So little happens in this series, and this volume may set a new bar for just how little can occur. Frankly, the characters are not that memorable, and I had trouble telling them apart in both art and personality. If I didn't have another volume on hand, I might have stopped here.
It's really hard for me to get into the swing of calling this series "Laid-Back Camp" rather than "Yuru Camp."
It's also becoming harder and harder to retain the idea that this is a manga about camping and not a manga about eating food. This volume is especially difficult in that respect. Eating interesting snacks and meals goes hand-in-hand with these girls' camping. Afro is really good at drawing tasty-looking food. Nadeshiko's wanton lust for food infects the other characters and even the reader. (Though, oddly, after I finished reading this volume I didn't end up eating anything the rest of the day. But maybe I could make the excuse that no food I had could compare to Rin's soba and certainly nothing could compare to the "highest-quality" eel.)
Did Satou always have blue eyes? This is really fucking me up. I started watching the new Heya Camp shorts the other day, and the first several focused on just Nadeshiko, Aoi, and Aki. Nothing weird. Then Satou shows up at some point, and her eyes are blue, and I couldn't focus because I watched the entire first season of the anime, spending much of it thinking Satou was the cutest of the girls (I liked Aoi most, first), and now I'm learning I missed a huge part of her design. I'm going insane.
Anyway, I think in the past I've compared Aki to Nezumi-Otoko from Gegege no Kitaro because of the way her weird bangs frame her head. She's actually cuter here, but it's maybe cheating because I'm thinking mostly of early in the volume when she has her hair tied back while at work. But then we later see Aoi with a ponytail when she's in the bath and she looks better (her big fat titters are also floating in the water, a detail for which I applaud Afro). I normally hate Rin's hair because of her stupid thot-bun and how weird it looks when let down, to have such long hair but with no volume (it sticks closely to the shape of her skull, whereas e.g. Nadeshiko's hair hangs more loosely) but she also looked cute with her thin ponytail. I'm basically revealing my inner Kyon. I enjoy ponytails, at least in 2D.
It bothered me that one of the Heya Camp comics, about the different shapes of mountains, simply used illustrations of each mountain, when I read this after the anime adaptation which transformed this scene into Nadeshiko eating some kind of Fuji-san curry rice-mountain and having the thing constantly warp as she took more bites. C-Station's anime version is more interesting than Afro's original. Good for them!
On that note, it feels a lot more "free" to read this manga outside the context of the anime. For the first four volumes, I was balancing manga with anime, and I kept fucking up. I couldn't iron out the order in which I should experience things. Should I read the original, the manga, first, so that I could see how it changes in the anime form? Or should I watch the anime first, then retroactively compare against the source? Usually I go for the source first. If ever I watch the anime first, it's because I'm uncertain of whether I'll care enough about the manga to justify getting into it, and so use the anime to dip my toes in the water, so to speak. But I'd bought the first four volumes of manga before bothering to watch the anime, and so I drowned. Watching Heya Camp, free for the most part of the burden of the manga vs. anime question, I was able to better appreciate this series (there was too much unwitting negativity in earlier of my Yuru Camp manga reviews). I'm a hell of a lot more comfortable reading this volume and onward, with the second season of the anime a year away.
3.5 stars. This volume went down half a start for me because some of its content made me mildly annoyed. If a friend of mine started casually telling someone they were just introduced to that I used to be fat, and my sister called me a disgusting pig, I would be really quite angry. I understand the friend didn't mention it so as to be mean, but the fact in the mini-panels at the end fatness was brought up again, really left a sour note on this volume for me, as it was just unnecessary.
this was perfect until a couple panels of fat-shaming in chapter 28 about middle school nadeshiko. it was giving monica in a fat suit, trying to play it off as comedy but there's nothing funny about fatphobia.
The members of the OEC are scattered for New Years Eve and New Years Day. Several of them are working hard during the holidays, while others are visiting family, Rin is going to do another solo camping trip, and all will try to watch the sunrise in various places on New Year's morning.
I didn't know that watching the sun rise on New Year's was such a big deal in some parts of the world. Other Japanese New Year's traditions are also woven into the story, like eating soba noodles and giving New Year's cards and gifts. Rin's camping trip gets thrown off a little when a snow storm prevents her from going home as planned and she ends up going to Nadeshiko's grandmother's house before being picked up by her Grandfather on his way to her house (yes, we get to meet the legendary camping grandfather briefly). The landscape illustrations in this are stunning again. The shorts at the end of this one include some humorous dream sequences of Rin's.
Notes on content: No language issues that I remember. No sexual content. No violence.
I think lowkey if you are not paying attention, you might take the beautiful and crisp artwork of this series for granted! Because the subject is…well laid back, you might simply read and fall into the universe without looking at the different pieces that make this book work. I will admit, not being an outdoor family makes this a surprise series because, well…nothing else really happens. There is of course relationship dynamics along with adventures and scenarios, but it is all pretty chill and so it is amazing that this series continues to be read and enjoyed in my family. While other series gets tons of around the dinner table discussions like “Solo Leveling” this series quietly gets read, key moments mentioned and the next volume ordered. That is the magic of the subject matter along with the creator. In this volume we get to celebrate the beginning of the New Year, and I thought it was especially nice how it was done. While we are learning more and more about the cast, I think we get a bit extra into Rin, which if you are reading the series, is a true treat.
Of the three volumes I've read (1, 4 and 5), I liked number 1 best while 4 and 5 were just ok.
This one contains 5 chapters:
24 - a lot of food and route talk. Meh.
25 - New Year's Eve camping monologue. Meh.
26 - First sunrise of the year. Not great, but a couple cultural highlights and I remembered the story from the animated version.
27 - New Year's reunion. Some cute pictures.
28 - Camping, eating eel, hanging out under the kotatsu. Funny visual gag (skin-stretching) on p. 129.
The extras were actually the best part, I felt. There were a couple funny dreams from Rin and a couple jokes, and I also learned that there are lots of Mount Fujis in Japan, that resembled Fuji and have Fuji in their nickname. In addition, I learned that slack lines can be used almost like trampolines (google it - it's amazing!).
We already own a book or two more in the series, but I don't think we'll purchase any ones we missed. We'll just stick to the anime version, which is awesome.
Still going strong with this series about a group of girls who solo and group camp. This outdoorsy focused manga is a laid-back version of the Lumberjanes in some ways and wholly it's own in most others if I wanted to make a comparison.
The girls love the preparation that's involved with camping including purchasing items for the trip, planning the route, and most importantly, the food. In this memorable volume, it's Christmas and New Years which means special sights: sunrises and sunsets that are strategic to welcome the new year.
The vistas for the art will remain my favorite along with their adorable camping fashion sense.
Post Christmas camping trip, the girls spend the rest of their winter break working. But once they get their holiday break, Rin is off to the beach for some solo camping while the others get together to visit family or shrines.
And we finally meet Rin's grandpa (the one who got her into camping).
Another random thought, I have no idea where any of these places in this series are. So I'm completely lost when Rin is planning travel routes. I really ought to start reading this series with a map next to me.
What I really like about this volume is how Rin reflects on the previous volume with the christmas-camp. She realized that camping with friends can be fun as well but she doesn't lose interest in solo camping at all. In this book she enjoys her freedom and solitude again like at the start of Yuru camp. I love the appreciation here for being alone. Often you see in other media how being "loner" is bad but not here. That's why I love Rin so much. She accepts new perspective of her hobby without loosing her preference of camping. She's still herself in her lovely fortress of solitude.
Cute as always, and Nadeshiko could be one of those characters who would've annoyed me because of her 'moe blob'-ness in other contexts, but somehow, she doesn't. I like seeing Rin doing camping by herself again, but also like it when she and Nadeshiko meet up and do something that actually surprised Rin.
Like the rest of the series, this volume focuses on a group of teenage girls who love camping. Taking place over the New Years holiday, this installment sheds light on that holiday’s traditions and customs. This is a very low-key, character based series that fascinates me by just telling stories about life as most people live it, and I love it.
This volume wasn't as good as the other ones, perhaps because it's set around a time of year where the characters aren't together so much. Still good, but I hope to see them all interact more directly next volume. There's something about when they're all cooking at a campsite that has a nice vibe, and the camping in this one was mostly just a solo camp.
A cute well paced addition to the series. I continue to like the characters and the plot, even id the plot it quite simple. It is fairly well paced and enjoyavle. A fun read and fun series. I look forward to the next volume.
Really like this volume, more about camping and camping gears, also love the first meeting with Aya-chan and a bit Nadeshiko's past story, lots of funny and cozy stuff and lots of bonus stories, most of the story is slice of life the girls on new year. Overall it's a cozy read through and through.