Review of Laid Back Camp

Note: This will cover all the entries up until now, as I don’t find much to say about each one.

I was never a fan of moe series and stuff because to me they’re a bit tryhard in trying to pass their characters as cutesy and adorable while simultaneously making them seem stupid and mentally younger than they actually are, and also I just straight don’t like cutesy and adorable stuff much. Not only that but on my experience whenever a show goes for a moe aesthetic, it is never about what it’s supposed to be about. Basically, moe shows are generally shallow and aesthetics overshadows concepts and themes in them, even if they are slice of life.

Not to say that that makes them bad, they are still harmless watchable shows when they are slice of life, but I often feel like I’m watching nothing shows about nothing happening with childish characters, and as much as I might enjoy some episodes, I get bored with them pretty fast.

Yuru Camp is an exception that I like, but it still suffers from all of the above a bit, it’s not more than an average show to kill some time in my eyes, even if I enjoy it.

Still, at least the show is about camping first, and cutesy characters after. Here’s a club about camping, here are characters that like to go camping, tips about camping, information about what’s needed to camp, and you see the characters camping, even having some jobs in order to make money so they can go camping.

Throughout the franchise there’s a lot of traveling because the idea is to also show Japan a bit, like all series of this kind, they make for good tourism campaigns, whether they intended that or not.

And well, the underlying theme or message about this kind of shows is to appreciate the beauty of nature and life itself while having a good time, you know the deal, and it goes well with the relaxing atmosphere of the series and its intended experience while watching it.

The characters are cute and seem younger than they are but it’s not done to the point where they act like children, not having any chibi type of humour also helps.

Despite being the pure and friendly girl that loves everyone and is loved by everyone, Nadeshiko is not dumb like other similar protagonists, she knows a lot of stuff and in turn learns about more, later on she works and gets more hobbies, and she is also the sporty type. In the third season it’s revealed that she was worried about not making friends and feeling lonely before the events of the first season, but as you already know it turned out fine. Despite that, she tries and begins to enjoy going camping alone and not just with all her new friends.

Rin is the exact opposite, the calm and quiet type that always gets paired with characters like Nadeshiko, a girl that prefers going camping and doing most stuff alone, and since she rides a bike she is the one that explores most places out of the roster. Throughout the seasons she begins to accept going out camping with everyone else every once in a while, and even gets a friend with similar interests as her, so I guess she brings the little “development” the franchise has into the equation.

Other characters from friends and families are fine as well but honestly they serve a much more secondary role and even the families of the secondary characters feel like extensions of the main characters. Sakura is like an adult Rin, Inuyama’s family are all trolls just like her, everyone in Rin’s family seems to always be relaxed, you get the idea.

Oh and there’s an alcoholic teacher, can’t have an all-girls club themed moe anime without an alcoholic teacher that’s also into whatever the girls do, but this time she’s not a lesbian shipper with weird tendencies toward little girls…

There’s an original/non-canon sequel movie released before season three where the girls are adults but personality wise they remained the same, they just work, open their own camping site against all odds, and sensei’s alcoholism rubbed off on Chiaki over the years, it looks like.

The not very liked Heya Camp short entry is practically the same thing as the main series only far shorter and with the objective of collecting stamps so they have them in their club inside the school. I don’t get why is it disliked much, it practically remains the same.

The only entry that I rated negatively was that Sauna and Bike Heya Camp special, as it was very clearly just a promotional short about, well, a bike.

Visuals are not great like in, let’s say, a KyoAni moe anime, but they serve their purpose just right, particularly in the first season and movie thanks to the care put into the backgrounds and the artwork, although not great, is well done. The character designs, motions and special effects are all ok. The second season changed the backgrounds a bit for a combination of CGI and what seemed like traced real photographies, but it’s balanced out with better animation. The third season was done by a different studio and man you could notice the drop in quality, the backgrounds are dry, the character designs changed for something far worse and done with less care, there is a lot of more and more noticeable CGI. The series is no longer cute to look at.

Luckily, the atmosphere remained cute, relaxing, cozy and comfy as it should thanks to the audio department, cute sound effects, cute voice acting, chill music, including the endings. The opening of the third season wasn’t as good as the one from previous entries, especially the very first one, but is still ok and fits the series well.

So yeah, what’s more to say? Want to relax seeing some cute girls doing some cute camping with a chill atmosphere and visuals yet not coming off as stupids? This is your show. If you want plot and more substance, what are you even doing checking this subgenre? It’s not even a real thing, it’s just an aesthetic and tone, which fits the intended purpose of this franchise well, and for a rare instance, I’m pleased with it.


5/10