James Beckett
Otherside Picnic's premiere gives me the vibe of an anime that I should be one-hundred percent all-in on, though I'm not quite there, yet. When I saw that this series is being adapted and directed by Takuya Satō, who I know as the man at the helm of the WIXOSS franchise, my somewhat lukewarm reception to Otherside Picnic began to make more sense, since WIXOSS is another franchise that has all the ingredients of a story I would like, though the ingredients never quite come together in a way I find to be palatable. We've only got this one episode to judge Otherside Picnic by, so the jury will be out for some time as to whether it succeeds where the WIXOSS anime have stumbled, though I'm already feeling optimistic, since the plot doesn't revolve around a silly battle-royale of nonsensical card game competitions.
My main issue with Otherside Picnic's premiere is that it doesn't really feel like a premiere at all to me. The entire time I was watching it, I was convinced that there was some kind of prequel OVA or something that I had neglected to catch-up on beforehand. After opening in medias res with Sorao Kamikoshi lying face-up in a shallow pool of water, we get only a tiny sense of who she is – lonely, isolated, without any meaningful connection to the world – and then Toriko arrives, after which we learn that Toriko and Sorao are both college-aged women from Japan who have found themselves in an alternate universe that is only accessible from certain places throughout “our” world. This “Otherside” is populated with mysterious beings that are apparently called “Wiggle-Waggles”, eldritch beings that drive you mad simply by looking at you, though they are vulnerable to rock-salt (and also being looked at, I guess? But only when it is Sorao doing the looking). Toriko is obviously hiding some ulterior motives – she has visited the Otherside many times, picked up her own gun for protection, and is looking for…someone, though she convinces Sorao to partner up with her just so they can earn some cash hunting the spooky mirror cubes that dead Wiggle-Waggles drop.
This isn't exactly an abnormal amount of setup for a premiere to handle, but it is all presented with such a matter-of-fact sense of detachment, and Sorao is herself such a disaffected heroine, that I had a really hard time nailing down the hows and whys of Otherside Picnic's whole story. Sorao is weirdly okay with teaming up with an obviously sketchy lady to go hunt mind-melting monsters in another dimension, as if this is a totally normal thing to happen. Speaking of Toriko, is she just your average stalker, or more of a “Stalker” in the Roadside Picnic sense? I'm not asking the show to answer all of my questions upfront, but a little more context would be great.
In short, Otherside Picnic certainly has my curiosity, but it hasn't grabbed my attention. The direction and animation on display are good enough, and I'm a sucker for any pair of friends/girlfriends whose relationship is based on traversing a nightmare universe to become monster-hunting partners-in-crime. Hopefully, this will be the Takuta Sato anime that manages to live up to its potential.
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
