I know I could have looked it up anytime. But as I speculated last week, Suntory is on the production committee for Bartender. Which is fine, you know, but I have to say the ham-handedness of it is starting to grate on me. I certainly don’t remember heavy product placement in the first anime (which I admit I didn’t watch all that much of). There are times in this series where it straddles the line between entertainment and commercial. And that seems to be getting worse as it progresses. I’d be lying if I said that doesn’t concern me.
I’m also struggling with the fact that Bartender seems to be trying a little too hard to tell conventional stories. There was a certain kind of zen abstraction to the first few episodes that in my hazy memory is more what I associate with the franchise. That works better for me, though some of these conventional stories are interesting enough. A lot of them don’t really involve Sasakura that much too, which strikes me as rather odd.
This time around the focus is squarely on the SUNTORY Cocktail Awards. The title character is looped into this by Kurushima-san asking him to observe the finals and tell him which contestant the Cardinal should hire, but it’s a pretty tangential role. As we now both Kyouko and Yuri are competing, and trying to do their bosses proud. Kelvin Chen is involved too, still trying to get the sort of attention from Daddy that he wants. Kyouko seems pretty in over her head but Yuri is a player, and her interactions with her fellow-Okinawan boss are among the better moments in the episode.
As for cocktails, there’s reference to the Yukiguni (*Snow Country*), the 1959 winner by Iyama Keiichi, was was Japan’s oldest working bartender at 95 until his passing in 2021. And it looks delicious, I have to say. Yuri wins with her Okinawan-inspired cocktail, Kyouko gets Sasakura’s recommendation, and Chen screws up. He winds up back at his father’s hotel in Singapore, though still working as a bartender at least. Now that this little arc is over I’m hoping Bartender will revert to the narrative style that won me over in the first place.
Casey W.
May 23, 2024 at 10:27 pmI’d love to read a history of product placement in anime, if that’s even the term for this kind of production-committee participation. I think the first time I was curious about this was watching Nodame Cantabile, which is just stuffed with Yamaha pianos, the camera lovingly panning over the Yamaha logo during every extended musical performance. And then of course there’s Super Cub, which is a yuri high school romance bolted directly onto a Honda motorcycle ad. There must be hundreds of other examples, but it’s still kind of jarring when a real brand name shows up (instead of “Abidas” in BokuYaba, “Costaco” in Yubisaki to Renren, etc.).
Guardian Enzo
May 24, 2024 at 8:22 amSounds like an interesting commission! 😉
Joshua
May 24, 2024 at 1:59 amIf we’re being fair, Suntory did sponsor the 2006 series too and their product placement was everywhere in that show, including an digression into talking about the history of Suntory whiskey itself. The EDs themselves are live-action segments where they show you how to make the drinks seen in the episodes too (complete with showing the reason why the real labeled bottles were used in the anime episodes proper rather than for purely promotion).
Guardian Enzo
May 24, 2024 at 8:27 amYeah, it’s been so long and I didn’t watch that much of it so as noted, my memory on this is not trustworthy.
Nicc
May 24, 2024 at 8:16 amYes, the product placement was blatant in this episode. This episode also wrapped up the storyline for Kelvin, which just so happened to tie in to Kyouko’s and Yuri’s journey in the cocktail awards. But, yeah, this episode was presented by Suntory. For relaxing times, make it… you know the rest.
Product placement in anime is in itself an interesting topic *writes that down to keep for later*. “Code Geass” is infamous for Pizza Hut. A lot of music anime shows get sponsorships from musical instrument manufacturers and so you can buy a lot of the stuff that is being shown. Other minor ones I’ve seen include those Calorie Mate blocks. I’ve seen those show up a few times.
Back to the show, all of the storylines converge at the cocktail awards. Sasakura is once again roped in by the Kurishima’s to do something for them, but at least this time it’s not for something that he should be paid for. He’s asked to observe the awards to scout if there’s anybody worth hiring for the Hotel Cardinal. We never did get to see where Kelvin went off to after leaving Edenhall, but it looks like he found a place to keep on practicing and then decided to join the competition. The focus is on him and along with Kyouko and Yuri, along with their mentors.
Then, the competition begins. It looks like all of the contestants were required to use at least one Suntory product for their original cocktail. Yuri is cool as a cucumber and it all goes well. Kyouko at first freezes with all of that attention and pressure on her, but the encouragement from her boss showing up helps her pull through. Kelvin was doing well at first, but he was too focused on his father that he slipped up. Dad was watching the competition remotely. Everybody eventually wins in their own way. Yuri wins the competition outright and her winning cocktail becomes a hit back at the bar. With Sasakura’s recommendation, Kyouko gets a job at the Hotel Cardinal (Okay, maybe Sasakura should have gotten a commission for that). I’m guessing that means we’ll be seeing more of her with Miwa and Yukari. Old man Kurushima still wants Sasakura for the counter bar, though.
Kelvin is not seen again for the rest of the episode after the competition as we’re told that he’s now working as a bartender at one of his dad’s hotels in Singapore. I was hoping he’d get together with the gang one more time as it would have worked thematically. Sasakura has been working on a “(seasonal) welcome drink” in the last episode and so I would have liked to see what he’d come up with for a “farewell drink” for Kelvin. I think it was a bit of a missed opportunity. With those storylines tied off, here’s to hoping it does indeed get back to earlier on. I wonder what’s with that last scene with Sasakura looking at that empty lot. Maybe he wants to open up his own place, but it looks a wee bit small.
Danny Gates
May 26, 2024 at 12:17 pmIyama Keiichi died in 2021, not 2011 :p
Guardian Enzo
May 26, 2024 at 12:21 pmMisprints suck. I even took the trouble of googling it.