Urasekai Picnic

Where do I start? I’m quite confused as to why this anime exists I guess? I don’t quite get this series. It’s basically combining urban legends and putting it into a title with characters to explore these said urban legends. Oh there’s also a side “B” story where a friend is missing but it doesn’t really talk about that.

Story (3):
It’s quite episodic. Every episode we get a different urban legend and our two MCs explore said legend. The formula is the same; somehow the MCs get themselves into these situations naturally and they try to find their way back to their own world.

And that’s literally ... it. The MCs go back, the legend is done. Now next episode move on to the next one. It’s eh.

Art (6):
It’s a typical, production type anime art we’ve seen for the past few years. It’s nothing new. It’s not astonishingly great or horrible. Just fine.

Sound (7):
The OST does fit with the situation/environment well though. I quite like the ED when the episode ends. OP is quite forgettable for me.

Character (4):
Characters are pretty weak in my opinion. We don’t get to see much backstory, I guess. The characters don’t really grow. It seems they treat each urban legend a bit like it’s business as usual; the MCs aren’t scared at all. Even though the directors tried to put in that the MCs are scared and stuff, it doesn’t feel that way. It feels that the characters will get over the challenge and return home safely. There’s no twist or anything.

Enjoyment (7):
Regardless, watching this every week was bearable. It keeps my attention span long enough and it’s interesting to see the characters explore. However, this anime is not something you can binge as you’ll probably lose interest pretty quickly. Unless you’re into this kind of genre, I don’t see how one can consume all of the episodes in one sitting.

Overall (6):
It’s fine. Big plus on sound, meh on basically everything else.
I haven’t read the source material, but I have an inkling it’s better than what’s presented in the anime.

Ooh now this one interests me and not in an expected manner. We got Urasekai Picnic, one of LIDENFILMS packed offerings for the Winter 2021 anime season. And compared to LasDan, this anime is more interesting to watch, albeit more risky and more confusing.

It seems that LIDENFILMS is putting a respectable effort to make this kind of show work. The production quality is decent but not that great, and first we go to the visuals. The art is bleak and almost grounded with backgrounds depicting a ruined and uninhabitable "Other World". With the use of distortion and unorthodox visuals, it can already put the viewer ... on edge and pique the said viewer to its story. Though one thing that I am not fond of is the use of CGI. This is mainly provided by the co-studio, Felix Film, who is credited alongside LIDENFILMS. The 3D models looks so bad and using them interchangeably throughout the show's 2D drawings doesn't help a viewer to fully immerse itself into the anime

But what I did like in the anime is its music, and it is a very commendable part of the anime. I don't praise the music much in anime, but in this title, it is very marvelous. The background music and sound mixing helps further present the setting of Urasekai in a surreal and unpleasant feeling. Once the music hits in a thrilling scene, it gives the viewer some real tension rather than just forgettable BGM. That's how good the music is in this anime. In the case of OP & ED, nothing really that remarkable though. They are just decent enough songs for the show.

From what I saw in the first four episode, this has managed to barely encapsulate me in its world. It can just potentially degrade itself as a poorly-executed SoL adventure show. But I'm not gonna cross out the possibility for this to become a mystery thriller show with some supernatural action to boot. I'm hoping that LIDENFILMS and Felix Film will execute this. But from what I've saw for the first 4 episodes, the show is not yet near at its true potential. Which is a shame because it has the interesting story and the capabilities to actually shine strong. But as of now, it is currently dragging itself down.

I will try to keep this short, but my feelings about this anime are complicated.
I knew of the story before the anime adaptation was announced, but I only read the first chapter of the novel, knowing the anime would come out made me mildly excited as I really like the concept for it.

Unfortunately, now, after the anime finished airing I am very conflicted.
The world is incredible and the depiction is amazing. How do you even visualize something that is described as so otherworldly that it makes a person mad just by looking at it, but somehow they succeeded better than anyone could have expected.
The otherworld ... itself seems to be a success as well as it oozes the vibe of unique difference to the normal world.

The other thing that is exceptional are the characters, sure some might say they are stereotypical, but I think they are unique enough and have great synergy and if you like Yuri you might even give bonus points (it never gets explicit though).

The problems start with the structure and flow of the story itself.
It is incredible hard to understand the actions the characters take. This might be part of an issue due to it being an adaptation, but that can't be all, the flow is just plain weird.
(Very mild spoilers)
For example the girls go out drinking after coming back from a trip from the other world and suddenly end up in the other world while on their way home.
The stay is dangerous and they barely make it back, just to go back to drinking to celebrate that they made it back alive, just to get transported to the other side again, this time in a more peaceful place, where they continue to drink until the dangers catch up with them again.
That whole sequence doesn't make sense, sure the girls grow more confident in their abilities to survive in the other world, but that whole sequence is more a showing of zero learning and near suicidal behaviour. A normal reaction would probably be to find out how they end up on the other side after the first incident and make sure that it can't happen again on accident and celebrate that instead of just repeating that incident and even continue drinking while on the other side.

There are multiple instances of inconsistencies like this and it kind of takes you out of the experience. It doesn't make the rest of the show bad, but it puts a damper on things.

In general, I would say the show is an amazing watch and give it an 8/10, but if the inconsistencies and logical holes irk you the show might as well be a 3/10. If you really like psychological horror, the subtle horror in this show is one of the best and way more horrifying than some show that pride themselves on their shock value.

This review is written at the time of the fourth episode finished airing)

(Spoilers ahead, you have been warned)

Story: 6
Otherside picnic is one of those shows which has a really good premise but the execution of it is not so great. The problem is the pacing of the show, it's really fast so fast at the point of the anime feeling sort of rushed well if you have read the novels or manga u know what I mean by this. But if you are including world building in the story I will say then it gets a bit better because the world building is pretty decent ... in this show, the world of the otherside and all the creatures inhabiting it are presented to us and continue to further develop as the story progresses.

Art: 7
Now for the visual aspect of the show its really good. The visuals of the otherside are just really good and the character design is not all that bad but the problem is the cgi, now I admit cgi can be really good if done right but the use of cgi in otherside picnic can be bad to say the least. Now I do understand why they used cgi but still it kinda ruins the immersion.

Sound: 7
The op,ed and osts of Otherside picnic are decent to say the least. The ed and some osts slap but the others are kinda meh.

Characters: 5
Here we come to the second thing that made me write this review in the first place the characters. The characters of Sorao and Toriko feel like sentient cardboard cut outs meaning they are not fully a cardboard cut out but not fully developed too. Now I understand you can make the argument of me complaining about the characters when it's only episode 4 but the people who have read the source material know how much character development, how much dialogue has been cut out for the anime version.

Enjoyment: 5
As a manga reader I feel very disappointed watching the anime, first episode was fine but as the episode went by I noticed more and more things feeling missing and the bad pacing just damages this show so much I wished to see this show become something good but it's still episode 4 and I will keep hoping that one day the anime will become good.

Overall: 5

Came for the shoujo-ai tag but stayed for the story concept.

Usually, I would turn away from horror and thriller elements,but each episode unfolded an interesting part of the Otherside (other world).

The art style was so-so. It didn't bother me nor capture my interest.

Each episode continued to explore the other side, which is not necessarily bad, but it started to feel repetitive when one mission or story finishes in just one-two episodes. I was expecting to see more built up that would have made the last few episodes have more at stake and challenges for our main leads.

I wish the later episodes ... would have focused on Toriko finding her friend, but I guess that wasn't the story's main focus. From my take away, it was about finding new connections and enjoying one's company. Also, in terms of shoujo-ai, it's subtle, and with or without it, the show would still be the same.

The ost didn't stand out to me, but I think it suited the show's eerie tone.

I loved the opening and ending song choices—also, kudos to the ending song artist for including shoujo-ai elements in her Official MV.

Uraseki Picnic is an interesting show in concept. You have two girls with romantic chemistry going to visit the Otherside, where Urban Legends reside. The sad part is that most of what's there just doesn't work that well.

In particular, the rules of the world are poorly explained and the characters just kind of fumble forward through problems without ever even understanding what they are doing (and we are left in the dark to an even greater degree than they are).

Despite the central conceit of the show being monsters from urban legends, the show seems to give remarkably no cares about presenting them in an intimidating ... or interesting fashion. Moreover, since the structure so far seems to be a monster of the week type of deal, we also don't really get any time to learn about them.

Hell, each episode can hardly be said to have a plot. This in and of itself isn't a bad thing. Other shows have been able to rely on strong world-building and interesting characters to propel their show forward. Girl's Last Tour did this rather successfully.

But Uraseki Picnic only has one of these components: a dynamic duo who are interesting to watch. One is smart(er) but shy and adorable, while the other is more outgoing and ditzy while being more traditionally attractive. Over these first 4 episodes, they slowly tease out what their dynamic is like and you start to see them open up to one another in interesting ways.

Part of me wants to watch more just for this reason. There has been real character development over the course of four episodes and there is a nice chemistry. But when the story is so barebones (episode 4 is mostly a retread of episode 2 and yet together they don't feel like an entire episode) and the action so dreadful, it's hard to say that you should stick around and watch the 70% of the show that's bad just to see the 30% of the show that's good.

All in all, the only real way to recommend the show is if you are hooked on the two main girls. If you are, then go forward and enjoy your cute little gays. If not, then you should probably drop it.

The history and plot is good, but is management of episodes is awful. The development of history is too fast for 4 eps until they start the main arc at the episode 5. After that, the break in continuity is often present in episodes.
The dialogues of some moments of the last episodes are repetitive because they have already been solved during the anime, and the development of the main character is harmed everytime.

I give 5/10 just because the anime made me use MAL again to be able to criticize it, and encouraged me to look for the manga and the novel that everyone says is ... much better.

When I was looking through the shows from this season this is one of the ones that really interested me, due to the stylised visuals that can be used in anime it provides great potential at horror and in the pv it appeared to be all about exploration of a world of unknowns.
Unfortunately the show didnt reach my expectations, often held back by janky looking cgi and iffy visuals the decision to often show the monsters barely works, takjing away the potential for the viewer to use their own imagination.
Another problem is the tension, a couple times throughtout the season they manage to create ... a great tension- for example the cliffhanger on ep10 and the opening half of ep3, however this tension is unfortunately poorly executed upon, this may be due to the pacing of the show- with each crisis normally being resolved by the end of the episode meaning rushing a copnclusion before we have time to process that a threat is truely dangerous. This goes alongisde the strange ordering of the anime, with one of the arcs being moved around quite significantly causing fairly obvious plotholes even for a casual viewer.
The only reason I continued watching was the interesting interactions between the characters and the hope that it would get better, and moments of clarity where I see what it could be.
6/10 has a good discord though

*spoilers ahead*

Oof, what a show. Not in the good sense, and not really in the bad sense either... But it IS definitely an UTTER TRAINWRECK. So, first off, let's start with the name - "otherside picnic". For those of you who don't know, 'roadside picnic' is the Russian fictional novel that the video game, mods and book series "S.T.A.L.K.E.R" is loosely based on, and i'm entirely sure that's what the anime and manga's name ties to without even researching. So yeah, the show (and the manga) definitely feels like a love letter to both stalker and 'roadside picnic' in a lot of ways (teleports, gravitational ... and other semi or really dangerous anomalies, weird creatures and incomprehensible beings).

What is DIFFERENT? Well, as 'other side' would hint, it takes place on the other side, as in, unlike stalker or roadside, its not some closed off area on earth, but some kind of dimension/limbo/spirit realm, and as such, unlike the game and novel, the anime has a lot of said spirits, and is overall seems to be more based on the supernatural and spirit-y stuff rather than being more scince-fiction and physical anomaly based like in the game and novel. How is the manga structured? Tiny arcs, with our two protagonists traveling to the 'otherside' to either complete an objective, or encounter something from there, or ending up there unintentionally.

Its a good setting, and a good premise, a decent, if somewhat weak formula too, because it gets resolved too fast and doesn't leave much room for tension. The manga isn't TOO good, but is entertaining enough, i'd probably give it somewhere around a 7.7. So why does the anime barely get a 6? Well, simply put, i think the staff and/or the director didn't give a flying F when adapting it. Let's start with the fact some stuff is omitted. No big deal, happens often, right? Well, i don't know, i didn't fully read the manga, but considering the short arcs, it might be a pretty bad thing since important things can get lost.

But next comes the real bad parts - first, the complete DESTRUCTION of any suspense, dread and horror. Not that the manga had TOO much of it, but they at least didn't try brush and laugh off every scary event with silly comedic girly expressions, allowing for a grimmer and more eerie atmosphere, which would best fit a series trying to be similar to stalker/roadside picnic (and it does, it even somewhat succeeds in the manga and the starting of the anime). Next - FULLY changing events and switching around arc chronology without making any edit.

Again, i didn't really read the manga much, just the points which made no sense, but i'll bring up the ones i did stumble on from either reading some and/or the comments outraged at what the anime did and the inconsistency it caused. First of all is the American soldiers. In the manga, the two girls went on a mission to SAVE them. DELIBERATELY. Armed and ready, knowing their goal. They knew where to look. In the anime, they just randomly fall into the otherside and come across them by chance. In the manga, they're met with some suspicion, but are welcomed, and soon rescue everyone. In the anime, the girls are met with EXTREME suspicion, despite being unarmed (unlike the manga), they suddenly pull a semi auto sniper from nowhere, somehow trigger some of the soldier's suspicion, and then flee (they DO return to save them much later, but in the END of the show instead, they go about it rather differently than in the manga, and because so much time passed since they first encountered them, they made up a 'time progression difference' thingy because otherwise the soldiers would just starve and/or die off before they made it back), first from them, onto a moving ghost train, then end up half the country across in the real world.

Completely different, the new scenario makes way less sense too. It triggers the next episode being even worse, because it isn't like in the manga, and to go there, they skipped a few arcs ahead. So, her semi auto sniper is gone, and they're half way across the country. What do they do? Beach, of course. On their way there on a taxi, they end up on the otherside again. They STILL wanna swim. They change, swim, have a few beers... Yes, in a HOSTILE, otherworldly environments that killed many and is supposedly extremely dangerous, they went to swim. Furthermore, then they decide to go for target practice, WASTING most of their bullets (again, on the dangerous 'otherside')... Target practice and bullets..?

That's right, because they SKIPPED ahead, and didn't bother with logic, consistency and chronology, the girls now both got a shiny pair of Makarovs (and i say shiny because they seemed to be so heavily upgraded, they have WAY more bullets in them than any real world counterparts, seemingly capable of well over 20 shots without reload... but its probably just the directors not giving a fuck again), an AK, and some other assault rifle... With a scope. The weapons they got from the Americans in the manga btw, the Americans they ran away from without picking up anything in the anime, yet now now STILL have.

So yeah, i wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, despite it managing to sometimes (mostly in the start) deliver on that (stalker fan) beloved eerie, slightly horror filled atmosphere of empty, or apparently empty worlds full of unseen danger... 6/10, barely.

I have very mixed feelings about Urasekai Picnic. On one hand, I enjoyed a lot of what it had to offer, but on the other hand, it was dragged down by a few (pretty important) pretty mediocre aspects. To be honest, I didn't have super high expectations, but I was a bit disappointed. This anime stood out to me because it seemed pretty unique. The Sci-Fi Mystery tags intrigued me, and since I haven't seem very much Shoujo Ai, I thought it would be good to watch some more.

Story:

The story involves a bunch of different short arcs following a similar pattern: The two main characters ... encounter something strange, which either happens in the Otherside or prompts them to enter the Otherside, they encounter some sort of creature, they use the same tactics to get rid of it, and find their way back home. While the formula tends to be the same, there is enough variation between them that it doesn't get too repetitive, and the arc with the soldiers is especially unique.

However, there were a few inconsistencies that threw me off, such as a certain object that had disappeared/been destroyed in a previous episode somehow existing again. This ended up happening because the anime switched the order of some arcs in the manga, and I'm not really sure why they made this decision.

Art:

The art itself was pretty mediocre, nothing really special. There was some CGI involved, which isn't a huge deal when used on vehicles or other inanimate objects. However, especially in the beginning, CGI was used for the main characters during long shots, which looked really off. Some monsters were also done in some pretty bad CGI.

Sound:

The soundtrack itself was pretty interesting - I really enjoyed listening to it. It helped build up suspense and excitement quite well, contributing to the atmosphere in the Otherside. The OP and ED were both quite good. However, there were some mixing issues that I noticed throughout the anime, which isn't terrible but was definitely noticeable.

Characters:

I didn't love the characters, but they weren't bad either. Sorawo and Toriko didn't go through too much development, and they didn't feel completely real (especially since they often seemed not be scared about things they definitely should have been scared about). On the other hand, Kozakura did get scared of things, and reacted the way a normal person would. Plus she was pretty cute.

Enjoyment/Overall:

Watching this weekly, I didn't really look forward to each episode, but I didn't feel like dropping it. I enjoyed it, but didn't love it: it was just fine.

Came into this show blind. Never heard of it before. Having watched the first episode it got my attention and held it for a fair amount of episodes. Its an enjoyable watch but not something I would think to recommend off the cuff. After having finished the first episode it gave me hope that if the show does well than maybe just maybe Psyren might get an anime adaptation. I see a lot of parallels in the story.
All in All this is a show for those interested in
-The art of making friends
-Guns
-Modern Japanese Folklore
-Something to watch before the second season of Yashahime

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.

English version:

Great premise, bad execution!

The anime has an interesting premise, Japanese folklore related to urban legends and horror legends is great and quite different from most other cultures, so much so that we see it being used in several different ways in works of all kinds, so it would not be a bad idea to create a work focused only on that, but the anime explores very poorly its base structure.

Sorao is a lonely girl who doesn't have much to lose in the world so isolates herself in this place that the characters call "another world", but at random she ends up meeting the person ... who would be his partner from then on, Toriko, a girl a little more experienced in that world who exploits him to find a lost friend.

From the moment Sorao forces himself to follow Toriko around the world the anime gives indications that those conflicts with monsters only have 3 objectives, create interesting suspense and action scenes, develop Sorao's personality for her to mature and a turn in her life through the relationship with Toriko and solve the mystery of the missing girl.

But none of the three premises are successfully fulfilled, the anime fails to create empathy for the main character since most of the time exchanges interesting dialogues with jokes or interruptions for something that happened in the background, the most we know of it are monologues that she does about her person, but we have almost no moments of personal improvement of the character.

The action scenes are mediocre and mostly anti-climatic, and the main mystery is most often interrupted by an isolated mission that takes the characters nowhere.

In the end what held me in the anime was its world, which by the way seems to be very rich and full of complex rules to survive in it, but in very few episodes these same rules end up being deconstructed by the whims of the script and conveniences, if the anime were only paranormal research as its basic premise I would not bother since its closed missions are at least interesting that give a reasonable level of entertainment , but become a problem in the middle of twelve episodes since, upon arriving at the end of the anime it seems that we have just begun the journey and nothing relevant has been done so far!

Português/Brasil:

Ótima premissa, péssima execução!

O anime tem uma premissa interessante, o folclore japonês relacionado a lendas urbanas e lendas de terror é grande e bem diferente da maioria das outras culturas, tanto que vemos ele sendo usado de diversas maneiras diferentes em obras de todos os tipos, então não seria má ideia criar uma obra focada apenas nisso, porém o anime explora muito mal sua estrutura base.

Sorao é uma garota solitária que não tem muito a perder no mundo então se isola nesse lugar que os personagens chamam de “outro mundo”, porém ao acaso ela acaba encontrando a pessoa que seria sua parceira daí em diante, Toriko, uma garota um pouco mais experiente naquele mundo que o explora para encontrar uma amiga perdida.

A partir do momento que Sorao se força a seguir Toriko pelo mundo o anime dá indícios de que aqueles conflitos com monstros só tem 3 objetivos, criar cenas de suspense e ação interessantes, desenvolver a personalidade de Sorao para que ela amadureça e de uma volta em sua vida através do relacionamento com Toriko e resolver o mistério da garota desaparecida.

Porém nenhuma das três premissas são cumpridas com êxito, o anime falha em criar empatia pela personagem principal já que na maioria das vezes troca diálogos interessantes com piadinhas ou interrupções por algo que aconteceu de fundo, o máximo que sabemos dela são monólogos que ela mesma faz sobre sua pessoa, mas quase não temos momentos de melhora pessoal da personagem.

As cenas de ação são medíocres e na maioria das vezes anti climáticas, e o mistério principal na maioria das vezes é interrompido por uma missão isolada que não leva os personagens a lugar algum.

No fim o que me prendeu no anime foi o seu mundo, que por sinal parece ser bem rico e cheio de regras complexas para sobreviver nele, porém em pouquíssimos episódios essas mesmas regras acabam sendo desconstruídas por caprichos do roteiro e conveniências, se o anime fosse apenas investigação paranormal como sua premissa base eu não me incomodaria já que suas missões fechadas são ao menos interessantes que dão um nível de entretenimento razoável, mas se tornam um problema em meio a doze episódios já que, ao chegar no final do anime parece que acabamos de começar a jornada e nada de relevante foi feito até aqui!

Okay, I had high hopes for this anime. The trailers and clips I saw looked cool, and the synopsis sounded interesting. Sci-fi shoujo-ai?? Hell yeah! However, even with just the first episode, I was disappointed. The only reason why I keep watching the show is for the story. The art style is mediocre at best, and they constantly use unnecessary CGI for even simple scenes (like them walking or when the camera pans). The characters are plain and kinda forgettable. The voice acting is okay I guess? Just kinda meh. The sound design is almost nonexistent, and when there is music, it feels kinda out ... of place. I just watched the 6th episode and my god, it stands as a prime example of all the negatives of the show. Lazy animation and CGI, ENGRISH LIKE HELL, awkward pauses, weird dialogue.
The story had so much potential, which is why I'm leaving it at a 5. With more effort and maybe a better studio, this could be a great anime! But as it stands, it just seems lazy and disappointing. I would recommend if only just to understand how bad it is 🙃

The whole time I was watching this series, one thought kept rattling through my head, "I really miss Manglobe." The rich atmosphere and meticulous design that Manglobe brought to Ergo Proxy and Witch Hunter Robin would have been a perfect match for Otherside Picnic, but sadly that studio doesn't exist any more.

While I haven't read the source material, the Otherside Picnic anime feels like a competent adaptation. The problem is that some stories demand something other than off-the-peg anime aesthetics. I'm aware that the novels and manga used the same character designs, but they just don't fit the story. The animators do manage to pull ... off some eerie moments in places, but for the most part the bright colours, poorly judged use of stiff CG for mundane scenes, and overall look of the series fall short of what the story needs. It's the same feeling I got watching the competent but safely attractive Boogiepop & Others after experiencing the unsettling brutality of Boogiepop Phantom.

It's a shame because Otherside Picnic is that rarest of beasts: an old-school, horror-tinged isekai that puts some actual effort into its world-building and gives us an otherworld that feels truly alien and threatening. In an anime landscape drenched in the worst kind of self-referential, generic RPG power-fantasy isekai, this series should have flattened the competition, but its merely competent adaptation undermines it.

None of this is to say it's a bad series; far from it. There are some solid episodes here. It's just that adaptations of a lot of manga and light novels can get away with a "good enough" approach to the art and direction, and this isn't one of them.

I quite enjoyed the characters in this anime. However, I expected way more yuri. It was cute I wonder if the light novels make them out to be cuter, I saw a review saying that if you like the characters its better to skip the anime and go straight to the novel there’s so much more depth and the vibes aren't as comedy as the anime. But I don't plan on reading it.

The story starts with Toriko finding Sorawo and saving her from loneliness. I relate a lot to Sorawo in the beginning, but her actions are super simpy towards Toriko and we aren't ... rewarded with enough yuri scenes to accept this.

Its a dystopian genre story where in their normal world you can find gates that takes you to a peaceful but dangerous another world or maybe dimension that they call the otherside. Every episode or almost is about these two characters running into trouble in the other world because of monsters, etc. I quite liked the adventures and the concept but it after finishing these 12 episodes its just not enough to give u a sense of what's happening and why this story is happening. The ambiance of the anime doesn't sit right with me, it's too lighthearted and comical about death.

Overall it was enjoyable and I am going to watch season 2.

The show is not the best, but it has its moments. For one, I feel that the Otherside is not fully realized. They do provide exposition of what the Otherside is, but the way that the anime presents in, we are already launched skin deep into the story without fully explaining how these characters discovered the Otherside, nor how the dimension works as there are many ways that someone could accidentally wind up in the Otherside.

While the Otherside is a very interesting concept, it felt more like a backdrop to establish the setting of the series. Because of this, there isn't much investment that ... one can take in the story due to it barely scratching below the surface of the inner mechanisms of the world.

Animation. It is serviceable, that I can guarantee, and some shots of the Otherside do look adequate. When it comes to representing the monsters, however, a lot of the action/intense scenes are blatantly CGI-animated that it takes you out of the scene if you think too much about it. With having an intriguing plot such as going to another world, it doesn't live up to its full potential and is barely creative with how the world functions.

But with an uninteresting story, are the characters at least good? Sorawo and Toriko are the lead characters and they do have great chemistry with each other I won't deny that. Sorawo is someone who starts off introverted and would rather be by her lonesome. This does make her hard to like at first because she really isn't much of a "hero" at the beginning. She was someone who could come across as cowardly and would have to be pushed by Toriko to save people. This came as the result of past trauma that is reflected on, but whether the show does a good job at depicting her PTSD is another question. She does get better towards the end of the series, however.

Toriko was a little more interesting. She was trained by her JTF2 mother in arms and is motivated by her goal of finding her "friend." She tends to be more optimistic and energetic which does serve as a good contrast to Sorawo. There are also some inclinations that she is drifting away from her in favor of Sorawo.

Kozakura is a good supporting character. As mentioned, she collects strange artifacts from the Otherside and mainly does indoor research due to her fear of going out in the field. She is a cute character and is often deadpan in her behavior

There were two others introduced in the middle of the show's run, childhood friends Natsumi and Akari. Akari was taught karate and is involved in two supernatural cases; Natsumi works with cars and other vehicles and is obvious that she is crushing hard on her friend. But they are...kind of there. They don't really contribute much to the overall story and are slightly bland. I had to look up their names again because of how forgettable they were.

The show has that kind of effect on me: aside from interesting character traits and flaws, at the end of the day, are they characters that I would remember long after the show is over?

It isn't a must-see masterpiece, but I do like it for its concept.

I liked this anime fine but I kind of find it hard to recommend. I watched it for the yuri and it's definitely yuri but don't expect anything conclusive, it's in the category of 1-season LN adaptations that can't really go anywhere with the plot or characters. I would basically describe it as being like Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation trilogy but with drunk college student anime girls instead of scientists.

As for the quality of the show...it's uneven to say the least. It feels extremely low budget. There's a lot of CGI here: most of the distance shots are fairly ugly CGI, and many of the monsters ... are fairly pathetic CGI. With the exception of a handful of strangely well-animated fight scenes, most of the animation is pretty weak, although the characters do stay on-model consistently.

The characters also tend to act in extremely stupid ways to keep the plot moving (why do you guys keep going to the Otherside with minimal preparation?!) Sorawo's powers are confusing, and many of the monsters are hard to understand without reading the LN.

That being said, Sorawo and Toriko are cute and likable, and their relationship is adorable. I guess you could say it's almost like a college SOL mixed with mild urban fantasy horror. If you like SCP-style urban legend fantasy stuff, it's in that vein, and it has some good overtures to the deeper thematic horror of that genre, it just doesn't really have the time to develop any of it. There are some fairly disturbing scenes, nice creepy moments, and decent suspense, but nothing that'll keep you up at night–the LN is more successful at having genuinely scary content.

I don't know...I just found it difficult to be mad at or dislike this show even though it probably underdelivers on its premise. There's something about the constant tonal whiplash, uneven quality, bizarre plots, the protagonists' insanely cavalier attitude towards the Otherside, and Sorawo pouting that make it a pleasantly bemusing experience. I can't say I've ever seen anything quite like the beach episode, I'll put it that way. If you're desperate for yuri, like creepypasta stuff, and are willing to watch something that isn't really that good, this might be the show for you! Watching it made me want to read the LN, so I guess the show succeeded at fulfilling its actual purpose. I give it 6.5 unpaid student loans out of 10.

Yeah, this is a pretty underwhelming anime.

At first, I was quite intrigued by the mix of sci-fi along with yuri on the sides. The world design, at first glance, was actually quite cool. I kind of liked the post-apocalyptic elements of the Otherside. The soundtracks that played when they were in the Otherside also pretty much sold how eerie and intense the exploration is gonna be like....but that's not what happened.

What we got were mostly boring fights that I'm pretty sure 99% of them involves running away. The most effective way of fighting ofc. And when it DOESN'T involve running away, it usually ends very ... quickly and easily. That's just not a good fight writing.

The yuri relationship pretty much didn't go anywhere by the end of it all. Sorao's character is pretty half-assed, and CAN I JUST SAY THIS? I really don't like the continuity problems related to Sorao's contact lenses. Like, sometimes she puts them on, sometimes she doesn't. And somehow, none of the people around her noticed this stuffs. Like, if Liden Films ain't gonna care about these sorts of detail, how am I gonna feel immersed in the story being told?

Toriko also just straight up dismissed Satsuki at the end, the main reason behind her eagerness to explore the Otherside. I know that it was said at the end that t's been three months ever since they both started doing stuffs together, but by the way this anime is made by Liden Films, it really only felt like a couple weeks.

Also, you know how I said at the start that I thought the world design was quite cool? Welp, the world design turned out to be a pile of mess. We weren't told clearly, if at all, about the origins of the Otherside. Like, the explanation just flew by. Cuz, all of them, we switched from a post-apocalyptic world into.... a cat world? And then, some occult fights happened IN THE REAL WORLD and NOT THE OTHERSIDE? Like it's as if the studio didn't wanna fully explore the world itself, even though they have the materials given.

If I wanna end this review with a silver lining, I'll just say the OP theme of this anime FUCKING BOPS! Easily a contender for OP of the season. It gave me excitement everytime I start continuing watching, and the lyrics also pretty much told a story in itself.

The FIVE in my review score also pretty much represents the final FIVE minutes of this anime, cause it is quite wholesome and very beautiful. Kind of made all of the binging worth it (????) like if there isn't anything in this anime that is gonna make me go in awe, the final minutes of episode 12 will.

All in all, I think I'll just read the manga/LN.

Urasekai Picnic was pretty fun to watch.

It's not the most visually stunning thing, but it's decent. The one specific thing I'll say now is that there are some static shots of things like our characters among people standing in the city where the complete lack of motion in the people standing around just doesn't look right at all. There's one other visual thing I want to mention but I'll bring it up later.

The OP and ED are both fun songs, though only the OP is actually memorable to me. The sound design within the show is pretty standard suspenseful horror fare for the most part, ... but it's competently executed for what it is. The main audio-related complaint I would give is about the marines in the episodes where they show up. These guys are supposed to be native English speakers and they have a whole bunch of English lines. Only one or two of them have a large number of Japanese lines. So the VAs could've been better at English than this. The fact that they're clearly not is a particularly rough hit to the overall production value of their scenes from a native English speaker's viewpoint.

The supporting cast is pretty flimsy, but Toriko and Sorawo are reasonably well developed, in personality if not backstory. Their "opposites attract" kind of chemistry is pretty intense without leaning too hard into blatant trope indulgence. (Disclaimer: I am completely unfamiliar with yuri, and have little familiarity with romance anime as well, so I don't have much of a frame of reference here.) That connection is backed up by a lot of trust in high-stakes situations, which gets justified by their successes in those situations. Those successes usually feel earned even if they do sometimes feel a bit conveniently timed and located.

Now for the main meat of the review, which is pretty much all negatives about the story.

The story is quite shaky throughout, though some of that can be forgiven on the grounds that it's centered around something that is meant to be mysterious. Still, I see some pretty serious problems already.

First, they don't really do a very good job of explaining why Toriko and Sorawo keep going to the "Otherside" voluntarily at all. I understand that ultimately they're going to, it's literally what the show is about; even a single episode with no supernatural stuff would probably be panned as filler. But still, it needs more expansion than it got.

Toriko is just trying to find Satsuki, but we still have no clear picture of why Satsuki is important to her. Sorawo, after the first time, seems to just want to hang out with Toriko, but can't seem to persuade her to stay in the normal world. Sorawo also doesn't seem to have anything else important to her going on in her own life (she's a university student but they don't even mention what year or what she's studying). That feels quite contrived. There also seems to be a dynamic where they want to use selling stuff they found in the Otherside to fund a hedonistic lifestyle together, which...definitely creates an undertone that the show is allegorically promoting drug abuse in a way that I'm sure they didn't intend.

Anyway, perhaps they are just going for a simple star-crossed lovers kind of motive for Sorawo to go to the Otherside. In this case there is still a problem: because Toriko's precise situation isn't clear, it's not apparent why Sorawo thinks Toriko is even available as a love interest. What if Satsuki is alive just fine and Toriko just wants to be with her and friendzone Sorawo? Obviously for trope reasons that's not gonna happen, but the show hasn't sold me on that within its own world, even after a whole season.

VAGUE SPOILER: on the upside, they end up making several involuntary trips, which helps a little, but not a lot.

Second, the Lovecraftian-ness of the concept is hurting the show from both sides. On the one hand, it is too Lovecraftian, in the sense that the Otherside never really makes sense and you just have to roll with each scene there as its own thing. Just about the only rules presented so far are the excuses for the use of the two leads' superpowers. Relatedly, the fact that only they appear to have such powers seems remarkably contrived, given how little trouble was required for them to obtain their powers.

On the other hand, it's not Lovecraftian enough, because it doesn't really seem the slightest bit maddening from our perspective. There are weird-looking, aggressive creatures, but it almost never feels like it's impossible that they could exist. The most powerful creatures seem to be able to strongly manipulate perception by using the victim's feelings. There are invisible (to most people but not Sorawo) "glitches" littered all over the place that basically act like landmines (although references seem to be made to glitches that do other stuff, this is never really fleshed out). Also, Sorawo gets so competent at spotting and avoiding glitches that they only really feature prominently in one or two episodes. That's pretty much it, other than all the stuff about how you get there. And the two leads don't really seem to be going insane from all their time spent there, either.

There was only one scene, the scene in which the two leads get their powers, where we get a clear glimpse into the capacity that the Otherside has to make visitors go insane...but from our perspective it was pretty much just depicted as Sorawo babbling incoherently. Maybe what she said will make more sense later, but I doubt it.

Third, the structure of something like half the episodes is "there's an urban legend that Sorawo knows off the top of her head, it is literally true because of some contact with the Otherside, they encounter the monster from the legend, they kill the monster, nothing else changes". There's a way to make that format fun, but it is not the way that this show is initially set up. As a result these episodes, which seem to clash with the overall format of the show and also don't really progress any larger plot, feel more like filler than anything else.

Finally, this season has no ending. They wrap up an arc, the leads do a thing that helps them be more prepared for subsequent Otherside visits, and the leads have an extremely indirect heart-to-heart chat. That's it. The only real sources of a sequel hook are the leads' romance and the pending mystery about Satsuki's status. It's also not even really clear that there's romantic interest, even though for genre reasons there clearly is.

I read the four volumes of the LN currently available in English. I will confine my commentary to the first two, since most of the anime is restricted to their content.

Simply put, most of the problems above are either created or exacerbated by the anime. In particular, the first volume, corresponding to episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, largely avoids the issue of too many voluntary trips to the Otherside, the issue of why Sorawo is interested in going there at all, and the weird "too Lovecraftian but not Lovecraftian enough" vibe. The characterization is also done better, in part because the LN is written from Sorawo's perspective. So Toriko is still pretty flat, but you feel like you want to get to know her better because of your connection to Sorawo, while Sorawo herself is developed quite well. That said the first volume of the LN doesn't really have an ending, either, so there is that.

That gets even worse with the second volume. The second half of the anime is trying way too hard to make the episodes start and end "cleanly", along with shoehorning in more time with the supporting character Akari than we really needed. In the process, they end up delaying the resolution of the plot line set up in episodes 5 and 6 for no good reason except to put a climax near the end of the season. And then they have no time at the end to get to the bulk of "File 8" (the last quarter of the second volume), which is where the story actually opens up. It's like they don't want to make a sequel anime even if someone would pay for it!