Bartender: Glass of God

 Bartender: Glass of God (バーテンダー 神のグラス) is a 12 episode drama based on the manga Bartender by Nagatomo Kenji.  The anime originally aired during the 2024 Spring season.

    Kurushima Miwa and Higuchi Yukari are given the job of finding the right match for the premier bar at the hotel they work in.  The chairman of the hotel is adamant that the correct person is found and will be able to give the hotels customers, many who have arrived in Tokyo after a long flight, the perfect drink to allow them to settle in comfortably, the Glass of God.  The two women find themselves scouring bars and clubs across the city until the discover a hidden place called Edens Hall.  The young man behind the counter surprise them with his wise demeanor and incredibly mixology.  The man, Sasakura Ryu, possess all of the qualities they are seeking but he politely declines their offer.

    Undeterred by his initial refusal and spurned by the insistence of their supervisor, they continue to pressure the courteous bartender to leave his hidden sanctuary and become their premier attraction.  Miwa in particular continues to return to Edens Hall to try and understand why Ryu is so adamant at turning down their offer.  Doing so begins to wrap her up into the unseen aspects of the life of a bartender as other less experienced people begin to fall into Ryu's orbit and he strives to help them the best he can, to achieve their ideal goals.  Miwa can't give up but understands it may be helpless as Ryu's determination is unwavering but he is too polite to force her to stop visiting his establishment.

    The Bartender franchise has been a long running and well regarded mature drama story so I wasn't going to hesitate jumping in with this newest iteration.  I was a bit hesitant, being mildly aware that the original series is more of a problem, of the week style story.  Though, the fantastic Death Parade is that way as well.  This series appears to continue to the work of the older series though does not appear to require watching that originally.  There is an overall plot of various people who work for the hotel trying to bring the miraculous young bartender into their fold.  On the backdrop of that story there are episodic problem of the week plot lines that become resolved, mostly, by the end of each episode.

    It's not a bad series, while the episodic plot lines can become tiring at times, its really a story about human nature and relationships and it handles it rather well.  The downside is all of the characters are presented with an unrealistic level of optimism and agreeableness.  It was written well enough that I may need to check out the earlier series at some point.  There is a high attention to detail when it comes to the real star of the show, the alcohol, so much so I feared the show blindly ignored the problems drinking brings people at times.  In the end, the show painted the picture that alcohol can solve your problem as long as its provided to you by a talented and experienced bartender.  That in an of its self should make the audience pause and question the motivations for this.  At other times it felt like a sales pitch for Suntory.  Goddamn do I want some 12 year Yamazaki...that is some high quality whiskey and I squandered the bottle I had 15 years ago, before it became and international sensation.

The series was simulcast on Cruchyroll and is available in sub and dub, along with the original series.