There are piles of anime set in the great outdoors. There are farming anime (Silver Spoon), bicycling anime (Yowamushi Pedal, Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club, Long Riders), fishing anime (Tsuritama,
Hokago Teibo Nisshi), running anime (Kaze gaTsuyoku Fuiteiru), and even diving anime (Grand Blue Dreaming, Amanchu!). I haven't mentioned hiking and camping anime yet, but a couple of my most favourite series are Yama No Susume (Encouragement of Climb) and Yuru Camp (Laid Back Camp).
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| Rin and Nadeshiko from Laid Back Camp as acrylic standups. |
Encouragement of Climb is a great show with young protagonists who
are just discovering the joys of hiking in the outdoors. Their first
big adventure hike is on Mt. Takao, which is actually still inside the
greater metropolitan area of Tokyo, but they go further afield and even
do the climb of Mt. Fuji.
Laid Back Camp is about taking
it easy in the slow lane, where you setup camp in the great outdoors,
enjoy the fresh air and views, and eat great meals. The first episode
hooked me as it was pretty cool to see Rin, a blue haired solo camper,
bike out to a camp site with views of Mt. Fuji. Nadeshiko, the peppy
pink haired girl meets up with Rin in the same episode. By the time the
two sit down to enjoy a Curry Cup Noodle I knew I'd watch the rest of
the series.
Both of these shows make me want to
get back outside to have a long hike up a mountain, enjoy a spectacular
view, camp, and eat tasty food to end the day. There are all kinds of
merchandise for the fans of these shows, and you can even get the Laid
Back Camp manga in North America. No anime releases on DVD or Blu-ray
over here, so you have to settle for expensive imports (I'll pass on
that). However, there were some very cute Nendoroid figures released
and I have some pics of these below.
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| One of my favourite cup noodles is curry flavour. |
There are some 1/8 scale figures of Rin and Nadeshiko, but I opted for the cheaper ones for now. In the figure below, it is slightly larger than the typical trading figure you would get in a blind box, but it is very nicely detailed. The figure from Plum shows Rin holding a drink while sitting on her scooter.
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| Front. |
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| Side of box. |
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| Actual figure of Rin. Nice detailing on her, the scarf, and the scooter. |
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| Back side of figure with her camping gear shown. |
The first set of Nendoroid figures I bought were of Aoi and Hinata from Encouragement of Climb. These came out way earlier than the Nendoroids of Rin and Nadeshiko as Encouragement is the older show. Collecting these took over a year while I waited for the releases, with the figure of Rin coming out last. I'm not sure you can get these any more, but you never know. The cute little Nendoroids are perfect for these shows as they kind of fit with the vibe of the shows. Each set of figures comes with different expressions, are somewhat posable, and come with accessories.
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| Front of the Aoi and Hinata boxes. |
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| Back of the Aoi and Hinata boxes. |
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| Front of the Nadeshiko and Rin boxes. |
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| Back of the Nadeshiko and Rin boxes. |
I haven't unboxed them yet, but I want to eventually set up a display where I get to do a cross-over with all four figures. I'll have Rin and Nadeshiko camping around fire, while Aoi and Hinata walk in to join them. That would pretty much be a dream episode with both anime combined. You can just imagine Nadeshiko happily chatting away with Hinata while Aoi and Rin get dragged into the conversation on occasion, but do more chilling by the fire. I do need some display space to set that up though. Anyhow, until then, I also need to try this freeze-dried camping meal from Backpacker's Pantry below too. I've heard this Spicy Thai Peanut Curry is supposed to be pretty tasty.
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