GLASSLIP would be so much better without Okikura.
What They Say:
“Moon”
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)
This is very much a transitionary episode. Characters who I formerly hated have quietly seeped into neutral territory, except Okikura. I still hate him, despite his relative little time on screen. He’s extremely demanding and his conversations with Touko aren’t conversations as much as they’re him asking questions to her. “Can you do this? … Then can you do this? … Then can you tell me about this?” It’s more than a little rude given the tone and aura he gives off.
But Yana seems much less like a target of straight up predatory camera work and more like a fanservice character, which is a change I can deal with. She even has a little arc of her own! She’s recreating herself after being denied by Yuki. Her old self is represented in the clothes she used to wear and still keeps just because Yuki complimented her on them. She’s incredibly sentimental. So much so that she won’t give them away or sell them, she gifts them to Touko’s little sister, Hina, who she knows likes Yuki. Perhaps Yana is a little more devilish than at first glance. She could be trying to live through Hina.
Yuki has tempered as well. The focus has gone off his infatuation with Touko and the incest angle with Yana to his track. His knee still bothers him, but he’s getting some good marks. We haven’t seen much of him doing anything, but he’s doing it. Someone’s taking notice. But this distances him from the rest of the group and allows him, who perhaps wants to be the most distant, the most physical distance from everyone.
Hiro and Sachi, formerly my favorite adorable couple, are going through their first stages of reconciliation. They still love each other, evident in Sachi wanting to get back together, even if it’s just hanging out, and Hiro still reading Sachi’s books. But Hiro is incredibly protective of his friends. He worries about his sister, who drives awful, and about Sachi, who was driving with said sister. He even worries about the chickens Touko’s worried about. He’s a genuine character that has trouble expressing emotion, but wants so badly to do so. He just gets embarrassed.
In Summary:
Without Okikura clogging up the majority of the episode, I am actually neutral on the show again. Or at least this episode. If a show takes nine episodes to gets its ground, and only has 13 episodes to work with, that’s unforgiveable. But it seems like GLASSLIP finally knows what it wants to do with its characters and is moving toward that. Hopefully it doesn’t involve too much future seeing.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Equipment: PS3, LG 47LB5800 47” 1080p LED TV
