Urasekai Picnic
Otherside Picnic

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Every country has it's own urban legends stories which are talking about haunted places, wierd creatures and other similar stuff but all of them have the similarity that they are nothing more than stories whose porpouse is to entertain or scare it's reader.But what if they were real that's what Urasekai picnic explores.Before I start the review I have to say that since it's ongoing the score probably will change but now lt's start. The premise is pretty simple two college students meet while both of them were to that place or to be more accurate to the ''other side'' both of them for their ... own reasons after that they end up becoming friends and start to explore the ''other side'' togerther. IN my opinion one of the best things of Urasekai picnic is it's writing it has a simple yet intreasting premise and it showing us as much of it's potential it can.The writing isn't lazy and it always has it's way to keep you intreasted. Another strong point of urasekai picnic is the worldbuilding while the manga progress we understand that the ''other side'' is not a place created for humans because both of it's residents and it's enviroment it's a great way make you understand that our protagonists are in a dangerous situation as for the urban legends while they aren't very different from their original ones they have the characteristics which make them different last but not least it knows how to balance the mood it knows when it needs to be dark and when it needs to be more calm.The art is really good and it makes you understand what each scence represents also there are scences where are really dark and the art helps you feel that. As for the characters both of them are enjoyable and likeable and while they have really different personalities their chemistry is awsome both of them have a characteristic which helps them to survive. Sorao has knowledge about urban legends which help them understand the situation they are and what they will face and Toriko is good with guns which help them to protect themselfs. Urasekai picnic is the manga which I am witing more for new chapters to release. The plot is well execused it knows how to keeps you hooked and if it continue like this it has potential to become a great manga and it deserves it since you can see that it's author have put effort to his work I can't wait for the anime adaptation and I hope that it will be as good as the manga . 9/10

Just a reminder, the title might resemble isekai genre but in reality it's more of a creature hunting/adventure. Treating this as" oh kool, a 'different' isekai, let's gib it a ten" is misleading. This is completely different genre and it's actually a pretty bad one.

Story: 3
It starts decent, then getting my hopes up to the moon with that elevator urban legend, but unfortunately it's going downhill from this point onward. Most of the exploring have nothing to do any urban legend, the adventure is just about hopping from one abandoned place to another by crossing grassy plains with 'wriggler' popping here and there, feels really ... static. The urban legend feels skin deep, there's no build up that lead me to guess what other urban legend creature would comes next.

Art: 5
Generally decent but lacking expressiveness in creating the mood. Let's get real, seeing a eight feet lady that shorter than a windows already destroy my sense to perceive her as eight foot tall. There's a dire need to learn about scale. Not to mention the awfully bright windows makes it hard to distinguish between' a summer lady with wide hat' and 'eight foot lady'. This is manga, a VISUAL medium. Use the visual to explain, don't heavily rely on the text alone. I need to go back and checking the scene AFTER I read the text about her being very tall cause she really don't looked like the eight foot tall lady from the real urban legend. You know, an h manga could draw her hugeness better by making her hunching and bending her body, why couldn't mainstream manga doing something similar. At least make her staring at structural beam instead of toward awfully tall windows. For god's sake. Why do I even give this a 5.

Character: 2
The glasses girl is practically a blank slate like what you see for people to insert themself in. Not fantastic but I can see why she's there.
The blonde girl is cringey and embarrassing to read,with all her touchy gesture and flirty cringey speech like what you see on womanizer character from 90's shoujo manga. She already knows the world well, shoot like a trained gunslinger, yet have completely no knowledge of some of the world's mechanic that make me question how could she survived that long to be that knowledgeable while she didn't know the traps/glitch mechanics that could KO her with one wrong move. So stupid. Also her find a frind back story is so cliche. Talking about overused trope.
The 'dealer' girl made the blonde girl worse. She's practically her money dispenser. Tired of overpowered character? Then don't bring this kind of money-is-growing-from-the-tree kind of character. Also another know-it-all character.
The old dude is another badly designed character. Another know-it-all type that stupidly obsessive with his wife (not to mention his godawful backstory), and the hell with him being fully geared with assault rifle. Is firearm that easily obtainable? They probably should take an extra mile and change the setting fom Japan to the US.

Enjoyment: 1
I'm tired reading this series, loopholes here and there, cringey moments, clunky world setting, cosmetic urban legend....Enough.

Overall: 3
Can't give this any higher than this, the series direction is all over the place.
Urban legend adventure.... kinda
Unknown creature hunting... kinda
Finding lost 'friend'(that already mentioned but not even sensed by reader... kinda
Doing everything half-baked makes it hard to get into this series.