Zatsu Tabi is a travelogue story with a decent enough premise that unfortunately suffers from an incredibly lacklustre adaptation which exacerbated its shortcomings in themes and character. Much of the show’s issues can be surmised as all its areas having an extensive amount of telling instead of showing. This extends, somewhat ironically, to even the locations they visit which ought to be carried primarily by the visuals. The mediocre, and at times even poor animation fails to convey much of their impact and often resorts to rather clumsy dialogue to prop it up. The characters and themes cannot then effectively compensate for this since they also rely heavily on these travel scenes which much of the screen time is dedicated to. Even for scenes that focus primarily on the characters, the writing reveals them to be highly archetypal, going as far to come off as shallow or having rushed arcs. Sadly, the thematic framework that forms the last possible pillar of the show is similarly weak, with the ties backs to how travelling can influence the creative process being inconsistent or far too brief. When it is touched upon, it often feels vague or even forced given how little is known about what kind of manga is being written within the story. There are still certainly moments where some of its potential or intent shines through, but there is too much else holding it back for Zatsu Tabi to be compelling.

The issues with Zatsu Tabi can be seen right off the bat with how its opening episodes have a distinct sense of aimlessness with regards to its narrative goals. This is a result of forgoing a lengthier character introduction and launching right into the premise of travelling around Japan. It places an immense amount of pressure on how the initial travel scenes are written and directed since that is the only source of interest for the viewer. There is only a truncated opening scene to establish the status quo of Suzugamori’s life and character, which leaves little for the viewer to feel invested in since there is little basis to see how travelling changes things up or affects her character. Even the narrative framework that is meant to tie the series together of how the travels affect her writing is barely mentioned and does not get touched upon again concretely until episode 4. It leaves a distinct impression of following a character the viewer barely knows to locations that are unremarkably presented, all while then being told very bluntly what to make of the experience through various character comments or the clumsy use of a narrator. To be clear, it is not that “telling” is necessarily mediocre or unserviceable, but that it takes a significant amount of skill at writing and direction to make it shine, both of which Zatsu Tabi lacks for one reason or another. The sense of investment in the characters and endearment to them does increase as the season goes along, but that is a function of simply being more familiar with them than the show ever hitting its stride or doing something particularly compelling. The quality presented in the initial episodes ultimately becomes emblematic of the writing and directing to be expected throughout the series.

The animation and visuals, which by necessity forms a key element of the story given the premise, all range from either mediocre to even outright poor the entire length of the series. This is not helped by the extensive amount of screen time the show dedicates to travelling to these different locations and basking in their ostensible splendour without telling us much about the characters. Of course, this is the object of actually travelling in real life and ought to be reflected by the narrative. Yet it fails to sell much of this impact vicariously with there being little gravitas or charm to its depictions of these locations. Any romance there is to travelling is often undermined by the poorly composited CGI vehicles that is often jarring or even comical to look at. The locations themselves are bereft of much of their majesty with how blandly and flatly they are drawn, also not helped by the out of place models they use instead of animating much of the crowd. The show then lingers on all of this with its shots, only exacerbating the problem. It reaches the point where there is even a suspicion that many of their panoramas might simply be real life images with a sloppy filter placed over them, or at the very least containing parts lifted from them with how poorly blended in certain elements are. In particular, there are scenes of the harbour on Awashima in episode 5 and 6 that look almost like they were rushed through photoshop given how noticeable the layers are with their different levels of fidelity. Beyond just undermining the charm any of these locations should have, it often breaks the viewers suspension of disbelief. Episode 8 at the Itsukushima Shrine is the most egregious instance of this where the souvenir shops not only look like flat pictures that lack convincing depth but are also stretched out to the point where the perspective looks wrong. This is all somewhat ironic since has been pointed out that anime often over polishes otherwise mundane settings to the point where they are unrealistically charming. To see the inverse happen to even a UNESCO world heritage site cannot help but feel somewhat astounding.

Of course, it is easier said than done to capture and adequately translate the awe or wonder that many of these places can inspire in real life. Particularly with some of the more mundane locations like those within Tokyo that any adaptation might be hard pressed to elevate without it seeming over the top. However, even when presented with surreal and striking locations like Mount Osore that have many obvious features to accentuate, Zatsu Tabi puts in little effort. While the scene at Mount Osore is better realised than most with some effective cinematography, there is still a significant amount of telling being used by having Suzugamori make frequent comments instead of letting the environment do most the speaking. Although it is true that not every studio has the resources to put out spectacular animation, this lacking amount of effort and ambition can only be compared to phoning it in. The adaptation is an almost one to one recreation of the manga using the panels as effectively a blueprint for their storyboard, to the point where it could be called dogmatic instead of faithful. Though that would assume the original manga was so closely adhered to for good reasons instead of it just being the path of least effort. The extensive use of a narration or internal thoughts in a novel or manga is relatively invisible there but often ends being clunky or intrusive in an anime. Instead of considering how some of this information could be dispersed into additional dialogue, the sound design, or the animation, the exact structure given to them by the manga panels are replicated without much deviation. There has been little thought given to what alternations could be beneficial, or perhaps even necessary, to effectively translate Zatsu Tabi to animation beyond simply inserting in-between scenes to connect the various panels. There is some creativity in the directing on show in rare moments like the recap of the final episode and some one off gags, but it is clear this flexibility or effort has not been used much elsewhere. Most telling of all is that while the manga has art panels that can adequately impress upon its reader the sheer beauty of the locations that are visited, the adaptation does not even manage anything comparable.

This generally mediocre quality of animation is then made difficult to overlook because of how weak the thematic throughline of the series is. It is hard to grasp what effect the journey has on Suzugamori’s creative process because none of the locations appear inherently striking enough to take it for granted that she was inspired simply by the beauty or atmosphere. It is only in episode 4 where there is even a link back to how Suzugamori’s travels also ostensibly help with her writing through the introduction of two other mangaka characters. This initially seems like where the show will start to hit its stride with there being more interesting interactions between Suzugamori, Riri, and Fuyune in the different ways they view the traveling experience as creatives in addition to the usual character fluff. This does carry forward to the remainder of the season with Suzugamori imagining how they would interpret different locations for their stories, which gives a much needed sense of relevance to the later trips beyond being just a venue for the characters to interact at. Yet beyond these brief moments, the show still often resorts to simply telling the audience when she has some kind of creative spark. Again, episode 8 is emblematic of this, having the characters just spouting ideas about how to structure a story in a vacuum without any frame of reference, making just appear at best like truisms or jargon. There is a glimpse of this being realised in the final episode with some more concrete ideas of how the events inspire her manga, but this is far too limited, coming in only at the literally final hour with limited connection to how the other episodes have influenced this. It is understandably difficult to create a full story within the story and have it comprehensively parallel Suzugamori’s travels as a tie back. Yet, to not even know the vague premise of her manga, let alone just the genre, renders much of the framing device almost functionless since there is little the audience can grasp.

While there are also some themes to do with travelling itself, there is at best limited focus on them with how they are brought up as more one-off discussions and then seldom touched upon. The show does not delve much into Suzugamori’s initial bouts of loneliness as she travels solo, nor really examine the contrast between that and traveling with someone else. There is some set up for these ideas once the viewer knows what to look for, but they have such little emphasis placed on them that it becomes hard to distinguish it from the character fluff meant to set the atmosphere or move the trip along. Any ideas about how travelling solo might be liberating in its freedom, the frustration at not agreeing with the itinerary of a travel partner, them slowing you down, or how empty it can feel to travel without someone to share the experience with are all not dwelt or expanded upon by the narrative despite there being seeds of these ideas placed throughout the story. The presence of these ideas does seem to gradually seep into the character writing of Zatsu Tabi, with the “voice” of the series feeling more organic since Suzugamori starts to have more thoughts about her friends when travelling. This brings in some much needed characterisation and specificity to the trips instead of them being close to tourism adverts at times. Yet this feels like it is too little, too late with how this level of writing ought to have been expected from the very outset of the series instead of a voice that is only found more than halfway through.

This leaves the characters to carry the story since the situations they interact within and what they have to say are not particularly compelling. Much of the show’s charm is achieved with strong performances by the voice actors rather than how the characters are written. The interactions most of the cast have with each other are often rather surface level, perhaps as a consequence of how the themes themselves are not realised, leaving little interesting or in depth for them to discuss or muse over. The show never commits to having the trips reveal much about the characters either, with most of the cast have preexisting relationships that involve minimal conflict or disagreement. This is not to say the show needs to turn into a drama, but it leads to attempts at more heartfelt character moments like in episode 3 where it delves into Yui’s feelings about travelling with Suzugamori feeling flat. Not only are these attempts at character depth short lived with how they are set up and resolved in the same episode, they also involve a great deal of exposition about the history between characters instead of it being demonstrated over the course of more trips together. This leaves only Riri feeling interesting since she is the only character the audience learns more about gradually alongside Suzugamori. She is still a fairly archetypal character that like the rest of the cast has particular quirks played up to endear her to the audience, but the way in which this information is conveyed gradually allows the viewer to slowly form an impression of the character which heightens their interest and connection with them. Even when the show does resort to telling the viewer about Riri, it feels inherently more interesting since this is information that is also new to Suzugamori and only told to her after we see the developments in their relationship that have warranted it. Unfortunately, a single interesting character cannot make up for the general writing quality of the show that leaves much of their actions and relationships feeling somewhat shallow; or at least lacking that spark that forms the narrative core that similar anime rely on to foster a deep connection to the characters.

Overall, the adaptation of Zatsu Tabi can only be characterized as lacklustre, both in quality and ambition. There is an extensive amount of outright telling the audience things in a very blunt and ungraceful manner, combined with mediocre to poor artwork that follows the source material panel for panel. It can even reach the point where it feels like a glorified tourism advert. To be fair, the issues of the show do not stem solely from subpar effort in its adaptation and likely also come from the fundamental issues of how the Zatsu Tabi manga was written. Maybe all this can still be smoothed over for a viewer who finds the characters comforting or endearing through their mannerism and voice acting alone, but that cannot be the primary criteria for good story. Even then, if that were to be Zatsu Tabi’s only saving grace and main point of attraction, it speaks to how little direction or purpose the story has as a whole has since it is not a particularly interesting character study either. With all that said, it is hard to give this more than a 5.5 out of 10. That might be a little generous given the litany of shortcomings listed, but there were moments where still moments, particularly in scenes between Suzugamori and Riri where they talked more about their creative process, where glimpses of the show’s potential and intentions shined through. It is a pity that what was a solid premise was not better realised and stuck too literally to its cute girls doing cute things label without the underlying substance that makes those kinds of anime standout.