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Originally Posted by Saber Cherry
[Bartender] has good ratings on places like ANN. But the concept sounds utterly stupid... and I *acquired* the OST, and every single instrumental piece was elevator-music garbage
What am I missing? Or do I just have to bite the bullet and watch an episode?.
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I think you and I just have very different tastes. First, the music. I like Ootake's work and, though I can see its flaws, I'd hardly call it "elevator music." Is she the most inventive jazz pianist I've ever heard? No. Do I think she wrote some lovely tunes to complement a show about people in bars? Yes. While I watched each episode I found it easy to imagine her sitting in a corner of Eden Hall playing her piano for the few patrons who bothered to listen. It just fit the entire mood of the show.
I recommend you watch episode two, the most "Japanese" of the episodes in my mind. I found Miwa's personal story touching and saw the conflict between her father and grandfather as symbolic of the conflicts traditional Japanese institutions faced after the war. I'm an American, and what I know about Japen is from reading, some movies and TV, anime obviously, and my imagination. Even as a foreigner I could see how this episode might be poignant for a whole generation of Japanese viewers.
I like the didactic component of Bartender as well; how we learn something new about liquor, how and why different spirits were invented, and how many different ways humans have learned to mix them together. Of course the premise is hokey -- no one's life can be transformed by a cocktail -- yet this hokey premise motivates some lovely story-telling about dreams unfulfilled and loves lost yet hope for tomorrow. I guess I'm a sucker for that stuff but, at my age, hope despite loss sums up a lot of my life.
I also liked especially the episode concerning the movie makers and that spirit of rebellion, Scotch.
I'll let Goofus nominate his favorite episodes.
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Incidentally, I noticed Edo Rocket in your signature. I devoted a couple of days to downloading and then seeding to 1.1:1 all of Edo Rocket on my fairly slow connection, because it was very highly rated all around. But I tried watching episode 1, and... good lord, episode 1 blew like a hurricane.... I have not had such a negative impression of an anime since Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu episode 1, which made me unilaterally stop watching the anime.
But what I'm asking is... is Edo Rocket like Haruhi, where episode 1 is utterly unlike any other episode? Or is episode 1 similar to the other episodes, and somehow, Edo Rocket falls in to the category of "everyone likes it except me"?
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Your comparison of Rocket with episode one of Haruhi made me realize why I liked both of them, and Bartender as well. They're all "theatrical" rather than realistic. Haruhi starts with an obvious home movie that you come to realize is being made by the characters themselves. In Bartender the characters often talk directly to the audience or play the role of a "Greek chorus" explicating the events around them. At times the director also makes use of staging and lighting effects which enhance the theatrical quality of the show. Oh! Edo Rocket is littered with ridiculously anachronistic jokes like the existence of trains, TVs, and blogs in Edo Japan. The characters often make "self-aware" jokes that indicate they know they're in an anime. One of my favorites is
Another example is the episode where the main characters complain they're not in the script for that week. Since the show is derived from a stage play, you can see where theatrical aspects come into play.
Just so you won't think I like the show only for this kind of heady stuff, I also became quite attached to the characters and concerned about their fates. That's usually the number one motivation that keeps me watching a series. I'll give the author room on the story if he or she can make me care about the characters.
How do you feel about shows like Twelve Kingdoms? Dennou Coil? Mononoke? Monster? Noein? Are these among my favorite shows? Yes. Do I think they all have flaws? Of course. Do I expect everyone will like them because I do? No, but I do think they're worth investigating, especially by the seemingly large array of people here who rarely venture outside one or two genres.
Oh, and I thought the score for Oh! Edo Rocket was one of the best I heard all last year.