Otherside Picnic

Episode 5

There's something to be said for a story being effective at driving interest in its inspirations. Of course, Otherside Picnic's airing makes for a great reason to read Roadside Picnic if you haven't already, but it turns out it's also been doing an entertaining job of showcasing the influence of more home-grown horror-stories. Lady Hasshaku, the woman from episode two who I presume would get on very well with that tall lady from Resident Evil, sees her distinctive hat return this week as an inciting mechanic. And the title of this episode, ‘Station February’, is revealed by the end to be a misinterpreted reading of the infamous Kisaragi Station! Otherside Picnic's application of real-world urban myths and creepypasta has always lent it the familiar edge its atmosphere thrives on, and I'm appreciative of how it's gotten me to dive into reading up on the original forms and their frightening fundamentals. It's like the effects and influence of the show's alternate world are even bleeding through the fourth wall, much in the way the Otherside brings itself to Toriko and Sorawo this week!

As alluded to, there's a decent amount of continuity building up to the situation our dynamic duo find themselves in for this episode. Yes, it's seemingly initiated by Toriko playfully donning Lady Hasshaku's hat (it seems ‘never put on cursed headwear’ should be obvious life advice), but the girls are specifically out to dinner at the time in the aftermath of apologies to Kozakura (at Cafe Pause, also a real-world thing, though in this case by way of being a sponsor of the anime rather than progenitor of an online horror story). I've criticized Otherside Picnic for playing fast and loose with its own details before, so tying things together like this brings a welcome sense of story unity. Plus, come on, seeing Sorawo and Toriko out on a date together is adorable. Their banter here rounds back to the inciting argument from the previous episode, settling on a new mantra of sorts for going forward: It's okay to be scared, and it will always work out as long as they have each other. Naturally, that's a declaration that tempts fate.

This is another episode of Otherside Picnic with a decidedly more simple, standardized look to its art and animation. The varied visual tension of the previous episode doesn't carry over here, and it doesn't necessarily need to as the building dread here is much more direct and immediate in its presentation. Still, there definitely was potential to spice up the creeping horrors we follow our heroines into, this being our first glimpse of the Otherside in terrifying nighttime, but for whatever reason the production renders it all rather tamely. That said, there are still aspects I must praise, particularly the recurrent saving grace that is the sound design. Toriko and Sorawo's unsure walk through city streets that are no longer theirs as they unknowingly transition into a new corner of the Otherside is accompanied by unsettling music working overtime, with the spartan production being just right for this particular case of portraying a city that conspicuously has nobody in it. Even without fancy visual effects or overly ambitious direction, what they absolutely nail here is the feeling; The vibes are simply atrocious.

Finding ways of communicating the story's particular and wonderfully weird sense of horror (this is, remember, one part Russian sci-fi and another part 2channel posts) apart from access to creative production indulgences seems to be something Otherside Picnic is really coming into. Straight-up unknowable horrors like the wiggle-waggle in episode 1 were perhaps daunting to attempt visually, but this episode lucks into a monster-of-the-week that defies description in a more conventional sense: If I told you it looked like nothing so much as a giant multi-headed mechanical bird with rows of corpses swinging from its belly, you'd still question the sanity of that articulation until you saw it for yourself. It also leads to probably my favorite revelation in the show so far; no wonder this thing is so nightmarishly uncanny, it's a warped version of one of those Boston Dynamics mechanical mules! I knew those things were evil!

That's party to the most unknowingly loaded swerve this episode delivers, with Sorawo and Toriko running into the group of US Marines. I initially thought this was a sign that the Otherside's entrances stretched and interconnected spots of the whole world in their own warped way, but then it turns out the soldiers had just been stationed in Okinawa. That at least provides a more plausible explanation for one of them being able to interpret Sorawo and Toriko's Japanese, as well as an outlet for that aforementioned ‘Station February’ twisted title-drop. The proceedings seem to get stuck in slower explanations when the girls meet this group, coasting to the end of the episode in what's clearly an introduction to a new proper story arc. I'm curious to see where this takes us next, but it does retroactively make all the extended scenes of the girls drinking, running headlong through the Otherside from monsters, and wandering around with soldiers feel a bit like padding to bring us to this establishing point in the story.

Given the narrative and thematic density of previous Otherside Picnic episodes, that does mean this one feels a bit disappointingly light and direct in retrospect. It's perhaps apparent in the fact that I've had ample room in this review to call out various real-world references where I previously had multi-paragraph analyses on the nature of human fear. That doesn't make for a bad show by any stretch, and Otherside Picnic so well thrives on the entertainment value of its characters' chemistry that the chance to just watch Sorawo and Toriko enact a Hanna-Barbera-esque musical chase scene across some railroad tracks for a while reads as a pleasant enough break from the heavier material. And I'll always welcome any opportunity to brush up on my creepypasta.

Rating:

Otherside Picnic is currently streaming on FUNimation Entertainment.