Zatsu Tabi: That's Journey

The definition of a comfort anime.

There are animes that have high case action, or drama, keeping a viewer hooked to their seats. Then there are those shows, that are more for the kick back and relax kind. The sort of show you make a whole dinner, crack open a can, sit back and enjoy. This is where we find ourselves with Zatsu Tabi. So you can't really knock it for what it is. It's a perfect pallet cleanser, for more intense and epic kind of shows.

Story and characters: 7
While the point is the troubles of a new Rookie Manga artist. But the plot could've ... really been a number of things, as the core premise will be about the journey itself, and good vibes and experiences that come with it. It's almost as if we're watching a Youtube video, of someone going out in the world, flogging their holiday, or one of those respectable Japan content creators, showcasing the best, and most wonderful things about such. Not only having a good time, bringing others along, but also making the viewer want to join in ro boor.
While course, it does go back to the Manga plot point, but it can really signal how if we're struggling in life. Where we want to go on and escape. Travel and experience. To basically LIVE. That's what this show is like. While we want to reach our dreams. But we have to keep to ourselves too. To re-energize ourselves, for our own mental health and sanity.

Art and Sound: 7
The art can be best described as comforting. It's simple, and well detailed to a point that it does it's job that it sets out to do. While in parts being animated real well, in how things flow, look, and how everything blends together, and expresses itself. Followed up by a good sound team, which make for a good watching experience.

Zatsu is a nice and relaxing experience. A cool anime for your tastespuds that is for sure.

Remember the time when streaming services promised that ads would be a thing of the past? Looks like ads are now becoming a whole show. This is what Zatsu Tabi stands for, as a tourist ad for otaku pilgrimage across Japan.

Normally slice of life shows and more specifically the iyashikei subgenre is focused on creating a relaxing mood at the cost of an overarching plot. These kinds of shows tend to have more colorful characters that compensate for the lack of a plot. The problem lies when even the characters are just flat cardboard cutouts that serve as hosts to "sell" the touristic locations, making ... the spots the main focus of the show.

There's nothing wrong when either the characters or a narrator providing trivia info about the locations where the story is being unfold. But there needs to be more to it with character interactions and strong character traits that link these group of characters together and nothing remarkable happens between this cast so far.

Visual wise, this show looks ok, the studio did their homework recreating famous locations around Japan and making them look like anime versions. The problem comes with the compositing of characters and backgrounds on certain locations that look too photorealistic, but the characters pop out like a Hanna Barbera cartoon.

The music feels like it was purchased from a site that provides license free music. Nothing pops out neither in the dinning scenes nor the outdoor locations. Remember the scene in Yuru Camp where Nadeshiko & Shimarin shared a cup of noodles? It had the most enjoyable banjo and percussions background music along with some fun slurping sound effects. There's nothing remarkable in sound design in Zatsu Tabi so far.

If you're okay by watching an ad for an otaku meca, this might be the thing for you. If you want to watch an iyashikei that has colorful characters and really soothing mood, watch something else like Yuru Camp or Flying Witch.