Yurucamp

Title:Yurucamp
Laid-back Camp
ゆるキャン△
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , ,
Notables: HANAMORI Yumiri
HARA Sayuri
TAKAHASHI Rie
TOUYAMA Nao
TOYOSAKI Aki
Rin is an experienced camper who especially prizes the solitude that she enjoys during the off-season. One day, at a lake near Mt. Fuji, she encounters a somewhat less experienced camper, Nadeshiko. They realize that they'll be attending the same school and the idea of a camping club comes together.

12 episodes


[edit] The Yurucamp franchise:

OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 8 7 8 6 7 7 Ggultra2764 [series:3472#1552]
Laid-Back Camp is a slice-of-life comedy focused on several high school girls that have an interest in camping, with the main characters of focus in the series being the quiet Rin Shima who enjoys camping solo and the ditzy and energetic Nadeshiko Kagamihara who takes an interest in camping from witnessing Rin’s experiences in it.

Slice-of-life titles are typically hit-or-miss in their reception for me as many titles of the genre typically rely on a premise that mostly plays second fiddle to milking comedy off the comical quirks of the characters or there isn’t enough explored with it to engage my interest. For Laid-Back Camp, the series does manage to engage me for the most part thanks to keeping focus on its premise of camping that its characters have interest in. The series believably explores many of the preparations and maintenance that go into preparing a camping site and having adequate supplies on hand throughout the experience, this especially notable as Rin and the girls do engage in autumn and winter camping throughout the series where adequate preparations need to be made to stay warm while outdoors. The girls are shown to camp in areas that are actual campgrounds within Japan and there is occasional narration that provides details to elements of camping such as sleeping bags, campfires, and information on well-known campgrounds in Japan.

As far as my reception to the characters go though, they are a mixed bag. Many of them have their character types that they largely stick with throughout Laid-Back Camp’s run and they don’t really grow much out of them throughout the anime’s run nor does the anime attempt to give them more dimension beyond said character types. There are a few gradual developments that take place with Rin and Nadeshiko that you would expect out of slice-of-life such as Rin becoming more open to the idea of camping with others and Nadeshiko becoming more informed and interested in camping. Rin’s character was probably the most interesting of the group of characters I enjoyed due to her seasoned camping experience and independence, but I sometimes questioned if Nadeshiko really was acting her age due to her childish behavior and quirks. The rest of the cast didn’t have anything too memorable otherwise that largely stuck out to me as the anime was more focused on Rin and Nadeshiko.

Overall, I suppose I found Laid-Back Camp to be a solid slice-of-life anime, though not to the large amount of fanfare that many threw heaping praises onto. The experiences with camping are believably explored and I did get enjoyment out of seeing Rin’s traveling to different Japanese campsites. However like many slice-of-life titles, the majority of characters don’t have much dimension to them and are mostly defined by whatever character types they personify. Still, I would at least recommend folks to watch it at least once to develop their own perceptions of the series since it is one of the more better slice-of-life titles I’ve had the opportunity to see as of late.

Last updated Monday, June 03 2019. Created Monday, June 03 2019.
Watch Stretch [series:3472#628]
(Watch+)

(All episodes watched):

Yurucamp struck me as a laid-back show about laid-back camping. The jokes weren't uproariously funny, but the characters were fun and likeable and I learned a little about how to (and how not to) camp. The chemistry between the outgoing Nadeshiko and the in-going Rin was fun. I was curious about how this camping club project would work out. One might think that an anime about camping would easily be boring but, while in the long run it started to do that, this show largely held my interest and as a result I didn't mind watching more. The show has a silly, fun tone to it. I remained curious about camping (and, in particular, how it is done in Japan) and also about the ambition of the characters. Over time, however, I got a little tired of all the cooking tips and selfies taken at marvelous landscapes. This show is so laid back that there doesn't seem to be much of an ongoing plot, and the humor is more of the smile sort than the LOL one. Presumably, over time the loner camper Rin will come to enjoy camping with the outdoor activities club (since she's standing side-by-side with them in the image above). But I was not exactly fascinated by the process, since nobody has a particularly deep personality. In order to stay fairly interesting the show seems to rely to a good extent on the things it teaches us about the technology of 21st century camping, and in particular what camping is like in Japan. Things like how mountain roads might be closed during the winter. I had no idea that there was any interest in camping at all over there, and as a result was curious. But the plot drags along as a slice-of-not-all-that-interesting-lives sort of show. The characters never really got deep enough for me to be moved by the final episode. Yurucamp seemed like a show which demanded little from its viewers and in return delivered relatively little to them. It was basically a comedy rather than a show trying to teach us any sort of lesson. But it must have had something going for it, since I watched it all the way to the end.

Last updated Sunday, April 01 2018. Created Monday, January 08 2018.

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