Otakuism

It’s easy to forget just how great this series is. I am amazed by it every time I watch an episode. Its themes, style, directing, editing, acting, everything is on a completely different level than normal anime. One of the few anime I can definitely say deserves merit as a mature work of art. I would dare say that Bartender eclipses even ARIA as a healing anime. ARIA fills you with feelings of nostalgia and appreciation for the world, while Bartender reminds you of the happiness in being human. But if Bartender is better than ARIA, it’s only by a 1/10%. Moe is hard to beat after all. Shame more people don’t watch and appreciate this series. It has so much more to give than mindless shounen and moe harem crapfests. I would actually like it if it was licensed, just to expose it to a wider audience. That and being able to watch the gorgeous CG in DVD quality. More people need to take a sip from the Glass of the Gods.

Kirhara looks hot in that quipao dress. Seriously, the slit is never high enough.

Contractor Kick!!

Oh right, serious plot here. I quite liked this Kirihara arc, mainly for focusing on her more feminine aspects. Really fleshed her out beyond cold police chick. Now the fact that the best friend was evil was pretty obvious from the beginning, so she wasn’t very interesting. But the whole stabbing yourself with bees thing was awesome just for the insanity of it. Really wished they would of played with that idea more, like having the bees as a new kind of drug the mafia was selling or something like that. Zhi’s ability was interesting I think, no more weird than the traveling through walls guy. The fight between him and Hei was the best yet in the series, especially when Hei missed slashing him by an inch and everything slowed down. Real cinematics there. And the whole interplay between them on who’s was faster was cool. Next week we actually learn some more about Hell’s Gate. I’m really curious about this, as some of the wilder aspects of the series - no stars, contractors - have gone unexplained long enough. Now I wonder if those stone flowers will ever be mentioned again at all?