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There's something...off about Otherside Picnic that I can't quite put my finger on. On paper, it's a supremely interesting mix of concepts and genres that could make for something really unique. A surreal horror-action series starring two college-aged women as they discover the mysteries of a parallel dimension infested with bizarre and unnatural horrors? Sign me up! Yet somewhere in this premiere I could feel the show losing me, and I'm still not certain why that is.
I don't think it's the characters – while we don't see a whole lot of Sorao or Toriko's inner thoughts this episode, they make for a charming central couple and they have a lot of fun interactions across this inaugural monster hunt. We largely start this story in media res, as both ladies are fully aware of the Otherside and have visited it separately multiple times, and that's a good way to keep the mystery of this otherworldly place intact even as our heroes piece together how it works. But it does beg the question of how either discovered it, and it necessitates more than a few “As You Know” explanations to keep the audience up to speed. More than anything I just don't know why either of them wants to keep returning to a clearly dangerous place or what they stand to gain from doing so. That missing piece of info kept sitting in the back of my head, and figuring that out is likely critical to getting invested in this story.
Come to think of it, the weak link may also be the horror aspects of the Otherside. The opening sequence does a great job of making it feel like a threatening, unpredictable place where even the laws of physics are malleable – Sorao suddenly sinking into the depths of what appeared to be a shallow puddle is a great way to communicate that – but the way they defeat the “wiggle-waggles” and pick up mysterious items they can apparently sell for money made this feel more like a buggy video game. There's still some neat wrinkles to the setup, like the roundabout way Toriko uses an elevator to bring them to the Otherside, while hand waving away equally compelling dangers and monsters that the pair just barely escape. It's an endearing way to mix the supernatural horror with the seeming mundanity our heroes approach much of it, and I'd love to see more stuff like that.
Yet no matter how much I muse over this premiere in hindsight, or list off the parts I really liked or think are promising, I can't quite click with the episode as a whole. Something in the editing or pacing or some mix of minor flaws that I can't put into words yet keeps me at a distance from this whole setup. I can certainly still recommend it, as anyone who's interested in horror-themed action should absolutely give this a shot, but I think I need a couple more episodes to figure out just how enthusiastic that recommendation should be.

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