Yuru Camp: Outdoor Bonding with Friends

Exploring campsites...enjoying a night fire under the open sky holding a mug of chocolate...and hanging out with your dearest friends...

Going on solo camping is what quiet first year highschooler Rin Shima loves to do. She goes solo camping every weekend, her camping gears humped on the back of her bike.

Rin driving her way to Motosuko for a weekend night camp

One weekend morning, when Rin went to Motosuko campsite to spend her day camping there, she found it strange to see a girl fast asleep on the bench wall of the store, with her bike parked nearby. Uncaring about it, she just ignored the sleeping girl as she went inside the store and did her business. Later, when she went back to the store to buy, she saw the girl still deeply asleep. As night fell and she climbed back to go to the toilet, she found the sleeping girl already gone from the bench. She thought the girl was gone, as the girl's bike has gone from sight. But...the pink haired girl? She freaked Rin out from her back.

The sleeping girl with the pink hair is named Nadeshiko Kagamihara. She's a new girl in town from Shizouka. Nadeshiko drove on her bike all the way up to Motosuko eager to see the peak of Mount Fuji up close, but collapsed along the way due to exhaustion and excitement and rested on the nearest bench, sleeping off the entire morning and woke up already nighttime. Nadeshiko is a scatterwit who forgot her new phone and didn't know how to return home late at night.

At this incident was how Rin and Nadeshiko's strange friendship started. Rin shared her curry noodles to Nadeshiko that evening dinner. As the night went deeper, the clouds cleared up around Mount Fuji, allowing the two girls to clearly admire its peak with the full moon illuminating the black sky. Nadeshiko was able to see what she came after.

Later on that night, Nadeshiko's elder sister, Sakura came to fetch her up after she remembered her sister's phone number. Elated with her first night camping with Rin, Nadeshiko promised to see Rin again for another camp out by the woods and left Rin her phone number.

Nadeshiko transferred to Rin's high school. Excited to be part of a relaxing outdoor club, she joined the Outdoor Activities Circle, which has only two members and occupied a very narrow small spaced room. The two members were Chiaki Oogaki and Aoi Inuyama.

The girls first task doing outdoor activity was to build a tent. They built one outside the school ground, breaking the rod while trying to dig the base of the tent. Meanwhile inside the library, Rin was reading in the library hall while her hair was donned by her classmate, Ena Saitou. She saw the three girls outside fixing the tent, but she didn't want to be seen by Nadeshiko. Nadeshiko saw her when she looked past the window into the room. She invited Rin to join their club but Rin only gave her a look of grave disagreement.

Weekend came and Rin once again, went alone camping. While reading and preparing her foods in the open ground, Nadeshiko appeared carrying a basket of goods to make hot nabe. Ena told Nadeshiko of Rin's whereabouts.

Every weekend, Rin goes to her next camping site. She even went as far as Nagano driving her scooter on her first camp journey after getting her driver's license. On certain occasions, Rin and Nadeshiko go camping together, like by the lakeside. Eventually, the members of the Outdoor Activity Circle members, Chiaki and Aoi joined in.

Yurukyan or Laid-Back Camp is a J-manga series created by Afro and was serialized on seinen magazine Manga Time Kirara Forward. It was adapted into anime by C-Station Studio. First episode was released on January 4, 2018. The anime ran 12 episodes. 

The beauty of this anime is its relaxing and cheerful portrayal of what regular highschool girls do on their weekend. Unlike regular anime I've watched so far, the simple plot of Yuru Camp is its delightful temptation when it comes to doing outdoor camping. Rin, a quiet girl who has deep wanderlust for camping is always out every weekend to do a solo camping trip while Nadeshiko, a scatterbrain teenager is another adventurous gal who joins Rin in her camping trips. The other characters, Ena, Chiaki and Aoi, are also energetic and cheerful club mates who share their slices of humor and fun doing outdoorsy things. 

The other cool thing about watching this anime is its informative side about what to do when going on camping. It shares what kind of camping equipment are used while out by the woods. What type of tent is affordable enough for starters. What woods are easy-to-use for lighting fire and cooking or the coal used that allows longer usage.

Yuru Camp is so simple and laidback, no wonder its dubbed Laidback in its English translation. I just wanna relax and try myself camping out one day, too, to try and feel the adventure lust Rin and Nadeshiko share towards outdoor camping. They're quite a pair of outdoorsy girls who both enjoy the sight of nature and warm bond of friendship deepened by sharing food, sleeping together in tent and huddling wrapped under blankets around an open fire under an open night sky. A total outdoor joy of bonding with friends!