Kara Dennison
April 12, 2024 
We’re welcoming spring with a calming, healing anime… about alcohol. BARTENDER Glass of God is the second anime adaptation of Araki Joh and Kenji Nagatomo’s slice-of-life manga. In it we meet Ryu Sasakura, a master mixologist who can match a patron to their perfect drink just by looking at them. He’s a force to be reckoned with—but he’s not the only awesome anime bartender out there!
From dedicated husbands to literal immortals, get to know these bartender anime characters!
Sora Mizusawa
The co-star of Love Is Like a Cocktail may be from the most down-to-earth series on this list, but he still deserves a lot of credit. A furniture designer by day and bartender by night, Sora is also the loving husband of office lady Chisato. He’s also the only person who knows that this no-nonsense professional gets super cuddly and affectionate after one drink.
Sora is always ready with the perfect drink and food pairing after Chisato’s long work day. Whether it’s a cocktail, a non-alcoholic option, or something more medicinal, he shares the recipe with us at home. It may not seem like a superpower… but trust us, it is.
Hitomi Mishima
Former gifted kids know: it’s hard to say no sometimes. It’s even harder to escape blackmail. Thus, for reasons, HINAMATSURI features a middle school-aged bartender. To her credit, though, she’s a natural.
Hitomi Mishima is a quick study, which is great when it comes to school. But that natural talent also means she acquires legendary bartending skills pretty much overnight. One thing leads to another, and soon she’s mixing drinks for the show’s grown-up characters. Did we mention she’s the student council president and also keeps getting job offers? Her aptitude for anything she puts her mind to makes her amazing… but her fear of saying no to any offer makes her relatable.
Jofuku
ZOMBIE LAND SAGA is a bizarre show that was full of surprises even before it started airing. From zombie idols to literal aliens, it’s always something new in Saga Prefecture. And then Jofuku showed up, and sharp-eyed viewers noticed something interesting about him—or, rather, his bar. The bartender, credited only as “Master” initially, had pictures of the Jofuku Herbal Center hanging up in his establishment. This real Saga location is a museum dedicated to Xu Fu, the court magician of Qin Shi Huang and alleged discoverer of the elixir of immortality.
The second season made it very clear that Jofuku is the Jofuku, and that his ties to Saga Prefecture run extremely, magically deep. While it doesn’t explain everything about the show’s strange necromancy, it certainly gives us a jumping-off point. It looks like this bartender is mixing something much stronger than highballs.
Watch BARTENDER Glass of God!
