), and even though they try to take middling steps in the direction of forming relationships, nobody really learns from such experiences. At the end of Glasslip, everyone is largely the same as they were at the beginning. Let’s move on to a small snippet about the ‘supernatural’ element of this anime. Supernatural! Fantasy! It would probably be a crucial part of the plot, don’t you think? Turns out that the supernatural powers possessed by Touko and Kakeru are ab-so-lute-ly useless. Touko uses her power to just make everything worse; instead of using it to save the world or whatnot, she uses it to help, but actually ruin the teenage drama in her life. Kakeru uses his power to embrace his tent fetish and alienate his parents. I got fooled into thinking that something was happening when the supernatural powers revealed the premise of something dark, but...who am I kidding? Nothing happened, as expected. So, character development and plot development were a shame, but how about the other aspects of Glasslip? I think I did mention before that I wholeheartedly enjoyed the art and soundtrack of Glasslip. Art first, look up pictures of Glasslip and you’ll be treated to PA Works’ wonderful art. The landscapes are impeccably drawn and detailed, and the lighting does a wonderful job in portraying a relaxed summer world looked at through a lens. I enjoyed the vivid and bright palettes of this anime; just looking at the screenshots of the scenery reminds me of summertime. The characters are drawn in the same style as those of Nagi no Asukara - big eyes, simple features. I would say that such a style doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I do enjoy how many different tones and aspects of lighting were included in the eyes, and the characters were distinctly drawn such that I didn’t have any trouble differentiating between them. The one fault in the art was those awkward still frames. What were they doing there? Where did they come from? ( cotton-eye joe? ) And you would imagine that such frames would be used for emphasis in important scenes...quite the contrary. They were seemingly randomly placed, which I found quite irritating. Similarly, the OP and ED also remind me of summer. I particularly enjoyed the opening theme, which has an acoustic guitar and background beat that definitely feels like a summer breeze ( though it may be because I listened to the song quite a bit during the summer ). The OST had quite a bit of classical music, including many pieces that I’ve played before, so I was really enthusiastic about the music in Glasslip. Overall, in terms of setting the mood for the warm environment of the series, the art and soundtrack were wonderful toward that purpose. However, Glasslip also does a wonderful job of proving that a great soundtrack and art can’t redeem a terrible anime, for at the end of the day, it’s the plot and characters that stand out the most. This is precisely why- I’m sorry to say- that I think Glasslip is one of the worst anime I’ve ever seen. The infamous Sword Art Online had more interesting plot and character development than this series, which is to say that Glasslip had none of those things. If you’re a sadist or you just really, really like slice-of-life anime, then maybe you would enjoy Glasslip. It’s far from a lighthearted and easy watch, though, not because it’s dark or depressing, but because it’s frustrating to try and follow a nonexistent plot and sympathize with terribly developed characters. On that note, let’s go on to a numerical analysis of Glasslip. ( I’ll provide some statistics of my own- I dislike this series so much that I wrote all of what’s here so far in about fifteen minutes at probably a record pace fueled by rage, and somehow I’ve also managed to consume a pint of ice cream while doing so. ) - Story :: 3 I’d like to give the creators a gold star for trying... The plot seemed interesting enough at first, and I was definitely excited to see what would unfold as the series progressed, but after around episode 5 or so, it became obvious that this story was going nowhere fast. The finale tried to put on the premise of being deep and philosophical but just ended up being really confusing. The issue here is that since Glasslip is a slice-of-life that centers around a group of friends, the character development is basically the plot. A pity that there was neither. Art :: 9 I’ll have to dock a point here for the awkward still frames, but Glasslip, despite its shortcomings, retains PA Works’ characteristic detail in visuals. The art really stands out in the parts involving a lot of scenery, with lighting portrayed perfectly. A vivid and cheerful palette lend themselves to the summery theme of Glasslip, which brings back nostalgic memories of the time when I wasn’t trying to balance 6 APs, maintain good grades, and cram for college exams. The characters are attractively drawn, and I really enjoyed the amount of detail put into their eyes, which again lend to the suggestion that not everything is completely realistic in Glasslip ( like the fact that they expect us to believe that there’s a plot ). Sound :: 9 Relaxing classical music abounds in the OST, and the OP and ED were catchy and, like the art, give me that nostalgic summer feeling. This was one of the first anime in which I actually paid a lot of attention to the soundtrack, since I recognized a lot of songs ( having heard them or played them myself ). So, while the classical music portion was completely unrelated to the plot, I thought it was a nice touch and personally, I really enjoyed the music. In a romantic sense, Glasslip is a very peaceful anime ( in other words, nothing happens ), and I think that the classical music suits the relaxed setting and pace. Character :: 1 Oh, god. Okay, I wasn’t going to go back and add anything to that, but anyway, the most outstanding feature of Glasslip is the lack of character development. I entered the anime hoping to see a heartwarming coming-of-age story and got characters who ended up being largely the same as they were at the beginning, even after facing fruitless romantic relationships. One by one, each character proved that they weren’t misunderstood, just totally irredeemable. I hope that with this review, I’ve sufficiently convinced you to not waste any of your time on this anime. But hey, people don’t like being told what to do. To them, I say ‘the best of luck to you’! Ganbatte - palladia

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