(L+CR) Glasslip

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

I'm at work so I haven't watched the ep yet, but I've been seeing a LOT of negative opinions on this first episode, so I'm actually worried. Like when SoL/drama fans like Flower and Pellisier starts saying it's kinda bad that's some worrisome flags.

I've only seen the Choucho OP (which was great) and the nano.ripe ED (which was terrible even considering their usual terrible standards) on youtube.

Guess I should lower my expectations immediately before I go on rage how it disappointed .

But I doubt it would be bad as Nagi no Asu Kara's first episode (first few). That is the definition of turd in my books.

To be fair it was the transfer student that was the fly in the ointment of ep 1 for me, but unfortunately it was cringe-worthy and colored everything else. I have an intense dislike for artsy pretentiousness or supposed intellectuality or whatnot (Shaft at its most stereotypical drives me crazy, for example), so transfter student just hit a personal pressure point for me is all.

The OP is quite nice, and the visuals are simply a delight. The non transfer student charas were fine - no complaints there either.

And after all it is only the first ep!

But hey, you might be delighted more than you think and not bothered by the rest of our impressions! ^^

[Guardian Enzo]

I thought the first ep of NagiAsu was much more engaging than this (head and shoulders above, really), but by all means form your own opinion.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I thought the first ep of NagiAsu was much more engaging than this (head and shoulders above, really), but by all means form your own opinion.

I'm a guy who liked Tari Tari's first episode a fair bit so I might have different views .

[Pellissier]

The first ep. of NagiAsu had this almost unique premise of sea villagers sharing the world with earth villagers, so that alone was fascinating. And it had 26 episodes. Even though I preferred Tari Tari's energetic first ep. , I have to give NagiAsu some merit.

The many characters introduced at once for me can work in an action series, not in a drama series where you're supposed to let the characters and their personalities sink in. The fact that we remind them for their aspect rather than their name is everything except a good sign.

Finally, I didn't see unique traits in Glasslip, except the glass working which went too fast and seemed more like a side element rather than a main one.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

I'm a guy who liked Tari Tari's first episode a fair bit so I might have different views .

I didn't dislike the first ep of Tari Tari - I just didn't find it especially memorable. It had a kind of unpretentious honesty to it that I didn't see in Glasslip, though.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by Pellissier

The first ep. of NagiAsu had this almost unique premise of sea villagers sharing the world with earth villagers, so that alone was fascinating. And it had 26 episodes. Even though I preferred Tari Tari's energetic first ep. , I have to give NagiAsu some merit.

The many characters introduced at once for me can work in an action series, not in a drama series where you're supposed to let the characters and their personalities sink in. The fact that we remind them for their aspect rather than their name is everything except a good sign.

Finally, I didn't see unique traits in Glasslip, except the glass working which went too fast and seemed more like a side element rather than a main one.

I'm the type of person where something strives to be ambitious, and they intend to be ambitious and they failed (which I believe NagiAsu did, because I thought it was supposed to a story about discrimination, climate change etc. but instead ended up being a typical teenage romance soap opera), I am quite harsh on it. On the other hand, if something was made out to be unambitious, but it was genuine, unpretentious and from the heart (like Tari Tari was) then I tend to like it a lot.

The best type of series is of course one that is ambitious and successful but those are very rare. There's also occasionally a type of series that does a genre so well and you haven't seen one like that in many many years (White Album 2 comes into mind for me in the romance/drama department).

But by the sound of things, it appears Glasslip doesn't fall into any...

[Dawnstorm]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

I'm the type of person where something strives to be ambitious, and they intend to be ambitious and they failed ..., I am quite harsh on it.

Glasses girl is reading Camus. They use lighting effects (perhaps for symbolism?) that make photosensitive me a little queasy. We haven't got the whole picture yet, so it's hard to tell where this is going, but some of the lines sound like they should be profound but come straight from the book of captain obvious, like a line about not understanding the true feelings of a rooster (in context it sounds even sillier, considering what they've just gone through). I can't tell how serious they are. They might be aware that they sound silly, and if that turns out to be the case it might be entertaining.

I'm predicting enjoyment levels around NagiAsu for me - a solid mid-tear PAW show. This is no Tari Tari, and it's certainly no True Tears. I'm worried that I might have to quit on the show for the light effects; they left me with a slight headache.

@transfer student: For some reason I thought David San@Ganbaranai. Huh.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I thought the first ep of NagiAsu was much more engaging than this (head and shoulders above, really), but by all means form your own opinion.

Agreed.

So with that in mind, I don't think the number of characters introduced is the problem in and of itself. Nagi no Asukara had a fair number of characters to introduce in its first episode as well.

But the thing with Glasslip is that it really hits you over the head with the romance drama in the very first episode. So much so that when you strip that away, it leaves most of the characters feeling a bit like blank slates to me. Really, it's only "David" and the lead girl that feel introduced beyond just their romantic inclinations.

So, for me, this is like putting the cart before the horse. I mean, to care about romance drama, it's obviously important to care about the characters involved. And when you have very little feeling for most of the characters except their romantic attachments, it's hard to care about those same romantic attachments.

Nagi no Asukara was no less obvious when it came to "who likes who?", but its characters were pretty well-defined aside from that, even from the opening episode.

[jeroz]

We don't really feel any motivation nor drive from those characters aside from the usual romantic tension. Considering that I don't really care about romance in general (yet still tried out this ep), it just doesn't have anything for me worthwhile to latch onto. They can all be background characters for all I care.

[ices]

I guess I'll follow this ride. Despite many negatives impression mentioned.

Glad that Jibeta made his comeback. Also as always, the scenery isn't something that you would doubt from PA Works. Love the OP. Quite fitting with the story.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Ok watched the episode. And I can see why this got a negative response overall as I'm in the same boat though not necessarily for the same reasons.

My biggest problem was by far the pacing. It was... all over the place. If anyone remembers Tari Tari episode 2 and how that had some pacing issues, well Glasslip felt like if they made that episode the pilot episode for this series. One moment they are at a summer festival, next moment at a restaurant, next moment at school, next moment talking about chicken hot stew, next moment about romance. Talking about chickens... wtf? Did someone get the name wrong? I'm thinking this series should be Chickenlip instead of glass because frankly I saw jack shit glass but like 1minute of footage. It also pretty much dumped us right into the middle of things and expected us to care about all the characters and their issues.

Not to mention the still frames. Now True Tears was PA's first series and it was obvious they had budget issues there since it was their pilot series but cmon PA, you're not exactly a poor studio anymore and you give us cheapstake stills. No it wasn't really artistic, it was pure, obvious shortcut. And the love polygon off the bat... well hopefully it won't be as obnoxious as a Mari Okada show or Nagi no Asu Kara (tbh I don't think it'll be) but PLEASE don't make that the central theme. Coming of age, friendship and glassmaking please ok?

Now despite all the above I said, it wasn't god awful, though it was flat out ballpark average with above average visuals (but below average considering PA standards). Definitely no where near as bad as Nagi no Asu Kara's pilot episode, which was just cringy.

[Chanthien]

Overall, I think the first episode is certainly not bad, but it also leaves something to be desired. More specifically, my biggest problem with this episode and possibly this series in general is the way they try to (intentionally?) accommodate at least two different interpretations, and in the end fall short.

The result is that this episode can be quite a mess to behold. If you put more attention to the romance/drama aspect, then arguably aside from the love dodecahedron itself, the characters and their interaction/dialogue are noticeably stilted and unnatural. Some specific dialogues are very liable to make you think either "wtf?" or "who even talk this way?".

On the other hand, if you put more attention to the (potential?) magic realism aspect, then the whole episode can be quite jarring, especially when almost all non-trivial dialogues/background setting screams "FORESHADOWING" at you. "If she tells you to die, would you do so?". "No matter what (bad things) happens, I wish my future self will fix it". "I saw what you saw that day". And the thing is, you can explain many of the above with by assuming that they are trying to do both without paying due attention to the cross-inteference.

Of course, this is just the first episode, so I can't be too hard on the series. It might well be the case that in the it will get better in the future. It's just that when the root cause of most problems is overreaching, i.e. trying too hard to be accommodate both magic realism and romantic drama, then it can be unlikely if the studio thinks that they are in fact doing a good job and not overreaching at all.

To me, at least, just from this first episode it feels like this anime can well be split into two different version, one focusing on romantic drama/slice of life and one focusing on magic realism. Perhaps somebody else who think that this (clumsy) blending of genre can be good enlighten me as to how?

[Panssj]

IMHO it's too soon to make a judgment. We've seen too little, and this anime could virtually became everything. So I'll go along for the ride too

What interests me the most is the glass processing. I hope there will be a lot of space for that!

Lol @ the end, I was really thinking "here begins the catfight" or I should say "the chickenfight"? xD

[Peanutbutter]

I hoped for something like a romantic-styled Hanasaku Iroha.

All I got was a fowl anime.

The main male doesn't appeal to me really. Need more episodes to decide.

[SuitUp]

What I'm afraid it's the pseudo-intellectualism we're given glimpses off, transfer student aka I might as well use a fedora and his thoughts about the chickens, glasses girl who's the living steoreotype of intellectual and isolated reading Camus's Exile and the Kingdom (who even reads Camus for fun, quite especially that short story collection?), all of wich may turn into senseless ramblings about poorly exposed philosophic arguments, wich have no room on a romantic drama...

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

Not sure why Yanagi was wide eyed first time she saw the transfer student, nor why Sachi (and later Yanagi as well) seem to dislike him at first glance. I can understand Yuki since it's so obvious he likes Touko, but the other two's dislike is a bit too much even if he's an 'intruder' to their click. Especially mysterious why transfer student mentions he finally 'found' Touko. Oh well, only first episode, so just wait and see.

David doesn't actually say that. Touko hears his voice in her head when she puts the glasses on. He definitely recognizes her at the festival and when they meet at the school he comments, "So it was you," so presumably they have some sort of prior connection that she doesn't remember (though her friends do).

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

Not to mention the still frames. Now True Tears was PA's first series and it was obvious they had budget issues there since it was their pilot series but cmon PA, you're not exactly a poor studio anymore and you give us cheapstake stills. No it wasn't really artistic, it was pure, obvious shortcut.

There were a few still shots in the first episode of Tari Tari as well, but they didn't stand out because they were in the same style as the rest of the animation. This episode, though, drew attention to the stills by changing the styles and putting the character names on screen, as though they're trying to convince us that it's an artistic choice and not something forced upon them by a low budget.

[ghost013]

Episode 1:

After skimming through the episode, it seems like this will be a slice of life with romance drama. The pacing feels kinda slow, and I'm not sure what else this series has to offer. I am curious about the transfer student and his background. I get this really mysterious vibe from him. Anyways, will take a look at the second episode.

[Flower]

Licensed by Sentai: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...-titles/.76300

[Kaoru Chujo]

As often seems to happen, I will be the odd one out here. For me, this first episode could be the beginning of a masterpiece. It was beautiful, subtle, interesting, stylish. It had a unique rhythm. It was actual Art -- starting with the glorious opening sequence and OP animation.

The show created a style and used it to produce various dramatic/artistic effects. The somewhat stilted way the transfer student spoke was part of the stylization that elevated this episode, for me. The contrast with the others lifted him above them, but also excluded him. Simple naturalism is not the only way to write dialogue.

Sure, he's an outsider, like Noe in True Tears, but I hope no-one's dismissing him as only that. Making comparisons with other PA Works shows may be a good game, and is certainly possible, but to me it is tangential to what's important and enjoyable here.

Everything means something in this episode. That's part of what makes this real art. Just by watching them, we get a lot of info about the characters. You can call some things "obvious," I guess, but to me that feels like classic drama: the story progressing inexorably. The idea that "too many" characters are introduced is just preference. The slight distance from people that creates is part of the style here. Let's see what they do with it. I certainly had no trouble identifying all the main characters and getting a feeling of who they are.

The ignorance and vulnerability of the chickens does suggest something about the people, but the fact that the people quickly move to protect the chickens also shows their good-heartedness, as well as showing the influence of our "Miss Natural" heroine. I liked the efficient way the story moved from the encounter with the transfer student to everybody having been roped into protecting the fowl. And the feeling of having chickens running around your house is pretty disorienting. The transfer student is a similarly disorienting presence.

Now, it is true that I think Shinbou is one of the great directors, and others don't, so I understand others' mileage may vary for this show. That "rhythm" I spoke of above is what I most love about Shinbou: the sound and image weave a symphony with its own subconscious life. And in this show by Nishimura Junji, the way the characters and relationships are being unfolded also has a special, unusual rhythm.

As for comparisons between this and Nagi no Asukara or Tari Tari, for me this stands far above both, through one episode. I do admit I took a visceral dislike to Hikari from the start, as others have for Transfer Student here, so that no doubt coloured my impressions. But this just seemed to have a lighter touch all round.

However, this is just a beginning. We'll have to see how the show evolves. This first episode sketches the characters pretty vividly for me, and inserts a mysterious stranger with unknown ideas of his own. We get forward motion from the mystery of his background, skills, and nature; the mystery of what he will do now; and the mystery of how -- or simply how soon -- our heroine will respond to him. For me, of course, calling this show "shoujo" is praise rather than blame.

I thought newcomer Fukagawa Seria (not Amamiya Sora, as I wrote before) was effective as Touko. Despite some moments of flatness. On the other hand, much as I normally love Hayami Saori's work, I found her extreme prideful voice a bit distracting this time, especially at first. But she did make me feel her character, so I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.

In any case, to me this first episode could be the beginning of a masterpiece. It could climb toward the heights occupied by this same director's Simoun, which is my favorite anime.

Let me draw your attention again to my characters/seiyuus page for this show, which could help others as well as me to find our way among the characters.

[Flower]

For what it is worth, from the ANN announcement and summary of this series from CR we might be getting a little more of a hint into what is going on with the transfer studemt:

Glasslipfollows the story of Toko Fukami, an aspiring glass-blower whose family runs a glass-working business.

During the summer, she and her four friends meet a transfer student, Kakeru Okikura, who claims that a voice from the future lead him to Toko.

His arrival sets off a chain of events for the six of them that will make their final summer together full of hope and heartache.