Urasekai Picnic

The "Otherworld" is a vast and dangerous realm hidden from the knowledge of the common folk. It is also home to many creatures that threaten any human who dare visit it. To witness its desolate yet oddly absorbing environment, one must search for portals that could reside anywhere, from secret elevators to shrine entrances.

After a fateful encounter with a horrendous Otherworld denizen, Sorawo Kamikoshi ponders whether to keep going or give up in life. Meanwhile, Toriko Nishina scours the Otherworld in hopes of finding her friend Satsuki, who she believes is lost somewhere within the realm.

When the two cross paths, friendship blossoms. In order to acquire as much information about this obscure dimension, the two travel back and forth from the real world to the other. Sorawo and Toriko's bodies are soon influenced by the Otherworld, preparing them for the many horrors to come as both of them try to fulfill their goals.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kamikoshi, Sorawo Main

Hanamori, Yumiri Japanese

Nishina, Toriko Main

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Kozakura Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Seto, Akari Supporting

Tomita, Miyu Japanese

Uruma, Satsuki Supporting

Greg Supporting

Ono, Yuuki Japanese

Drake, Will Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Sannuki, Kano Supporting

Takeguchi, Akiko Japanese

Ichikawa, Natsumi Supporting

Shimabukuro, Miyuri Japanese

Abarato Supporting

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Watase, Shouta Producer

Ogura, Mitsutoshi Producer

Reviews

Mar 22, 2021

MrBrawlz

Recommended

Fantasy animes in my opinion are crazy. Both in a good way and a bad way. There is so much the creator can do around with fantasies and can make it as "crazy" as possible.

Urasekai Picnic is an anime about traveling to an alternate world called "Otherside" where they fight off weird creatures while searching for their friend. I watched this anime since it has the "Shoujo Ai" listed in its genres because I love Shoujo Ai and it is one of my favorite genres and I expected somewhat romance but I didn't get it, even though I felt it. The CGI used here is ... somewhat decent, the studio made long-distance shots with the main characters in CGI for the first 6 episodes then stopped for 2 episodes and went at it again.

One of the policies I like to follow while rating animes on this website is how much I enjoyed it and how much I enjoyed the plot. Some of the parts in this were scary. Even though there were monsters/ghost-like figures in the "Otherworld", it is almost weird that almost none of them completely creeped me out.

One more thing I noticed is how the US Marines in the anime spoke english in a Japanese accent, it felt very weird to hear them say their mother tongue that way.

The characters were really cute and interesting and they made the most out of working with each other. One of the things I would like to say is that the two main girls say that they're second years in college but they look like they are not even third year in high school which I found kind of weird.

The OP gave me a vibe of Naruto for some reason and the ED is amazing, my favorite ending of Winter 2021. The song used in the ending, "You and me" was very touching and pretty nice to listen to after watching a cliffhanger episode.

I'll summarize the main aspects of this in some sentences -

Story (8/10) - Pretty good pacing and nice episode cliffhangers. I love how they make it super clear - what they are doing, where they are going, and what they will do. The decisions taken by the main characters in this are agreeable and lead forward to a better story.

Art (7/10) - Pretty but I felt the long-distance CGI shots were a bit lazy but another CGI was pretty well made.

Sound (9/10) - As I said, my favorite ending of the season; this anime has good OSTs and music. Also, the voice acting is on point and pretty good.

Character (9/10) - Characters were very cute and super compatible and they supported each other the most.

Enjoyment (9/10) - I enjoyed this anime a lot and it was pretty fun to watch every week on Monday, starting my new day. Most episodes were enjoyable and very nice.

Overall rating - (8.4/10).

P.S. - if you like fantasies with a cute relationship in them, watch this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Mar 22, 2021

octAY

Mixed Feelings

Where do I start? I’m quite confused as to why this anime exists I guess? I don’t quite get this series. It’s basically combining urban legends and putting it into a title with characters to explore these said urban legends. Oh there’s also a side “B” story where a friend is missing but it doesn’t really talk about that.

Story (3):
It’s quite episodic. Every episode we get a different urban legend and our two MCs explore said legend. The formula is the same; somehow the MCs get themselves into these situations naturally and they try to find their way back to their own world.

And that’s literally ... it. The MCs go back, the legend is done. Now next episode move on to the next one. It’s eh.

Art (6):
It’s a typical, production type anime art we’ve seen for the past few years. It’s nothing new. It’s not astonishingly great or horrible. Just fine.

Sound (7):
The OST does fit with the situation/environment well though. I quite like the ED when the episode ends. OP is quite forgettable for me.

Character (4):
Characters are pretty weak in my opinion. We don’t get to see much backstory, I guess. The characters don’t really grow. It seems they treat each urban legend a bit like it’s business as usual; the MCs aren’t scared at all. Even though the directors tried to put in that the MCs are scared and stuff, it doesn’t feel that way. It feels that the characters will get over the challenge and return home safely. There’s no twist or anything.

Enjoyment (7):
Regardless, watching this every week was bearable. It keeps my attention span long enough and it’s interesting to see the characters explore. However, this anime is not something you can binge as you’ll probably lose interest pretty quickly. Unless you’re into this kind of genre, I don’t see how one can consume all of the episodes in one sitting.

Overall (6):
It’s fine. Big plus on sound, meh on basically everything else.
I haven’t read the source material, but I have an inkling it’s better than what’s presented in the anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 22, 2021

SanaeK10

Not Recommended

Urasekai Picnic is proof that attaching a competent director to good source material doesn't necessarily result in a good adaptation. For whatever reason, the anime adaptation of Urasekai Picnic is plagued with issues through and through. From the moment the first PV dropped I should have been alarmed, the audio mixing was completely messed up, and the animation quality was subpar at best. Still, I tried to convince myself that it's just a bad PV, surely the actual show would be at least decent right?

I gotta start with the first thing that came to mind when I started watching the adaptation: Audio. The audio mixing ... is awful. I think I get they want to do a creepy vibe, but even that doesn't work and most of the time the whole experience ends up being uncomfortable, like having loud sound effects drown out important dialogue or background noise overriding the whole scene. Music placement is also baffling at times, not that the score is any bad, but the placement truly leaves much to be desired with the BGM sometimes starting too early or too late, or ending too early or too late. The OP and ED are fine though. Maybe a bit too cheerful for my liking, but the days of having an actually scary OP for your horror anime has long past. (Even Higurashi has some generic pop OP now) The animation is subpar at best. The monsters are all janky, but not in a creepy sorta way, more in an ugly PS2-era CG kind of way.

I honestly don't know what production troubles the studio was under (perhaps doing 4 different shows in the same season counted towards it), but some of the creative choices can't be blamed on a rigid production schedule alone. Very odd choices like rearranging chapters beyond their intended order, which results in many plot holes as well as strange lapses in character development and pacing, really make this such a mess. Especially since they've added a few anime original chapters to compensate (?) for the gaps in between. I don't know.

If there's anything that's salvageable in this mess, it's the voice acting. Not because the performances are particularly groundbreaking or anything, it's a thoroughly average performance from your usual gamut of A-list seiyuu, but it's because you can now imagine in your head how the girls would sound like when reading the novel or manga.

The reason I'm being generous with my score is because
1. Kozakura is super cute
2. The anime introduced me to the (far) superior novel and manga, of which I am currently enjoying.
3. Watching this and Tatoeba Dungeon and contrasting the mains is hilarious.
4. The end of episode skits where Toriko and Sorawo goof around in a bar is the sole good anime original thing.

There. 4 points. Done and dusted.

Thing is, in this relatively packed season, there is nothing Urasekai Picinic does that isn't already better accomplished by a different show. If I wanted horror-mystery, I have Gekidol. If I wanted yuri hijinks, I have World Witches. If I wanted something with weird monsters, I have that Yuuki Aoi Spider Anime. If I wanted comedy, I have Higurashi GOU.

If I wanted a show that airs on Monday night made by Lidenfilms starring Kayano Ai and Hanamori Yumiri as the mains with the former playing a more confident foil to the latter's lack-of-self esteem character and both being in a romantic relationship...I have Tatoeba Dungeon.


4/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Urasekai Picnic Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 22, 2021	93 replies	by Shirowhite01 »» Jul 13, 7:04 AM
	Poll: Urasekai Picnic Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Feb 15, 2021	70 replies	by wildhood »» Apr 16, 8:57 PM
	Poll: Urasekai Picnic Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Feb 8, 2021	87 replies	by EinTheVariance »» Sep 14, 2023 9:21 AM
	Poll: Urasekai Picnic Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jan 25, 2021	88 replies	by EinTheVariance »» Sep 13, 2023 4:52 PM
	Poll: Urasekai Picnic Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) KANLen09 - Jan 4, 2021	213 replies	by GrandMarquis »» Sep 1, 2023 3:41 PM