The Darkhorse of the 2024 Spring Anime Season Is for Adults Only

CBR Anime Week is brought to you by HULU ANIMAYHEM

Through the Spring 2024 anime season, several series rose in popularity and earned praise from the viewers. Some of the top anime were clear from the start, while others caught the community by surprise. Unfortunately, some series fly under the radar and aren’t recognized until later. Among the Darkhorse series, the most recent features one of the most mature stories in the anime industry.

Though anime is famous for its outlandish ideas, compelling anime series need more than an entertaining gimmick to be perfect. The writing and dynamics of plot threads, character development, themes, and lessons are various ways for any story to be profound. Anime fans should never be bashed for their preferences, but the shortcomings of certain popular anime provide their own lessons for creators. Through the 2024 Spring anime season, only one anime comes close to perfect production of character development, genre, and purpose, among other details: a series called Bartender.

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With mellowed tones and emotional subtleties, the 2024 Bartender is centered around the lives of bartenders, including the high and low moments of the profession. The story’s protagonist is the young bartender Ryuu Sasakura, but the plot is carried by an ensemble cast of characters who work in various fields of the hospitality industry. The connection of each character’s work is just one of the ways the anime carries its major theme of hospitality.

The basic premise of the story is that two Tokyo hotel employees are looking for the best bartender to run a specially designed bar space in their famous Hotel Cardinal. The perfect person for the job is a natural genius at mixology and creating a peaceful atmosphere for every customer. One of the very first scenes of the anime is one of the most important ones, as these women interview three successful bartenders who are not the right fit.

Establishing What The Anime Is Really About In Episode One

• Fun Fact: Ginza is a famous and expensive shopping area in Tokyo, Japan.

Episode one opens with a briefly featured tease of the protagonist’s work and the importance of an authentic and compassionate bartender. The very next scene shows the interview process of Hotel Cardinal looking for the best bartender to host their Counter Room.

During the interview, three men are tasked with creating their specialty cocktail to represent themselves. The first mixes together a martini but fails to ask if the mock customer is ready to handle a drink with such a high alcohol count. The second is unprepared to make their grasshopper drink in the pousse-cafe style, revealing they have limited technical skills. The third isn’t even shown to create any drinks because of his focus on doing flashy bar tricks and blowing kisses to the mock customer. This scene is so critical in setting up the entire series for two reasons — the search for Hotel Cardinal’s Counter Bartender is the main plot and the distinction between what makes a good and bad bartender is equally important.

The Hotel Steeped in Mystery and Specificity

The Hotel Cardinal is not looking for someone who relies on basic knowledge of famous drinks or uses flashy gimmicks to entertain customers. The best needs to be prepared to make any drink with all the technical skills required and has a special quality with handling customers. The head of Hotel Cardinal adds the mysterious demand that the bartender must also be capable of creating the “Glass of God,” the ultimate cocktail. These are the establishing rules for the remainder of the series, with many details becoming relevant later on.

The two women searching for Hotel Cardinal’s perfect choice are Miwa Kurushima, the hotel head’s granddaughter, and Yukari Higuchi. Just when they feel like their search is hopeless, Miwa and Yukari meet Ryuu Sasakura, who looks more like an aimlessly wandering airhead than a genius bartender. Through online reviews, Miwa comes across the highly acclaimed bar Edenhall, tucked away in the Ginza area of Tokyo. This is where Miwa and Yukari see Ryuu working as a bartender and find that the young man already has every trait needed for their hotel.

Covering Every Aspect Of Hospitality And Mixology In Each Episode

Episode one establishes the main plot, the main characters, and the message and tone of the story. Without spoiling anything further, the basic framework of each episode covers one theme reflected in a cocktail and a character. As Miwa and Yukari try to convince Ryuu to accept their offer of working for Hotel Cardinal, the ensemble cast traverses issues that working adults face and learns about Ryuu’s hidden past.

These issues reflected in drinks and characters cover pressure from work, balancing aspirations and relationships, and grief-stricken regret. The point of Ryuu’s encounters with customers is to show the many ways that a great bartender can heal those who are hurting. Fans of mixology are treated to information on the meaning and history behind each cocktail of the episode, while viewers looking for lighthearted drama are soothed with side narratives that often resolve with an upbeat tone.

Resolving Every Conflict Brings The Viewer The Best Payoff

The culinary arts have been focused on in several anime, but more than this being a focus on drinks as opposed to food, the entire approach is unique in Bartender. There are no gimmicks of comedy or promiscuity, and there is a refreshing use of realism through the narrative and characters. As each story in the anime covers an emotionally heavy topic, the crushing reality of certain situations is handled with terrific care. The dark side of stress and trauma isn’t glossed over in the story, but it isn’t thrown in the viewer’s face either. While the story is inherently about bartending and mixology, the most important theme is compassion, a trait that any hospitality or service employee will say is critical in that line of work.

Through its major themes of hospitality, adulthood, and compassion, Bartender pulls the viewer into relatable scenarios, layered with character development and resolved with the perfect drink for the occasion. Ryuu is a protagonist with a heart of gold and his own need for inner peace who is the perfect lead character for resolving every conflict, whether he’s directly involved or a compassionate bystander. As each episode passes, the recurring characters Miwa, Yukari, Ryuu, and other aspiring bartenders receive gradual character development. How this development is laid out is authentic, reflective of hospitality, and showcases the brilliance of a slow slice-of-life pace.

A Slower Pace Can be a Welcomed Change

Slice-of-life has never been the fan-favorite in the anime community and with how young anime fans tend to be, the narratives shown in each episode won’t resonate with most viewers. More than this being a fantastic series for adults, what makes this anime such a success is the perfect use of pacing which ties to the payoff. The slow pace is used because it’s the most realistic representation of real life. Conflicts are not resolved immediately, but the anime creators were wise in balancing the focus of narratives big and small.

In the end, the gradual build-up of the overarching conflicts has the greatest payoff because the writers didn’t waste their time with unnecessary scenes. Every minute of each episode is handpicked for a purpose and carries the viewer through the ups and downs of the worst parts of adulthood. In the end, it’s not actually about the alcohol that is served, but rather about the person who serves the alcohol and how they connect with customers who may be on their last rope, emotionally speaking.

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Bartender could have used the focus on alcohol to tell a wild and comedic story about abusing alcohol to escape from life’s troubles. Instead, the cocktails created are less of a concrete plot device and more of a symbol that takes many forms. The art of mixology is used to support the smaller themes of building a career, finding love, being responsible, handling regret, and, surprisingly, alcoholism.

This is the most surprising and profound part of the anime. Like with other dark themes the story covers, the writers didn’t beat around the bush when it came to alcohol use. That first major scene of distinguishing what makes a good bartender and a bad one, first emphasizes the trouble with alcohol count. Despite cocktails being a sort of mascot for the series, drinking isn’t a glorified part of adulthood, but rather another conflict that adults need to work around.

The duality of drinks is a featured part of the anime. On one hand, the perfect alcoholic drink can bring a brief moment of reprieve to a bar customer. On the other hand, it is not the only form of achieving peace, which is why the ensemble cast is so important to this narrative. The carefully built-up cast is the second part of what is so effective about this anime. When any character, main or side, is drinking, they aren’t alone. They may be with another side character or they are talking to Ryuu, the ultimate bar therapist. These layers of details in the anime show how much thought has been put into the story. It’s the perfect representation of bartending, alcohol, and working adults.

The Perfect Anime For Adults Finding Motivation

Bartender’s Undertones are Simple and Encouraging

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Through the decades, anime has become famous for inspiring kids and teens, but this is one of the few anime that does an excellent job of inspiring adults. By extension, this is also why it’s one of the best slice-of-life series. Working adults who are stuck in their daily grind, trying to balance relationships and past traumas, often need a moment to slow down after a long day of work. This is why slice-of-life anime exists — to give the audience a moment to relax while still being entertained. Bartender takes this idea of a relaxed tone and pace and adds profound character development to inspire healing.

The need for a reprieve through alcohol, or any legal drug, after a long day of adulting is something that adults of any age can certainly relate to. The anime takes a mature approach to its narrative while still remaining entertaining for the viewer. The resonance with a more relaxed and mature audience is arguably why it flew under the radar in an industry that often caters to a younger audience. No moment is dramatically blown out of proportion and the calm tones build up the drama slowly leading to a moment of peace for each character.

A Rare Series That Achieves The Heart Of Storytelling

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Anime isn’t new to emotionally impactful moments and scenes of characters achieving peace from pain. The difference with Bartender and the reason why it’s such a profound series is how toned down every moment is. There is little escapism found in this series, which has been a staple for anime. Typically, fans gravitate to anime because of how outlandish or bombastic the stories can be. This anime, however, thrives on simplicity and realism and does it to perfection.

Stories about work challenges, marriage troubles, or grief don’t always need to come with so much drama. In this anime, the conflicts speak for themselves and are resolved through the characters’ chosen actions. The authenticity of this series is its greatest strength and shows how realistic the most compelling anime can be.

The Spring 2024 anime season has certainly entertained viewers, but the most profound series is Bartender. The anime utilizes its narratives, symbolism, characters, and genres to the fullest, creating the perfect viewing experience. Though it may not stick out like other anime, and is better enjoyed by adults who can relate to the cast, the beautifully written story about working through life’s lowest moments is so perfectly layered, written, and resolved, that it deserves more recognition.