Urasekai Picnic
Otherside Picnic

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Otherside Picnic is an easily captivating adventure of two socially unadept women who plunge into a world willingly and unwillingly to set a new frontier whilst their consciousness is constantly tampered with.

The genre tags don't have it included but this is a horror-thriller having strong influence from Roadside Picnic (if it wasn't obvious enough), S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and a bunch of true Ghost stories (especially and prominently those). It does indeed also feature Girl's Love but that to a (yet) moderately and slow (but welcome) degree.

The first volume can be read in a binge, because of how grabbing it is. All the mysterious encounters and the little ... pieces spread throughout the chapters hinting at a bigger picture, make for an amazing experience. I just love the start of this novel, as we listen to Sorawo's flow of consciousness while she is drowning, confused jumping from thought to thought, and the journey starts there.

Sorawo is a very interesting person because of how morally gray she is and the way she thinks of her surroundings. I found the cast to be extremely well done even though some might be a bit painfully plain. They come across as more mature than your average anime cast, partially because they are mostly university students and most of them already stand on their own feet.
The story is split into chapters and a big problem I have with it is at how self-contained they often are, it makes it a bit too linear and it doesn't help that every chapter needs to include some kind of encounter with the Otherside and two chapters which perfectly represent that issue are File 14: The Inviting Hot Springs and File 16: Pontianak Hotel. Both of them would be completely fine on their own and if anything, having some breathers are very welcome, however, this takes away from those moments of being grounded. Another issue I have is the overall tone shift: Whilst the first two volumes are focused on survival horror and masters of mystery the last three start to focus more and more on interpersonal relationships, which normally isn't anything bad, in this situation though, it turns the original suspenseful atmosphere into more of a weekly run of the show encounter with the supernatural. Especially volume 5 was low on the mark, no dread, no stakes and to top it off, Sorawo and Toriko start to get out-of-character careless on some occasions.
I also think Iori Miyazawa is being held back by too often relying on pre-existing material to be inspired by.

Nonetheless, I absolutely love this story. Sorawo is a fantastic character and I adore how slow yet steady the interactions and progressions between all the people are. The way Sorawo and Toriko must get to know each other first, earn the trust of the other, and learn deceit and love of the other alike. And to top it off the Otherside is a paradise for a mystery lover like me and the overarching plot will keep you puzzling all the time.

(I suggest you read this whilst listening to music from Lorn, Ital Tek, or Dolor to set the mood :). The anime soundtrack is also great.)

(P.S. I.M. sure loves writing about food.)

This has quickly become one of my favorite Light Novels, along with Adachi to Shimamura, Haruhi and Toradora

Basically a genre mash up (we have sci-fi, horror, yuri, romance ect).

Character development is phenomenal and the slow burn relationship between the two mains is more than welcomed. The Net lore that is portrayed by the author is new to me and interesting, and at any point during the six novels I read, did I fell bored with the story. The side characters aren't the best, but they do bring extra depth to the story, so its fine. I'm hoping that this series continues on for a few ... more volumes. Highly recommended.

Overall i'd give this series a 9 out of 10.







Excited for the next volume!

This series is great! But it definitely flows better as a visual medium like the manga or anime. Many, many words are spent in the novels describing the visual appearance of entities they encounter in the Otherside or choreographed action scenes. It's a very difficult balance to strike when including supernatural entities that require long descriptions to be imagined but not being too bogged down in the details to tell the story. An increasingly common thought during reading was "man, I wish there was an illustration of this spectacular sight that's being described," that rarely was fulfilled. The novels are probably best used as an ... introduction to the series or reading ahead after watching the anime or reading the manga.