I’ll say this for Bartender, it’s really finishing on a high. These last three episodes have been uniformly excellent. Which is not surprising, as the whole Bar Kaze thread with Kitakata and Kase-san is easily the most engaging of the series. Bartender is at its best stripped of all artifices and modern animanaga affectations – that could not be more clear to me at this point. Simpler is better, and thoughtful and reflective over”dramatic”. Shows really need to stick to what they do well, but so many have a really hard time doing that (including this one, for much of its run).

Both halves of this ep worked for me, but the A-part was especially powerful. It seems that Kase-san is being discharged – temporarily, for what seems likely to be the final time. He expresses a desire to stand behind the bar one last time, and of course Bar Kaze is long gone. But Kitakata offers to close his place for the night, and Miwa (whose tagging along is the one discordant note in the story for me) puts out a social media message about it. Which she really shouldn’t have, but it turns out OK in the end.

I won’t lie, this whole sequence got to me – especially when Kase lit up those shots of vodka as a tribute to all his customers who had passed on. For this man bartending is a way of life, a calling – and for his customers, he’s family. Kitakata has saved the old “Bar Kaze” sign, and it’s like it’s re-opened for a night as a members only joint. Ryuu and Kitakata ably assist, and the old man works his magic one last time. It could be argued to be a bit corny I suppose, but a story about bartenders just lends itself to that sort of emotional payoff.

The focus then shifts back to Miwa and her grandfather, and the whole misguided quest to poach Sasakura for the Cardinal. Miwa enlists Sasakura (after all the times she imposes on his he should be drawing a salary even without jumping ship) to help her track down a bottle. It’s one that her father had set aside to drink with her grandfather after they’d feuded over the direction of thee business (the son was right). But Miwa broke it and has felt responsible for their never mending fences ever since (her father was killed in an accident 25 years earlier).

All Ryuu has to go on is that it was “sparkly” – which isn’t much. He and the Ogura master puzzle over this, their focus turning to high-end cognacs like Louis XIII. But none of these look right to Miwa (who drops thousands of dollars in Yen on them rather than just looking at photos on the net for some reason – she’s really loaded). Ogura’s man finally suggests that because Kurushima-san at the time “hated Western things” (like hotels), his son wouldn’t have chosen a Western liquor to reconcile. That lights the spark for Sasakura-san, and he finally solves the puzzle.

The Kakubin (square) bottle shape does sort of sparkle. Ryuu finds a bottle of pre-1989 whisky, which is actually pretty easy – there’s a ton of old Suntory around in Japan, and I’ve tried several bottles myself. There’s no question dusty whisk(e)y tastes different – not always better, but often. Whether it continues to age in the bottle – what whisky geeks call “old bottle effect” – is hotly debated (my experience tells me that OBE unequivocally exists). There were different grain species used, different casks – lots of reasons, depending on the spirit. But Ryuu is absolutely right – you’re drinking memories too, a time capsule, and that does impact how a whisky tastes.

Now, though, we come down to the matter of Ryuu’s place of work. Interestingly even after eleven episodes I’m still not sure how Kami no Glass wants us to think about this. For me, the whole exercise is misguided. Sasakura is happy at Edenhall, and both respects and owes his boss. The bar ceases to exist if he leaves. And I’ve yet to hear a good reason why he should. He can just as easily chase his “glass of God” (finally defined here, as a customer’s last drink on Earth) at Edenhall as at the Cardinal.  I think Kurushima and Miwa should bugger off, personally, but the vibe I’m getting is that’s not what the series is selling. We’ll find out soon enough.