TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You – S2 06 – Completely Unproblematic

Nasa checks out a manga at the hot spring that involves a hot spring scenario, but finds no advice there. He and Tsukasa aren’t high schoolers, nor are they trying to date—they’re freakin’ married. Being in the same bath together is totally unproblematic. And yet, their tour in yukata the next day is weighed down a little by the elephant in the room: Chekhov’s private bath. That bath that is just for them is in their room and it’s not going anywhere!

Nasa puts feelers out by asking if Tsukasa wants to go to a different public mixed bath in Kusatsu, and she says she’d prefer another bath. The question “Want to get in the bath together” feels like an altogether insurmountable hurdle for Nasa. But after a sumptuous feast, Nasa displays admirable gumption and manliness by putting the question to Tsukasa, albeit with a strange look on his face. Tsukasa doesn’t react like the manga character. She reacts like his cute, albeit bashful wife.

She’s fine sharing the bath with him, provided he gets in first, and she turns out the lights so he doesn’t see too much. But it does happen: Tsukasa disrobes and gets into the bath naked with Nasa, who is enchanted by how she’s lit by the moon. When he says “the moon looks beautiful” in that way that really means “I love you”, Tsukasa asks him to say it normally. He does, and in return he has her say it too. Nasa remarks how cute she is when she’s embarrassed, and in retribution, she splashes him.

The next day, Tokiko sees the two of them off, and when Nasa takes Tsukasa’s hand in his, it feels very warm. He suspects it’s because they were in the hot spring, but Tsukasa corrects him: she gets excited when he touches her. On the train ride home, having gotten closer as a couple now that they’ve been naked together, they resolve to have more fun adventures and make more happy memories. Which is all fine by me!

TONIKAWA: Over the Moon For You – S2 05 – Tepid Springs

Kaname and Aya’s mom makes a rare appearance to offer tickets to a hot spring vacation, which Kaname gives to Nasa so he and Tsukasa can finally have a proper honeymoon. When he brings it up, Tsukasa turns beet red, but admits that since they are married, they might as well go. That said, the prospect of spending a weekend all alone together at a hot spring keeps Tsukasa and Nasa in a near constant state of nervousness/bashfulness.

While checking in, Tsukasa wonders how her husband is handling this so well, and we get our answer when they part ways to go to the gender-segregated baths: he doesn’t feel nervous because this all feels like a dream that’s too good to be true. That said, it’s a bit disappointing that the two don’t so much as dip a toe in their private open-air bath. They do know that a honeymoon is mostly about spending time together, right?

With Tsukasa and Nasa out, Kaname seeks entertainment through Aya and Chitose, who she has fitted out in swimsuits so she can have fun with the hose. While I get Kaname’s desire to have a real “bathhouse episode”, their scene feels like padding, and takes away from what should be the focus of the episode: the main couple.

It’s actually a little shocking how little time Tsukasa and Nasa spend together once they arrive at the hot spring. Nasa gets ensnared by an old lady in need who messes up his schedule of researching and planning the best darn town visit possible. But Nasa is so nice he simply can’t not help the lady find the front desk, or her room, or engage in discussion about marriage.

It turns out this old lady is Chitose’s grandmother, Tsukuyomi Tokiko, who was a witness for his and Tsukasa’s marriage. Tsukasa isn’t the least bit happy to see her, and scolds her for “tricking” Nasa. Still, Tokiko is glad Tsukasa found and married someone as kind and sweet as Nasa, and even looks up at the moon wistfully and says he may be able to do “what nobody else has been able to all these years”.

While her moonward gaze and Tsukasa’s blank reaction suggest a secret about the latter’s past, I still feel like this episode was meandering and ultimately a wasted opportunity for Tsukasa and Nasa to grow closer as a married couple. I was heartened to hear Chitose wouldn’t be stalking Tsukasa, only for Tokiko to show up and be a third wheel anyway.

The preview indicates the hot spring honeymoon will continue next week, so all hope for Tsukasa and Nasa to have a good time together on their own is not lost.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Swordsmith Village Arc – 01 – Less Sizzle, Please

I am often intimidated by double-length episodes because they often contain double the content. Not so with the premiere of this newest season of Demon Slayer. A full fifteen minutes is given over to a Bad Guy Meeting scene that could have easily taken less than five. The overly indulgent soaring shots of the Escher-like Infinity Castle, and the dramatic musical stabs whenever anyone says anything, get old fast. This had no business being a double episode – the content just wasn’t there.

This is overwrought, inessential Demon Slayer at its worst, and while it sucks it occurs at all, things are made worse by the fact it’s what starts an otherwise standard easing-back-in episode. For the first time in 113 years, the Upper Moons have been summoned because one of their own has been saved. Kibutsuji Muzan berates them and tells them to do better. As they (probably) say in Texas, it’s a 3-ounce steak with a whole cow’s worth of sizzle.

Thankfully, what follows is much better. There’s some immediate intrigue as the episode switches gears to someone that looks like an adult Tanjirou with a wife and babe, but it’s more likely this is an ancestor, since he has a different name, Sumiyoshi. This ancestor is hosting a guest wearing the earrings that will be the Kamado heirloom.

Tanjirou wakes up from a two-month coma, and the first person he sees is a surprised and tearful Tsuyuri Kanao, who manages to utter quite a few words to mark the occasion. She’s soon joined by the three tiny stretching girls, a relieved Aoi, the Kakushi who rescued him and his friends (and who gets a brief POV monologue).

Inosuke also appears, though it seems he had been hanging from the ceiling for over a day and no one noticed him until Tanjirou, who is lying face up. He makes his usual enormous ruckus about Tanjiou worrying him, and he and the Kakushi bicker until Tsuyuri yells at them.

When Tanjirou asks the 3 girls if he got his repaired sword back, they present him with Haganezuka’s letters to him while he was out, which grew increasingly disturbing and threatening with time. He must travel to the Swordsmith Village to make amends and get his chipped sword fixed.

The process for traveling to the village is extremely complex due to the intense secrecy of the location, so he’s blindfolded, ear and nose-plugged, and carried on the backs of a sequence of crow-guided Kakushi. Xhibit would surely be proud of the sight of Tanjirou, carrying Nezuko on his back, being carried on someone’s back.

As soon as he arrives in the Swordsmith Village and thanks his last Kakushi, his gesture of gratitude is heard by the keen ears of the Love Hashira, Kanroji Mitsuri (Hanazawa Kana), who is having a nice soak in the village’s healing waters. Mitsuri runs down the steps and flies into his arms in tears, because someone at the hot spring ignored her when she greeted him. He later learns this is his former fellow recruit Genya, who has no desire to speak to him either.

Mitsuri, on the other hand, is a warm and bubbly presence throughout Tanjirou’s first night. After his bath they have a meal together (in her case, a very very big meal), and she and Nezuko hit it off like sisters. Tanjirou learns that she joined the Demon Corps and worked her way up to Hashira for nothing more complicated than wanting to find her future husband, figuring it had to be someone stronger than her.

When someone reports to Mitsuri that her sword repairs are complete, she heads off to attend to another matter, but wishes Tanjirou the best. As both she and the Mist Hashira Tokitou Muichirou are both in the OP with him, I’m sure she’ll be back soon, for which I’m glad. Over-the-top her design may be (like Uzui) but she’s just a fun-as-hell character, and I can’t wait to see her get serious in battle.

Before bidding him good night, Mitsuri tells Tanjirou about a secret weapon that could help Nezuko. The next day, Tanjirou and Nezuko strike out to look for it, and run into what sounds like a heated argument between Tokitou Muichirou, a young swordsmith, and most puzzling of all, the man with the earrings from Tanjirou’s flashbacky dream.

From a frozen forest to a train and through the Entertainment District to here in the Swordsmith Village, Tanjirou’s been through a lot, and he’ll go through a lot more, but with not one but two Hashira by his side, I’m sure it will all work out. And hopefully future episodes will be a tighter 20-odd minutes, with fewer forays into the infinite CGI castle…

The Eminence in Shadow – 11 – Good Conversation

Cid isn’t picky about most things, but he does love hisself a nice hot spring. Since there’s a hot spring in Lindwurm that’s where he spends some time. He happens to meet Alexia there (something I’m sure Rose might be upset about) and she ends up striking up a conversation that eventually leads to him warning her not to judge a book (or rather, his “Excalibur”) by its cover.

At the arena where the Goddess’ Trial takes place, Alexia is seated between Rose and the newest, hottest celebrity author, who is really Beta. Alexia is intimidated by Beta’s ample bust, while Beta is wearing a revealing, crowd-pleasing dress on purpose to piss of Alexia, whom she believes is out of her league when it comes to messing around with Lord Shadow.

The ensuing trials are pretty perfunctory; we watch a couple of warriors with weird names call for one of the legendary warriors of yore to emerge from the Sanctuary to fight them, but throughout the day and into the evening only one manages to actually summon one. Then, thanks to Rose, Cid Kagenou gets his turn.

Rather than run away or fight as Cid and blow his cover, Cid chooses a third way: sending up a big purple flare that distracts everyone. When they look back down at the arena, Shadow is there, and he ends up summoning Aurora, Witch of Calamity, someone so destructive in her time even the two princesses have never heard of her—because so few people were left to tell stories.

Of course, the Seven Shadows’ resident bookworm Beta knows all about Aurora, as does the acting Archbishop Nelson (who rejected Alexia’s request to run an investigation). Nelson has a low opinion of Shadow and believes he’s bit off more than he can chew. At least initially, Aurora’s staggering display of power seems to bear that out.

Of course, ol’ Violet Eyes and her tangled web of blood spears has absolutely nothing on our boy Mister Atomic, but she is the toughest opponent he’s yet faced, and he appreciates her shared commitment to treating their battle like a spirited, joyful conversation. The rules of the trial mean the version of Aurora he gets is only “equal” to his skills and power, after all.

Cid is having fun in this battle, as is Aurora, but eventually brings things to an end quite decisively, shattering Aurora’s web and delivering a fatal strike that sends her back to the hereafter from whence she came. Shadow doesn’t stick around for applause, but shortly after he skedaddles a new, elaborate magic circle appears.

Alpha, Delta, and Epsilon watch as that circle extends beyond the confines of the arena and envelops a large part of the city. And while Cid only engaged in battle on a whim, his Seven Shadows naturally assume he intended for this to happen, and that the Sanctuary is responding to his challenge. If tougher opponents than Aurora are on their way, I imagine he’s looking forward to another conversation or two.

The Devil is a Part Timer!! – S2 E08 – Boars, Stars, and Bears

While the apartment is now repaired (and the kitchen faucet no longer drips!), the MgRonald remodeling isn’t done yet, so Maou needs some new temp work. That notorious NEET Urushihara brings this up is indeed the height of hypocrisy, but he’s not wrong.

When Chiho’s great aunt is injured by a boar at the Sasaki family farm in Nagano, all the young temp workers quit out of fear of attacks. Chiho’s mom drives her, Maou, Ashiya and Urushihara to the farm to help out with the harvest. Maou is happy see sides of Chiho he hasn’t seen before.

Maou & Co are overwhelmed by the sheet vastness of both the Sasaki farmlands and their spacious house (you can’t even see the stairs from the entrance!), but Chiho’s aunt Hinako eases them in with some lighter work, after which her uncle takes them to a hot spring to unwind. There, Chiho suddenly feels something clutch her leg; it’s Alas Ramus!

Turns out Emi and Suzuno tagged along, and it’s clearly not a simple coincidence. That said, when Alas calls Emi and Maou “Mama” and “Papa”, Emi and Suzuno have to spin quite the yarn about long-term babysitting and Alas forgetting her parents’ faces (which is obviously a real thing that happens in families where the parents have to work a ton of hours).

That night, Maou gets his wish to see another side of Chi-chan as she visits him in the night dressed more casually than he’s used to (though he seemingly forgets he saw her in a bikini during the beach arc). They go on a walk, her marvels at how many stars are in the sky.

Chiho tells him about Emi’s mixed feelings about him, Ashiya, and Urushihara doing farm work, since the Demon Army destroyed her hometown and family’s farmland. Chiho reiterates her desire for everyone she loves to live in happiness.

Maou doesn’t get much sleep, as Emi gets the three lads up at 4:30 AM sharp (though Urushihara clings to his futon and gets Emi’s fist in return). Everyone else is already up and eating a hearty breakfast prepared with help from Suzuno.

Because of Emi’s experience harvesting eggplants and Maou’s lack of same, the two are paired up for a greenhouse, where Emi explains why vegetables have to be picked in the morning rather than the afternoon, and before they over-ripen.

Emi also tells him she’s still mad and not ready to forgive him for what he and his army did to her home, but if he were to start regretting his deeds, her anger and hatred might subside…if only “the length of a flea’s turd”, which is a hell of a withering turn of phrase!

After working all morning Maou and the lads get a siesta in, but Maou and Ashiya want to still be useful. They escort Chiho’s baby cousin Hitoshi to see her mom in the fields, since he’s being fussy. I love the little scene of Maou, Chiho, Ashiya, and the little ones getting along, and Hitoshi pulling Ashiya’s hair.

Unfortunately, the good vibes are suddenly extinguished by the arrival of a starving black bear that’s come down the mountain looking for food. The group gets down low and tries to quietly get away, but Hitoshi gets unsettled and starts to cry, alerting the bear to their presence…and that’s how the episode ends.

With a “civilian” among them in Aunt Hinako, dealing with the bear through supernatural means (like, say, Alas turning into a sword) is probably out. Still, I can’t imagine the bear will succeed in attacking anyone. More likely another Sasaki will arrive and scare the bear off.

The World’s Finest Assassin – 10 – Carpe Dia

With an opening featuring Lugh and Tarte sailing in their swimsuits to meet Maha on the beach, this week’s WFA had the makings of a dawdle before the inevitable Shit went down. But sexy as it seems, their trip to a tropical island was purely about magical training in private, while Maha provides crucial intel on the Hero, believing him to be Setanta MacNess. MacNess is a soldier in the forces rebelling against the royal family in Swoigel.

Dia’s House Viekone is in Swoigel, so the next time Lugh visits her, it’s under the assumption that he’ll swoop in to rescue her from her kingdom’s civil war. Even when he says the Hero could be among the rebels (with Gae Bolg, a Divine Treasure I’ve heard of once or twice in other properties), Dia holds firm that she’s not fleeing her home.

She laughs off their little fight and suggests that since her father and his attendants are away, the two of them should go out. To satisfy Lugh’s desire for security, she dyes her hair brown like his when they go out. What ensues is their first official date in this, the first episode in a long while to focus on Dia and Lugh exclusively.

As you’d expect of two people who love each other, they have an absolute blast, whether it’s Lugh instructing Dia on how to use a bow and arrow to win a bear, to working together to find a lost child’s mother, to enjoying lasagna on a veranda overlooking a grand mountain vista. It’s pretty much the perfect date.

It gets even perfect-er when Dia takes Lugh to a hot spring she had reserved just for the two of them. One thing Dia is not reserved about is being naked in front of Lugh, as the two end up skinny dipping in what may well be better descirbed as a heated pool.

There, as comfortably and content as they can possibly be, Dia tells Lugh that she loves her home and everyone in it, just as he loves Tuatha Dé, and she’ll serve its interests until the very end. They embrace, and kiss, and their hair changes back to normal.

From this perfect moment in the hot spring, things get a bit dark. Lugh promising to make Dia lasagna when she visits his home felt like a flag of some kind, and there’s something very iffy about Dia’s “I’ll call you” with regards to when theyll meet next, which it seems won’t be next month.

Then I remembered when they were in town and Lugh could sense a lot of strength and murderous intent around him. Turns out that’s because everyone they encountered were Viekone soldiers in disguise, carefully watching over Dia. They strip of their street clothes and stand at attention as she strides by, her chestnut hair returning to silver.

After a particularly beautiful rendition of the ending theme by Dia’s amazing seiyu Ueda Reina (seriously, this is some of her finest work yet), we get the mother of all cliffhangers: Lugh is summoned into his house by Tarte where his parents are tending to a seriously injured man. His dad tells him the man has a job for them: assassinate Dia Veikone, the woman Lugh loves.

Everything had been going Lugh’s way, so it was about time he ran into a setback. But by god what a turn. While Dia loves Lugh more than anyone else, her duty to her country comes first, hence this first and last ideal date. I’d also considered that maybe Dia is the Hero (with MacGee simply a red herring) but honestly it makes more sense if she’s the one he has to save from the hero.

To do so, he’ll have to practice what he’s preached about no longer being a tool, but choosing who he kills. And I can’t believe Lugh would ever choose to kill Dia. I guess we’re about to find out.

Meikyuu Black Company – 06 – Meteoric Rise, Temporary Escape

Ninomiya celebrates his promotion to the Demon Lord Army’s Western Invasion Force Director with a trip to a hot spring with Ranga and Rimu. He revels in the fact that at this pace of advancement he’ll soon be a board member who can meet the Demon Lord face-to-face, and possibly return to Japan.

Little do the three know that they’re under surveillance from a camera owned by one of the Three Ravens, high level corporate executives who feel threatened by Ninomiya. One is an old fart who’s always spitting and wearing out the phrase “kids these days”; one is a voluptuous meatheaded amazon, and one is a four-eyed calculating perv.

Knowing what we know about Ninomiya, Rimu, and Ranga, it was a foregone conclusion that their petty schemes would fail one by one, much like Wile E. Coyote is always defeated in his efforts to capture Road Runner. Meathead unleashes a giant worm which Rimu quickly deals with; the worm even joins Ninomiya’s team!

When it’s the old fart’s turn, he challenges Ninomiya to cultivate some barren land, which is easy thanks to giant worm tilling and Ranga’s growing magic. Finally, the four-eyed perv tries to take unconsensual photos of Ranga nude, only to be defeated by the revelation he’s a boy.

If the first half is all about Ninomiya continuing to rise due to his ability to assemble a powerful and talented team, the second half is all about one of its members: Ranga. In what is clearly a dream in the style of Alice in Wonderland, Ranga witnesses the drudgery of unending labor in the form of a group of rabbits turning a wheel to power the Queen’s fountain.

When he laments that she can’t get them more tolerable hours or paid time off, he suddenly shrinks to a tiny size. While escaping the horde of evil rabbits (very Re:Zero-esque, that) he falls through a chute down into a massive underground…internet café.

If the rabbits toiling above ground represented one extreme of the labor spectrum, this café represents the other: all the mole people there have no goals other than repeating the same actions over and over again, calling into question whether life is even worth living.

From corporate grunts to NEETs, oppression and stagnation, Ranga finds himself trapped, both spiritually and physically (in a cage). His ancestor Belza, the Queen of this world, insists that he take her place by her side. That’s when the real Ninomiya stomps the White Rabbit Ninomiya and head-butts Ranga back into reality.

Apparently, the team was on a mission to defeat a Mobile Suit-like giant robot when it shot a strange beam into Ranga’s head, placing him in that dream prison that drew upon his own fears and insecurities. When he asks Ninomiya if always running away is bad, he tells him perhaps usually, but there’s always the useful phrase “strategic retreat”.

As long as Ranga’s overall goal hasn’t changed, he’s free to run away as many times as he needs to for the sake of future victory. Of course, Mobile Suit Gundam, the source of inspiration for their defeated mecha, was packed with those kinds of strategic retreats.

Defeating the mecha means Ninomiya can finally meet the Demon Lord…and she (or he) appears to be a Bahamut-like dragon in human form, like Rimu. Like Ranga last week, s/he asks Ninomiya to “save this world”. I know what he’ll probably say: Assuming he does, can he go home?

TenSura – 40 – Here We Don’t Go Again

One third of TenSura’s second season’s second cour has now been one long glorified infodump, featuring nothing but people standing and sitting around discussing things. There’s even a brief recap of last week’s talking, before we go right back into the next stage of talking. Who in their right mind would think this is acceptable method of storytelling?

Ramiris, who showed up and fell asleep last week, finally wakes up and offers some details about the threat to Tempest that probably isn’t any threat at all. Considering what happened the last time an enemy tried a coordinated attack on Tempest, it went…poorly. That, along with this constant parade of drab meetings, saps any potential drama or peril regarding another attack.

If there’s one improvement to this episode over the previous three, it’s that at least Rimuru & Co. go somewhere other than the conference room or gazebo. They hang out in the hot springs, then have a meal in the spa’s dining room. And as annoying and grating as Ramiris is, it is exceedingly cute watching Treyni and her sister pamper her.

With the announcement that Clayman may be launching an attack on Eurazania and not Tempest, and that Rimuru & Co. are too far away to lend any timely aid to the refugees there, there finally seems to be some momentum towards actual things maybe possibly happening next week. But I’ll still expect more meetings and more talking until shown otherwise. I’ve already been fooled for the better part of a month. Enough’s enough!

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 13 (Fin) – It Goes Both Ways

From the first shot of the episode, we know something has ended, because the girls are walking down the mountain after watching the sun come up. It’s the last sunrise on their Izu trip, and indeed of Yuru Camp’s gloriously healing second season. Rin, seemingly sensing this end, makes sure to thank the others for inviting her.

Rin also leaves her moped at the campground and piles into Toba-sensei’s sister’s Lafesta with the others for a visit to the Iidas, where Toba, Ena, Aki and Aoi bow their heads in apology and thanks. The Iidas, being nice people tell them to think nothing of it, as it was fun to have a big group that night.

As Toba stocks up on the good libations, Rin and Nadeshiko meet Choko, only to for him to speed right past them to the more familiar Aki, Aoi, and Ena. The Iida daughter decides to accompany the group to Mt. Omuro, a perfect place and the perfect time of year to walk her heat-averse Corgi.

Rin and Nadeshiko share a chair lift and are startled by the automatic souvenir camera, resulting in a deer-in-headlights shot for the ages. As the girls again race to the peak, Toba and Iida take it easy, and Toba admires Choko’s spectacularly cute butt (a Corgi trademark).

From there, the group heads to a zoo beside the mountain, where Akari finally gets to encounter the Capybara Hot Spring in person, which turns everyone watching into the naturally chill-looking capybaras themselves; Akari comes right out and remarks “This is so healing” while snapping a picture. And really, that’s been Yuru Camp in a nutshell: a capybara hot spring.

Which is why, after the zoo visit, when Iida parts ways with the group and Rin hops back on her moped for the long ride home, it really starts to feel like the end. Because what else could really come after a capybara hot spring but the ride home? Nadeshiko snaps a picture of Rin on her moped before they part, and after they do, Nadeshiko’s smile fades. I know why, too: with Rin headed home, the ending to their Izu trip is really starting to hit her.

It hit differently for me in particular, since I only just recently started Yuru Camp from the beginning, and only needed to hit “next episode” when the first season concluded (and you better believe that’s exactly what I did!) But this time, there is no next episode readily available. I’m reasonably sure we’ll get a third season, but who knows when.

This final episode perfectly captures that unique and powerful bittersweet feeling one gets of the end of a fun trip and the journey back home to the status quo. Nadeshiko is the only kid to stay up as Toba drives, knowing Toba would be lonely if she napped too. Even Rin feels a bit lonely in the saddle after experiencing so much liveliness with so many other girls in so short a time.

But as Aki said in her military general voice, the camping trip isn’t over until everyone is home safe and sound. There was even a foreboding quality to the photo Nadeshiko snapped of Rin, as if it would be the photo she’d chose to put on a milk carton should she turn up missing.

Of course, this isn’t that kind of show at all and would never take a turn like that, but it was still in my mind, just as Nadeshiko remains worried when Rin doesn’t answer her texts. So when her sister comes home, Nadeshiko asks her to drive her out to Minobu town border so she’s there to greet Rin the moment she finally does arrive.

It turns out Rin knew the way back and was focusing on driving, and so didn’t use her phone, which…good for her! When Rin is about to tell Nadeshiko she didn’t need to worry, she remembers when she was sitting in that massage chair and couldn’t help but worry about Nadeshiko on her first true solo trip. Realizing that concern goes both ways, she expresses her appreciation for Nadeshiko.

As they gaze on the now-familiar hometown view of Fuji-san, Nadeshiko remarks how it’s kind of sad the trip’s over. And it is! They’ll never have another trip quite like that one, with that collection of people going to those particular places and eating those particular things. Even if that was all arranged, it wouldn’t be the same, and it would be missing the point in the first place, which is to experience something new with each trip.

And that’s how Rin replies: it may be a little sad, and a little lonely but they can always go somewhere together again, and the options from there are almost limitless. If they were always on a trip, the trip wouldn’t be special, would it? We watch Aki, Aoi, Akari, Ena, and Toba all returning home to their families, then Rin returning to hers and eventually mailing her gramps a thank you letter and some Izu miso-pickled meat for camp cooking.

School starts back up, and Nadeshiko, Rin, Aki, Aoi and Ena all reunite at the ramp that leads to their school, no longer in their cozy puffy camping outfits but their school unis. Life may be back to normal, but they still carry in their hearts all the warmth, joy, and magic of the time they spent together in the great outdoors.

I’ll vicariously carry all of that in mine as I hope for third season of Laid-Back Camp. But even if we don’t get one, I’ll always treasure this show as a singularly cozy therapeutic experience. And you better believe I’m going camping as soon as I can!

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 12 – Crossing the Rubi-tombolo

Yuru Camp takes a quick look back at when Nadeshiko was saying a tearful goodbye to her best friend Ayano; and I agree with the commenter that Kurosawa Tomoyo is a perfect voice to match Aya-chan’s personality—I just wish Kurosawa voiced a main character! Aya assures Nadeshiko that she’ll make new friends (which she does) and says that once she’s in a new place, she should try a new thing.

That new thing turns out to be camping up an absolute storm, culminating in this latest group trip to the geospot and lookout-packed Izu peninsula. After a refreshing breakfast of sashimi rice bowls, the group heads to Dougashima and the famed tombolo of Sanshiroujima. Akari is heartbroken to learn, her big sis was having her on; “tombolo” isn’t food, but the sandy bridge between islands that appears during low tide.

Removing their boots and braving the frigid waters, the group crosses the shallows and explores the island before the tide comes in. Nadeshiko thinks this would be a perfect spot to visit in the summer when the water is warm enough to swim in, leading to what I believe is the series’ very first cutaway to the girls in swimsuits.

From there, Rin takes point in her 30km/h moped for the drive along the glorious Nishiizu Skyline to their campsite. I can’t help but recall a similar drive I took up Mount Evans, on the highest paved road in North America. Evans is 2km taller than Fuji-san, so you can imagine words will hardly do the majesty of the scenery justice. It truly is, as Rin says, like driving in the sky.

Once they arrive at the Daruma Forest Campsite on the Darumayama highland, Aki, Rin and Ena start prepping for dinner early, while Akari leads the birthday girls Nadeshiko and Aoi away to check out the baths near Cape Mihama (which is sometimes mistaken for Cape Ose). To Akari’s shock, they already know a birthday meal is being prepared, since Aki specifically told Aoi that back at school, and their grocery shopping included things like whipped cream.

But even though it’s not a complete surprise, Nadeshiko and Aoi are still delighted by the celebration prepared by the others, who go all-out with decorations, a (pancake-based) cake, and the gift of durable and easy-to-maintain wooden cooking pans.

A suitably sumptuous feast of shrimp and tomato risotto awaits, made with spiny lobster broth and made extra-shrimpy by the addition of a highly-concentrated shrimp sauce. While Toba-sensei is enjoying the snacks the girls prepared to go with her booze, she gets a call from her Ryouko, who is herself solo camping much closer to Fuji-san out of her sister’s Suzuki Hustler.

Ryouko can tell her sister isn’t that drunk (yet) and congratulates her for being a good advisor. Minami admits she “wasn’t too keen” on becoming one at first due to the time it took up, but watching her students growing up before her eyes, she totally gets the appeal now!

With everyone now on the same sleep clock, the girls eschew movies and head to bed early so they can get up in time to watch the sun rise from the peak of Duramayama. The extra 500-meter climb nearly kills Aki all over again, but Rin and Nadeshiko reach the top first with time to spare, and Nade prepares instant miso soup with more of the spiny lobster broth, telling Rin the shell can be used more than once and even ground down into powder for future use.

While Toba-sensei stays in the van with a still-sleeping Akari, Aki, Aoi and Ena join Nadeshiko and Rin at the top, and the three formally bow and thank Rin for saving them. They also intend to visit the Iidas to properly thank them (and play with their adorable Corgi, Choko).

Then that sun rises and begins to bathe the landscape in its warm, silky light, rewarding the girls for their effort. Did I mention that shortly after starting this show I’ve started getting up early to watch the sunrise? There’s really nothing quite like that light. Yuru Camp isn’t just about immersing yourself in its warm and fuzzy therapeutic goodness, but inspiring you to get out there and give something new a try, as Aya urged Nadeshiko to do.

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 11 – Mamashiko Ajiii!

As expected, the highest point of Hosono Plateau offers a view that’s well worth the climb…or the race to the top if you’re Nadeshiko, Akari, or Chiaki. Also as expected, Nadeshiko won, securing her revenge for Akari telling her the camping was over when she woke up. Part of the reward is seeing the Izu Islands, technically part of Tokyo Prefecture and potential island camping location.

But Izu is vast—thanks to all the volcanic activity inthe last 20 million or so years—and the hour grows late, so the van-and-moped convoy leaves Hosono in search of a hot spring near the campsite. Once they find a suitable one, Nadeshiko relays it to Rin, who lets out a BIG ol’ yawn in response. She’s been riding since three in the morning, after all!

After Akari imagines a hilarious TV commercial for a Rin-themed frozen treat, the group has a sunset-lit soak at the Dougashima hot springs, which almost claim the increasingly drowsy Rin. Then Toba-sensei makes the mistake of chugging a post-bath beer, and has to call in a replacement driver, which is apparently a thing in Japan!

Still, bathing at Dougashima was the lemonade they made from the lemons of being turned away from their original campsite, and getting to their new site in Nishiizu a little late doesn’t faze the group in the slightest. Rin is too sleepy to be fazed anyway!

When it’s time to start a fire, Rin wakes up and teaches Akari how it’s done. You can tell Rin hearing it’s Akari’s first real campfire takes her back to her first campfire…which didn’t go nearly as well but was salvaged thanks to an experienced helping hand. With the tents and camp galley set up, a very well-rested Chef Nadeshiko enters Yuru Cookin’ Mode.

She first prepare a Spanish-style chunky Ajillo in an earthenware pot, while Ena and Chiaki grill some spiny lobster. Toba-sensei learned from her Christmas Camping error and brought the perfect booze for every possible meal. Her sister Ryouko texts her a quick reminder not to overdo it as she’s gotta drive tomorrow. I kinda wish Ryouko had joined them!

Having chosen meals as much for their ease of preparation and clean-up as their deliciousness, Nadeshiko innovatively uses the leftover juices from the Ajillo to make a totally different one-pot dish: alfonsino acqua pazza pasta. Yuru Camp does a good job giving you the gist of the recipes without turning this into a full-on cooking show…but as I’m a huge fan of both Great Chefs and Food Wars, that wouldn’t have been the worst thing either!

One thing’s for sure, Nadeshiko upped her game considerably, and her friends can be certain that going forward camping with her means rib-sticking gourmet-quality meals that take full advantage of the local ingredients to the max. But the  umami and sleepiness double-whammy finally does Rin in, which is when Nadeshiko becomes Mamashiko, ensuring Rin brushes her teeth and uses lotion before retiring to her tent.

The fact that Nadeshiko, Rin, and the others are all on totally different sleep cycles works in the episode’s favor. When Ena can’t sleep, she encounters Nadeshiko is also still up, enjoying a dramatic view from the picnic area. The two have proceed to have a wonderful little low-key heart-to-heart. Nadeshiko mentions how the relaxing waves remind her of her hometown, admits she knows about Ena’s konbini job.

Ena says it’s not just for camping expenses, but because she wants to get her drivers license at eighteen so she can take Chikuwa camping. Ena then remarks how much things have changed since Nadeshiko moved to Minobu, and Nadeshiko says a lot’s changed for her since meeting them. They head to bed, as it’s past three, and at four on the dot Rin wakes up totally rested…and all alone.

This is no problem for Rin, who takes the opportunity to get a little Me Time in before the others wake up. She hops on her moped to check out some local geospots, from Cape Kogane to Sawada Park, which she learns has an open-air hot spring right beside the sea.

Ena and Aoi are the next to wake up, but when they see Rin’s text they retreat back to their sleeping bags, joining the still-dozing Nadeshiko. Then a panicked Chiaki shows them Rin’s message “Please don’t come looking for me” and assumes Rin’s run away from “home”. The other two understood: Rin just wants some solo time. Here’s hoping getting up so early doesn’t render her too sleepy for the group’s adventures later that day!

Yuru Camp△ 2 – 05 – Chiaki’s Perfect Plan

Rin has her bookstore job and Nadeshiko has her new gig at the restaurant, so for the first time in a while we’ve got a camping trip involving neither of them. The entire episode is carried by Chiaki, Aoi, and an Ena who is suddenly just as crazy about camping as the others. It’s a combo we haven’t seen before and it’s refreshing, fun, and usually hilarious!

Their destination is Lake Yamanaka, the southeastern-most and highest of the five lakes around Fujiyama. After a roundabout route after Kofu and Ohtsuki, they arrive at Mt. Fuji Station, and purchase two-day passes just in time to catch the bus that will take them to the campsite on the lake.

Chiaki touts her “perfect plan” which starts with a trip to the Caribou in Fujiyoshida. There, we learn the ultimate fate of Chiaki’s infamous wooden bowl (it’s a cactus pot now) when she takes a look at plastic cookware, then Aoi ponders whether to buy a high or low chair. Chiaki wants a hammock, but can’t find one light enough, so a store rep demonstrates a hammock “hack”, the nature of which we’ll have to wait until it’s implemented at the campsite.

From the store (which features the eminently huggable Caribou-san) the girls head to a Lake Yamanaka Hot Spring, where they bask in 38°C water while out in 1.4°C weather. Chiaki counts down from three for everyone to get out at once, but she’s the only one who leaves.

After the bath Ena joins Chiaki and Aoi for their traditional pre-camping ice cream, and Aoi has to literally pick both Aoi and Ena off the ground to avoid another Hottokeya incident, when they all overslept.

From the Hot Spring the girls hit up a supermarket to buy all the food they’ll need. Chiaki will be making homemade kiritanpo hot pot, following a lot of suggestions by Hot Pot (nabe) Master Nadeshiko, AKA Nabeshiko, whom all three girls promise to marry some day. They also decide to pick up some local lake smelts for tempura.

While on the way to the campsite, the girls notice a lot of foreigners on the bus, as they’re technically near some major tourist traps. Chiaki annoys Aoi when she uses a broken Japanese accent to direct one such foreigner to his proper right stop. When Chiaki continues the accent, Aoi simply says “Stop.”

Chiaki’s seiyu Hara Sayuri is the only member of the voice cast with whom I wasn’t familiar until Yuru Camp, but she’s done nothing but put on a clinic this whole time. This week in particular is a showcase for her goofy, emphatic style that’s seemingly always “on”—much to the chagrin of Aoi (Toyosaki Aki), who plays the perfect straight girl in their comedy duo.

When they finally reach the campsite, Aoi and Ena are a little skeptical of Chiaki’s choice of picking a spot on the cape, on the other side of the lake from all of its attractions. But they get it when they arrive at the cape, which is its own attraction. Sadly, the clerk won’t allow them to pitch their tents directly on the cape as they’d hoped—it’s too dangerous—but there’s nothing stopping them from pitching them next to the cape!

Fruits Basket – 11 – Giving Everything

For those who haven’t been paying attention, Tooru is a giver. She gives and gives and gives, sometimes without thinking; sometimes with quite a bit of thought behind it; and always, always without regard for any consequences that might crop up as a result of that boundless generosity. The only one she’s not generous to is herself. As has been said about her, she plays by a different set of rules.

Two of the unintended effects of this: it’s hard for her to accept anything in return, and it’s hard for anyone else to give to her without her wondering if that’s really okay. But after Valentine’s Day, you have White Day. It’s tradition. It’s the rules of society. So she’s expecting something in return for her chocolates. She just wasn’t expecting a hot spring trip, courtesy of Momiji.

As with most things offered to her, she feels unworthy, or at least feels she’d be an expensive burden. An onsen is costly, no matter how you look at it! And this, despite the fact she spent so much of her own money buying ingredients for the chocolates she gave everyone, she’s fallen behind on school trip payments. Kyou, just barely moderating his temper, asks Tooru to go have a bath, then turns to the issue at hand: just how stupid is Tooru to be so selfless with her money?

Momiji regails Kyou and Yuki with a “Funny Story” from a book he once read in school, about an “idiot” traveler who was constantly being swindled and duped out of possessions, until she wandered the forest naked. There, a bunch of demons duped her out of her body, all except a head with no eyes (shades of Hyakkimaru), leaving her only a piece of paper that read “idiot.”

First of all, this is not a funny story, WTF is wrong with Momiji’s classmates? But secondly, the fact the traveler never despaired, but only wept with joy that the things she gave up went on to help people (even if they lied about needing them). Like Tooru, her warped perspective is just something that works for her, and you can either accept it or consider not hanging out with her anymore, because she’s probably never going to change!

For all of this shows’s demonstrations that the Soumas can transform into animals, Tooru may be the most bizarre creature of them all, and especially out of place in modern Japanese capitalist society. Yet like Momiji, Kyou and Yuki, what initially, by my own less lofty set of standards and different perspective, might seem like idiocy could also be described as nobility; of representing the best of what a person could be; someone who, if everyone emulated them, would make the world a so much better place.

The proprietor of the onsen, a woman of frail health whose off-camera son is the Monkey of the Zodiac, was initially suspicious of Tooru, an outsider, of being a potentially disruptive or harmful force to her cursed child. But that was before she met her, or saw her soaking in the spring with her dead mother’s picture in a plastic bag to keep her dry. She can tell she had no reason to worry; Tooru is One Of The Good Ones.

It’s amazing Tooru agreed to go at all, considering how kingly a gift she considers a hot spring trip. By blowing everything nice other people do for her out of proportion…it can be challenging, at times perhaps even trying, to contend with that. But everyone has fun at the onsen trip.

Tooru plays the quickest and funniest round of ping pong, gets a lovely hair ribbon from Yuki, along with his full-on Prince Act, and Momiji gets to sleep beside Tooru, even though she’s just a year younger than Kyou or Yuki. But the night before she learns this, Tooru simply lies in bed thanking her mother for making all this happiness with the Soumas possible.

That may seem macabre—essentially thanking your mom for dying—but like I said, Tooru doesn’t play by those rules. Everything that happens to her, and everyone she meets, good or bad, is a miraculous gift, and she takes absolutely nothing for granted.