Laid-Back Camp

Laid-Back Camp, known in Japan as Yuru Camp, is a gentle outdoor comedy based on a manga by an artist called Afro. The manga began in 2015 in Houbunsha's magazine Manga Time Kirara Forward. The studio C-Station made the 12-episode anime, directed by Yoshiaki Kyogoku. It first aired on January 4, 2018, and ran until March. Airing in the middle of winter was a nice touch, because the whole show is about camping in the cold months.

The story takes place mostly in Yamanashi, a mountain area of Japan west of Tokyo. It is famous for lakes, forests and some of the best views of Mount Fuji, the country's tallest mountain. The show draws real campsites, roads, shops and hot springs in careful detail. After the anime came out, several of these campgrounds said their number of visitors tripled.

Rin Shima is a quiet high school girl who loves solo camping, which means going camping by herself. In the off season, when the sites are empty, she rides out with her gear, sets up her small tent, lights a fire, reads a book and enjoys the silence. At first she travels by bicycle, and later on a small scooter.

One evening at a lakeside campsite, Rin meets Nadeshiko Kagamihara, a new girl who has just moved to the area. Nadeshiko had ridden her bike a long way to see Mount Fuji, fell asleep, and woke up alone in the dark, cold and hungry. Rin shares a hot cup of noodles with her, and they watch the mountain together at night. Nadeshiko is loud, sunny and loves to eat, the opposite of Rin in almost every way. After that night, Nadeshiko falls in love with camping.

At school, Nadeshiko joins the Outdoor Activities Club, a tiny club with a very small room. Its members are Chiaki Ogaki, an energetic leader full of big plans, and Aoi Inuyama, a calm girl from the Kansai area who likes to tell small lies with a straight face. Rin's friend Ena Saito, who has a small dog named Chikuwa, often chats with Rin by phone. The show switches between Rin's quiet solo trips and the club's noisy group camps, and slowly brings these two ways of camping together.

There is no villain and no big drama here. The joy is in the small things: warm soup on a cold night, a beautiful view after a long ride, a good laugh with friends, a text message from far away. The show also teaches real camping tips, like how to build a fire, which gear to buy, and how to stay warm, in a simple, friendly way. This kind of peaceful, healing show is called iyashikei in Japanese.

Critics called it one of the coziest anime around. It became a large series with short episodes, more TV seasons in 2021 and 2024, a 2022 film, a live-action drama and several video games. This first season is the perfect place to start.