440http://i.ur.com/bYXf8IY.jpg Spoilers? Uh heres a spoiler for you. Dont bother. I honest cant even spoil anything because by the end of the show they take a sledgehammer to everything they previously established in the span of like ten minutes because they ran out of time and providing an explanation for ANYTHING was far FAR too much work. Introduction 440http://i.ur.com/TT2eq1C.png ...Have you ever wanted to watch something as unbearable as Lances n Masqueshttps://anilist.co/anime/20712/LanceNMasques that could also get really bizarre/absurd like Ranpo Kitanhttps://anilist.co/anime/21189/RanpoKitanGameofLaplace but is as entertaining as watching literal paint dryinghttps://youtu.be/nGAGCq7JWM?t=5h7m41s? Glasslip is the show for you then Thank you Junji Nishimirahttps://anilist.co/staff/101837/JunjiNishimura the director to blame for this show I wonder what hes been doing since Glasslipoh...https://anilist.co/anime/21197/Bakuon Glasslip is an original show brought to us by the studio P.A. Workshttps://anilist.co/studio/132/PAWorks whom also made Anothers animehttps://anilist.co/anime/11111/Another another one Im absolutely not that fond of. But they also did Uchouten Kazokuhttps://anilist.co/anime/17909/TheEccentricFamily and Shirobakohttps://anilist.co/anime/20812/Shirobako so... I guess the incredibly bad shows balance out with the really good ones they did. This is about when Id try to describe Glasslip but I dont think I really have anything to add beyond what I started with. Its only after Ive finished watching it that I actually wondered what genre Glasslip would even be considered. Slice of life? Technically true I suppose. But I love slice of life and there are plenty of slice of life series where stuff does happen and there are actual characters that are either entertaining or neat to watch as they undergo their everyday lives. In Glasslip theres none of that. No interesting or entertaining characters chickens dont count and nothing happens. Absolutely. Nothing. Happens. Im sure people would want to watch unlikeable characters go on a hiking trip for an entire episode. Im sure thats something they want. Its a sure thing. Id describe it more as a faux supernatural drama about teenage romance triangles far worse than a mere triangle. Heres a group of unlikeable teenage characters with a deep and complicated web of romance he likes her she likes him she likes him AND her and so forth between them and also oh hey the main girl can see the future when she looks through glass MAYBE. Anyways... Ill... Ill try to cover at the very least the main points before my brain erases all lasting traces of this show. 440http://i.ur.com/NAqdVTH.jpg Characters 500http://i.ur.com/Kx0UEfs.jpg Okay what do we even have to work with here? The main character Touko Fukami is I guess the main character as out of this group of friends she gets the shows spotlight most of the time. She helps with her family in making glass and whenever the show isnt focusing on episode long hiking trips teenage romance/drama or Toukos ability to see into the future its her usually making glass. Its never really brought up in any major way or relevant to the actual story of the show beyond the fact she usually sees the future whenever she looks through glass. Although it also happens when shes not even looking at glass so... why even try to establish that its related to the glass in the first place? I mean I know glass is in the title but I dont really understand why it has to be glass. 440http://i.ur.com/jtQR87T.jpg The real life inspiration for Glasslips best characters. Jonathan the Chicken not pictured. Kakeru Okikura otherwise known as David Touko refers to him as this once in like the first episode and the others keep calling him this later on despite after having learned his actual name is unfortunately the main male character. He moves to the town and then for some reason strikes up a conversation about how Touko can see the future and if she leaves her chickens outside roaming packs of wild feral cats will murder them. As an outsider to Toukos group he mostly makes zero attempts or efforts to try and befriend the others. Actually he seemingly purposely antagonize everyone other than Touko whom he seriously believes can see the future for some reason. He speaks in cryptic nonsense sleeps outside in the woods or sometimes in a tent for some reason and apparently sees copies of himself and holds actual conversations with them FOR SOME REASON. WHILE ALSO HANGING OUT IN THE WOODS. No its fine. Toukos friends are the ones who overreacted Kakeru is perfectly fine and well adjusted. ITS FINE especially since its an actually recurring thing. Right in front of Touko he at one point tries to have a running contest with the other guy who likes Touko and whomever won would win Touko...? But he was actually not even going to run? I was kind of confused when the other characters actually treated him like he was insane after suggesting this and slapped him. I honestly thought they were going to go along with it. Because after all WHY DO THESE CHARACTERS DO ANY OF THESE THINGS THEY DO? ITS INCOMPREHENSIBLE. 440http://i.ur.com/1nq9d8J.jpg Sachi is absolutely the most infuriating of Toukos friends. She wears glasses she reads books and shes sickly. You could remove her entirely from the show and almost nothing would change. Shes always either in the hospital or there are lines of dialogue being spoken about how she has to or should go to the hospital soon. She also confesses to her already current boyfriend and also Touko for some reason. I still dont really know what was up with that. It just happened so suddenly and then one minute later we were back to future fragments chickens and Davids mom playing the piano. Why have a character confess to two characters at once especially when there are NO memorable interactions between that character and the second character shes confessing to prior to this or future interactions for that matter. I honestly cant be asked to go indepth about Sachis boyfriend thats his entire character Hiro Shirosaki or the step siblings Yukinari Imi and Yanagi Takayama. I just dont have the energy. Plus they were completely overshadowed by the other three whom I hated or was constantly questioning their reasons for their actions. 440http://i.ur.com/TLqfaKh.jpg Everything is pain. Character stuff aside theres certainly more I could have brought up theres a lot more things in Glasslip that just... bothered me. Yes the most obvious complaint the show is slow and never isnt slow because nothing worthwhile of any note happens. Even now really one of the only things that immediately comes to mind is when Kakeru ended up getting assaulted by both of the step siblings duo. Partially because I had to stifle a cheer because not only did something happen but Kakeru is infuriating every moment he is on the screen or talking. 440http://i.ur.com/twOvvyO.gif Still despite how easy of a complaint it is it definitely is worth noting that I dont think Ive seen a show where even less happens than in Glasslip. But you also have to figure in Glasslip they actually make an effort almost at the very end of the show to render all of the stuff they were establishing completely meaningless/pointless. Toukos mom outright says to her in the final episode something along the lines of: Oh by the way do you happen to see weird things when you look at bright lights and stuff? I sort of thought those were visions of the future when I saw them when I was younger but the truth is it was all bullshit and in my mind. I wish I was joking. They actually did that. I cant even imagine the audacity youd have to have to pull that on the 13th and final episode of a show. 440http://i.ur.com/yRQ6wTQ.png 440http://i.ur.com/QmgoGIf.png 440http://i.ur.com/VGc9RS8.png 440http://i.ur.com/DFj36kV.png The fact that the future fragments were in fact literally nothing wasnt a surprise at all. But my prediction was that both Kakeru as well as Touko in fact had some sort of mental disease or disorder. Its weird to just be talking with your friend one moment and then the next you see a random swarm of mind birds just suddenly fly and swarm at you. 440http://i.ur.com/xvFhSQY.png 440http://i.ur.com/5tnB4Iv.png 440http://i.ur.com/zTQa9Gc.png 440http://i.ur.com/r3zFWFt.png Its not something that should have just been explained away in one line of dialogue by the mom. They... the whole seeing the future/supernatural stuff started in the very first episode The shows over and we didnt explain any of this. Oh well. 440http://i.ur.com/7ccWo7Q.png Im sure the people who actually sat through all thirteen weeks of this when it was actually airing werent curious at all. As frustrating as a show or a series just suddenly retcons or explains away a whole earlier portion or in this case the entire thing theres still actually more that needs to be mentioned. The dialogue holy hell. Most of it is just a lot of yawninducing nothing but some of it is just... really awful. Unsurprisingly a decent amount of it is sprouted right from Kakerus mouth. The whole future fragments thing is just a whole bunch of nonsense in the end yet he speaks as if hes so assured that Touko can really see the future. But it is certainly not limited to only Kakeru. There is one specific moment in Glasslip thats burned into my brain because it caught me so off guard it caused me to react physically. Agonizingly Long and Insufferable Context Describing Actual Glasslip Scenes: So in one episode following Kakeru goofing on the male of the step siblings duo Yukinari is depressed. For even while he confessed to Touko Touko continues to spend time with Kakeru who seems to do nothing but ramble cryptic nonsense and sleep outside in a tent. Therefore Yukinari begins to start running every day to take his mind of it. The route he takes just happens to be along the window of the pool where Toukos sister and her friends swim at and they ogle at Yukinari whenever he comes running by the building. But eventually Yukinari just keeps on getting more and more depressed causing the girls concern for this COMPLETE STRANGER theyre staring at. The way Yukinari looks prompts Toukos sister to run out of the building get on her bike catch up to Yukinari and then spout perhaps the most ridiculous line of Glasslip thats also come the closest to causing me to physically cringe at something out of an anime. She yells at him a probably genuinely depressed person his knee was messed up due to an accident previously in his life or something yet he was still running every day to stay attractive. 440http://i.ur.com/3IPGy66.png 440http://i.ur.com/T0lEPn5.png 440http://i.ur.com/gT68Pbj.png 440http://i.ur.com/bRxbPg7.png ...Please dont try and treat this as some sort of deep and emotional moment. Of all of the possible ways you could came up with to basically get across please cheer up they ended up going with stay attractive. Then later Yukinaris stepsister Yanagi approaches Kakeru and hits him with ITS YOUR FAULT MY STEPBROTHER ISNT ATTRACTIVE ANYMORE. Both of these happen in the same exact episode and its just too much. Please stop. 440http://i.ur.com/U1Hq5s1.png 440http://i.ur.com/Y8bn1kk.png Oh yeah and episode twelve very hurriedly introduces a parallel world/alternate universe/imaginary world that is summoned/Touko is sent to because she listens to Kakerus mother play the piano? Like basically everybody was opposite to what they were really like and Touko and Kakerus positions were flipped. Touko was the outsider who moved to the town and Kakeru was in the group instead of her. Pretty weird and I dont really see why they felt the need to introduce such a major thing so close to the end. Especially when it didnt add anything and also in the immediate next episode Toukos mom would literally debunk all of the stuff Touko was seeing in her mind as... well nothing. Chicken Metaphors 440http://i.ur.com/JtWwLcH.jpg 440http://i.ur.com/IiLXAXF.png Saving the best for last lets finally talk about the chickens and chicken metaphors. The chickens appear from the very first episode of Glasslip and throughout almost every single episode following. The chickens are in the op and the ed Touko and her friends adopt the chickens in episode 1 only for them to later end up back at the school where they used to be during more than a few conversations especially between Touko and Kakeru the camera will just switch to the chickens as theyre talking repeatedly. Of the group of chickens there is a chicken named Jonathan and in one episode he is shown distancing himself/moving away from the other chickens. Is Jonathan the Chicken supposed to represent Kakeru who is this loner sort of guy who keeps his distance from Toukos group of friends? Mind you all except one and Touko herself basically overly hate. Hell by the end of the show he is physically struck by at least two of them. What if... what if in truth they were chickens all along? Look at the first pictures again. There are five chickens and there are five members of Toukos group including Touko herself. But there is also a hawk or an eagle in the sky. Is that Kakeru? After all Toukos group only becomes unstable after Kakeru arrives and the chickens are in fact running away. 440http://i.ur.com/yz9plmj.png 440http://i.ur.com/3IUwOVw.png She asks the chicken if hes Kakeru for some reason and then exclaims the same chicken isnt Jonathan. What??? What about the clouds? What are the clouds supposed to represent? This may all sound like extensive hyperbole but with a show of so much nothing it seems this made people more actively search for some sort of meaning. Chicken metaphors.https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/2hfo2a/spoilersglasslipepisode13finaldiscussion/ckses23/ Perhaps while born out of a desire to try and justify having watched the entire thing it doesnt entirely sound too implausible. Especially if Junji Nishimira truly does have a history of... using chickens. But I havent watched True Tears https://anilist.co/anime/2129/TrueTears so I cant verify that either way. Yet as far as Glasslip goes theres no way there isnt something going on with the chickens. I refuse to believe they would purposely include them as much as they did if their only purpose behind it was okay theres chickens. It was pretty funny at the beginning but by the end it was baffling that it was still happening/happening even more. 440http://i.ur.com/0rLvG45.png I think Touko was sitting on those stairs drawing the chickens at least two or three times. Does she just really like drawing chickens or does she want to ditch the glass making and try to be an ornithologist? Point is even though that explanation made me go oh okay I can kind of sort of see that it does not excuse this show for anything at all. If you want to try and make like this complex and deep plot with metaphors while also including all of this supernatural stuff about seeing the future... I dont know maybe chicken metaphors isnt the best route. 440http://i.ur.com/FpTTFeL.png Im just saying. Ive never made a show Ive never animated Ive never written a script Ive never directed anything but... it feels like I dont know that they could have done better than this. Conclusion A straight up and unhesitating 1 out of 10. P.A. Works doesnt make bad looking shows I mean come on did you see those chickens? BEST CHICKEN ANIMATION HAND DOWN. If they had focused on one thing Glasslip could have maybe turned out better. Make an actual teenage drama/romance series a supernatural series where a glassmaker sees the future through the glass she makes or just an outright calm and slow moving slice of life show thats actually about making glass. Dont shove all three together and then just slam chicken metaphors on top of it as hard as you possibly can. WE NEED TEN MORE SHOTS OF THE CHICKENS. MORE OF THE CHICKENS WE HAVE TO HAMMER THIS HOME. OUR ANIME HAS TO BECOME KNOWN AS THE ONE WITH THE CHICKENS. While my attention did sort of perk up every single time the chickens came back or like when they did the episode where it was just a hiking trip and then immediately with the next episode it was back to the chickens its still not enough. Glasslip is very much a bad anime and even worse than that it falls far onto the worse side of bad anime. Its not hilariously absurd like Ranpo Kitan its not a ridiculously over the top and gory horror like Another... and even in something like Wizard Barristers or Lances n Masques at least things happened in those shows. In Glasslip nothing happens. What little that does happen they make a point to essentially undo or deem pointless/meaningless. Therefore really the only ways I could see recommending Glasslip is morbid curiosity severe masochism or if you actually like P.A. Works other shows and have decided youre going to watch even the... less than stellar ones they did. For the record out of the three Id argue Glasslips Jonathan the Chicken would beat Wizard Barristers perverted frog sidekick and Lance n Masques cute horse girl as far as bad anime mascots go. Everybody loves chickens. 440http://i.ur.com/OVpJpzG.jpg