LAID-BACK CAMP SEASON2

I love watching anime. I have a deep passion for watching, discussing and critiquing anime. Nuancing my opinions, sharing love for shows and discovering new experiences is what keeps me continuing to watch anime. It is a passion that is hard to really express to people who don’t watch anime, but I sure try to share that deep-rooted passion with others who are willing to listen. I can see this sort of passion in Yuru Camp.

Yuru Camp is a show that means a lot to me. Back in 2018 Yuru Camp was one of the first anime that I watched and I loved every second of it. I listened to the soundtrack on repeat, I tried to let my friends watch it, you could almost say I was obsessed with it. But as the years went by and I watched more and more anime, I started to forget that love that I had for YuruCamp. Now that Yuru Camp season 2 is done, I did not only relive that feeling of love for the anime that I forgot for a time, but also have that love amplified by a thousand. I fucking love Yuru Camp, and there are so many reasons why.

Firstly, the anime is just genuinely great. It is Iyashikei at its best. With a simple premise as “Girls go camping”, the anime really gets a lot out of it. It not only shows multiple ways how to camp, but also shows the dangers that come with it and the extra work you have to do for certain trips. The creators of these anime definitely know what camping takes and you see that back in the anime.

The characters are great too. Rin and Nadeshiko are the definite highlights of the cast. Both have amazing designs and personalities that work well off each other. Rin, the cold but sweet camping fanatic, interacting with Nadeshiko, a bowl of marshmallows and hot chocolate, are some of the best moments of the show. The rest of the character cast is not as strong but still really enjoyable. Aoi is a nice onee-san type that loves to tease others. Ena might not have much as a personality but she compliments Rin well and her dog is adorable. Chiaki is probably the weakest character with how she is often a comedic relief and her comedy tends to have lots of hits & misses, but she still has some great moments. The rest of the characters are mostly made up of chill adults. What makes this character cast work so well is that these friendships feel real. They joke with each other, but also look out for each other and help each other when needed too. They don’t suddenly fall in love, they don’t have exaggerated manners, they don’t go through significant emotional arcs, they are all friends/family that bond over love for camping.

What really sells this anime for me and loads of other people are the production values. The art of this anime is gorgeous. The animation may not be impressive, but the character designs are great and the backgrounds are jaw dropping. Some of the composition also enhances the experience a ton. One of the best things about this anime is the OST. This OST makes me melt into my chair of comfort. It is quiet and meaningful when it needs to, jolly and upbeat when the scene is funny and during down times the relaxing sounds of string instruments make you feel at ease. Even if you decide to not watch the anime after reading this review, please just listen to the OST on Youtube. It is amazing.

Those aspects are already great, but after watching all 25 episodes of this anime, I finally realised why this anime means a lot to me: the way it conveys its passion for camping. I am not a camper and the times I have camped have all been a mixed experience, but I can still feel what joys camping can bring in this anime.

Without any lazy running gags, without any distracting drama, without any sort of moe yuri-bait, this anime shows that camping is about enjoying the quiet beautiful nature. Reading a book while eating self-made dinner in the cold is a healing experience that is hard to get anywhere else, but camping isn’t just solo. You can share this experience with multiple people. With that, even if you screw up, you screw up together and fix things together. Watching the sunset go down or staring at the night sky full of stars becomes an experience you can share with the ones you camp, an unique experience you then only have with those ones.

I mentioned that I have a deep-rooted passion for watching anime, but it is a hard passion to really share with others. While not really that equivalent, camping is also not a hobby that is easy for people to really get, but this anime knows how to let people get what camping is all about by combining all these amazing elements I mentioned previously in a passion-filled 24 minutes 25 episodes total. Watching people that I love doing things that they love in a fashion that doesn’t challenge me and just wants me to have a good time is an amazing healing experience. This experience especially hits hard after going through an exhausting 2020 which brought me enormous distress and loss of motivation, so the comfort of an anime about people doing what they love brought genuine tears to my eyes with the first episode of season 2.

Also, regarding how season 2 compares to season 1, from my perspective, I think it improves enough on things to make it a great second season. With how in season 1 introduced the characters and the setting, this second season now puts its focus on the girls going camping instead of learning and preparing for it. You also see some genuine progression in the series: In season 1 most of the girls were really amateur and had to discover a lot of things, and now in season 2 they already are more experienced and you see that by seeing them enjoy camping more instead of having to deal with the difficulties of it (but don’t worry, there is still a good amount of problem solving in season 2). It is also nice to see the relationships between characters thicken: They get more comfortable with each other and can comment more on each other's personalities.

I fucking love Yuru Camp. It is an anime that I can recommend with all my soul, especially after how heavy 2020 was.

So yeah, watch Yuru Camp you dingus.