For some reason spring has two remakes of anime from the bygone past. And Bartender is even older than Spice and Wolf – it’s been 18 years since the first series aired. I’m not sure why either of these old chestnuts got reboots – I never had the sense the public was beating the drums demanding them. In this case the first anime was 11 episodes (and if you hear 11 episodes and 2006, you should know it was NoitaminA), and given that the manga didn’t end until 2011, obviously left a lot of material unadapted. Whether this version will stick around long enough to rectify that I have no idea, though Bartender getting a complete adaptation at 21 volumes would be even more surprising than it getting remade in the first place.
The other thing Bartender has in common with Spice and Wolf is that both shows pretty much bored me to tears at the time they aired, despite drawing pretty widespread praise. Once more we have a case – well-regarded seinen manga in this instance – where I feel like I ought to like a series more than I do. But truth be told I have been known to engage in a bit of imbibing on occasion, and I do rather like cool bar settings, so there’s more thematic overlap with my tastes here. Once more I wade in to see if many years have changed the way I perceive a series.
As with S & W, I don’t remember enough of the first anime to say whether this new one is “better” or “worse”. And again, my overall take is that this was perfectly fine. The studio, Liber, as far as I know has only produced one series, but it was a good one – Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi. It has a veteran director in Kuraya Ryouichi and the pacing and staging of the premiere is pretty well on-point. I’d be lying if I said the premiere was really compelling, but I was entertained. And as I said, this one is at least relevant to my interests (even if I’m more of a scotch and bourbon than a cocktails guy).
Obviously some things have been updated here – I’m assuming cell phones didn’t play such a large part in the 2006 series’ intro, and in fact Sasakura’s incompetence with them might be a wry commentary on the time gap since it aired. Or he could be a demon or something (again, I remember almost nothing) – I mean, red eyes certainly isn’t natural. The pitch here is that a fancy new hotel is looking for a bartender for their “intimate” counter bar, and the director insists that he (or she) be able to produce “the glass of God”, even though he can’t say what he means by that except “you’ll know it when you see it”. In charge of the search are the Yin-Yang personalities of two office ladies from the hotel.
That search leads them to the aforementioned Sasakura Ryuu, after numerous candidates are summarily rejected. Sasakura (they met him at the park, where he forgot a library book) owns a tiny Ginza bar called Eden Hall, where the interwebs say he makes the best cocktails in town (and Tokyo is at the very top of the cocktail pyramid). Having won a prestigious European mixology title while working at the “Ratz” (ROFL) Hotel in Paris, he had quite a reputation even before he returned to Japan. There are hints of mysterious goings on with Eden Hall – like, not everyone can find it (but then, that’s normal for Ginza), but the two ladies ocate it easily enough and put Sasakura to a test he passes with flying colors.
The mixology scenes are fun, and if you have an interest in such things, well- interesting. It amused me that all the bottles were their real versions, so there’s product placement a-plenty, and the discourses on Pousse-café style and making bar ice were fun in a geeky way. The whisky anorak in me requires that I point out that Glenfarclas is in fact a Speyside not a Highland, despite saying Highland on the bottle, but since Speyside was once considered part of the Highland region I won’t deduct points for that. I don’t know if Bartender will hold my interest now when it couldn’t back then, but my obsessions with both hooch and anime have skyrocketed in the intervening years so I’d give it a better shot than Spice and Wolf if I were a betting man.
colosson
April 4, 2024 at 6:44 pmThe first Bartender anime was not a NoitaminA anime
Guardian Enzo
April 4, 2024 at 7:22 pmOh, you’re correct, thanks. I saw 11 episodes and Fuji as a producer and misremembered.
Collectr
April 4, 2024 at 9:19 pmIf you’re doing a show about a profession, you need to get the details right. The fun in this first episode was all the minutia at the Eden Hall bar – from getting ultra-dense ice to knowing an appropriate drink for a hungry customer to making a highball that actually works. And Glenfarclas, despite its Speyside origin, says “Highland Single Malt” on its label: I checked. The use of actual product names, rather than the usual copyright-avoidance “off by one” naming, contributes to the authenticity.
At the same time, Ryuu’s techniques would only work in a quiet, expensive, upper-crust bar. The trendy bartender who failed the audition wouldn’t be able to hear a rumbling stomach amid all the noise and music at his popular bar.
Guardian Enzo
April 4, 2024 at 9:27 pmTo quote myself: “I point out that Glenfarclas is in fact a Speyside not a Highland, despite saying Highland on the bottle.”
Collectr
April 5, 2024 at 2:56 amAh, though you meant “in the anime,” not “in real life.”
Nadavu
April 5, 2024 at 5:04 amI’m using my three-review rule here (reading three Enzo review before deciding if to watch a show), but I have to say this doesn’t sound much like the Bartender I remember from way back when. There’s too much… plot? I don’t remember any plot other than customers grumbling about their day and then having their entire outlook on life turned on its head by ba-ten adding some water to their whisky
Guardian Enzo
April 5, 2024 at 9:27 amI like that rule, but it needs my name in it!
It may be that they inserted this prologue to set up the story, and it’s original? I have no idea.
Nicc
April 5, 2024 at 8:09 amAlright, this is the first new show of the season that I’ll be commenting about. There was a thought in my mind as I was watching this episode. I was a big fan of the original “Iron Chef” series. I don’t remember how I came across it, but I was flipping channels on a Friday evening and happened upon what appeared to be some Japanese cooking show. It didn’t take long for the whole family to get hooked and that show became a Friday evening ritual. There was a title card at the beginning of each episode which read, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” from French food author Brillat-Savarin. That’s still pretty much the only thing I know about him. That got me thinking, what can our drink order tell us about ourselves? Whether it’s a martini, a high ball, a grasshopper (I first learned out it from the movie “Ronin”. As per the character played by Robert Deniro, it’s two parts gin, one part brandy and one part creme de menthe), a Tom Collins, or a single plum, floating in perfume, served in a man’s hat, it’s interesting to consider what our drink of choice presents to others.
I do remember that this show has a following and a part of it was because it didn’t get an official North American release until 2021. If we weren’t at drinking age when watching it in 2006, we certainly should be now. Yep, I too was reasonably entertained, even all of the alcohol that I drink now is actually non-alcoholic. Sasakura Ryuu is the bartender in question, and now you got me thinking of a premise of a vampire trying to go “sober” while working as a bartender. Since the job tends to be associated with nights, it’s a good job for one. A thousand year-old vampire bartender could certainly dispense a lot of wisdom along with the drinks.
Okay, back on track, a high-end hotel is looking for a bartender for their counter bar. Even after going through many candidates, they haven’t had any luck. It doesn’t help that the criteria is somebody who can produce a “Glass of God”. Two office ladies are tasked to find somebody who can do that and massive city like Tokyo would have tons of bars. Right, they eventually get clued in about Sasakura and where he works at and seems really hard to find. For some reason, I thought it would be like in “Isekai Shokudō” where the door just shows up a random, but there’s no fantasy or supernatural elements to be found in this episode. The two office ladies do test him and the mixology scenes were fun for me to watch. He’s so skilled with the bespoke drinks that he doesn’t even use liquor pourers. So, yeah, it was a fine episode for me. My drink of choice for watching this episode was just a seltzer. I’m not starting a tab yet at Edenhall, but I’ll at least check out another episode.