The 2021 winter anime season has just begun and many popular series are returning. Dr. Stone's second season promises lots of action with the Stone Wars arc, and preliminary details of My Hero Academia's fifth season are out, too. But what about Laid-Back Camp, a cozy series with just one season to its name so far?
This charming camping series has returned at last for Season 2, and anime fans looking for a gentle, easygoing series set in Mother Nature can try out this short but sweet series and learn a thing or two about camping along the way. Sometimes, it pays to get away from it all and reconnect with nature. Here's what you should know before diving into Laid-Back Camp's second season.
Meet The Characters Of Laid-Back Camp
Laid-Back Camp fits neatly into the informal "cute girls doing cute things" genre, and it's not even the only anime of its kind. A handful of students at Motosu high school are outdoor enthusiasts, but they hardly have a tent or a sleeping bag to their name. But when the easygoing transfer student Nadeshiko Kagamihara joins the club, the three girls get ready to explore the vast outdoors and get some fresh air for real.
Nadeshiko stands out with her bright pink hair and can-do attitude, but she needs a little help setting up the tent or using the camping stove correctly. Nadeshiko is an enthusiast for the outdoors and can't wait for the next adventure, but on her own, she'd stumble, so her classmates are on-hand to help. Together, the girls can figure out nearly anything.
Chiaki Ogaki is another member of the outdoors club, with dark hair and an energetic attitude to match Nadeshiko's. She, too, has the spirit of adventure, and it was she who launched Motosu high school's outdoors club in the first place. Her best friend is Aoi Inuyama, who shares Chiaki's and Nadeshiko's love of camping and hiking.
The three girls have a friend out there in the wilds: Rin Shima, who has more camping skills than the other three girls put together. Rin has been camping alone for years now and she finds it relaxing, almost meditative, to venture into the unknown for hours and spend the night under the stars. Recently, she's become an unofficial mentor for Nadeshiko's gang, since she knows the ins and outs of camping, and she's helped Nadeshiko's group avoid disaster more than once.
By now, she's warmed up to the idea of camping with friends, and she also regularly texts her good friend Ena Saito about her most recent adventures and accomplishments as a dedicated camper. After all, the great outdoors can be that much more beautiful when the sights and sounds are shared with a few friends. Coming together is what camping is all about.
Laid-Back Camp Teaches Viewers How to Camp Alongside Its Characters
Not only is Laid Back Camp a relaxing and visually gorgeous series with charming protagonists, but it also plays into the "edutainment" trend that the anime world has seen in recent years. Works of fiction always need fresh ideas and material to work with, and entirely new genres and subgenres may be born when novelists, manga artists, movie directors and other creators turn to seemingly ordinary topics and find the fun side of them.
For example, Food Wars! can teach viewers a lot about cuisine and ingredients while and Cells at Work! is a nonstop action show with more than a few science lessons worked in. To a more modest degree, Laid-Back Camp does that too, showing viewers the ins and outs of packing for a camping trip, choosing a destination (and predicting the weather), and making the most of an outdoor trip. Nature has incredible beauty and bounty to share, and studies have actually suggested that being in nature, such as a forest or fresh air, can have mental and physical health benefits. Laid-Back Camp goes in the totally opposite direction of "alone in the woods" horror camping stories, that's for sure.
Going camping takes some prep work, but it can be done, and it can be highly rewarding. There is more than one way to pursue this hobby, and Laid-Back Camp guides viewers through the whole process: choosing the right kind of tent for the job, which kinds of foods and snacks are ideal to bring along, how to pick out a destination based on terrain and weather, how to fit all the gear into a car or even on a motorcycle, how to go fishing or hiking, packing emergency supplies, and more. Camping is a lot of fun, but it takes some work, too, and the girls in Laid Back Camp and the viewer alike can learn together how it's done.
Season 1 of Laid-Back Camp is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. Season 2 premieres Jan. 7.
