In Japan, Bartender has sold over 2.8 million copies, while it received a mixed reception from English-language manga and anime publications.
A 12-episode reboot anime television series produced by Liber, titled Bartender: Glass of God, aired on TV Tokyo from April to June 2024.
He later opened his own bar, the Eden Hall (イーデンホール, Īden Hōru), which is hidden in a nook of the Ginza district in downtown Tokyo.
Over the course of the manga, various other figures, all of whom share unusual troubles and heavy burdens, are invited into Eden Hall and are treated to Sasakura's fine drinks, which, with guidance from the young bartender, lead the customers to reflect upon their lives and decide on a course of action to tackle their problems.
[6][7] Alcohol is not depicted as a potential problem that might have negative effects such as drunkenness in the series; instead, "Bartender insists the right drink at the right time ... is about starting an earnest conversation with oneself.
[22] A follow-up, Bartender à Tokyo, began in the same magazine on November 6, 2013,[23] and was later moved to Grand Jump Premium on December 24, 2015.
[34][35] Bartender was adapted into an 11-episode anime series, directed by Masaki Watanabe, written by Yasuhiro Imagawa, and produced by Palm Studio.
[40][41] Anime Limited announced at MCM London Comic Con 2018 that they had acquired the series for release in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
[47] It was later revealed to be a reboot television series, titled Bartender: Glass of God (バーテンダー 神のグラス, Bātendā: Kami no Gurasu), produced by Liber and directed by Ryōichi Kuraya, with Mariko Kunisawa writing the scripts, Yōichi Ueda designing the characters and serving as chief animation director, and Hiroaki Tsutsumi serving as music composer.
[57] Directed by Osamu Katayama and written by Natsuko Takahashi,[58] the new series aired on TV Asahi's "Friday Night Drama" time slot from February 4, 2011, to April 1, 2011.
[61] On August 5, 2011, during an event at the Tokyo Tower,[62][63] TC Entertainment released all episodes of the Bartender drama in DVD and Blu-ray box sets.
[57] Bartender had sold more than 2.8 million copies in Japan as of January 2011;[66] individual volumes frequently appeared on lists of best-selling manga in that country.
"[5] At Ani-Gamers, a reviewer known as "Ink" wrote that the series unduly "romanticizes" a bar, but praised its storytelling and staging techniques, the narration, its "casual dialog and effective visuals", and its balance.
He described it as "a love letter to liquor as opposed to the consumption thereof,"[2] while Bamboo Dong of Anime News Network (ANN) called it "a delicious ode to mixology".
He found the character designs "fairly generic" except for Ryū, and the music "a little repetitive" over the 11 episodes, although he stressed that it "fits the atmosphere of the show.
"[1] On the other hand, ANN's Carl Kimlinger criticized Bartender's concept "as insipid, silly, and downright awful" and "monumentally uninspired".
[37] Erin Finnegan from the same site dubbed its graphics "craptastic" and called the idea of solving individuals' problems through drinks "cheesy.