Yuru Camp Eps 1 & 2 – In Recognition of Stillness (Winter Games 2018 )

• Genre : Slice of Life
• Studio: C-Station

Welcome to my very first winter games post. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I actually have an explanation for once. You can read all about this fun project: HERE!

 

My super scientific preseason prediction for this show – based on the picture only was:

I know that Yuru actually means mascot but to me Yuru means Yuri. And this isn’t doing anything to change my mind. Comedic, Slice of Life with most of the “humour” consisting of the girls being **adorably** incapable of simple everyday tasks. I think New Game has scarred me for life. Pass!

Let’s just say this show wasn’t my pick and I went into the first episode pretty much ready to dislike everything about it. I didn’t. I didn’t dislike anything about it really.

Visually, this might be the prettiest of the three shows we’ve picked, depending on your predilections. The character designs are pretty standard moe with nothing that stands out too much but they are pretty. What does stand out are the beautifully painted backgrounds. These are lovingly detailed and rendered in still life portrait style. It makes it appear as though the characters are in front of a green screen. An unusual effect for an anime which I really enjoyed.

The voice acting was decent but the soundtrack was great, again clearly superior to the two other shows. As far as practical merits go, we are off to a good start.

I can’t say all that much about the storyline. We follow a stoic purple haired girl (completely forgot the name) as she quietly sets up a tent and then reads. Eventually she’s joined by an excitable pink haired girl and they make small talk and enjoy the scenery. At one point we are given tips on how to start a campfire. 

And that’s it. It’s a sort of nondescript first episode that could be used for just about any storyline and I did like it. I have had some seriously mixed experiences with the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things Genre. Some I have loved and found consistently hilarious and delightful, others have been soul crushing. I might be exaggerating. I have this fear that spending too much time watching/listening to very dumb characters will drag down my own IQ and sadly a few of these shows offer nothing but dumb characters. This wasn’t the case here. Sure, pinky is obviously a ditz but she’s balanced out by purple so it works. I finished the episode feeling relaxed although admittedly not much else.

Episode 2 – Considering how much anime I already have on my to watch list, I probably would not have continued this show if it weren’t for our collab.

Episode 2 did pick up a bit by quickly introducing us to a range of new characters. It’s helpful to the storyline but very detrimental to my ears. I can tell the voice actresses are being directed to sound like that so I’m not blaming them but man those club girls’ voices are grating. 

The art is still quite pretty but I did notice that the backgrounds in the school where not nearly as detailed as the outdoor scenes. I have a feeling this was a conscious decision and a good one. The colors are decent but very flat. No gradients and very little shadowing makes the characters a bit dull in that respect. I also really noticed in this episode how still everything is. Those beautiful backgrounds are truly unmoving paintings. There seems to be no wind whatsoever in Yuru Camp’s universe. I can’t help but think that a few moving clouds or gently swaying blades of grass would have added a lot.

Turns out Pinky is actually a new student at Purple hair girl’s school. Whaaaaa? Who would have seen that coming! Her spontaneous camping experience having marked her, pinky decides to join the outdoor club. We meet club members glasses and toothy and some attempts at actual humor are made. We also get to meet purple’s best friend, Miss Congeniality. At one point we are told how to set up a tent. Also, purple goes camping alone again.

There’s nothing wrong with calming but it really only goes so far. There were a handful of actual jokes in this episode which destroyed the meditative feel of the first, but these were rather basic in my opinion and failed to make me smile let alone laugh. And there’s nothing else so far. No conflict, drama, mystery, romance…nothing. I guess the chara designs are cute, but you know, all anime girls are cute. I’m going to have to look to future episodes for something to set this apart. So far, I would call it fiercely average and a little boring.

Predictions:

Plot: Purple will get stoically annoyed because other girls are “noisy”

Character: Pinky will make the happy lobotomy face

Don’t forget to go see Astral Gemini‘s, Leap’s and TPAB‘s much less accurate predictions!