Glasslip [Blu-ray]

Really good animation of countryside life, if a bit too idealic. Nice to watch just for this. Japanese only with subtitles, so that was a big plus for me. The characters were quite well fleshed out, with moments of unspoken action. Love triangles, and squares settle down into pairs. A tiniest bit of fanservice. What throws an extra curve into the mix is that the main girl has visions, while the guy hears things. And together their powers seem to react, hers get stronger, while his get weaker. This whole thing highlights the problem I found with it. First, nothing is explained. Is she seeing the future, an alternative reality, or having a deeper understanding of the boy? He can see alternative selves... Towards the end it gets turned upside down. Upon reflection, his confession of just hearing her, while she can just see him, is sweet, but doesn't quite ring true. So while it's kind of refreshing that things aren't spelled out as the characters interact, it definitely works against the story too. I did like it, but it settles into the ok category.

Coming from an fan of supernatural anime, of course I'm going to say this is a great anime. I would recommend this title to anyone who loves the supernatural/romance genre, although its a bit abstract and even confusing at times. It made a little more sense watching it the second time around. It has some great comedy moments, although it doesn't really fall into the Comedy genre. Out of the hundreds of anime I've watched over the years, I would have to say this one is definintly the wierdest yet XD

Glasslip may be classified as an experimental series as it is quite artistic. By “artistic” think on abstract modern art rather than beauty. The background & scenes are incredibly pleasant, but the story goes in quite different ways than all other anime series in a way that have disappointed many anime fans and critics. Glasslip is definitively not for the average anime fan.The plot is –in short- about a girl (Toko Fukami) living in a small town named Hinodehama where she enjoys a nice life surrounded by friends, family and learns the trade on making glass at her parent’s business. Next, Kakeru Okikura, a new guy in town arrives and romance begins. All of these themes have turned the massive audiences off as they seek action, goriness and more nonsense. Yet, more audience still had to be turned off because these series are also nonsensical in their own way, in an artistic way.Glasslip has some sort of fantasy, which might not be actual fantasy, just insanity of Toko and Kakeru seeing visions. The end seems to imply that the fantasy was real (within the show of course) but it never clarifies the issue, it actually just made it even more confusing, one reason why Glasslip got bad media comments. Again, the show will make you feel the same way you might have felt when seeing abstract art. Some people may think this was just a sloppy work pretending to be cool and mysterious. Modern art seems just sloppy work frequently, and it is in fact sloppy work or plain garbage too often, but not Glasslip. Its makers did put an effort into the visuals and characters personalities because none of them is a typical bad or good guy.I personally don’t mind fantasy and do not seek that in anime; thus the series blurry fantasy didn't turn me off. Actually that made me like it a bit more in this sense because I like ambiguity, a feature of real life. The top allure of anime (and Japanese shows in general) for me is their reflection of the real world. This is a challenge that the vast majority of productions in all times and places have failed at and they just ended up pretending to be intellectual. Now, succeeding at reflecting the real world makes a show very likely to become a boring one to the masses who will see Glasslip as an example.While Glasslip wastes some time on blurred fantasy or simple delusions the show displays rather real conversations and relations among its characters. They talk about themselves for the most part in shallow talks, mostly troubled to express their feelings and solve their conflicts. After the impressive visuals it’s the character’s relations what gives most value to the show, even when two of them are hard to relate to for a serious audience, it’s Yanagi Takayama who wants to become model, her step-brother Yukinari Imi who’s handsome, athletic and -what else?- popular. Fortunately their roles are kept to a fair proportion of time. Other two characters are Sachi Nagamiya and Hiro Shirosaki. They're more normal or average.The main characters, Kakeru and Toko are actually boring types, Toko is the usual girl who often gets quite embarrassed by any petty issue, which is supposed to be funny. Both she and Kakaeru are the usual introverted types in anime who struggle to communicate and relate to others to the point that they are apparently not even aware of. Honestly, these real world projections are what got me into anime.None of the characters is downgraded to play the usual clowns so typical in most anime series who display repulsive or even insane comedy, usually nosebleeds when seeing any body sexual feature of pretty people, mostly girl's. This anime style is mostly aimed at teenagers, Glasslip is rather for adults as can be seen from its manga.The only character who seemed loosely related to such clowns was Hiro. He likes Sachi, yet he turned out to be capable of rejecting Sachi’s attempts to manipulate him, not a very realistic scenario for most people (especially teenagers), still uplifting to watch. In fact he may be the most mature character in Glasslip and probably in all anime. Hiro's maturity makes him likable without being ultra-sweet as it happens in most other anime. These ultra-sweet characters sometimes also have a nasty side. Hiro lacks this side. Again, it's being mature.So,this was my take on Glasslip. It's a series only for mature tastes, all other better stick to Dragon Ball and similar foolishness.

Glasslip is intelligently written and delivered, and it goes deeply into the minds and personalities of the characters-- but is still anime. Most anime is about what you can see, Glasslip is about what the characters in the story can see, it is about what they feel, how they feel it, and why they feel it.The basic premise is that Girl A is just a small town girl with a strong but small circle of friends, and Boy A moves into town for the first time, in spite of the fact his father has lived there quite a while. Romantic stories always start with Boy A and Girl A, but this one plays with our normal story sequence by introducing us to Girl A and her world first, and then it dances around the relationships of various male and female characters as it takes us to possible alternatives for what Girl A is seeing and what she is feeling. Boy A has been "hearing" the future, and Girl A "sees" some of the future, but if it is the future or not is kept in question, and it might be an alternate world, or perhaps several alternate worlds that the two of them access.Pay attention and it becomes clear there are several layers of story, a quick sample of an alternate world, and instead of some trite ending, the story goes into what the characters want, how hard they are willing to work for it, and alluded to references are used as nicknames.It is not simple, shallow, and there are not explosions-- unless you count fireworks-- and the teens all grow noticeably as the story progresses without huge crisis. It is more of a story of real life than anything else, with the alternate realities used as a window to seeing how things could change or not change.A nine and maybe a bit more out of ten, a solid five out of five, in spite of no warring mechs, no evil spirits, no alien invaders, and with a real story that means you have to pay attention or you might wind up lost.