This Week in Anime

A Toast to Bartender

Chris
Nicky, it turns out what they say is true: Makin' your way in the world today really does take everything you've got. And I think that taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away?

That's right, Crunchyroll has finally seen fit to put this one up for streaming, so it's time to mix drinks and change lives. As someone who enjoys a drink or three, I was looking forward to finally getting the chance to take a few shots with Bartender. Sure, I enjoy the likes of Takunomi too, but that classier atmosphere you mention gives this one its distinct appeal.

As someone who had only the barest familiarity with this show's concept going in, I was caught off-guard by the presentation as of the first episode. Characters take turns appearing on 'sets,' and there's plenty of direct looking at and addressing the audience themselves.

It's odd, but it does click after a little while, and as an eternally-recovering theater kid, I was absolutely able to get into the series and that style of presenting each episode as a mini-stage play. I particularly like the consistent effect of the bar's lighting acting as spotlights throughout the scenes.

To his credit, Ryu himself never comes off as anything other than welcoming to the people who wander into his high-class watering hole. Heck, the entire first episode is about a designer disillusioned with what he feels is the pretentious nature of such establishments. That primarily stems from one bad experience he had, but Ryu's cool head and keen observation skills let him gently draw the guy into the true bar experience.

It economically sets up what kinds of vibes Bartender will be meditating on—getting drunk off the booze rarely, if ever, factors into the stories of the drinks being served here. Instead, it's all about the experience of those cocktail creations, the feelings their flavors conjure up, and the atmosphere cultivated by the place they're served.

The 'medicine' angle is another immediate allusion, with Ryu directly comparing his profession to pharmacists and physicians!

That ends up powering the 'gimmick' of the show and each episode. Each entry has its patrons as the main characters of their respective stories, relating their troubles while Ryu earnestly listens. The payoff comes when he produces whatever liquid therapy he's deduced that they need and the explanations of what personal tics and clues led him to his decision.

It often ends up intersecting with the aspects and histories of the drinks themselves, so we also get some neat edutainment out of the deal!

Oh yeah, the folkloric origin of the margarita was designed to be more fanciful than, say, the history lesson on Suntory whiskey.

For a show so steeped in grown-up sensibilities, I was pleasantly surprised at how non-cynical Bartender let itself be. Like Ryu's deployment of the Mizuwari in the first episode acknowledges the drink's origins as a marketing campaign but immediately describes the delectable value to be found in the concoction.


Like the Takunomi, as mentioned earlier, Bartender is generally good at getting someone like me curious to try drinks I haven't before.

The show knows how to utilize its available resources best. The character models can look chunky at times. Still, the nature of the stories being told means they generally don't have to move much, and instead, the series spruces up the dialogue-driven nature of it with those theatrical touches we mentioned.

Meanwhile, the CGI is mostly used to build the bar set itself, lending it an effectively surreal ambiance and presenting the drinks themselves as attractively as possible.

The whole thing oozes class, and that's before we even touch on the low-key jazz tunes backing the bar's events in each episode. It's all enough to make you see about seeking out an establishment that might be on this level in your area. Even if you know you aren't one for drinking, they make recommendations for some non-alcoholic cocktails.

Also, even though they offer you the recipes, there are multiple drinks just in these first six episodes that Ryu mixes up, which involve setting things on fire, and those are best left to the professionals.

The Hemingway one was one of my favorites. The show's presentation gives it plenty of breathing room to commit to the bit, yet I was still surprised at how much of that episode got to be an Old Man and the Sea audiobook. And it gets to pay off against a plotline with one of the more concrete arcs seen in the show, our humble sales rep reaching a catharsis thanks to all these fish-based allegories and frozen daiquiris.

It's also cool for giving us just the faintest hint of interiority for Ryu, showing that he can feel some regret or anxiety about his job beyond simply serving as a liquor-based therapist.

I generally think hitting that emotional buzz is something Bartender consistently does. And a lot of it comes from that format of listening to patrons tell stories of varying levels of embellishment, which they at least feel they're being honest about. The second episode charts a whirlwind of experiences involving her family by Miwa (who gets to act as a secondary host through the rest of the show) and her rough recollection of breaking a pivotal bottle of booze.


That's a true enough tragedy on its own. But then the rest of the episode throws out failed family reconciliations and sudden parental death, but even with the stagecraft style, it never feels melodramatic. Instead, it's about arriving at a point where we, and Miwa's grandfather, can bask in those bittersweet emotions the script and style orchestrated.

The show features many scenes that could be punctuated that way.

The show's writing, and Ryu within it, even recognize the intersections in those mixed indulgences of make-believe and reality. You can see this in the bit in the very first episode where Ryu details the mythological value of an ice sculpture of a fairy-important glass, only to end up cracking it apart when he deduces its ice is an ideal ingredient in the cocktail he's crafting to sell his customer on the magic of bars.

The story wasn't "real," but it still wound up having value as a component of the message that was overall trying to be communicated.

"Cozy" is the right word. This is a show to unwind with, kick back with a drink, and take in an episode before bed. This isn't to say it's not engaging; these stories have arcs and drama. But there's a difference between taking in an animated argument between two old dudes on the merits of blended whiskey and how that applies to filmmaking philosophies versus finding yourself getting roped into such a spirited discussion at a real bar with some dude who's had one Old Fashioned too many.

That makes it all appreciable that this one is finally more easily accessible via streaming. Hopefully, that results in more people discovering it or being able to recommend it to their friends and family, as you mentioned. For my part, I'll check out the remaining five episodes of this whenever I need something to chill out with. Even if that's not a ton left, an establishment like this can't stay open at all hours. Like they say: You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.