Caitlin Moore

You know, I can't for the life of me think of a yuri anime about adults, let alone a cool speculative fiction one without fan service that combines an influential Russian science fiction novel with modern Japanese urban myth. Or am I being too specific here?

The point is, Otherside Picnic is one of a kind, and a welcome addition to a landscape that's almost entirely about teenagers falling blushingly in love for the first time, often with a camera ogling their thighs in a way that's not consistent with character point-of-view. Those series can be lovely and sweet but tend to fall by the wayside by midseason for me, so I'm happy to see something that's a bit more tailored to my interests.

The novel that inspired the series, Roadside Picnic, is titled for an analogy between the aliens who came to Earth and left behind the ruined zones, and humans having a picnic and leaving behind litter and trampled grass. Otherside Picnic, with its focus on Sorao's state of mind and incorporation of urban legends, turns the metaphor inward. At the opening of the episode, Sorao is lying in the grass, prepared for death and reflecting on how no one will notice she's gone until her student loans go into collection. She feels empty and haunted, just like the landscape around her.

That metaphor is what makes her relationship with Toriko as powerful as it is. The vivacious extrovert and depressed introvert may be a pretty typical dynamic for a main pairing, but neither girl feels totally built on stereotypes either. I enjoyed their connection, although I do think their chemistry could have come through stronger.

The visuals are a mixed bag as well. The hand-drawn stuff looks great, with plenty of personality to its character acting, and the Otherside is appropriately eerie and atmospheric. However, there's some use of CG, and it varies from pretty cool and effective to honestly kind of baffling. The shapeless, ever-shifting monster they call the wiggle-waggle is spooky and effective, and even when it doesn't look great, it at least looks weird. However, for some reason there are some CG shots of Toriko and Sorao just moving through the landscape, and I cannot for the life of me understand why they did that because it looks terrible.

There's been a real lack of queer genre fiction in anime lately. Otherside Picnic would be a welcome addition to the season in any case, but in that light, I'm all the more excited to explore it.

9anime.city is the best new version of 9anime website. This is the place to watch anime online for free, can be downloaded for free with the highest quality, every video is updated daily, all videos are English subbed + dubbed.

+ Website: https://9anime.city/

+ Address: 48 Logan Irvine, CA, United Statse

+ Email: 9animecityus@gmail.com

+ Phone: +1 (213) 628-3447

+ Social: 

- https://twitter.com/animecityus

- https://about.me/animecityus

- https://www.pinterest.com/animecityus/

+ Hagtag: #anime #watchanime #anime9 #9animeCity #9animeoffical #kissanime