Yuru Camp Ep 3 is Like Hot Soup (Winter Games

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

Another week brings us another half hour of heart pounding excitement which will keep you on the very edge of your seat and make your imagination go wild! Yuru Camp’s second wee of Winter Games is HERE!

When we catch up with our heroines, Pinky (her name sounds like Nabisco but I keep forgetting it), found out where purple (her name is Rin, which is what most people call me lately so I remembered that one. Go me!) was camping that night.

Because she is one of those people who doesn’t quite get personal boundaries (but her heart is in the right place), Pinky gets some groceries and convinces her sister to drive her to the camp ground. There she meets up with Rin, they make small talk as Pinky cooks a hot pot (congratulations Leap, even though she cut the ingredients with scissors they seemed more or less the same size so I guess you got it right!). There is something of a return to the slower pace of the first episode as the two girls make light small talk while eating, go to bed and eventually the sun goes up. At one point, we get a voice over reading heat pack instructions.

I’m really not leaving much out. But I must admit, I enjoyed this episode much more than the second. The show is really at its best in those quiet moments. In fact the minute long scene, informing us that the club girls had gotten jobs was a miscalculated move. An unwelcome attempt at slapstick that broke the nice contemplative mood that had been building and lessened the impact. It did teach me that in Japan, a country that seems extremely stiff about underage drinking, it’s perfectly fine for a teenage girl to work in a liquor store. Weird.

I was slightly disappointed to find that Rin had already given in to Pinky’s ditzy charm and at episode 3 has abandoned her snarky deadpan persona. It seems that now all the girls are the nice one. I was enjoying the bit of contrast and backbone Rin’s character brought and I will miss it if she doesn’t go back to it. In fact, Rin didn’t even react when Pinky sneezed all over their food.

Yuru camp is like a hot soup. On a cold day it’s warm and comforting. But there’s still not much more to it. The problem with series that rely entirely on giving you a warm and fuzzy feeling without character development or deep plot exploration is that they are very reliant on individual tastes. If you happen to find these character designs endearing, if you could see yourself flipping through a calendar of pictures of these girls camping and going aww, staring at it for a half hour, then this show is wonderful. It doesn’t require any deep introspection or emotional involvement, there no complex plot elements and the characters are straightforward. The viewer doesn’t have any work to do on their end which works in perfect harmony with the relaxed mood of the show. On the other hand, if (these) little anime girls or camping, aren’t your thing, then there’s not that much else going on. 

I expect the show will be well rated. People who enjoy this exact type of show will love it and everyone else will probably have dropped it without anything specific to complain about. It ‘s not like there’s anything objectionable going on. It’s unlikely anyone will be having heated debates over the series. In the end, it’s soup and for some of us, it’s clear broth.

Predictions:

Plot: Rin wil join the outdoor club in some capacity

Character: Pinky will be impressed by something really mundane

Real life: I will fall asleep in the middle of an episode and you won’t be able to tell from the post….

They did ok last week but no way are Astral Gemini, Leap and TPAB going to be lucky again this week!