Otherside Picnic

Lore & Background

The series centers on Sorawo Kamikoshi, a university student in Saitama Prefecture who enjoys urban exploration and has extensive knowledge of urban legends. She discovers a door in an abandoned building that leads to the Otherside, a world populated by monsters and locations from internet creepypasta. She is rescued by Toriko Nishina, a skilled gunwoman searching for her missing friend Satsuki Uruma. Together, they return to the Otherside to retrieve artifacts for a researcher named Kozakura, who pays them through funds from the DS Research Encouragement Association. As they continue, both are increasingly affected by the Otherside's byproducts and encounter other humans trapped there.

Key characters include Kozakura, a researcher who appears young but is older than Sorawo and Toriko, and who streams videos under the avatar Yozakura. Satsuki Uruma, Kozakura's peer, disappeared three months before the story begins. Other characters include Akari Seto, a karate-practicing freshman at Sorawo's university; Yōichirō Migiwa, the Director General of DS with a mysterious background; and Natsumi Ichikawa, Akari's childhood friend who works at her family's garage.

The novel series has been published by Hayakawa Publishing since February 2017, with ten volumes released. A manga adaptation by Eita Mizuno began serialization in February 2018 in Monthly Shōnen Gangan and has been collected in sixteen tankōbon volumes. An anime television series adaptation by Liden Films and Felix Film aired from January to March 2021, consisting of 12 episodes.

Reader's Guide

Otherside Picnic is notable for blending the yuri genre with science fiction and horror, a combination that reviewers have described as breaking common stereotypes of yuri narratives. Constance Sarantos of CBR noted that the series avoids typical yuri tropes by focusing on a relationship built on crime and survival rather than interpersonal romantic drama, and that it demonstrates how well sci-fi and yuri can mix by combining themes of fear and romance. Reviewers at Anime News Network shared similar sentiments, though the source article does not provide their full comments. The series has been licensed in North America by J-Novel Club for the novels and by Square Enix for the manga, while the anime was licensed by Funimation and later moved to Crunchyroll. Its inspiration from the Strugatsky brothers' Roadside Picnic places it within a tradition of science fiction that explores the consequences of contact with alien or otherworldly phenomena.

Did You Know?

• The series is inspired by the novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.
• The anime adaptation aired 12 episodes from January to March 2021.
• Toriko Nishina is familiar with firearms because one of her mothers was a soldier in Joint Task Force 2, a Canadian special operations force.
• Kozakura streams videos under the avatar Yozakura, which is based on her friend Satsuki.