Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「夏の日と君の声」 (Natsu no Hi to Kimi no Koe) by ChouCho
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「花火」 (Hanabi)
“Fireworks”
A new P.A. Works original that focuses on the lives of a bunch of friends as they spend their final summer together and meet some transfer student who may or may not have ESP / Special Powers? Sign me up!
Five Friends Plus One
For its first episode, Glasslip managed to fit in quite a bit with the limited time it had to tell its story. Quickly getting us up to speed with our main cast of five and giving us a little insight into some of their more personal quirks (like how Yuki totally has the hots for Touko or how Touko just goes with her own flow), I get a good feeling that we’re going to be in for a doozy when it comes to the emotion department. Throw in the sixth and final character, Okikura Kakeru, who claims he can see things that others can’t and the building blocks for the fantastic slice-of-life with romance and fantasy that Stilts promised us have been set!
Another bonus is just how unique each character seems to be. With a diverse group of self-sufficient people to play with, I think the choice to have fully functional characters that don’t need to use each other as a crutch will really help get the story rolling. That or at the very least give us super entertaining episodes no matter where the spotlight happens to shine.
Growing Pains
Like a lot of other shows in this genre, the coming of age theme is strong in this one. With talks about what everyone plans to do once their final high school summer is over combined with various scenes of characters taking steps to make their dreams a reality, I have the utmost confidence that P.A. Work’s original story will do this theme justice.
Looking Ahead
While a lot may have happened and the animation was absolutely beautiful, this first episode didn’t really “wow” me as much as I hoped it would have. Yes I can clearly see a lot of things being done right but I would have expected P.A. Works to really use this first episode to draw viewers in and captivate them so ruthlessly that we would have no other choice but to tune back in.
That said, it seems that next week’s episode is going to cut a lot of the crap that tends to accumulate in a slice-of-life with romantic undertones and leap straight into people asking other people out — which I can’t really say is something that’s wrong or right but definitely is a little different.
Like I’ve said before though, should this turn into a crap shoot there’s still ChouCho and nano.RIPE to listen to every week. Totally worth!
ED Sequence
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ED: 「透明な世界」 (Toumeina Sekai) by nano.RIPE
Preview
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This is only supposed to be 13 episodes I think. If so I expect the pacing to be quite a bit faster than Nagi No Asukara which I don’t feel will be bad thing at all. The animation was quite beautiful but, something felt off to me I am not sure what it was definitely not the animation that’s for sure. I will be sticking around though.
Was it that thing in some scenes where the corners of the screen were faded out like a painting? I though it was especially noticeable in the chicken scene. You can see it in the screencaps above.
Maybe. I think the cuts where real weird in between scenes.
Right after Nagi, another love polygon by PA works. Anyone else felt that the pacing was kind of odd?
The pacing was way too fast in my opinion. There’s a difference between having a lot happen and cramming in so much material that you’re literally jumping from character to character.
Well at least the ending sequence was entertaining (I was amused when chibi Tōko jumped into the fireworks).
https://randomc.net/image/Glasslip/Glasslip%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2016.jpg
Sir, put your hands in the air and step away from the chicken.
A certain character I know from elsewhere would probably love to play with those chickens :p
http://tinyurl.com/pfgnrrd
So far this show feels like a spiritual successor to “true tears”, what with the way the still shots are drawn, Touko having both Noe’s odd inclination for naming chickens and Shin’ichiro’s drawing talent, and even the chibi-style ending. It also feels like it’s ready to crank the drama up by 100% given the already hostile reactions towards Okikura. Whether that’s a good thing or not, we’ll have to wait and see. Additionally, while it’s probably unfair to compare the two, the animation seemed a lot lower in quality in comparison to Nagi no Asukara. Nothing bad of course, but just nowhere near as spectacular. As much as I love PA Works, the weird pacing has made this a less than impressive episode for me.
Now I feel like watching True Tears
I see more Nagi no Asukara in this than True Tears. Although it seems to have a much lighter tone and with this average start and a 1-cour at it’s disposal,that might just be for the best
since i despised true tears, i will give this a pass.
thanks for the heads up
I like the promise of drama at the end of the first ep. The group of 5 already had their future set in stone. Blonde dude will match up with glasses chick, And Yuki will get Touko. That’s what they all planned on. When suddenly “David” appears and they see that Touko is impressed by him, you can see the hostility in everyone’s eyes. This is not what they planned upon. This is not the future we see for ourselves. A vision that’s common for people from a small port town.
I love to see where this is going. There’s gonna be drama, romance, slice of life and a bit of mystery (though it might become a lot of mystery).
So NagiAsu-ly similar..
Touko = Manaka
David(lol) = Tsumugu
Yukinari = Hikari
Yanagi = Chisaki
Hiro doesn’t feel like a Kaname and Sachi’s a character on a her own. You can count on PA Works to make everything look beautiful
Are you serious? Manaka and Touko are nothing alike. Manaka was a shy, surface loving pushover crybaby who won her strength. Touko is mostly a genki artist.
Tsumugu and Kakeru are nothing alike. Tsumugu was a helpful, quiet and supportive boy from the start who saved Manaka’s life and quietly built a pool for the group, welcoming them to the surface. Kakeru is just following a “mysterious voice” of the future and being unpleasant. Tsumugu was generally aware of people’s feelings while Kakeru seems the opposite, he’s as oblivious and dumb as Hikari’s about them.
Hikari and Yuki are NOTHING alike. The one you’re looking to compare him with is Kaname, if anyone. Hikari started the show as a possessive asshole who would be a prejudiced little kid who grew up into strong and charismatic boy. Yuki is subdued, easily pushed over (which Hikari wasn’t) boy pinning from the beginning (which Hikari didn’t do, he realize this in the course of the story).
Lastly, Chisaki and that other girl have nothing in common. The girl seems more like a tsundere with brocon issues while Chisaki was motherly, sweet and had her issues with change. The guy with the haedband is more like Chisaki than this girl.
As expected from Summer lineup! One of my favorite studios P.A Works! I hope this one will be like True Tears, a slice of life teen dramas. Please let it be SoL…P.A Works has been doing supernatural genre lately like NagiAsu, wont hurt if they go for some real drama for a lil…
anyway, whadda fast pentagon formed in the first episode already…still can feel the NagiAsu’s vibe here lol XD
Perhaps I simply came into this show with the wrong expectations, but frankly, I was rather disappointed by this whole episode.
Obvious corner-cutting with really long and frequent stillshots aside, I was expecting to find a show about glassblowing and generally more of a laid-back SoL. Instead I get yet another convoluted love pentagon drama in the making… I’m frankly not entirely sure if that’s exactly what I want from PA Works again so soon. Can’t we have another (relatively) light-hearted show like Hanasaku Iroha again please?
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll keep watching and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it to some extent, but to find yet another romance drama feels a bit of a shame to me. We know you can do these relatively well PA Works, but you’re capable of so much more. Embrace that talent of yours, darnit!
Just here to give an example of said corner-cutting.
that pic looks fine to me
What exactly am I looking at here? I see nothing but a perfectly fine photo.
Probably referring to Yuki’s chin and mouth, which is kind of crooked. Also, Yuki’s eye is a little too far in the left(her right). Gives her quite a big gap between her eyes. Those are the things I noticed.
Though it can’t be helped to find some faults. PA Works is pretty much known for their beautiful art and animation so any small slipups and cutting corners are easily noticeable.
Gotta say though, Touko looks creepy in that pic.
@belatkuro
Those are apparent in the photo but that’s not cutting corners. When i hear cutting corners in art and animation, i think of methods used to either save up on animation or not draw as much detail as needed. As far as the detail goes for this series and what we’ve seen from the series, the screenshot looks fine.
I was actually more referring to the many stills, recycling of scenes (hi there CGI fireworks) and the chibi characters which, while cute, felt completely out of place. Especially so for a PA Works show.
I guess this is inevitable when a studio that once only put out one show every two years or so starts creating two series per year – especially at PA’s insane levels of quality – and they’re not quite at the level of SHAFT’s shenanigans, but it’s a shame nonetheless. Again nothing I can’t live with, but I guess PA Works’ history created certain expectations that I personally felt were not met. They’re a victim of their own quality and success I suppose.
@Tsugumi
precisely; those are methods of cutting corners. As far as PA works goes, their quality is mostly centered on their art..their animation on the other hand has always been slighty above average to just being above average but never jaw dropping or amazing or even enough to truly stand out.It’s their art that really sells their talent rather than their animation to be quite honest and a good example of that is nagi no Asakura where the art was beautiful but the animation was standard a large amount of the time.
I really liked the background music here. Not so sure about the story yet, but I feel like they took mysterious transfer student just a little too far, lol.
is this slice of life series or romance?
Yes I am here partly because of the theme songs, haha.
Also, I know people draw similarities to Nagi no Asukara (which I also watched) but at least they don’t live in the sea. And we may just get some real romance coming next episode!
So this show, why not?
Meh. I read the MAL description and expected a slice-of-life about glass-making. What I got instead were a bunch of angsty teens. One of the girls especially could do with a vibrator or two in her life. The names of the chickens were the only interesting thing in the entire episode. Dropped.
I gave this a shot and I enjoyed the first episode. The characters are all likable and the transfer student provides enough of a mystery at the moment to want me to see the next episode.
Slice-of-Life is about the character development and I like these characters so far. I’ll be following this one.
Also, as Gigguk put it:
So people at P.A.Works got so much angry about new Ano Natsu being just an OVA, that they decided to simply make it by themselves?
Meh is the entire feel of this first episode. SSY had it’s supernatural elements and so did Nagi, but it looks like only one character has something supernatural about him. That means the whole thing will probably be about these cookie cutter romance bullshit melodramatic relationships.
I mean we already have a love trianglish in the first episode. The megane likes Yuki, Yuki likes Touko, the other guy with the hairband likes the megane, and the other girl seems to like Yuki too. Touko seems more like a combination of Saki and Manaka, so she obviously likes David (lol not calling him anything else) because herp derp he’s all mysterious and boring, (just like Tsumugu)
Two episodes left till I decide to keep watching or drop this like a bad habit. I liked SSY and Nagi, not for the crappy romance, but for everything else. Hopefully Glasslip will have something else besides the crappy romance.
The way things are looking it doesn’t seem it will, unless David goes the Akira route and starts killing people with some hax powers.
Why can’t we just get a Hanasaku Iroha 2 PA works?! WHY?!
I feel like I watched a different show from everyone else here. I cringed a lot through this, mostly through the second half when the transfer guy showed up and spewed his angst all over the place, and whatshername decided to foist chickens on her friends.
First, the whole thing with the chickens. Seriously? Are these magical, non-crapping chickens? Because if you kept a chicken in your room for more than an hour, it would probably be covered in feces and feathers. There’s nothing magical or cute about chickens. (Well, maybe these chickens are magical non-crapping chickens.) And if you were my kid and brought a chicken into my house, I’d probably blow a gasket, not just laugh it off.
As a former glassblower, I was somewhat interested in this… then I saw how they totally screwed up the only glassblowing scene in the whole show. -_- Just FYI kids, when you blow glass, never put a cold pipe into a hot furnace. (That’s a life lesson, really.) You have to heat up the pipe till it’s almost as hot as the molten glass you’re going to dip it in. (Until it’s red/orange at the end.) Hot glass won’t react to a cold pipe well. It won’t stick. Most studios use a box called a pipe warmer just for this.
Also, WEAR EYE PROTECTION. We wear welding glass (or didymium) lenses that flip down over safety glasses, because 1) glass can explode/shatter at any time when you’re working it, and nobody wants 1700F glass shards in their eyes and 2) staring into the furnace without welding lenses on will DESTROY your eyes over time. (Thanks to the intense IR and UV rays that molten glass gives off.) Ugh. That scene just pissed me off.
Yeah, I know I’m supposed to get all angsty about the budding love-polygon, but I just felt irritation at the whole show. Maybe it’s because I didn’t feel like I cared too much about the characters, let alone had the time to get their names straight. Also, I don’t like the moody transfer student. I probably would have punched him if I found out he was responsible for the chickens. I’ll 3-ep rule it, and hope it gets better. (But it’s no True Tears.)
Although I agree with the glassblowing and all that stuff, I don’t think you have to beat someone up just because he stated a potential consequence of letting chickens run free.
I wasn’t fond of him projecting whatever issues he has with his life on the chickens. We can agree to disagree on that.
Setting the chickens to the side, the whole “forcefully calling a girl by her first name in a society where it’s rude as hell to do so” thing was pretty obnoxious.
It’s like if I meet you and start calling you by an intimate nickname, when I’ve only just met you. It’s creepy, weird, and rude all at the same time. (Unless you’re in sales, I guess?)
Is this going to be like Nagi no Asukara ? Feels like they are resurrected again to make my life miserable again !Another Bad For the Heart Anime for this Season .
Kinda enjoyed it. I’ll stick around to watch it. Will it be covered on RC?
Yes – you can refer to our post here for our blogging schedule: https://randomc.net/2014/06/27/summer-2014-schedule/
This was a very dull first episode. I found myself pausing every now and then to go do something else. Which is a shame, because P.A. Works is one of my favorite studios. Another thing that bothered me is the lack of protection during the glass blowing scene…
I’m giving this a couple more episodes. I just hope things pick up in the next episode. This is one of the shows I was looking forward to the most this season. I’d hate for it not to live up to expectations.
Admittedly, slice-of-life series usually aren’t my thing. Not that I don’t understand why others do like them, but more often than not they take too long to take off and by that point I’ve lost any lingering interest I had.
Glasslip though, I’m quite happy to say, has exceeded my expectations.
Right from the get-go, it makes quite clear the underlying tensions in its otherwise merry band of chicken-tending friends. Notions of friendship and camaraderie are evident, but what really grabs me is the feeling of just how easily it could all be torn asunder. Indeed, as some randomly wise person once said, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and that link here is none other than Touko.
Ah yes, Touko. To put it as gently as I possibly can, she is the kind of character that I honestly cannot stomach watching more than once a week, a fact which makes me glad I decided not to try and marathon this. I would’ve never made it. XD
To put it not so gently, she’s the kind of character that I take a sort of sadistic pleasure in waiting out as she’s slowly drawn into the sweet depths of despair.
To that end though, and for better or worse, she has earned my continued attention, and that’s all that really matters in the end, right? Right?
…Anyhow, a stronger first episode than I might’ve expected. On to the next one!
…hm. That’s actually a good point, and possibly why the interactions felt a bit jarring – because they were meant to be. This is a group of close friends, but who aren’t really as close as they’d like to think, or that viewers would be rather more used to. Mm. In that context, this show makes more sense.
Following on that train of thought, though, I suspect that Touko isn’t supposed to be quite the blob she seems at the moment. Given her reading material, naming conventions, eccentric thought processes, and spacy demeanour, I think the suggestion is supposed to be that she’s actually the most disconnected from the rest of the characters; that she fundamentally looks at the world in different ways. In which case Kakeru’s whole spiel is probably identifying a ‘kindred spirit’.
…or it could really just be bad writing and we’re both overthinking it. Eh.
Chickens, why did it have to be chickens!
Am I the only one that got the impression that there are actually TWO characters with some sort of ‘extra’ ability. The first is obviously Kakeru(David) , but I think Touko definitely has something going on too. There are little bits here and there throughout the episode that seem to suggest this. Or maybe I’m reading too much into things.
Although the characters were interesting in their own right, I found the plot quite confusing and dull. Seriously, what normal person would act like the transfer student in the circumstances.
It is a welcomed surprise to see a lot of readers giving sound arguments about the show. Things like: “I liked this but not this” or “I dislike it because of this” Citing references, actually related comparisons and being objective for once. (Really hate the typical: “omgz dis showz zucks” it “blowz goatz”, etc.)Actual argument really is a breath of fresh air. I love romance shows, perhaps to a fault. But second opinions here will allow me to watch the show on a different perspective and hopefully they’ll last long. *inb4 people start shipping couples* :p
Well the main girl is the only thing that kept me entertaining, but it looks like it might turn out good after all. The introduction of the characters was very rushed of course. I hope it doesn’t turn out to be another Tari Tari.
To me True Tears was still the best from PA works, I hope this show can reach it’s caliber specially when it comes to the climactic moments.
Anyway, still True tears characters are cuter than Glasslip 😀
True Tears definitely wins for “Best Dramatic Use of Chickens in an Anime.”
It was a really good series. Lots of angst. And chickens. And angsty chickens.
Crap. Now I want to re-watch it.
Going to need 3 episodes to make a call on this, so far Glasslip has straddled the fence in terms of interest. Very clear the love triangle (pentagram?) is going to be the main focus, catalyzed through whatever the transfer student and girl saw, but has yet to impress with the character interactions and SoL buildup. The “struggle” to save the chickens was more ridiculous than funny, especially keeping them in their rooms. Those are not cats people, chickens will turn your clean room into a disaster and biological hazard faster than any tornado ever could.
One positive though was how this episode was technically the filler festival one; just leaves the ubiquitous beach episode left on the “tropes to check off” list. Now off to my own festival, Stampede here I come 😀
Take the beautiful aesthetically pleasing setting of Tamayura along with an alternate universe AnoHana friend group that stuck together with no tragic deaths, throw in some chickens from True Tears and add a dash of fantasy… I really like this concoction that P.A. Works put together. Surprised Okada Mari isn’t writing this :P. I really liked this introduction. Starting off in the midst of summer vacation with a character cast older than your average main cast was a nice change of pace. I really like the mixture of Slice-of-Life and romance here. Can definitely ease the angst of romance when you’re watching the every day interactions of a group of tightly knit friends.
I’m quite disappointed with the overwhelmingly negative reactions on here. I strongly feel this show deserves better.
The first episode was alright – but everything screamed PA works. The characters, setting and plot was fairly predictable, except about the ‘I saw the same thing as you’ part. Touko seems like a likeable protagonist to me, but she’s one of those excitable, overly kind and oblivious girls.
While the animation was really beautiful, I didn’t like how the focus kept switching suddenly from character to character; the episode didn’t flow well as a result, IMO. And that Yanagi girl…somehow I found her quite annoying. Sachi is my favourite character for now; dat book though, never expected that they would have a cameo of L’Exil et le royaume (such an awesome work!!)
Hoping for more glassblowing! Sadly, they only showed a few seconds of it.
I thought the show had a decent enough start, but it comes across as a show that needs a few episodes to be properly judged. I’m on the fence about it.
Transfer student acts waaaaay too strange/weird for a normal student… to me he came off as really random and REAAAALLLLY creepy.
Touko’s meeting with him seemed really forced and awkward.
Aesthetically, it looks like most PA shows, but I noticed quite a few budget cutting/saving tactics used throughout the episode that left me saddened. The use of CG was disheartening, as well as all the stills, to avoid animating conversations, the “chibi” bubbles, and having actions take place off screen, when focusing close up on a single character, often during conversations.
I’ll continue to watch, but the blatant cost cutting is making me like it less.
The stills were totally fine for me, they gave the show some additional TrueTearsy feeling.
I don’t know why but this is starting to remind me of Tari Tari and True Tears, then again it’s the same company lol
It’s True Tears reborn. I am in love~
Let understand something here, Touko was worry beacuse she didn´t know what Jonathan (a chiken) truly wants!? Touko, my dear, I think Jonathan doesn´t care what you do with it as long as you don´t eat it. XD
i saw what you saw that day
lol Last summer parody
i guess this sealed off my new personal rule. stay away from PA Works
And with the first episode we know exactly what the relationship dynamics in this group are. The fact that this is being directed by the same director as True Tears gives me hope, but I know better than to put my expectations that high. So far I haven’t been turned off by the show. Hopefully it stays that way and doesn’t devolve into a generic dramance.
Also, you know it’s going down when chickens are involved in your romance show.
After watching the Eps. 1 and preview .. I was like “Wow” and this feeling call as ” badump” when I saw on the screen that guy wear cap he resembles of tsumugu OWAAAAH ! im looking forward in this anime . ^_________________________^ Slice of life .. Bad for the heart ? but it will teach as . HAHA
I must have forgotten what True Tears was like, because I’m not seeing the resemblance between the two, and I remember enjoying True Tears a lot more than I enjoyed this. Also, honestly speaking, I came out of this with close to no idea what exactly this whole series is supposed to be about.
It made me wonder if I had placed my expectations in the wrong place by mistake, but a quick check on list of PA Works’ series seems to say otherwise. I mean, aside from True Tears, these guys gave us the charming and splendidly-made Uchouten Kazoku, as well as Hanasaku Iroha, which serves as the very reason for my investment of expectation in PA Works. I watched the first episode of HanaIro again just to make a comparison, and I realized I’m still deeply in love with the series, but the impression that Glasslip gives with its first episode just pales in comparison. I guess I’m simply a little disappointed with this first episode. Sure, I’ll stick around for a few more weeks, but heck, I think I’d be better off re-watching HanaIro.
This show first episode show good promising idea, the animation itself is top notch and being a differentiation factor from similar show. Hoping this will be as interesting later
Only one episode in and I already dislike it. Maybe it’s me for having high expectations (which PA Works usually meets with Angel Beats, Nagi no Asukara amongst others)but this was painful to watch.
The episode had no flow. No proper character introduction. Nothing to actually give the viewer time for everything to sink in.
I was instantly turned off by showing the characters’ names on-screen to introduce them. It’s lazy worse still they expect us to memorize them since the rest of the episode there was very few mention of each character addressing each other by their names, so I don’t know who they are. I red mark.
Then they switch character perspectives as and when which makes the plot even more confusing than it already is. I know about plot and subplot, but how it’s handled in this episode is not the way to do it without first establishing a concrete plot. And this is only the first episode. Subplots shouldn’t even be here since it’s the introductory phase. Flow is broken. Enjoyment is taken away.
And the chickens, oh my god. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I facepalmed when the main character whose name escapes me wanted to “save the chickens”. I know this is anime, but they’re 16-17. Treat them like they have some common sense.
The show’s only saving grace is its visuals. Great animation and vibrant colors as expected of PA Works, though I’m turned off by the chibis and the surprisingly high number of still frames, so visual quality was inconsistent throughout.
And the episode ends, which is, honestly, the best part of this experience. Not picking this up.
Watched this because of the cute SD characters I saw around the web.
Ok, theres some mystery but I don’t like how they freeze the scene like a drawing then carry on talking. Is that some stylish way to cut cost? ‘Shafted’?
To tell the truth, I was expecting a show about someone pursuing a carreer in glassmaking… so I was a bit disappointed. But at least the art looks fine. Will watch at least 2 more episodes.
This one reminded me of True Tears.. another of P.A. Works previous works.. and I can already smell it..
The director of True Tears is the same as the one who is directing this series.
Plus, a magazine in Japan described the anime as being “six years since True Tears” meaning the creators are involved or some of the themes are being recycled into this new anime.
The main character has Shin’ichiro’s drawing abilities and Noe’s bizarre personality (Touko is not really weird, but she seems rather childish or happy go lucky). I am starting to suspect that she may end up either the track runner dude due to the stated above reasons.
P.A.Works, nano.RIPE and a good dosis of slice-of-life and romance, what more could be wish for?