I binged the first three seasons of this show in a week just to talk about this season. it wasn't all that worth it, but I'm doing this review anyway. This won't be a full-on review, as I will only talk about the aspects that stand out to me about Yama no Susume. #Watch-Order
Yes, there's a watch order to this slice-of-life show—kind of.
The first four episodes of Next Summit are recaps of the previous three seasons, and those seasons (unless Crunchyroll is trolling my non-subscriber ass) aren’t available on legal platforms, so I just want to give some options to anyone interested in this obscure climbing show.
Watch episode one of Next Summit over the first season. Even though each episode of Season One lasts only 4 minutes, they somehow feel like they drag on for hours. Not only does it shave off 20 minutes of your time to watch episode one of NS, but the story feels more concise.
It's the other two seasons that are the problem. Episodes 2 and 3 do a good job summarizing Season Two, but Episode 4 removes many more interesting aspects of Season Three.
Overall, if you want to get the full experience, you'll have to sail the high seas, but I’m sure you can watch Next Summit just fine without prior knowledge. It's kind of an FMA Brotherhood situation in that sense.
#Visuals
Warning: Nerd Emoji Moment
While I only started watching the show this November, I’ve known about Yama no Susume for years from the clips uploaded to Sakugabooru. Although the show never garnered any attention with its first season, the second and third seasons are some of the most beloved productions for Sakuga nerds, featuring the work of some of Japan’s most beloved animators.
Next Summit still has those high production values previous seasons had, but it doesn’t feel as special as Seasons 2 & 3 were. A lot of my enjoyment from watching the original series was appreciated the animation and later finding out “oh, this scene was animated by this guy” or “oh, this entire episode was animated by that guy”. There were some episodes in Next Summit that gave me that feeling, like the first half of Episode 5 which was animated by Norio Matsumoto of OG Naruto fame. Episode 7 also had some big names, like Masami Mori, Takeshi Maenami, and even Studio Trigger’s Kai Ikarashi. However, outside of those two episodes, Next Summit didn't impress me as much with the animation aspect. Luckily, the show still boasts great visuals regardless, with some gorgeous backgrounds that bring the world around the characters to life. _ #So, why did I care enough to write this review?
There's one thing Yama no Susume does right above anything else; it makes you want to climb a mountain.
While I liked the other slice-of-life of this season, Do It Yourself, it never inspired me to pick up a hammer and start making something. Yama no Susume feels different because it ties into humanity's natural search for beauty.
I know I'm looking too far into it, but hear me out. Nothing beautiful lasts for very long. Most people look at the Mona Lisa for 15 seconds before moving on to another painting, and I'm sure the Mona Lisa took way more than 15 seconds to make. So much work has to be made just to see something beautiful for 15 seconds, yet we never get tired of searching for beauty.
That's how this show portrays mountain climbing. Yeah, it's a lot of walking, it takes a lot of planning, and you can get altitude sickness, but if you get the chance to see that sunset at the mountain's peak, it's worth it.
It just doesn’t express that beauty enough. The show tries to introduce new characters for the audience to connect with every other episode. While its characters can be very entertaining (Hinata's mom is very fun addition to this season, despite being in only one episode), it’s not enough to distract us from the most engaging moments, which are the climbing. _ Overall, if you like cute-girls-do-cute-things, you'll like this show more than I did. It wasn't as memorable as previous seasons were, but I'm sure someone will find some enjoyment in it.
