So, how do you get an acrophobe to climb a mountain? Just make her, says the show. It sounds cruel at first blush, but unless we're talking Alps or Himalayas, many mountain climbs don't involve sheer cliff drops, and I thought this was a wonderful way of not only helping Aoi's isolation and phobia, but also introducing noobs to mountain climbing.
Anime shorts, lasting anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, are nothing new. Here we have a bit of a no-frills sitcom where each situation tends to stretch over about 3 or 4 episodes. And before you know it, the end credits. Three and a half minutes is perhaps an indication of the budget available, and 8bit made the most of what they had. This is probably best viewed in one go.
Visually, this is kinda like Yuru Camp before Yuru Camp even got to production. It would've been quick, easy, and cheap to do what many shorts do, which is stick with low-detail backdrops and lots of low-movement animation, but 8bit made sure each episode was richly animated.
I've come to the realization that I will probably endure a terrible anime if the soundtrack is fantastic. Season 1 of Yama no Susume is "all right" in my estimation, and the soundtrack is largely unassuming-- but then there's not much to compose within a cour of 3-minute episodes. The only theme song is an end credits theme sung by Yuka Iguchi and Kana Asumi, both seasoned veteran actresses. It's a good accompaniment to an iyashi series, short and sweet. The show received something of a cult following in Japan, which naturally leads to season 2 being greenlit.
(1) Yes, I made that up, but this is because I dropped about a dozen shows this season, which is a new personal high. Hanebado started way too dark, for example, Sunohara-sou was one-dimensional, the rest was just... dull and boring. The only shows I looked forward to, putting it charitably, were Lupin and Gegege, and they were likewise pretty dull.
