Glasslip – 05
What does this look mean?
Glasslip is quickly moving to be my favorite PA works show, and given that they’ve got so many good ones, that’s saying a lot.
Continuing the Atmosphere
“You guys should find yourselves girlfriends too…”
I fairly gushed last week about the way the episode was presented, and this week just continued that lovely method of storytelling. And I think it was even more effective in this episode, depicting a day’s worth of life in the middle of all this uncertainty that’s going on for the characters. And this episode really brought the relationship between Yanagi and Yuki to the forefront, from the beginning of their trip to a regional track meet in the morning to the end of the afternoon where Yanagi lays it all out. In between, Touko’s trying to figure out what she’s feeling, and also figure out what everyone else is doing. And all of it revolves around the Hinode Bridge, that lovely piece of scenery with the train under it that the show has returned to again and again (and is actually the name of the episode).
Laying It Out
Yanagi has made a decision. After her run-in with Kakeru in the rain, she’s made the decision that she’s going to let Yuki know how she feels. And you can tell that her attitude is different from the morning when she’s willing to backtalk to the other guys at the track meet, not dismissing the idea that she and Yuki are intimate. But even with that, she’s still not quite convinced, and needs to bounce some ideas off of Kakeru, who becomes her statue to just listen (but also to convey some messages to Touko). And discussing that with Kakeru hardens her resolve to confess to Yuki, but instead of the romantic, hopeful, wonderful confession that you usually expect, it’s more of a resigned “I’m telling you how I feel, I know you love someone else, and I hope that we can still treat each other well.” It’s what Yanagi needed to do, but it’s certainly not something she wanted to do, at least the way it turned out.
Figuring Out
“That’s totally my mom, not Hiro sneaking out of the window. And no, you don’t have to go say hi.”
That’s what we need to do with Sachi. I’m really not sure what she’s trying to do, or how she’s trying to do it. She apparently wasn’t put off by Hiro’s falling asleep at the movie, and still is inviting him over to read in her room. And she’s not afraid to admit that to Touko, who had been wondering who Hiro’s supposed to be on a date with. I wonder what that look from Sachi to Hiro was, as she went to greet Touko, but it causes Hiro to scramble out the window to avoid Touko. Did he do that for his own sake, or for Sachi, or to avoid making Touko think that she’s interrupting something? There seemed to be so much meaning in that look, but I can’t really figure out what it was. She seems to be a little surprised when he’s not there when she brings Touko up, but doesn’t say anything to Touko about it, and even covers for him when he goes to get his shoes from the entryway (odd that Touko didn’t notice them). And Sachi denies she’s dating Hiro, but confirms he was there. If that goes on, there’s going to be some big misunderstanding between the two of them.
Kakeru finds a pretty spot to share with Touko
And Touko herself needs to figure out what she’s feeling, because she’s just kind of bouncing around from person to person, not really understanding what’s going on. She easily accepts Sachi’s denial of dating Hiro (never wondering why Hiro would be reading books with Sachi), and gets flustered with her mentioning Kakeru, although it doesn’t bode well for Sachi that Touko thinks there’s more to Kakeru than just good looks. Touko’s realizing more and more that she’s got a connection to Kakeru, even more than their shared ability to perceive the future. She’s even willing to call and pour out her thoughts to Kakeru…’s dad (oops), but that gets her introduced to his father and gets a chance to see Kakeru’s ‘room’. And on top of that, Kakeru takes her to a beautiful spot in the woods, which she enjoys until she realizes she’s touching his hand. So I think Touko’s leaning towards realizing that she likes Kakeru, but I still think she’s just still befuddled by this whole “love” thing.
Touko getting a little closer than she thought
This episode eclipsed the last one that I held in such high regard. The resignation of Yanagi, confessing her love to someone she now doesn’t want to love her back. The coming misunderstanding of Hiro and Sachi, one of whom thinks they’re dating, the other who doesn’t think they are (but I do think Sachi knows that Hiro thinks they are). And the possible revelation of Touko realizing that she likes Kakeru enough to call it love, this new guy who’s shaken everything up in their group even while he’s not even been with the group. I’m loving the way the show is going, and hope that it just keeps up.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Sachi will be Aoharide’s Kou to Glasslip. So enigmatic I just don’t know. Like, what was the point of Hiro escaping through the window if she said that he’s been with her that day?
My guess is that MAYBE, in a VERY REMOTE POSSIBILITY, Sachi is trying to forget her feelings for Touko going out with someone she knows that likes her. That is assuming she has feelings for Touko, and that she knows that Hiro likes her, which are remote possibilities by themselves.
This is getting better and better… Is it just one course?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yes, it’s a one-cour series, but 13 episodes.
I don’t think Sachi’s trying to un-Touko herself at all. If she were, she wouldn’t vehemently deny that she’s going out with Hiro even though she admits he was there, and she wouldn’t try to set up a date with Touko after she gets out of the hospital.
I kind of think that Sachi’s just trying to be nice to Hiro, and maybe taking a little advantage of him because she likes the attention and likes the company, for a girl who hasn’t had that much of either on the terms she wanted (getting illness attention isn’t the same thing at all). She knows what Hiro’s after, she’s not that oblivious (and even Touko brings up them going out – “tsukiatteru?” “tuskiatteru nante ittenai.”). That’s why it’s going to be rough on Hiro when it’s revealed that Sachi doesn’t feel for him the way he thinks she feels for him.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
Or maybe Sachi doesnt have romantic feelings for touka; the love she was referring to in ep 3 is probably a feeling of sisterly love; the way you love someone who you care for because they are such a good friend to you. I think Sachi Understands the romantic context of hanging out with Hiro the way she does and at the moment doesnt have feelings for him, but i dont think that rules out the possibility that she could or that she really enjoys his company
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
I don’t think Sachi “vehemently denied” that she’s going out with Hiro at all.
She says he was there. She says, “I didn’t say we were on a date.” Did she say, “We have never gone on a date.”? No. Did she say, “We weren’t on a date.”? No. She just points out that she didn’t SAY there were on a date. Is saying that you didn’t say you were on a date, saying that you were NOT on a date? No.
Sachi is way too smart for the rest of the folks in town.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
My interpretation of Sachi’s “tsukiatteru nante itenai” is “We’re not dating” or “we’re not going out”. Basically, she’s denying that she has more than just a friendly relationship with Hiro. That she made the effort to correct Touko’s ideas means she wants to make it very clear that she’s not going out with Hiro.
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
I love love love Yanagi’s confession. It’s definitely a great progress for her character, and somehow I can understand her feeling, female-wise
n-not that I made the same exact confession to someone in high school!I’m still liking the characters and so on, but I’m starting to wonder about the point of these interactions. In the first 3 episodes, it emphasized on the ability to see the future. Then from then until the recent episode, the audience is presented with random interactions of the characters. Not saying that the interactions don’t matter to the story, but so far the director failed to show the connection between the precognitive ability with the recent events or even the necessity of the precognition to the story. The ability better play a big role later on in the future or else-
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’m thinking that the point of the interactions is essentially to show us how these characters are, rather than telling us how they are. I don’t think they’re as random as all that, but they are less linear than one would usually expect from a TV show (which, to be honest, is something I like about it).
I’d actually be happy if the ‘seeing the future’ part of the show continued to be minimized, not only because I think most “superpowers” are silly but also because of the severe information mismatches it creates for everyone. So far we’ve seen that Touko has a 100% misinterpretation rate of seeing the future. Yes, she saw Sachi in the hospital, but she thought it was because she was sick, not just going in for tests (although there’s always the possibility of things going wrong, especially with Sachi’s Misfortune Flag raising with “I’ll tell you after I get out of the hospital”).
So I don’t think that her ‘ability’ to see random snippets of the future is necessarily important, nor that it needs to be for the story to continue to be very good. Perhaps the message is “don’t wish you could see the future”, as evidenced by Yana’s quip to Kakeru about wishing she could see the future, and him obviously thinking “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I think Sachi’s look center’s on “This will be interesting to explain”
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
This was a good episode, and we had a nice bit of quiet moments and drama. All of the characters shined to a degree and the story took some nice steps forward.
Touko has reminded me of Manaka from NagiAsu since the beginning, and this episode gives them another shared trait: Neither of them likes change. They are afraid of the change in status quo. Touko freaks out about Hiro and Sachi dating, despite it having nothing to do with her, because it would but a permanent shift in how they were as a group of friends. She gets flustered that Yana was with Kakeru, or that she is going to confess to Yuki. She’s trying to adjust to the changes around her, and yet she can’t quite wrap her brain around it.
I am really proud of Yana for confessing her feelings to Yuki and then moving on with her life. She’ll never really be able to go on without getting progress there. As she said, he sees her as a sister, and she knows he likes Touko. Even if he could, for him to suddenly shift to her wouldn’t feel real and it wouldn’t be fair to her to continue to be in Touko’s shadow. So, instead, she’s just laying everything out on the table and then moving on. I’m proud of how mature she was about it.
As for Yuki, I don’t know what he’ll do with this information. I don’t think he ever suspected, and of course he still is in love with Touko. I still like him and Touko together, but who knows.
As for Sachi and Hiro, it looks like Sachi knows how much Hiro likes her, but I don’t know if she’s into him that way. If she’s not, I really hope she doesn’t continue to string him along. Either give the guy a chance or tell him he has no chance. Don’t just keep having the guy read with you in your room and go to the movies with him. Don’t get his hopes up just to dash them tragically.
And lastly, there is Kakeru “David”, he’s finally getting some development. I still think he’s as dull as cardboard, but he’s obviously still staying to his “Tsumugu” roll. I thought it was cute that Yana came to a talk out her problems with him. Despite the slightly forced Forest Scene, I still stand by what I said last week. Touko and Kakeru have no chemistry together and it’s just weird seeing them in the forest together for no reason. I actually likes Yana’s conversation with “David”, more than all the really weird dialogue conversations he’s had with Touko.