Ura Sekai Picnic

planetJane

~~~All of my reviews contain **spoilers** for the reviewed material. This is your only warning.~~~ ---- img880(https://magicplanetanimedesign.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/i40jbut.jpg?w=1568)

What to make of Otherside Picnic? Named after a famous Russian novel to which it bears little resemblance, and drawing on a twenty year tradition of Japanese “net lore” for its inspiration, one might initially peg Otherside Picnic as a fairly heady, intellectual kind of horror story. But while it’s certainly creepy enough in its most unsettling moments to earn the genre tag, it’d be a mistake to box this one in as being solely for those with an SCP Foundation addiction. img880(https://i.imgur.com/PKvTftg.jpg) A more proper indicator of where Otherside Picnic is coming from might actually be its opening theme. A rollicking, adventurous pop-rock tune with a romantic slant from accomplished anisongsters CHiCO with Honeyworks. Otherside isn’t not a horror series, but it’s important to consider what else it is; an adventure anime, and also a show with some pretty prolific lesbian subtext. It’s not at all dour, is what I’m getting at. Instead, Otherside is a surprisingly breezy watch. It’s the story of Sorawo, a depressed college student who, through her vast knowledge of online urban legends, wanders through a gateway to another world; the titular otherside. When we meet her, she’s lying flat on her back in a puddle, pursued by a mind-invading monster known as a kunekune, and about to accept her imminent death. What, or rather who, saves her is a gun-toting Canadian-Japanese woman named Toriko, who she quite quickly develops a very obvious crush on. img880(https://i.imgur.com/6y5G0eR.jpg) Otherside Picnic follows the two, as they grow closer, make trips to and from the Otherside, and contend with the many strange creatures that live there. Sorawo often gives a brief rundown of what these things are, which is helpful if you, like me, only have a pretty limited knowledge of Japanese creepypastas. The “net legend” angle is a big part of the setting’s appeal, so if the idea of even something as out there as the bizarre and disturbingly violent “monkey train dream” getting a nod appeals to you, the series is a must-watch. Really, I was surprised at how much I liked Otherside Picnic in general. Horror isn’t really my genre, but Sorawo is just the right kind of relatable reserved nerd. (Although I will admit, the one thing the series is missing from the light novels is her delightfully gay inner monologues about how attractive she finds Toriko.) Her character arc over the course of the series is fairly simple, as she starts out as said reserved nerd and by the final episode, having along the way developed what are essentially magic powers, and having been through so much with Toriko is, well, decidedly no longer that. img880(https://i.imgur.com/I5ijswT.jpg) On a less literal level, the series also hums a simple theme of the importance of finding people who you just vibe with. In the finale, this is all but stated outright, as Sorawo and Toriko both recount how the other saved them. It gives Otherside Picnic a point, adding some substance to its afternoon anime binge-friendly nature. Much of the rest of the fun of the series comes from setting details or technical aspects. The monster design is quite strong, and combined with the often surprisingly good animation, this carries the series’ weaker episodes. There’s also quite a few running sub-plots tucked in to the show’s single cour. These range from fairly serious (a lost group of US Marines who the pair eventually rescue), to clear set-up for seasons yet to come (Sorawo’s apparent and only briefly touched-on ability to not-quite mind control people, the late-game introduction of minor character Akari), to the just plain odd (there’s an episode about cats who are ninjas) or funny (the pair accidentally buy a multi-purpose miniature harvester on a drunken spending binge at one point). img880(https://i.imgur.com/TeZNItz.jpg) It’s hard to imagine that Otherside Picnic will exactly change anyone’s life, but like last year’s Dorohedoro, it’s strong genre fare in a genre that is under-represented in mainstream TV anime. That it is perhaps only the second-best anime of the Spring 2021 season to revolve around a heterochromiac who travels to an otherworld that also has a lot of queer subtext speaks more to the strength of the competition than it does any problems with Otherside. This is a series I could see getting sequel seasons for years, frankly, as there is a lot of unadapted material and a lot of mysteries left unexplored. Perhaps if we’re lucky, that will be the anime’s eventual fate. Either way, there’s a lot to love about a brief trip to the Otherside.

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ThyMrMan

First glance at the Anilist page for this show doesn’t give me all that good of an idea what is coming forward in the show. With a description that doesn’t tell me a ton outside of them traveling to a different realm filled with monsters. And a list of tags that form a very long and twisted path that doesn’t help that much ether. So really the only solution of course is to jump right on into the show. And lets start with what I feel like was the weakest point of the show, and honestly contributed to my slow watch speed and enjoyment of the show in general. The start was horrendous, honestly the first like 4 episodes just weren’t very good at all. We start by just being thrown into the new world without any explanation or build up along with these characters we know nothing about at all. It all just leaves me confused to what I’m supposed to be watching and paying attention to, is this a character driven show where the story and world doesn’t matter or is it a story and world building story with a lesser character focus. In a world where I have hundreds of things to watch, play, and read, having such negative first reactions seriously hurts the show overall. But, when we do finally get past that beginning. And finally do get properly introduced to the characters and the world and all those questions about it. It suddenly opens up and makes me fall in love. We have a character driven story with some strong hints of a future Yuri relationship between the main characters, a couple more side characters that are decently fleshed out. Along with a side group that is a major focus of 2 episodes, with some pretty good character building over those episodes. Taking a lesser position is any story or explanation about the events that occur over the course of the show. Of which mainly involve strange encounters with monsters and beings in a world they call Otherside. Normally ending in defeating the monster, or just running away as fast as possible. These encounters or the world never get explained really in a form I felt was all that great, and it gives me the feeling that the full explanation is still to come. And if I want to see that I will have to pick up the source to explore various pieces of content that was cut, along with whatever comes next. And with those cuts, comes some of the other issues I have with the show. Mainly being an issue in those first couple episodes, but still showing up in the rest. Is a constantly feeling that I was missing some info or some event. I feel like we skipped to all the major arc’s in the original source, but along the way cut the smaller side arcs that while important, weren’t as major of events. Leading to some disconnects along the way. Things like changing eye color, or characters left behind to only escape off screen. While I think it wrapped things up and helped fill in those blanks along the way, it still felt lacking in the end. The final massive point that was lacking was the visual quality. To start this isn’t a show that was breathtaking in any scene, falling firmly in the average camp most of the time. But in those moments when it isn’t average, it is downright terrible. We are talking some completely rushed and out of place CGI that looks nothing like the hand drawn stuff at all. While it shares general shapes, it lacks any detail at all. And feels like a student’s first major CGI project and not a finished anime. I don’t know if this was a constraint from Covid or general issues, but it is a shame. So in general, while I feel like it was a good show. It does take awhile to get to that point. And a feeling that I now need to read the source from the beginning for the true story never left me.

Nowaaru

~~~ __To protect the will to live of those who have the *memory of the gods*, there will be be light - if not no spoilers.__~~~ --- Let's start off with the very beginning. The protagonist, Sorawo Kamikoshi is in a deplorable state of mind. She's paralyzed, on the brink of death from the mysterious entity that appears to have a will to consume her mental state ~~and convert her into an extremist preacher of the insane~~. Several negative thoughts pile through her brain, consisting of what would happen to those around her if she suddenly disappeared - all the worries of her life simply fading away with the remnants of her soul. Then, the deuteragonist, Toriko Nishina, comes to save the day! What a coincidence, right? If you immediately thought either of the following.. - "Oh dear, it's going to be one of these animes." - "Sword Art Online, anyone?" ..then you're in the right mindset. Being an episodic anime with no real rhyme or reason to the majority of this episodes, it's driven by a whole lot of PLOT. And no, I don't mean the "__plot__" that's in your eighteen terabyte "homework" folder, I mean that there's many coincidences and factors that.. realistically speaking if you were in that situation, you'd be screwed and then some. However, don't fret; this comes in full send near the end of the anime, so no worries. Sorawo is one of those human beings that know too much information of which has no real use in the real world - one of those gargantuan gigabrain gigachads that knows that several adult humans could fit laterally within a female whale's ~~cough~~, or that larger animals are so chad-ulous that they can just brute-force cancer and live with it. Don't let this sway your judgement, however - she's not truly a fan of the supernatural. Later in the anime she'll explain to Toriko why that isn't the case. Anywho, just know that this seemingly useless information comes to save their life. ~~~__over.__~~~ ~~~__and over.__~~~ ~~~ __ and over.__~~~ ~~~___again.___~~~ Despite this being seemingly tiring from the sheer exasperation that is being transmitted to your eyesockets, if anything, I believe that this is a case where it helped the anime more than not. Understanding the primary method of transportation to the Otherside - a revision of the famous Elevator Ritual, and understanding that walking in at just the right angle at the right time of day could transport you into a completely different world is simply knowledge that those who firmly believe or have taken interest in the supernatural should know. This isn't some kind of anime where the main character knows really out-of-the-loop things like "solving crimes based on a tempature gradient at what happens to be 04:00 AM but was actually hotter since there was a time difference established within the clock"-type anime. When you line your perspective in what the anime is trying to be, things become much clearer rather than how it is when bluntly thinking of this as simply "just another anime." However, and this is a **very strong however**, I do very well admit that this anime sometimes does take a mile instead of the inch. Later in the anime, Toriko's transparent hand is revealed to be a method to escape from the Otherside by grabbing and manipulating areas that overlap between the real world and the Otherside, therefore revealing its true form as a gate between the two. This holds true throughout the entire anime, and becomes a pretty large crutch throughout, which of course is expected due to it being.. realistically, the only means of exit. In a very specific scene nearing around the seventh or eighth episode of the anime, the characters use a very **specific** object and manipulate it in the very right way.. the __very first time__, allowing them to escape the Otherside in a pinch, gracefully escaping death. This, as far as I can remember, is the only real instance where they do some things that seemingly make no sense and have a saving outcome, but it hampers the quality of the anime as it incorrectly leads the viewer to thinking that "from now on, the characters will only be saved via coincidence," which couldn't be farther from the truth, where in reality they survive through ways that even **you**, the reader / potential watcher, could think of in a flash. Despite this contradiction, this ""coincidence"" really stuck with me from when it occured to the end of the anime. If you can sit through logical thinking backed with plot in times where it does fail, then this is for you. Overall, Urasekai Picnic is a "cute girls doing cute things"-type episodic anime with hints of mutual romance between both of the characters, slapped on top with a mystery of "someone is missing and we have to find them;" and the anime does it well - one could reckon that it's not right, but it's done well enough for what's out there. If I were to walk up to you and say "Hey, I just watched this crazy anime about two girls finding someone and developing an underlying romance as they journey through the mysterious unknown in an urban fantasy Isekai story," would you respond with "Wow, that sounds great!" or "Wow, that sounds absolutely horrid and I regret my friendship with you?" Exactly, I would say the latter! However, this anime made the prospect not-so-bad. Seriously, when I read the synopsis, I thought "This sounds absolutely putrid, but I'll watch it because there's seemingly yuri content according to the manga." and boy, I was so, so pleased - and it pressed in the fact that one really, really should not push it until they try it. Even if the fruit of the romance wasn't displayed in the end. ~~~And that is why I rated this anime a well-deserved **75/100.**~~~ --- Despite me rating this anime as a 75 and the surprisingly negative reviews of a 63% average as of 07/01/21, I did indeed rate this anime much higher (an 8.8), specifically because the relationship between Toriko and Sorawo progressed so, so, __so__ well - and you bet it tickled my fancy with a feather and gave my bosom a good ol' rub. I seriously would've rated it higher, but some small plot holes were present and some things really didn't.. really.. mix. These, however, leave the scope of what I believe reviews *should* contain, so I'll drop it a 75 - a pleasant experience for those who wish to casually vibe on a Saturday night, but maybe not-so-much for those that believe that _Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood_ is the king of all animes. anywho.. ..season two, maybe? :3c

5crownik007

#~~~**Warning, review will contain spoilers for the whole show, as well as my candid thoughts.**~~~ --- ##~~~ A pair of girls traversing a strange world, reminiscent of The Zone from STALKER and drawing from urban legend lore… what’s not to like?~~~ I'm typically a huge sucker for Zone Shenanigans, and this show really had the chance to be something like that. It even takes obvious inspiration from the sources of the genre, that is Roadside Picnic and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Engaging with paranatural entities and pseudoscientific concepts with internally consistent logic and ever-present danger is something I find uniquely appealing. However, it quickly became obvious that this show wasn’t going to satisfy what I like to see in this genre. ~~~~~~ On the surface, the premise of the show has great promise. We have everything we need for a solid mystery, investigation, interesting character growth and tension, however, the show doesn’t really leverage any of this potential in a way I find interesting. The main mystery of the show remains unresolved and isn’t really investigated in a satisfying way, the characters don’t seem to act consistently, and the tension of the show’s situations is regularly undermined through neglect. ##~~~ Lots of promise, but failed execution.~~~ --- One of this show’s major pitfalls is in its animation. It is almost always very simple, avoiding detailed motion or complex settings. More egregiously, it can be very lazy, like leaving the camera to linger on empty scenes or the backs of characters while they speak. Other times, objects in the scene are positioned inconsistently between shots, or removed I suspect for convenience of animation. There are many corners cut, and it doesn’t look good. ~~~~~~ #####~~~This shot lasts for nearly 20 seconds while Sorao speaks outside of shot.~~~ The visual design in the show was mostly satisfactory, though it could have been more interesting. The Otherside definitely takes inspiration from The Zone from STALKER and Roadside Picnic, and so has a lot of brutalist concrete buildings like those seen in Pripyat and Chernobyl. Our characters use some Soviet-era firearms, like a Makarov handgun and an AK rifle. The monsters in the show are mostly forgettable with a few notably good exceptions. I will specifically say that the CGI in this show didn’t bother me significantly. Sometimes it even looked good, and fit the rest of the visual design. ##~~~ Visuals are adequate, animation needs serious improvement.~~~ ~~~~~~ #####~~~Our main characters also dress appropriately for their adventures into dangerous, wet, grassy terrain, which I appreciate.~~~ --- The characters in the show don’t really provide much of interest. Sorao has a somewhat interesting arc about getting over her loneliness and mistrust of others, but aside from that, no one gets much development. Toriko is unconcerned in most situations, Kozakura is critical and easy to startle. There’s very little complexity or development. There’s also issues of characters acting inconsistently between episodes. I was very surprised when they escaped the train station in episode 6- and then went immediately into a beach episode for episode 7, like the circumstances of the marines did not concern them at all. Of course, this was brought back up later, but why not immediately? Did they just forget there was a whole company of marines in life threatening danger? ##~~~ Rather flat characters, without much to offer.~~~  Sorao and Toriko have a very vague and milquetoast almost-not-romance throughout the show. I’ve seen it called “yuri bait”, and I’d be inclined to agree. It was very annoying to see them dance around having an actual relationship, and by the end of the show, it didn’t lead anywhere. --- The show supposedly has a main plot about finding Satsuki, Toriko’s mentor and best friend in the world, however the show doesn’t go anywhere with this. Sorao and Toriko don’t really follow leads, investigate places she might be or try to find something that might lead them to her, it’s just kind of in the background, and left unresolved by the end of the show.  #####~~~Yes, my best friend and mentor Uruma Satsuki is a tall lady with no visible eyes and definitely not a Zone anomaly!~~~ The episodic plots don’t have much to them either. They follow a formula where the girls are bumbling along, face a monster or a dangerous environment, defeat it and come home- with various exceptions. There’s rarely any surprises, and also a lack of understanding when it comes to what our characters are thinking in certain situations. There are moments where I was expecting the characters to comment on a strange occurrence, only for them to simply continue as normal. --- Overall, I felt that this show had a lot of potential in its premise, but failed to deliver. It didn’t enthrall with mystery, or bring interesting characters, or dazzle visually, or have a strong plot. One of any of these would have made the show far more valuable, but as it is, there’s very little to recommend. On the flipside, the show isn’t so bad as to be offensive, and has something to offer on premise alone.  #####~~~And Kozakura was the best girl.~~~ ##~~~ TL;DR Lots of potential, but it missed the mark.~~~

Juliko25

I initially skipped over Otherside Picnic as it aired because I'm not really into anything horror. Not because I hate it or anything, but I just never really found it interesting. But I was bored one day and had nothing to watch, so I decided to try checking this out. It turned out to be better than I expected, though I do feel more could have been done with this. The story centers on two girls—Sorawo and Toriko—who meet in the mysterious realm they refer to as the Otherside. It's a vast and dangerous realm that hardly anyone knows about, filled with all manner of horrors straight out of ghost stories. In order to get more information on this strange world, Sorawo and Toriko travel back and forth to it from the real world, though one incident alters their bodies in ways that actually manage to be somewhat helpful in both investigating the Otherside and dealing with the monsters and ghouls that inhabit it. As far as animation goes, Otherside Picnic isn't really winning any awards. I mean, the animation itself is fine, and the character designs, while very simplified from the illustrations from both the light novel and the manga, do their job. Liden Films as a studio isn't always capable of doing justice to the things they adapt into animation. They've gotten better as they've gone on, especially compared to the disaster that was Goodbye My Dear Cramer, and they're set to adapt an anime of the first Atelier Ryza game coming up, and their work here is pretty good for what it is. That being said, the CGI is REALLY hit-or-miss. Seriously, the CGI monsters don't look like they blend well with the show. They're so clunky they look like they came right out of a bad PS3 game. Also, whose bright idea was it to make the far-off shots of Toriko and Sorawo CGI models? Because those were just flat-out bad. They move really awkwardly and clumsily, like disjointed Barbie dolls, and it's really noticeable when you're watching the show on a big TV. Why couldn't they just animate their far off models in 2D? And no, this isn't just a product of the broadcast version, they're in the home media release, too! Why?! I don't have as much to say about the music, as a lot of it is pretty heavy synth that's meant to sound eerie and horror-like. The soundtrack, again like the animation, does its job, but isn't really anything memorable. I did really enjoy the song that played at the end of episode 12, though. For the characters, again I'm kind of mixed. I do like Sorawo and Toriko as a pair, and their chemistry really blossoms as the series goes on and we learn more and more about them as people. They pretty much carry the show, and while they're not exactly three-dimensional, I did find them interesting enough to care about. I did find Kozakura to be a bit too whiny for my liking, and I feel like more could have been done with Akari and Natsumi. That being said, I found out the anime only adapted the very first light novel and nothing else, which explains why Akari and Natsumi don't do much beyond their introduction. As for the anime's attempts at horror, I do appreciate that Otherside Picnic doesn't try to rely so much on jump scares or gratuitous violence for the sake of it. A lot of it is atmosphere or character-driven, something I'm definitely a big fan of. Plus, rather than the typical monsters like zombies or ghosts, Otherside Picnic takes inspiration from Japanese urband legends and creepypasta stories, using them as the scaffolding for its story and lore. I've never even heard of stuff like Lady Hasshaku or the Kunekune until I looked them up on the series' TVTropes page. Believe me, I want to like this show more than I do, but a lot of its problems do come down to the fact that it's an adaptation of one light novel in a whole series of them. As a result of this decision, its build-up never goes anywhere and the characters don't evolve too much throughout its run. It's likely we'll ever get a second season of this, and that sucks because I do want to see more of Sorawo and Toriko. Then again, there's always the light novels and the manga. I know the anime itself is meant to be a commercial for the light novels, which is fine, but I'd gladly watch more of it. Overall, Otherside Picnic is a fairly low-key, intriguing horror anime that's bogged down by the fact that it's a commercial for the light novels, and its narrative doesn't get resolved. But I still like it for what it is.