What is even happening?
What They Say:
“Snow”
Toko Fukami’s family runs a glassware craft studio. Toko and her friends often gather at Cafe Kazemichi, at her friend’s house, to relax. During the summer holidays in their final year, a new boy, Kakeru Okikura, joins their high school. He tells Toko that he can hear voices from the future. If she could know what happens in the future, what would she wish for? Toko feels a strange jolting sensation she has never felt before, while noticing an urge she cannot ignore welling up.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Ok GLASSLIP…you and I need to have a talk about shots. Specifically a sequence of shots that was so predatory to Yana, I wanted to turn it off in disgust. There’s a sequence of shots that first stops at the above picture for really no reason other than fanservice. Then she’s taking off her skirt(?), then a still of her nearly naked, then a few seconds of her showering, then walking around the house and up the stairs NAKED, then she’s running. What is the point of that entire two or three minutes? What did it serve to forward the plot or the character? Absolutely nothing. It was worthless.
This was hardly the episode’s weakest point.
The entire reason the episode is called “Snow” at all isn’t brought up until the 20th minute. 20 minutes out of 24 minutes, including the opening and ending. So really 20 minutes out of 21 minutes. In the FINAL MINUTE do we learn why the episode is named what it is. And it is the worst part of the episode because we get yet another shot of Okikura being AWFUL. Touko is clearly in some sort of panic and his best option is to kiss her. KISS HER. Not only does she not seem up to the idea of him at that moment (though, yes, she does seem up to the idea of him in general), she’s scared to death. What can a first kiss to do a girl to that age when she’s already frightened? Way to be the alpha male, you douchebag.
The most questionable shot is when we get a still of the baseball team practicing. A symbol of youth?! I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore.
In Summary:
This show has become so meandering. Nothing happened in this episode to push forward the plot or the characters’ development. I GUESS maybe that little bit at the end between Touko and Okikura, but that’s hardly enough for the episode unless you’re going at a really deliberate pace like Flowers of Evil. GLASSLIP is not Flowers of Evil. It’s been struggling with focus since episode two when it introduced seeing into the future. Now with it’s cluster of characters not knowing what they want, I think the writers themselves are confused.
Grade: F
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: Radeon 7850, 24” Dell UltraSharp U2410 set at 1920 x 1200, Creative GigaWorks T20 Series II