I shall speak of the anime now, as I decided to watch the dorama after anime in order to be acquainted with the 'original' spirit of 'Bartender'. well, of course the most original one is the manga, but I do feel the anime is even more beautiful
seiyuus
are perfect. the low and tender voice of the narrator, the pleasant intonations of the bartender, the sweet and expressive voices of the girls and slow, calm ones of the older bartenders, they impressed me so much that I would be happy if there were twice as much episodes in 'Bartender', just to listen to their dialogues, discussions and commentaries a little longer. sometimes I realized I was not reading the subtitles, as the speech was quite slow, the words were so comprehensible, and the manner of speaking so warm that I simply lost myself in the depth of the series
the music
was perfect as well. the jazzy feeling followed every episode, and do ye know how many kinds of jazzy melodies can a talented composer come up with? energetic opening, calm background melodies contributing to the atmosphere of the 'Eden hall', sad motives encompassing the flashbacks of a hard past, a gentle but strong ending... a lot of piano alone and a lot of piano coupled with other instruments, a lot of inprovisations and variations, not too plain to go unnoticed, but never sounding odd
the story
to be precise, there are a lot of stories, those of every customer who came to 'Eden hall'. we also get to know Ryu's story a little. every of them quite sad and revealing the cruelty of the world we live in, but every of them ending in a bartender finding a way to support his guest with a nice beverage, giving hope and strength to move on again. I was constantly wondering if there are at least one such person in the world who cares for his customers, unknown to him people, strangers... finally I came to the conclusion that the world of anime is cruel, giving us an impression that the world is full of such tender nice people who put their souls into what they do to bring happiness to other people. 'tis a fairytale, is it not?
graphics
while having obvious problems with people, their faces and sometimes clothes, the studio is great in other details which totally redeem for the mistakes they have made
first, the bottles. they are so vivd and beautiful that I was doubting if they were not simply cut out from photos of the real ones. of course they were painted ones, even if the photos were used on the initial stages, but the result was impressing - no, 'twas shocking
all the other kitchen stuff, glasses, spoons, shackers, whatever was the same. perfect and beautiful, I could watch them for ages
another things that went well were the static pictures in the beginning of every episode, apparently created to resemble art-nouveau, as well as pictures shown while some of the bartenders were speaking of some beverage background, or the narrator was telling some story. the ones I remember especially well are the 'Old Man and the Sea' and the story about some monastery in France
'osusume'
that is how I would call this anime. a great, unique piece, so calm and soothing, so very bright by its mood while so subdued the light was in the bar. well, of course 'tis not for fanservice lovers unable to enjoy a sophisticated alcohol drink slowly sipping it to taste all its beauty... I mean, this anime is not for those who cannot appreciate the slow narration of a 'slice of life' story
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