Otherside Picnic Manga Volume 1 Review

Otherside Picnic is about a parallel world similar to an isekai! The Otherworld is not well known to many people, it’s an urban legend at the start of the book. It can be entered through a variety of ways such as doors in abandoned houses and sometimes elevators in abandoned buildings. Sometimes spooky creatures try to enter the normal world through these doors. The Otherside has an interesting design, there are some grassy plains and the abandoned buildings you enter the Otherside through. There are a lot of threatening creatures in The Otherside that kill people. The amount of threatening creatures and bizarre location is reminiscent of Made in Abyss. It seems like there are at least a few people other than the protagonists who go to The Otherside.

The protagonists in the story are named Sorawo Kamikoshi (short dark-haired girl), and Toriko Nishina (long blonde-haired girl). Sorawo is shy and bookish, but is brave and maintains a cautious sense of adventure. Toriko is a bit of the opposite, she is very extroverted, flirty, and does not hesitate to jump into a dangerous situation. The dynamic between the two main characters works well with Toriko being the driving force in starting their adventures to the Otherside, and Sorawo collecting information so they can solve the mysteries that lie there! Sorao and Toriko are likable characters, Sorawo goes through some character development pretty early on which is nice, Toriko is given a good motivator to keep going on these dangerous missions (finding her friend and gathering information).

If you go into this expecting it to be a very Yuri/ Shojo-orientated story like Revolutionary Girl Utena or Bloom into You, you're going to be disappointed. While Otherside Picnic is classified as shoujo it doesn’t have many elements of traditional shoujo. Romance is not the focus of the story. The protagonists are gay, and they flirt with each other often, and there is a little bit of sexual tension but they don’t talk about dating nor is that anything but a small side concept. It feels similar to the amount of Yuri in High Rise Invasion which I find appropriate since the main focus of the story is action. However, I do think as the story goes on it would be nice to see the romantic side plot get more developed!

Otherside Picnic's concept feels fresh, the characters are likable, and there seems to be enough horror for the horror fans. The story does a good job of not giving away too much information which makes you want to come back for more! From the 7 episodes of the anime, I've seen so far it seems like the anime adaptation really good! Not to spoil anything but it does keep up the pace as they go through the story! If you are interested there are two novel omnibuses of Otherside Picnic and Funimation did a 12 episode anime of it last winter!