It's almost been two years since I finished Yuru Camp S2, and now I finally got around to the movie. Having that much time since then, I was worried I wouldn't be able to get back into it... Oh, how wrong I was.
Watching this right after Fall '22 (and more specifically DIY) made this an even greater experience with their similar philosophy when building the campground, and I can't wait to get into it.
Really funny how immediately I was reminded of why I fell in love with the more mature take on a kirara manga this show was, with them literally being fully grown adults from frame one. I had an inkling of that from the KVs, but that still really took me by surprise for them to literally be adults now, lmao.
I know it's not really that impressive in the grand scheme of things, but still... Kind of a weird feeling in a Kirara adaptation to see these characters that we were introduced to as high schoolers, now fully-grown adults. New Game exists obviously, but that's not rly the same thing with Aoba starting as an adult. The closest thing we've got to this was in Koias with the senpais, but even then, we never got much focus on their life beyond high school since we were focusing on MiraAo's story. Here we immediately see Shimarin dealing with an OL environment, with rejections to her proposals that she has to take like an adult. But still, it's kirara, so they still keep it light and breezy with cute shimarin faces, and it's not like she has to completely ignore those feelings of frustration. It's just, it's immediately made clear that her conclusions from the experience is a much more mature & constructive one than we'd expect from a kirara character—to know it's not the end of the world and to move on. Yuru Camp was always the most mature kirara manga in order to keep up with its chill vibes, but that's even more the case now.
Nadeshiko also shows her experience in her job with her knowledge of the equipment and ability to tell what they need just from their few comments alone, even knowing exactly what their shop does and doesn't sell before sending them to another store. That desire to help the customer in any way she can, even if it means not being able to squeeze every cent of money out of them... and the boss was completely fine with that. sasuga kirara (tho only bc she believed the good service would bring them back to buy more lol but still). Nadeshiko being able to make others fall in love with camping already felt like second nature to her, but now she's making it into a job that she genuinely enjoys... So mature that it really feels like Shirobako in the best of ways, but it's still filled with fluffy & optimistic (& leaning on idealistic again) kirara-isms that makes all these aspects of life feel that much more approachable & less soul-crushing. As they said in the intro, even though a lot's changed and they have way more adult responsibilities, that's in-turn opening up so many more opportunities for their camping adventures—with Nadeshiko's desire to get a driving license and Rin wanting to go camping overseas now seeming like a real possibility as adults.
Man... all this adult talk... I really love what this movie's doing, but... maybe this is because of my life situation rn, but it feels a bit underwhelming. And that's probably by design. Watching this right after Bocchi is quite an Experience, bc that show has all these Big, passionate Emotions that the characters pour every fiber of their being into, because that's what being a moody teenager is all about. But adults... they don't have the energy for those Big Emotions anymore after their responsibilities saps all that energy from their bodies.
Anyways, enough of that depressing talk; this moment...
In DIY, they were free to build whatever they wanted, which made for such a liberating experience that celebrated the freedom of creativity and ambition, but that freedom ended up having its own caveats for Serufu who ended up struggling to find her own role when she was all on her own.
But here, while the scope of things they're able to do are so much larger thanks to the help of others (which, btw, is an extension of what I talked about here. seeing things come full circle like this, it rly is such a great reminder of why i love this show); but on the flipside, they also had all these restrictions, not only with their budget and what was feasible, but with the desires and needs of other companies like when the archaeologists discovered the artifacts, and their need to use the campground's space throwing a wrench in their plans. That hit a bit harder than it did for highschool Rin this time, because they've been investing so much time and energy into this, but the conclusion is fundamentally the same as it was back then: that some sacrifice of what you specifically want is necessary when working with others, and the sooner you accept that like a mature adult, the more time you'll have to think of how a compromise can make the end result something you can still be happy with, and in some ways even better than you expected.
In DIY, Serufu's ideas were a bit too extravagant to be feasible, but it was through the help of Takumin & the others that she was able to see the potential in those ideas and apply them in a practical way. It was through the others' help that she found her own role. It wasn't quite to Serufu's vision, but was still something that Serufu's immediately grateful for, for her to feel useful and like she's actually participating, even if she isn't the best at handiwork. And I feel like seeing the very same resourcefulness & accepting of other's help replicated here really helped me to appreciate both this movie and DIY that much more.