English Dub Review: Bartender: Glass of God “An Important Job”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Ryu helps a struggling novelist find his will to live again and finally takes up the job offer.

OUR TAKE

We’ve finally reached the last call for the Bartender anime, which has now come to an end with the same gentle feeling it started with. And while it initially feels like the beginning of a normal episode involving a regular patron, this one is uniquely significant for Ryu. We know he still has regrets about allowing a suicidal patron from his past to go out and die without him being able to do anything (or at least not enough) to stop it, and while it seems that trauma has more or less been resolved, he hadn’t really gotten the opportunity to see if he had learned or grown from it. Which is why it’s a bit of a surprise, at first, that when this novelist comes in seeming on his last emotional legs, Ryu actually DENIES him any drink until the novelist, someone who Ryu is quite the fan of, can confirm the greatest job a person can carry out: living. Once that is agreed, Ryu goes on his usual diatribe of drink history, but by then, the author has gotten the will to live again and can handle his alcohol, being able to face his new work, “The Will”. Not sure if this had the same double meaning in the Japanese version, but it’s a fitting name to turn something written by someone about to die into something that becomes his reason to live.

Regardless, this encounter seems to be a final confirmation to Ryu that he can finally move on from the Edenhall bar he works at…SORT OF. He visits Taizo Kurushima, Miwa’s grandfather, who was recently hospitalized, and finally takes him up on his offer, with a sole condition: recreating the Edenhall bar in Taizo’s bar, to which Taizo agrees. So, it’s kind of a have your cake and eat it too situation…but okay, I’ll take it. Ryu finally got past his worst moment in his life and his willing to move towards better opportunities that are worthy of his talents. Plus, he also has a cute not-girlfriend who is the granddaughter of the guy who sees HIM as a surrogate son! Kinda feels like some wires are going to need to be uncrossed before that goes any further, but the point is this: Despite Bartender’s many foibles and rather bland format of dispensing alcohol trivia, I would say this ending is more or less pretty satisfying. So, come back for one more round next week as we go over the show one more time. To fit in with the drinking metaphor, call it…After Hours?