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「パンチ」 (Panchi)
“Punch”
This has been the first episode that genuinely got my attention and had me cheering for more.
Side Characters > Main Characters
I’ve been seeing it a lot in the comments recently and maybe I’ve been subconsciously thinking it, but I have come to the proper realization that I like the side characters a whole ton more than the “main” duo. Using this week’s episode as a prime example, I absolutely loved how both Yuki and Yanagi stopped putting up with Kakeru’s bullshit. As the new kid who’s name apparently holds some clout in the community, you’d expect he’d put some effort into being a somewhat likable person. But from the moment we met him, he’s been nothing but a complete bundle of headaches. Which is why it just felt so good to see him get a nice right jab from Yuki and an epic slap to the face from Yanagi to teach him what’s what.
But it wasn’t just Yuki and Yanagi stealing all the attention this week — the writers left just enough time for Hiro and Sachi to strut their stuff. While it remains to be seen whether or not Hiro has any chance at getting together with the nearly bedridden Sachi, you can bet I’ll keep rooting for the guy who clumsily tries his best to make the girl of his dreams as happy as possible. Because sometimes it isn’t the perfect guy you want but rather the guy who’ll do whatever he can for your sake.
Now don’t get me wrong, Kakeru and Touko have their redeeming points and toward the end of the episode things finally began to get interesting between the two. That said, it’s going to take some really fancy writing and directing to turn my opinion about them around. Because there has to be something a bit off when I find the relationship between a character’s parents more interesting than their own.
Looking Into The Future, Literally
While I’m still not sure how I feel about the use of seeing into the future and its effects on the show thus far, I was totally in love with what Touko’s mom said about the ability to do so. Yes there are a truck full of reasons why being able to see into the future can be a horrible thing but I think this is the first time I’ve heard such a optimistic one. Thinking about how crazy it would be to experience all the amazing things in life more than once started to make me wonder about whether or not you could really have a second first-time experience. And while I didn’t put too much thought into it because I didn’t feel like frying my brain, I’m pretty sure it’s possible because what will happen may not exactly match what you’ve seen. It’s like getting to have your cake and eat it, twice!
Seriously though, all I’m hoping for is that somehow P.A. Works continues doing whatever they did this week. While it’s far from perfect, it finally feels like the show’s beginning to make a turn for the better!
Preview
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Absolutely agree with this. (Particularly when Yana slapped the taste out of his mouth.)
He set up a contest so that he would lose and Touko would override the result, thereby hurting Yuki in the process. Not a good look for this guy.
Ehhh :< Probably the unpopular opinion but I was hating on Yuki when he punched Kakeru. I feel like violence is always the bad solution/choice of action when it comes to relationship things like this.
The second time he got hit from Yanagi was alright 🙂
I think I just contradicted myself so much haha
Overall I feel like it all shows that they're both just human. Makin mistakes.. Not really sure of what they're wantin
This episode did more to push me away from this show than it did to attract me. As frustrating as David-kun is, he’s not a problem person. He’s just blunt, or at least that’s how I interpret him.
What did Okikura do to get punched? Nothing. What was disturbing to me was that for Yuki, it was “Touko” this and “Touko” that. “Are you looking out for Touko’s feelings?” Just a minute here. A few episodes back, Yana was using Okikura as her own personal red-bellied sea slug. Those comments about Touko should come off as offensive and insensitive to anyone. As troubling as what Yana-chan told Yuki, she said something important to him. How in the world do you just set that aside, even if you were completely ignorant, and be concerned with another girl?!
Just a few minutes ago, Yana was asking Yuki if all she was was chopped liver in regards to the love triangle he’s created. However, she slaps Okikura, who incensed Yuki into a rage over not Yana, but Touko. There’s a serious problem here, and it’s not Okikura.
In my opinion, it would be more appropriate to call this show “Love Polyhedron: The Animation.” It comes off as a bunch of underdeveloped characters chasing after feelings for themselves. Ironically, I don’t believe for one second that there is any “I” in “love.” This show has a lot of style, but it is severely lacking in the substance department. Six episodes in, and I’m asking myself what the whole point of this show is, if it’s not manufactured angst.
I really like the way you put exactly how I feel right now in to a really constructed paragraph. To me Okikura has done absolutely nothing, in the most literal sense. He’s been relocated to this new town for how many days now? He’s met Touko enough times to be counted by 1 hand. And yet, he’s already getting so much hate. Damn Teenagers.
You’ve summed up nicely my thoughts regarding Glasslip as well. It’s as though it’s nothing but drama for the sake of drama. Now for a romance show that wouldn’t be a problem if the Glasslip wasn’t trying to also bill itself as something else. Just when is the clairvoyance going to come into play, where is the central storyline that is supposed to use this ability? So far it’s nothing but cookie cutter characters built around a group of “who likes who” relationships.
Glasslip IMO is so far little more than pretty artwork patched over a superficial story and bland characters. It has all the necessary pieces, but can’t quite seem to put them together right.
To me Glasslips is an attempt to create an art-house anime, and it has all the ingredients of one, from aesthetics, to unconventional story-telling, to going very far into showing and avoiding telling like a plague, and even including interesting outlines of characters that are just begging to be fleshed out – preferably in focused character building episodes. But somehow, all those pieces aren’t coming together, and I suspect it’s because the writers tried to start in media res and couldn’t really pull it off well. We are not given the feel of the character, instead, we are shown the character in the crisis that Glasslips generate.
Though honestly speaking, I lost all sympathy with Kakeru the moment he proclaimed Touko his property. That was a tad bit too far, and makes their whole relationship seem positively creepy.
@Andmeuths
I missed that part. Where did Kakikura say that?
@J_the_Man
With the confrontation with Yuki, he declared that whoever wins gets Touko.
While I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that, it would definitely come off like he saw her more as a trophy to be won or property being bet on more than a person.
I find myself thinking that “if this only had more episodes” it could have had a better time fitting everything together and giving it depth. But then again, it could just end up being a 2 cour mess instead of a one cour mess. On the subject of the characters, I find myself still liking Kakeru overall (agreeing to basically all that you said Jman). He’s overly blunt and that’s fine but, what I didn’t like was him basically proclaiming Toukou to be his property in a way. The whole Yuki and Yanagi thing, seems like to much unneeded angst and then they decide to share that with Kakeru. So, I get why he’d be like “NOPE, FIX YOUR DILEMMA”. Though obviously it’s never that easy, but hey, atleast he’s trying in his own way. Oddly enough my main couple would just be Sacchi and Hiro since, they seem so far removed from the main conflict up till now, it’s rather refreshing. In the end I don’t know if more episodes would have made a difference in how we view the characters and their struggles/ relationships but, I believe it would have atleast given the writers more room to play with instead of trying to cram all that angst into 13 episodes. But hey, we’ll see by series end if i’m wrong.
Kakeru’s character is pretty blunt no doubt and at first glance he could easily be considered the one asshole to rule them all; but honestly, he’s just a direct guy. Sure he cant read the atmosphere and it doesnt seem like he’s ever looked up the definition of subtlety, but he has his way of doing things and that doesnt make him wrong. Think about it, ever since he came to this town and met touko and the gang, he has been caught up in their angst and that is not something Kakeru wants to deal with most likely. When Yuki came to him about inviting him to the fireworks, Kakeru was right: if you dont want me there, why invite me? its stupid and it will only cause problems. And upon seeing Yuki still pondering his feelings, Kakeru wants the guy to make a decision already which resulted in him giving yuki a sort of cruel ultimatum. In the end, Kakeru is being a necessary evil because if this continues, he’s just going to keep getting dragged up in more of their angst from both Yanagi and Yuki’s indecisiveness and they wont be able to move on. On a side note, with each ep im starting to feel more and more that Sachi may care more for Hiro than she lets on; she’s one tricky one to decipher
Indeed,
Kakeru is just doing what he wants/needs He’s not interested in the friend group, just in Touko. He’s not the a**hole people make him out to be, he had no trouble with talking/helping Yana out.
Yuki is the problem imho, he doesn’t know what to do and is taking it out on Kakeru. Yana slapping Kakeru was on the mark though, don’t get me wrong but Yuki got wat he had coming. He was put on the spot by Kakeru and called out for his bullshit action of inviting him when he didn’t realy want to. Yuki had every intention of picking a fight with him from the start,
btw
https://randomc.net/image/Glasslip/Glasslip%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
Kakeru’s dad has a good taste in woman ^^;
Oddly enough this is one of the few series I actually prefer the main character more than the sides. Since most of the time I find myself attracted to the side characters more so than mains.
In this case the local teen group just hate on him from the moment he got there, and that kinda left a bad impression on me… While this first impression is still stuck in my head I feel like my feelings for the characters will be biased towards Kakeru for quite some time…
This show has been getting on my nerves for a long time, and now I finally understand why. Like you’ve stated bluntly but brilliantly… Side Chars > Main Ones. Neither Touko nor Kakeru is really interesting. Their semi-see-into-future power is gimmicky and its existence is only to push forward the plot. Their romantic chemistry (or lack thereof ) just consistently flies over my head. I strangely felt pleasure when Kakeru got punched because it’s the only time his facial expression changes. To be frank, out of all of these chars, I’m most curious about Touko’s sister. Why isn’t she a huge part of story?
The pacing of this show is very strange.
It does somewhat make up for that in the brazen forwardness of its characters. Despite all its faults, I wish more romance anime had characters that were this straightforward. I do prefer this over a Kimi ni Todoke-style unending maze of misunderstandings.
I didn’t really mind Kakeru’s meddling that much. To me it seemed as if he was trying to push the issue of Yuki seemingly running away from Yanagi instead of facing her while trying to come to terms with his own developing feelings. It was a awkward way of saying “Stop chasing dreams and look at what you have in front of you”; no awards for execution but some points for the outcome. Yuki is the only one who’s still being floaty (?) about his feelings.
Am I the only one who feels like this anime isn’t going anywhere anymore? The sequence of events just feel so disjointed and random. The confessions do nothing but cause awkwardness and nothing more. Plus i really don’t see how Touko has fallen for David in the first place. He’s a far less appealing “stoic” character than Tsumugu from Nagi imo. If it wasn’t for the fortune telling gimmick I don’t know if the two would be an item at all. That said he didn’t deserve to get punched or slapped for being blunt with everyone. It’s that kind of messy drama that has been making me dislike the show for a while now.
Hiro and Sachi are the only couple i really care about now since there isn’t any pointless conflict between them. It’s nice when they actually get focused on.
As for why touko would have a thing for Kakeru, think about how people usually fall for others in real life or how teenagers get enamored by someone. I feel like viewers i so used to watching a story follow the staples of giving people by-the-book, story-like reasons for someone being interested in somebody or the conventional structures of story-telling, that they forget that in real life, the simplest things can make a person enamored by an individual. In touko’s case, her encounter with kakeru at the school where they had their little philosophical debate about the chickens was all she needed to start being interested in him. That peculiar piece of conversation mixed by the fact that she just finds him attractive are all the ingredients she needs to start building a strong interest in him, because that encounter established him in her mind as this interesting, mysterious person that she’d like to get to know more of and in real life, you just need a spark such as that to start that fire of romance (there are plenty of relationships that have started simply because ppl have found an individual attractive without even finding them interesting).
Like someone pointed in the comments, glasslip’s story-telling is not conventional; it never established itself as a series that was going to follow a linear plot thread or give us character building in a usual narrative sense. Instead, it established itself as a story that would just be showing us snippets of these characters lives like a soap opera would (yea that’s the best way to describe this series’ narrative structure) Therefore when it deviates from such story-telling mechanics and just shows us the daily musings of these teens, it works. The angst isnt there just there to be there in this type of narrative structure; the angst is just a part of these kids lives as it would any group of teenagers and we as a viewer are just peeking through a looking glass and observing this so this doesnt come of as sloppy in my opinion. When a story establishes what type of mechanics it plans to use to tell it story, i judge it by how well it uses its mechanics and glasslip uses its mechanics well to tell the daily lives of these kids; that’s why i think glasslip works.
I really believe its just one of those series that either you like, you have a love-hate relationship with, or you hate; I like it. It’s not a great series, but it is good in my opinion. What i didnt jive with too well in this ep though was how Kakeru just sort of told Touko that she was thing he has been looking for so suddenly. I think that need at least two more eps to gestate. We dont need to have super concrete reason why these kids like each other, because as viewers by watching how they react towards each other and their conversations, we can see how they may feel for each other (and that’s the point of the type of story-telling this series is has chosen). But when you introduce a dramatic element such as Kakeru saying to Touko that he felt empty until he meet her, you need to have shown how touko may have been changing kakeru and making him feel more whole in comparison to how he was prior to his meeting with Touko. This show has been following this “show, dont tell” type of structure pretty well and this was the first time that i felt like it did not show whatsoever. That is the only major misstep i think this ep and this series overall has done so far. I will need to see the next two to three eps to see how i feel about that piece of development and what happened near the end of this ep actually works.
I suppose this unconventional story telling isn’t to my tastes. I think the problem here is that we are basically thrown into these relationship conflicts without any time to start caring or loving the characters. We don’t really see any developments on how or why they like each other. In my opinion it’s just boring and flat from a storytelling perspective. Take this for example. Let’s say someone says they like ice cream. But that’s all they say. They don’t tell you how it tastes or anything, they just say they like it. Well there is certainly nothing interesting about that now is there? Now you talk to someone else who also likes ice cream. But they go into depth about how wonderful the different flavors are describing the orgasm enduing tastes everytime they take a bite. A lot more interesting right? That’s basically what Glasslip does wrong.
While this unconventional story telling works for some I just haven’t had any time to actually start caring about these characters because of their poor development so far. Them liking each other without giving us any leadway to how the attraction came about is just boring teenage romance. So naturally I really don’t care for all of the drama going on with people I don’t really like or feel have any chemistry with each other. Is Glasslip a tad more realistic with this kind of storytelling? Sure i suppose you can argue that. But is it more interesting because of it? Unfortunately not. I can appreciate what the show is trying to do but it’s simply not working as far as I’m concerned.
I actually like your icecream anaolgy (now i want some icecream from friendly’s) but here is the other angle of that situation; just watching someone enjoy a serving of icecream can have the same merits as that person explaning to you why they like icecream. The situation in which you are learning this information is different, but it can produce almost the same effect. As in glasslip, you can learn about these characters by watching how they pursue their love interests and how they react to situations and i guess when it is put like that, it comes down to whether you are interested by what your seeing. Again i think glasslip is good at what it does…it’s just a matter of whether what it does is interesting to the viewer or not and i completely understand if it doesnt work for some. I dont find the complaints unwarranted, but i do think the series does some neat stuff.
https://randomc.net/image/Glasslip/Glasslip%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
At least somebody’s love life is going right.
Dude, you just gave her a death-flag. Shame on you! :\
Cute sick girl, yet another fetish.
I think this is the first episode where I’m starting to understand Kakeru. There were tiny “fragments” of his character that we got to see in this episode. For what it’s worth though, I’m actually starting to enjoy his character more than before. It’s a wonder what some development will do to make your “main” character more interesting (see: slightly) and likable.
Honestly though, I don’t really see any reason why Kakeru is an asshole or as bad as some people are putting him out to be. He has been shown to be a pretty direct and blunt guy from the first episode, and that makes him awkward as hell in close-knit social situations. Did he say too much with regards to Yuki’s handling of Yanagi? Yes. Did it warrant a punch? Probably not, but it sure got Yuki thinking about something other than Touko for one goddamn second.
The slap from Yanagi, on the other hand, was less violent of an act, but it achieved the same results. Kakeru is literally just putting out onto the table, what everyone keeps brushing aside. It’s like if you put all of the yelling of the viewers about how certain characters are handling a situation into character form. You probably want to yell at a certain character (*cough* Yuki) for how they are handling a certain situation (*cough* Yanagi’s feelings and Touko) and Kakeru is pretty much acting like those feelings the viewer has been yelling at their screen. It’s just, well, he’s a main character so he just looks like some douche stirring up drama. Let’s face it though, this show got a whole lot better when he laid everything bare to the other characters. It’s what most of us were thinking, but we probably wouldn’t say a damn thing if we were in his situation. Again, his personality kicking in.
I, for one, am here to see the drama unfold and not a bunch of teenage angst well up inside until we find out things don’t get resolved (until it’s too late). Yeah these characters aren’t that great, and I’m happier to see Sachi and Hiro get along, but at least they turned it up a notch this episode. Now I have no idea what they’ll do for the last half of the season, but hopefully the characters get better, and that future telling crap becomes more relevant. Like maybe giving us some development for the two “main” characters for once.