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Welcome to Otherside Picnic! What is it? A horror series with Yuri Undertones™ that is inspired by Strutgatskies' Roadside Picnic and Japanese urban legends/horror stories. In it, our two intrepid protagonists Sorawo and Toriko discover a mysterious world populated by horrific entities and make it their mission to explore it. Toriko does it to find her mentor Satsuki while Sorawo tags along The series is pretty fun and I have been enjoying the manga quite a bit. The story proceeds in a brisk pace and the horror elements are woven surprisingly well and naturally into the plot. Describing the series raises some eyebrows, but give it a shot. The monsters and the discussion of their origins are really well-done and fun to read through. The Manga If you're not a fan of LNs, the best way to get into the series is the manga. The manga is goddamned fantastic, and the artist absolutely nails the monster design. Not only that, the artist even uses the goddamned panel borders for effect, usually to indicate the mental effects of the Otherside creatures. So far, every single one of these border effects has been unique to a specific creature or Otherside phenomenon. Near as I can tell this is the artist's first work and he goddamn knocked it out of the park, especially given how focused the story is on mental strain. Chapter releases from this manga are some of the most anticipated releases this year for me, it's really great.   I highly recommend reading it, it's available on Mangadex. Other than the LN, this is the best way to enjoy the series and is kinda necessary to read through to enjoy the anime. The anime Right. The anime. I think I speak for most people when I say the anime is so-so. The people involved have solid chops but a few baffling decisions and a small budget end up hurting its quality.  The anime isn't bad, but I expect newcomers to the series will find it hard to follow. A lack of budget also forced the creators to cut down on the effects of some scares, which obviously hurts the product a lot. As well, the anime makes the strange decision to tone down the horror in favor of more comedy. It's kind of baffling, especially since this is still billed as a Thriller. I'd treat the anime as more of a companion to the LN/manga. If you enjoyed the story of those, give this a watch to see animated Sorawo and Toriko. Characters  Sorawo Kamikoshi: A 20 year old college student and urban explorer. She is shy and awkward, originally using the Otherside as a place to be away from other people before learning about its dangers. Gets a mad crush on Toriko almost immediately. Her right eye turns blue after an encounter with the Kunekune which lets her see, materialize and "layer" the Otherside phenomena.  Toriko Nishina: An outgoing college student who is the student of Satsuki. Unlike Sorawo, she's energetic and friendly to pretty much everyone she talks to. She is athletic and skilled with firearms. Gets called "beautiful" by Sorawo pretty much every other sentence. Her left hand became a transluscent blue after an encounter with the Kunekune which lets her grab and tear the illusory protections of the Otherside and its monsters  Satsuki Uruma: Toriko's missing mentor. Apparently has a great deal of experience with the Otherside.  Kozakura: Toriko's friend and apparent researcher of the Otherside. She pays the duo money for the strange things they bring back. Apparently very rich. Seraphic Neoman fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 10, 2021 06:37
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Pedant Notes: The source novels aren't LN's, for the record, they're classified simply as novels. My understanding is that the distinction, at least in this case, is one of target audience - adults moreso than teens - and the prestige of the publishing label. Also, rather than simply having "yuri undertones", Otherside Picnic is billed and described straight forwardly by author Iori Miyazawa as a yuri story - though it obviously isn't quite a straightforward romance along the lines of Bloom Into You or Citrus ofrthe like. Without giving too much away, suffice to say that later novels (especially beyond what the anime is likely to cover, natch) see Toriko and Sorawo's relationship Go Places to a greater and more specific extent you might expect from a more subtext-y sort of thing. My lame nitpicks aside, thanks for making this thread, I kept wanting to do it myself but getting hit by my lack of  .Also, for those who have been or are reading the novel - published in physical and digital formats in english by J-Novel - and are getting antsy about the current lack of an announcement regarding volume 5, there's a fan TL of volume 5's first chapter available here. Anyway I think the novels are cool and wind up using Sorawo and Toriko's adventures in the Otherside as an interesting vehicle for exploring how they cope (or how they sometimes fail to or choose not to cope) with past trauma through immersing themselves in a fantasy world and through engaging with the push and pull of their own feelings for each other, and the spooks are fun too.
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Feb 10, 2021 08:43
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My favourite character is Sorawo's fang.
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Feb 10, 2021 09:11
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Despite everything I’ve heard about it being worse than the manga or novels, this is still my favorite show of the season, hands down. I love the whole X-Files/SCP Foundation vibe it gives off, where the supernatural stuff is genuinely alien and unknowable but operates on enough recognizable rules that you can deal with it if you pay attention. It’s also good having slightly older characters rather than the high school students you’d normally see in a fantasy series.
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Feb 10, 2021 11:09
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Binged the manga today. Manga good.
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Feb 10, 2021 19:03
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Spiritus Nox posted:Pedant Notes: The source novels aren't LN's, for the record, they're classified simply as novels. My understanding is that the distinction, at least in this case, is one of target audience - adults moreso than teens - and the prestige of the publishing label. Also, rather than simply having "yuri undertones", Otherside Picnic is billed and described straight forwardly by author Iori Miyazawa as a yuri story - though it obviously isn't quite a straightforward romance along the lines of Bloom Into You or Citrus ofrthe like. Without giving too much away, suffice to say that later novels (especially beyond what the anime is likely to cover, natch) see Toriko and Sorawo's relationship Go Places to a greater and more specific extent you might expect from a more subtext-y sort of thing. I've only read the manga up until now but that's good to hear! I'm way too used to Japanese fiction awkwardly discussing romance instead of involving Romance. Spiritus Nox posted:Anyway I think the novels are cool and wind up using Sorawo and Toriko's adventures in the Otherside as an interesting vehicle for exploring how they cope (or how they sometimes fail to or choose not to cope) with past trauma through immersing themselves in a fantasy world and through engaging with the push and pull of their own feelings for each other, and the spooks are fun too. Yeah, prob my fav part was where Sorawo tells Kozakura about her family life, or lack thereof, and then just goes "you know, boring childhood stuff" while Kozakura just 
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Feb 10, 2021 19:09
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Bakeneko posted:Despite everything I’ve heard about it being worse than the manga or novels, this is still my favorite show of the season, hands down. I love the whole X-Files/SCP Foundation vibe it gives off, where the supernatural stuff is genuinely alien and unknowable but operates on enough recognizable rules that you can deal with it if you pay attention. It’s also good having slightly older characters rather than the high school students you’d normally see in a fantasy series. Roughly the same. I've had no problems following it, I like it a lot, and if people in the threads weren't talking about how much worse it is/how much was missing/is missing/how weird an adaptation I would literally never know I was missing anything in the transition. Devoid of context it's a solid little seasonal anime I can heartily recommend with a cool hook and a pair of leads I dig. It's not exactly Wonder Egg Priority, but that's as unfair a comparison as I can imagine.
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Feb 10, 2021 19:11
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Omnicrom posted:It's not exactly Wonder Egg Priority, but that's as unfair a comparison as I can imagine. And see, lol, the main reason some folks like me are a little frustrated is that I think that if you gave this material+this director the kind of supporting resources the WEP team obviously has then this show could totally trade blows with WEP IMO. It doesn't go *as* hard *as* fast as something like WEP is but I think the novels' best moments are at least in the same ballpark as what we've seen in WEP. It's still a nice little show even with the production wrinkles IMO, I just think the source material has a higher ceiling than the show's been able to reach so far.
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Feb 10, 2021 19:35
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I like the show a lot but it is suffering by running in a season with WEP (And Yuru Camp...)
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Feb 10, 2021 20:07
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I binge-read all the novels, and I might read through the manga soon. It's really a fantastic series. On top of the characters being great and deeply human (and it being very refreshing to see non-teens involved), the horror is top-notch. I think where it especially shines is capturing the unknowable/incomprehensible, which may seem strange, but the bits of the novels where language and logic break down all are incredibly unsettling and perfectly set a mood without letting you fully understand what's happening. It's vaguely like tone poetry. The bit in the latest novel where Sorawo gazes through the mirror-portal and ends up being nearly captured by the Red Person or losing her identity or Something still haunts me. Basically, best cosmic horror I've found turns out to be lesbian reinterpretation of Roadside Picnic. Never would have guessed, but I'm not complaining!
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Feb 11, 2021 03:10
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Spiritus Nox posted:And see, lol, the main reason some folks like me are a little frustrated is that I think that if you gave this material+this director the kind of supporting resources the WEP team obviously has then this show could totally trade blows with WEP IMO. It doesn't go *as* hard *as* fast as something like WEP is but I think the novels' best moments are at least in the same ballpark as what we've seen in WEP. It's still a nice little show even with the production wrinkles IMO, I just think the source material has a higher ceiling than the show's been able to reach so far. yeah I had high expectations coming in and the first two episodes were solid enough (despite the occasional wrinkle) but then it's been solidly downhill since as it's made increasingly questionable choices in adapting things and the seeming lack of resources has become increasingly noticeable
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Feb 11, 2021 06:11
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Spiritus Nox posted:And see, lol, the main reason some folks like me are a little frustrated is that I think that if you gave this material+this director the kind of supporting resources the WEP team obviously has then this show could totally trade blows with WEP IMO. It doesn't go *as* hard *as* fast as something like WEP is but I think the novels' best moments are at least in the same ballpark as what we've seen in WEP. It's still a nice little show even with the production wrinkles IMO, I just think the source material has a higher ceiling than the show's been able to reach so far. Yeah, that's it exactly. It feels like the studios who made this had no faith in its success so they gave it like half the resources that it needed. Seraphic Neoman fucked around with this message at 08:54 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 11, 2021 06:19
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Seraphic Neoman posted:Yeah, that's it exactly. It feels like the people who studios who made this had no faith in its success so they gave it like half the resources that it needed. Yeah Liden Films has like 4 shows airing right now so somebody's production was almost certainly kinda doomed from the start, and unfortunately I get the impression that Otherside Picnic lost that battle. Like, if you look at Cells At Work Black, for example - nobody's gonna mistake that show for a KyoAni production or anything and I'd certainly say that Picnic is generally a lot better shot and composed, but the baseline drawing quality is a lot more consistent IMO in a way that suggests to me that Picnic is just having to make do with fewer people working harder hours than Black is. Anime. Tough business, unfortunately. 
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Feb 11, 2021 06:57
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Won't even say the show is bad, but one thing that made me go "oh, this isn't what I was hoping for" in the first episode was, well, the lack of competence porn. When people go into unknown hellscapes for the first time, I want to see them try to process it. For a more grounded example, I want scenes like in No Country for Old Men or pretty much any time Mike is on screen in Better Call Saul or Breaking Bad. Lots of people just doing small things to set up later success that establish "Yes, this person knows what to do in this situation." (For an anime example, I'm fond of Chad dropping his machine gun in Iron Blooded Orphans season 2. The show never explains why he does it, but if you're paying attention, it's a nice little bit of competence.) A horror setting, of course, means that the rules can be undermined in a split second for no apparent reason, but competent seeming people only enhance that feeling. Meanwhile, Toriko and Sorawo just seem to be, well, having a picnic a lot of the time. Even when they have a plan, they seem to wing it a lot, and the bits where they try to methodically work through something are rushed in episodes. They don't feel like professionals who keep the mood light because they're used to this. They feel like amateurs who keep getting lucky. Nothing against the show. That just wasn't what I wanted from it. (Also, the anime is a coproduction, unlike the other three shows Liden is doing this season. The other studio is Felix Films, which might explain the different approach.)
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Feb 11, 2021 07:55
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chiasaur11 posted:(Also, the anime is a coproduction, unlike the other three shows Liden is doing this season. The other studio is Felix Films, which might explain the different approach.) That might be part of it, but I don't think it's the deciding factor. My understanding is that Felix Films is primarily a CG studio, presumably responsible for Otherside Picnic's own CG efforts. That's not a bad idea in and of itself, CG has an obvious appeal for a production that is being asked to draw Undrawable Eldritch Horrors on a consistent basis. It's just a shame that the CG we've seen has mostly been, uh, poor.
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Feb 11, 2021 08:15
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the cg has also often been used in weird ways, such as for distant shots of the leads just walking etc. re: competence, sorawo and toriko are indeed very much amateurs who keep getting lucky at first and the source material really emphasises this later on (mostly past where the anime will cover though). the source handles this better though as it doesn't really take as light-hearted and comical of a tone as the anime can at times, and there's much more focus on sorawo's interiority. they do gradually increase in competence over time, but i still don't think it'd really be what you're after chiasaur though
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Feb 11, 2021 09:30
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I'm kinda with chiasaur. The thing I most liked about the first episode was the emphasis on Sorawo figuring stuff out to solve the first encounter. I kinda expected the show to be more in that vein in terms of understanding the mechanics and weird rules in the Otherside (so you can defeat this type of enemy if one person looks at it while the other person shoots!) to gain an edge and be more prepared to survive, with new complications thrown in from time to time etc. But with the introduction of the superpowers for the two main characters the show has kinda veered away from that. I mean it's my fault for going in with the wrong expectations but I was hoping with this new arc that it would have been about the girls demonstrating their competence and understanding to these ostensibly professional soldiers and contrasting their approach to the more gung-ho "let's shoot at it" approach of the soldiers, that would also progress the situation for the girls beyond individual adventures looking for Satsuki (who I really don't care about). Heck maybe they could get the military to help out in looking for Satsuki, which would at last mean there's some meaningful progress in the main plot. But instead it seemed like a setup for a misunderstanding-plot, where the soldiers are just one more threat they have to run away from. I guess I just wanted Paranormal Dr Stone with Lesbians, is that too much to ask forrrr...??? 
Fangz fucked around with this message at 13:35 on Feb 11, 2021 |
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Feb 11, 2021 13:17
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Fangz posted:I mean it's my fault for going in with the wrong expectations but I was hoping with this new arc that it would have been about the girls demonstrating their competence and understanding to these ostensibly professional soldiers and contrasting their approach to the more gung-ho "let's shoot at it" approach of the soldiers, that would also progress the situation for the girls beyond individual adventures looking for Satsuki the overall plot at the start is relatively slow and the anime has padded it out with filler (the third episode) and rearranged things a fair bit and that hasn't helped at all with feeling like things are progressing. if you're still somewhat interested in the premise i think just read the manga/books because there is some of what you're after there, the anime just isn't really doing it any favours.
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Feb 11, 2021 14:47
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The third episode filler baffles me. There's so much content here, why?
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Feb 11, 2021 17:25
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Episode 7 could have been cute but jeez, this series would have been so much better if they put this *before* the previous arc instead of immediately after. Then again maybe this means they aren't gonna rescue the soldiers? Bleh. EDIT: VVV 
Fangz fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Feb 15, 2021 |
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Feb 15, 2021 21:24
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Fangz posted:Then again maybe this means they aren't gonna rescue the soldiers? Bleh. Yeah, those rifles they suddenly had? They originally got them from the soldiers, when they went back to rescue them Tamba fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Feb 15, 2021 |
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Feb 15, 2021 22:11
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Now I'm just starting to wonder if one of the anime writers has a grudge against Marines in general or something real silly like that.
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Feb 16, 2021 08:27
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It might just be the case they're moving the kisaragi rescue arc back to a prospective second season but yeah, it's very...weird stuff. Still, hey, good episode if nothing else!
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Feb 16, 2021 10:33
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The Divine Orator posted:It might just be the case they're moving the kisaragi rescue arc back to a prospective second season but yeah, it's very...weird stuff. Still, hey, good episode if nothing else! I find it really hard to see how the girls would suddenly go "oh right, those guys" without seeming like total morons
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Feb 16, 2021 14:38
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Tamba posted:Yeah, those rifles they suddenly had? They originally got them from the soldiers, when they went back to rescue them Yeah those just kinda popped into existence didn't they? Christ the plotting in this show is such a mess
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Feb 16, 2021 17:18
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It's such a shame because the source material is rather good. I just have no idea why they've shifted the story around like this.
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Feb 16, 2021 17:47
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This adaption sure is a series of choices.
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Feb 16, 2021 21:37
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New manga chapter. This is partially through the last anime episode, so if you watched that you'll already know what happened, but the manga art just blows the anime out of the water really.
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Feb 17, 2021 05:03
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Ironically I read that chapter before watching the episode and went "oh hey this spooky thing could actually look pretty okay in the anime".
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Feb 17, 2021 05:33
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FWIW, aside from the pacing issues that I just don't think the anime is ever going to be able to fully escape at this point, I thought the horror in the latest ep was some of the more effective we've seen since, like....episode 1, lol.
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Feb 17, 2021 06:27
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I haven't read the manga yet, but some of the stuff this episode was actually effectively creepy. Also this was the first internet urban legend I didn't recognize. I recognized the allusion to the monkey dream urban legend in the last episode despite it not really elaborating what was happening while they were on the train.
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Feb 17, 2021 07:11
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It's got the parts of a good adaptation and it's not like creating or running from the source like some other adaptations. But it's still making curious choices that really haven't added up And it kinda of stands out when Adachi and Shimamura last season did a lot of shuffling of material but did the work to make it work for the anime
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Feb 17, 2021 07:29
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  This episode wasn't particularly bad but I think I'm dropping the series at this point, it's just too much of a mess and not really what I was looking for...
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Feb 22, 2021 19:15
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read the books coward
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Feb 22, 2021 19:39
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I'll add it to the stack. Do I want the manga or the novels
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Feb 22, 2021 19:56
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Fangz posted:I'll add it to the stack. Do I want the manga or the novels Either or, both are quite good in their own format IMO - though be advised the manga's quite a ways behind the novels. There's 5 novels out in Japan (only 4 in english so far) with a sixth imminent, and the manga's only about halfway through the 2nd novel.
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Feb 22, 2021 20:25
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Maybe it's just because they're past the manga so it was new to me, but that was by far the best episode yet. Funny and better animated than any of the others.
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Feb 22, 2021 23:31
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Yeah, I liked it a lot! I thought it was fun that instead of doing a creepypasta they did a copypasta this week.
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Feb 23, 2021 00:36
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Fangz posted:I'll add it to the stack. Do I want the manga or the novels I will also add to Nox's reply that the translation for the novels is quite a step above the dry treatment a lot of LNs suffer from. It really seems to properly capture the voice of the characters and the horror elements.
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Feb 23, 2021 13:18
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https://twitter.com/marumizog/status/1365134571012988932 The cover of the novel's sixth volume was revealed tonight! Akari's appearance here is, if I'm not mistaken, the first time a character outside the core trio of Sorawo, Toriko, and Kozakura has made it on!
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Feb 26, 2021 04:56
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