When this anime was announced I was really excited as a Laid-Back Camp fan to see another camping anime but with adults this time but I couldn’t imagined that this 24 episode long anime ends as one of the biggest nothing burger I have watched so far. In this review I will not compare it to Laid-Back Camp but judge it by what it is and it is is not in particularly bad, yet i can't call it good either. Spoiler warning ahead:

Let’s begin with what I actually liked and that were the characters, especially the protagonists Gen and Shizuku. At first I didn't like Shizuku at all. She was supposed to be an unexperienced camper who can’t take any responsibilities, which isn’t my criticisms on her but how she was portrayed at the beginning felt not that natural for her. Especially how she forced Gen to take care of her is in retrospect out of character because she is actually pretty shy and not that brave. That she took of her pants at a strangers camp fire without any permission just doesn’t fit her.... or anyone (why would you do that....). At least her development was kinda good and beliveable. In addition she had lots of cute moments, so I ended up liking her. Gen on the other hand was from the very beginning a beliveable character and I adore how this show gives him a fleshed out backstroy so we can understand how he feels and thinks. Those flashbacks were always a highlight for me. The side characters were all fine. I liked the dynamic between Akihito and Gen although we didn’t see them that much together. There is another side character I really adore but I will get into her later.

Let’s talk about why I called it a nothing burger. This show is obviously about camping, so they talk a lot about camping. You can learn so many new things about this topic which is cool on paper but this strength became its biggest weakness. Every time they talked about camping stuff in detail, it became a very long lecutre and at some point it wasn’t fun at all listening to it, I started zoning out and hoped for it to end. The biggest problem with the nonstop yapping is that most episodes are build with the same formular: Gen and Shizuku are going camping - they yapp - they eat - repeat. Nothing else, no sightseeing, no other activities. It was almost always the same so it got boring really fast. The show needed some other activities or showing the environments/campsites more to be actually entertaining over the course. For example like in between episode 13 and 17. That was my favorite part of this show were I genuinely enjoyed it because here they actually broke out of the formual to some extened and mixed it up with new character dynamics and focused on good story progress as an example. The side character Yui Hoshizaki who got introduced in that part was the main reason for my enjoyment. Her character felt similar to Shizukus beginning with her being a bit pushy towards Gen but she was charming and self-confident in it and brought in some variety, so I don’t fall asleep. Sadly she and this middle part didn't save the show for me but without Yui I might even would have dropped this show.

Let’s talk about the story which includes the romance as well later on Gen's dream of building a campsite. The campsite storyline had so much potential and I know you cannot realize such a project in a short time but that Gen only collected some ideas after 12 episode this storyline was introduced was disappointing. I whished they would have focused on it more, because it was a missed chance to bring in more variety. The romance was actually not that bad. Sometimes I expected it to get trashy with some triangle shenanigans but it was pretty healthy. They talked about misunderstandings fast and there was no real fighting between Shizuku and Yui, infact they became friends which is cool imo. However the pacing was so slow. Gen and Shizuku flirting around for lots of episode but not coming together until the end was hard to watch at times. In the end the romance was fine but it had no big impression on me. The actual ending however was the cutest thing the anime offers and a good conclusions to the romance story.

On of the issue that it didn’t have an impact was the presentation of this show. For example episode 20 should mark a highlight between Gen and Shizuku where Gen finally tells Shizuku about his dream but the execution was so lackluster, I didn't feel anything. I mentioned earlier I like the characters. I was invested in them but the anime has difficulties to deliver the emotions of the scenes most of the time. In a show about camping you should feel why camping feels so special to the characters but the show failed to create an investing atmosphere a lot of times. Episode 1 and 13 are some good examples of how it should have been imo. I felt the beauty of nature and fun in camping with friends in them but they are exeptions sadly.

All in all this show had the potential to be great. Characters are good and the story was okay for a slice lf life show. But the lackluster presentation and the repeating episode formular made it to a mid experience for me. And with mid I don’t mean it in a harumful way, it was just purely medicore at the end. However what it made really sufferable for me is that this show got 24 episodes. I watched many slice of lifes this year which deserves more than 12 but this got 24 episodes yet turned out to be a nothing burger in the end, makes me so disappointed and angry...