Soulelle does not merit praise or thanks: her interpretation of Glasslip does not demonstrate any level of exceptional understanding for the anime. If you’re looking for an excellent analysis that adequately covers this, here's one. The numerous shortcomings in Soulelle's Glasslip interpretation are similarly compared here with a proper analysis, and it should be very clear that Soulelle didn’t understand anything at all.
While you should not have even considered taking Soulelle's interpretation seriously as a viable and useful perspective on Glasslip at all, the below breakdown should offer a set of unequivocal and well-motivated reasons for not agreeing with Soulelle.
My goodness, people, I don’t understand what is so complicated about this show that everyone has troubles [sic] comprehending. Everything’s very, VERY simple.
Why should readers listen to Soulelle, who is talking down to us as though we are five? This opening remark is condescending and implies that Soulelle knows better than everyone else. Some have suggested that this rudeness is an indication that Soulelle lacks the evidence to properly defend her interpretation; constantly talking down to everyone distracts viewers and forces them to think that maybe Soulelle has a point, even if what Soulelle presents is in reality, incomplete and incorrect.
There are two main characters in this show, around who evolves the main theme of the show: feeling oneself at home.
Touko and Kakeru might be the lead characters, but if it were the case that Glasslip was really about their experiences alone, then why would Yanagi, Yukinari, Hiro and Sachi be present? Evidently, since there are other characters, their experiences must also be factored into discussion. Soulelle has made the fallacy of incomplete evidence here, ignoring the others to present an incorrect theme about "feeling oneself at home". This only vaguely applies to Kakeru, who is new in town, but Touko is already at home with her family, friends and even career choice.
Jonathan is not a mere chicken! Learn your director already! Nishimura Junji uses chickens all the time in his shows! This is his freaking trope! Go watch True Tears if you don’t believe me. It also has snow and chickens. As for Glasslip, most of the times Jonathan represents Kakeru himself. To be more precise it represents the problems that Kakeru struggles with.
More patronization is seen here; why should the readers be made to do more research on their own to validate Soulelle's assertions? A good analysis presents everything to the reader in one place to support the arguments being made, and Soulelle does not do that here. Evidently, Soulelle's time is more important than the reader's; it falls on us to go do some background reading on Nishimura Junji and then rewatch the whole of True Tears. Not that this matters, since Junji's directed a large number of works, and chickens only appear in True Tears. Soulelle's claims here are outright wrong: chickens most certainly are not a signature style unique to Junji. For now, looking past Soulelle's more-correct-than-thou attitude, let's suppose that the chickens do represent Kakeru's internal conflicts.
Remember the 1st episode? The scene where Kakeru meets Touko at school for the first time? The dialogue about free-range Jonathan vs living in a cell? Have you all forgotten about it? If yes, it’s now the best time to recall it! Kakeru, having no particular place where he feels at home, is the one who DOESN’T like the concept of free-range animals. Kakeru shows Touko how dangerous a life for Jonathan is if it’s up to go around wherever it wants. Kakeru is the one who says that he’d rather live in a cell – he’s tired to change his place of living all the time. He wants his home to be set in stone like a cell for an animal.
Why the heck do you think Kakeru lives in the tent? Have you ever even tried to think about it? It’s so freaking simple – because he changes houses all the time, because his family always moves from one city to another! So the only CONSTANT place for him where he can sleep and feel himself home is his freaking tent! This IS his cell that always stay the same, regardless where he is located geographically.
Is Soulelle a professor lecturing a class of first years or insinuating that we are lacking? Readers will doubtlessly remember the first scene, as Glasslip isn't that long of a series. Yes, Kakeru mentions this briefly to Touko, but he means that he wants to connect emotionally with someone and put down roots somewhere secure. Touko and her responsibility in looking after the chickens would therefore appeal to him, since she appears to be someone who would appreciate his situation. While Soulelle looks to go somewhere interesting with this train of thought, her ad hominem attacks and passive-aggressive attempts to let us know that we're missing something "simple", do much to diminish the value of her connections. At this point, after being told over and over again that I'm not as smart as her, my inclination to take Soulelle seriously has waned.
Do you understand why there’s always such an accent on the sea birds crying in the show? They DO as well [sic] represent Kakeru – they keep changing their home from season to season. They spend winter in one area and then move back to another area for summer. This is what brings Kakeru troubles and loneliness. This is what Touko felt and got scared of – Kakeru will “fly away to another place once the season changes”, e.g. when it gets too cold.
So, I'm made to wonder, what gives Soulelle the authority to talk down on us like this? While waterfowl represent an interesting symbol of sorts for Kakeru's loneliness, Soulelle inadverdently contradicts herself using these birds as a metaphor: migratory seabirds usually do not travel longitudinally and as Soulelle mentions, have a destination for the summer and winter seasons. They are familiar with their routes and destinations. Moreover, they travel in flocks and therefore do not feel the same loneliness that Kakeru might experience. This is a particularly weak example that, while looking impressive for its symbolic value, decomposes upon scrutiny.
So Kakeru now faces a challenge. He has two options. Option 1 – he keeps “flying” with his mum, losing Touko, experiencing the loneliness he’s so tired of. Option 2 – he settles down to stay with Touko who makes him feel home here. But option 2 is also scary, because then he’s losing connection to his mother and has to actually start living his own life. Kakeru is obviously scared of this heavy responsibility – once he decides to stay, he won’t be able to quit if something goes wrong by moving to another place. So he’s frustrated in choosing between the two options.
Kakeru's constantly moving about means that he is actually desensitized towards making connections with people. The reason why he feels strongly about Touko is because she shares his ability to view the so-called "fragments of the future". Similarly, Kouko longs to know more about Kakeru precisely because of this shared ability. If we suppose that Soulelle was right, then Glasslip would not have gone to the lengths of introducing these "fragments of the future": feelings of loneliness and wanting to become closer to people are thematic elements that can exist in the absence of the supernatural. The inclusion of supernatural elements in Glasslip means that they are, for better or worse, integral to the story; Soulelle's deliberate choice to exclude them from her interpretation is another fallacy of incomplete evidence. Arguments with fallacies sound better than they are, and here, besides perhaps giving readers that Soulelle looks knowledgeable about Glasslip, Soulelle's claims actually do not answer what Glasslip was intended to be about.
And believe it or not, Touko is no less scared. Having lived in this one city for so long, she’s scared that her friends will leave and they will no longer meet to watch the fireworks together. Again, THIS is what the show has started with in the first episode! She wants the people dear to her to remain close and connected to each other. And what’s more, she’s now even more scared to lose the one who she fell in love with. Because unlike the chicken Jonathan, who can’t fly despite being a bird, Kakeru can actually fly away if he decides to go with his mother.
While it is true that Touko treasures her friends above all else, and this is vividly shown during the penultimate episode where she sees a vision where she's the outsider. Her connection to Kakeru, however, seems more transient and motivated initially by her curiosity about the "fragments of the future". She does not fear losing Kakeru as much as she does losing all of her friends, and her treasured time with them. While birds might be symbols, Soulelle does not tie their presence to the situation that Touko or Kakeru experience; the reason behind why Kakeru and Touko fall in love are never explained in Soullele's interpretation.
Because of their love, because of their fears, and because of their sensitive nature, Touko and Kakeru experience and share their emotions through imagination, otherwise known as “fragments of the future”. It has nothing to do with alternate worlds, fates, other dimensiona [sic], timelines, or other bullshit – it’s just their vivid imagination. They learn about each other and about each other’s feelings and emotions this way.
Fiction or not, it is immensely unsatisfying if everything did turn out to be in their imagination. This is where Soulelle's interpretation falls apart entirely, even in light of the generous allowances made earlier. From Soulelle's train of reasoning, Kakeru is attached to Touko because she represents stability, while Touko wants Kakeru to stick around because she wants to be connected to everyone around her, as evidenced by the chickens and sea birds. Their commonality causes them to fall in love, and this is why their imaginations are shared. This simply does not follow, but for discussion, say that I am tolerant (to the point of foolishness) and suppose that Soulelle does make sense. Chalking all of this build up, all of the symbols and evidence, to imagination is still a massive let-down. There is no pay-off in Soulelle's interpretation, and is similar to application of "it was all a dream" in storytelling. These are immensely disappointing, and in the context of what Soulelle has provided for Glasslip, means that readers end up with nothing. It diminishes and trivializes everything Touko and Kakeru experience, as well as suggesting that ordinary people are susceptible to shared flights of fancy when they fall in love. If this were indeed true, that Kakeru and Touko's "fragments of the future" were figments of their imagination, Glasslip would not have ever gotten the green-light for production.
And THIS is what this show is about. Everything that happens around them is just a romantic slice of life setting that drives this dramatic world. People meet, fall in love, some have their feelings unrequited, some have to fight for and win their love, etc. The actual drama is however between the two main characters – will they stay together or not, will Kakeru find his home with Touko or will he leave till [sic] better times, will Touko find the way to see the fireworks all together or not? These are the questions raised by the anime.
It is frankly an insult to Glasslip's writers to suggest that "it was all in their imagination" is what the series was about; Glasslip ultimately was a disappointment because it had all of the build-up to suggest an interesting connection between the glass beads and the "fragments of the future" phenomenon. Numerous other posts out there have presented much more insightful and useful discussion on what Glasslip could be about: one writer argues that Glasslip is about transience of things and its associated beauty, while another has stated that magic is applied to show that relationships can be difficult to understand and work out even if one is equipped with the foresight afforded by the "fragments of the future". These other perspectives can be considered proper analysis of Glasslip because they have a coherent and clear argument, encompass all aspects of Glasslip (including Yanagi, Yukinari, Hiro and Sachi, plus the glass beads and fragments of the future), but only lose out to Soulelle on the virtue that she was first to post something. I would posit that it was Soulelle who had trouble comprehending Glasslip, and that readers certainly could have done without the rudeness and ad hominem attacks in the interpretation she presented. Then again, if Soulelle did have conviction with her arguments, she might have not needed to resort to talking down to readers to begin with. Her arguments are bullshit, and should never have been shared anywhere else.
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While you should not have even considered taking Soulelle's interpretation seriously as a viable and useful perspective on Glasslip at all, the below breakdown should offer a set of unequivocal and well-motivated reasons for not agreeing with Soulelle.
Why should readers listen to Soulelle, who is talking down to us as though we are five? This opening remark is condescending and implies that Soulelle knows better than everyone else. Some have suggested that this rudeness is an indication that Soulelle lacks the evidence to properly defend her interpretation; constantly talking down to everyone distracts viewers and forces them to think that maybe Soulelle has a point, even if what Soulelle presents is in reality, incomplete and incorrect.
Touko and Kakeru might be the lead characters, but if it were the case that Glasslip was really about their experiences alone, then why would Yanagi, Yukinari, Hiro and Sachi be present? Evidently, since there are other characters, their experiences must also be factored into discussion. Soulelle has made the fallacy of incomplete evidence here, ignoring the others to present an incorrect theme about "feeling oneself at home". This only vaguely applies to Kakeru, who is new in town, but Touko is already at home with her family, friends and even career choice.
More patronization is seen here; why should the readers be made to do more research on their own to validate Soulelle's assertions? A good analysis presents everything to the reader in one place to support the arguments being made, and Soulelle does not do that here. Evidently, Soulelle's time is more important than the reader's; it falls on us to go do some background reading on Nishimura Junji and then rewatch the whole of True Tears. Not that this matters, since Junji's directed a large number of works, and chickens only appear in True Tears. Soulelle's claims here are outright wrong: chickens most certainly are not a signature style unique to Junji. For now, looking past Soulelle's more-correct-than-thou attitude, let's suppose that the chickens do represent Kakeru's internal conflicts.
Why the heck do you think Kakeru lives in the tent? Have you ever even tried to think about it? It’s so freaking simple – because he changes houses all the time, because his family always moves from one city to another! So the only CONSTANT place for him where he can sleep and feel himself home is his freaking tent! This IS his cell that always stay the same, regardless where he is located geographically.
Is Soulelle a professor lecturing a class of first years or insinuating that we are lacking? Readers will doubtlessly remember the first scene, as Glasslip isn't that long of a series. Yes, Kakeru mentions this briefly to Touko, but he means that he wants to connect emotionally with someone and put down roots somewhere secure. Touko and her responsibility in looking after the chickens would therefore appeal to him, since she appears to be someone who would appreciate his situation. While Soulelle looks to go somewhere interesting with this train of thought, her ad hominem attacks and passive-aggressive attempts to let us know that we're missing something "simple", do much to diminish the value of her connections. At this point, after being told over and over again that I'm not as smart as her, my inclination to take Soulelle seriously has waned.
So, I'm made to wonder, what gives Soulelle the authority to talk down on us like this? While waterfowl represent an interesting symbol of sorts for Kakeru's loneliness, Soulelle inadverdently contradicts herself using these birds as a metaphor: migratory seabirds usually do not travel longitudinally and as Soulelle mentions, have a destination for the summer and winter seasons. They are familiar with their routes and destinations. Moreover, they travel in flocks and therefore do not feel the same loneliness that Kakeru might experience. This is a particularly weak example that, while looking impressive for its symbolic value, decomposes upon scrutiny.
Kakeru's constantly moving about means that he is actually desensitized towards making connections with people. The reason why he feels strongly about Touko is because she shares his ability to view the so-called "fragments of the future". Similarly, Kouko longs to know more about Kakeru precisely because of this shared ability. If we suppose that Soulelle was right, then Glasslip would not have gone to the lengths of introducing these "fragments of the future": feelings of loneliness and wanting to become closer to people are thematic elements that can exist in the absence of the supernatural. The inclusion of supernatural elements in Glasslip means that they are, for better or worse, integral to the story; Soulelle's deliberate choice to exclude them from her interpretation is another fallacy of incomplete evidence. Arguments with fallacies sound better than they are, and here, besides perhaps giving readers that Soulelle looks knowledgeable about Glasslip, Soulelle's claims actually do not answer what Glasslip was intended to be about.
While it is true that Touko treasures her friends above all else, and this is vividly shown during the penultimate episode where she sees a vision where she's the outsider. Her connection to Kakeru, however, seems more transient and motivated initially by her curiosity about the "fragments of the future". She does not fear losing Kakeru as much as she does losing all of her friends, and her treasured time with them. While birds might be symbols, Soulelle does not tie their presence to the situation that Touko or Kakeru experience; the reason behind why Kakeru and Touko fall in love are never explained in Soullele's interpretation.
Fiction or not, it is immensely unsatisfying if everything did turn out to be in their imagination. This is where Soulelle's interpretation falls apart entirely, even in light of the generous allowances made earlier. From Soulelle's train of reasoning, Kakeru is attached to Touko because she represents stability, while Touko wants Kakeru to stick around because she wants to be connected to everyone around her, as evidenced by the chickens and sea birds. Their commonality causes them to fall in love, and this is why their imaginations are shared. This simply does not follow, but for discussion, say that I am tolerant (to the point of foolishness) and suppose that Soulelle does make sense. Chalking all of this build up, all of the symbols and evidence, to imagination is still a massive let-down. There is no pay-off in Soulelle's interpretation, and is similar to application of "it was all a dream" in storytelling. These are immensely disappointing, and in the context of what Soulelle has provided for Glasslip, means that readers end up with nothing. It diminishes and trivializes everything Touko and Kakeru experience, as well as suggesting that ordinary people are susceptible to shared flights of fancy when they fall in love. If this were indeed true, that Kakeru and Touko's "fragments of the future" were figments of their imagination, Glasslip would not have ever gotten the green-light for production.
It is frankly an insult to Glasslip's writers to suggest that "it was all in their imagination" is what the series was about; Glasslip ultimately was a disappointment because it had all of the build-up to suggest an interesting connection between the glass beads and the "fragments of the future" phenomenon. Numerous other posts out there have presented much more insightful and useful discussion on what Glasslip could be about: one writer argues that Glasslip is about transience of things and its associated beauty, while another has stated that magic is applied to show that relationships can be difficult to understand and work out even if one is equipped with the foresight afforded by the "fragments of the future". These other perspectives can be considered proper analysis of Glasslip because they have a coherent and clear argument, encompass all aspects of Glasslip (including Yanagi, Yukinari, Hiro and Sachi, plus the glass beads and fragments of the future), but only lose out to Soulelle on the virtue that she was first to post something. I would posit that it was Soulelle who had trouble comprehending Glasslip, and that readers certainly could have done without the rudeness and ad hominem attacks in the interpretation she presented. Then again, if Soulelle did have conviction with her arguments, she might have not needed to resort to talking down to readers to begin with. Her arguments are bullshit, and should never have been shared anywhere else.