Otherside Picnic, Volume 5 begins in the middle of a story and for the rest of the book, that is pretty much where we stay. A scenario occurs, but it does not feel particularly resolved by the end of the section when it stops. Nonetheless, this novel covers a fair amount of ground, much the same way Sorawo and Toriko travel the UBL – a mapping of the story, rather than the story itself.

The first scenario begins with the continuation of the Love Hotel Girl’s Party set-up from the end of Volume 4. Clearly, in the real world a love hotel girl’s party is meant as a bachlorette /stag party for women. One might expect alcohol and a male stripper and other straight-women misbehaving nonsense. But because Toriko won’t say things and Sorawo was never socialized normally and will avoid all things unless they are said, and often even then, the two of them are joined by Akari, Natsumi and Kozakura. Then…something happens. What happens is interesting, but not for the thing itself. I’ll come back to this in a second.

Before I forget, I want to note that Miyazawa is losing his grasp on Kozakura. She started out as a point of contact for DS, but at this point is merely a grumpy, scared nobody in the story. I feel bad for her.

Following this was definitely the strongest section as Sorawo tracks down Toriko at university to have some stuff out with her. Toriko is, understandably, feeling endlessly rejected by Sorawo. Sorawo even understands that, but just is not capable of returning the feelings. When Toriko accidentally pushes Sorawo into interstitial space, Sorawo finds herself understanding, finally, what she has not been able to look at head-on. Toriko is in love with her. She acknowledges this – and recognizes that it makes her panic.

The third scenario puts Sorawo back in her happy place – investigating the Otherside with Toriko. Planning, traveling, thinking about getting new equipment…this is what she loves. And she loves doing it with Toriko. This is her love language. So, when they meet another person, how will Sorawo react? Not at all the way you’d expect. Todate doesn’t need their help. She and her dog, Hana, are suited to one another, as Sorawo and Toriko are. Todate teaches the two how to spot animals in this world. Her skills add a new tool to their bag and the hunt shows them that the Otherside may well have a logic of it’s own, if the animals have evolved to not be driven mad by it.

By this time, Sorawo and Toriko are starting to think about how lucky they were when they first met. And they are beginning to understand that the UBL has clearly changed them, and not just physically. This becomes part of the conversation in the fourth scenario as the story circles back to the first person the met on the Otherside. Abbarato comes back into the story like a reflection, through what may or may not be his missing wife. Sorawo admit she was always looking for proof of the existence of the paranormal in stories and now, Sorawo’s eye and Toriko’s hand are actual relics of that very thing…but what does any of it mean?

In this final scenario, the two encounter a feral child and again, this triggers Sorawo’s memory of her own, entirely abnormal childhood. This, along with several conversations about disassociative behavior is very clearly meant to remind us that Sorawo is not *just* being dense about her emotions. She had a shocklingly traumatic upbringing and, as I say, has never been socialized. This was pounded on us so many ways in this novel, I wonder if the fandom was being kinda dense themselves and Miyazawa felt he had to be like, “Dudes. WTF? Do you not remember this important thing?”

Which brings me to my point. Her family was part of a cult, she’s always been obsessed by the paranormal. Even Sorawo can see that the Otherside seems to focus on her, but what if it’s not that the Otherside focuses on her, but that she is, in a sense, creating it for us. At the very least, she is an interpreter. A phenomenon occurs and, with her experience of the paranormal, Sorawo tells us what to understand it as. Because of this, we have a way to comprehend those experiences. In a sense, she is telling us how to not go mad. And, in that sense, she is creating the Otherside for us. We’ve seen what it does to people with no point of reference. We can avoid that fate, because Sorawo tells us what we see.

There are two more things I want to note. One was the appearance of more typical Yokai and Tales of Tono in this volume. Up to now, the stories have been rooted in modern netlore, most specifically scary stories on 2chan. Tono Monogatari is a 1910 manuscript by Yanagata Kunio and Sasaki Kizen, which collected a series of folklore and Yokai stories from a town that, to this day, considers itself the home of the strange and paranormal in Japan. Famously, Gegege no Kitarou creator Mizuki Shigeru did a comic of this – which was translated into English by Zack Davisson and published by Drawn & Quarterly. The chapter with Todate is based on a tale from Tono.

And I hope you all noticed the traditional Yokai that appeared at the beginning of the story! Kuchisake–onna is a well-known tale that involves a woman with a face that has split mouth. She is known to ask strangers if she is beautiful…and if they say, no proceed to kill them. I was quite pleased at this scene. We’re big fans of contemporary Yokai here and the use of the story was perfectly done.

The Otherside is, in this story, a reflection, a sight out of the corner of one’s eyes, a unfocused thing you sometimes see. As my old martial arts teacher used to say, it’s all the “Yin” side. We can perceive it and some of us interact with it. It inhabits the same space we are in, at the same time. The use of mirrors and reflections really highlight that in this book.

Lastly, but not at all least, I would like to note the art. The series began with blandly moe-stye art that I did not think accurately portrayed the characters in the least. But now, we’re getting gorgeous, evocative woodblock print-like black and white images that are vastly superior. These images are so much better, I had to check that we had the same artist. So yay for shirakaba being able to give us art that suits the tone and feel of the story much more suitably than one more shitty moe pinup. The art in this book was outstanding.

The book ends a bit abruptly, which makes it feel like a set-up for the next volume. Fortunately Otherside Picnic, Volume 6 will be hitting your electronic devices in November, so there’s not too long to wait. Based on the synopsis however, we’re going to get more questions than answers…again. But that’s why we read this series, after all. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 9
Character – 9
Service – 7 – Love hotel and stupid
Yuri – 8

Overall – 9

Otherside Picnic weaves contemporary folklore, psychological horror and romance into a compelling adventure.

At the end of Volume 3 our protagonists, Sorawo and Toriko have managed to free themselves from the clutches of an Otherside cult centered around the figure of Toriko’s mentor, Uruma Satsuki. In doing so, they uncover the cult headquarters, a remote building complex called The Farm.

Otherside Picnic, Volume 4 begins with Toriko and Sorawo accompanied by members of the DS and military contractors to clear the Farm of cult-built gates to the Otherside. This gives us a lot of space to encounter weird and threatening situations, and the general aura of not-rightness that contact with the Otherside brings. Sorawo asks DS to gift them the Farm, so they can manage it – and not incidentally, have a salary for doing so. She and Toriko provisionally get control of the Farm, and they hatch a plan.

But first, there some stuff going on that they have no idea what to do with, so they are avoiding what is happening to them…and what is happening between them. First and most pressing, it has been more and more obvious to me and to Sorawo, that the Otherside is targeting her, personally. Originally, she thought it was because of Satsuki, but she’s gone and it hasn’t gotten better. More phenomena are directed at Sorawo, specifically, and it’s clearly linked to her past. Every moment we get more of Sorawo’s backstory, everything about her makes more and more sense. And holy shit.

The second matter is no less pressing. As Sorawo and Toriko relax at a hot spring resort, they get very close to addressing what is building between then, but an Otherside phenomena occurs – a scene which is in my opinion, one of the very best in the books to date. Great use of everyday creepyness to create the Otherside’s signature threatening aura.

At last it is time to put their plan into action – Toriko and Sorawao plan an overnight trip on the Otherside. The preparations were actually quite interesting; soothingly banal, which was was a perfect setup for the final scene of this book in which all of the many issues mentioned here collide in an eerie grand finale. With the sole exception of Japanese writers’ newest grotesque body fetish – which I can live without ever encountering ever again – this ending was as least as least as strong as the Kotoribako and, like that ending, will undoubtedly send us into a whole new direction with the story. Miyazawa’s narrative arcs are tight here. shirakaba’s art in this book is way less goofy and much more moody…I like it. Translator Sean McCann and editor Krys Loh do a fantastic job of communicating unreal, not-things in a way that are the right kind of inexplicable. 

Ratings:

Story – 9
Character – 9
Service – 7 – Onsen bathing and /spoilers./
Yuri – 7

Overall – 9

Now this story is really ready to begin. Otherside Picnic is a beguiling tale of personal trauma intertwined with paranormal horror.

Otherside Picnic is available on Kindle, Global Bookwalker and wherever J-Novel Club books are sold. ^_^

In Volume 1 we met mystery hunter Sorawo, who nearly died while visiting an “other” world that had access points in our own and Toriko, the beautiful blonde who saved her life. In Volume 2 Toriko and Sorawo and their broker for artifacts, Kozakura, learn of the research into this other world, known as the Ultrablue. Sorawo meets an admiring kouhai, Seto, and proceeds to do everything she can to distance herself, all the time haunted by the mysterious Satsuki Uruma, who clearly connected with the hearts of Toriko and Seto, but whom Sorawo sees as a threatening and manipulative presence.

Now in Volume 3 of Otherside Picnic, after a terrifying brush with death and madness at the end of Volume 2, Sorawo and Toriko decide to take a more aggressive view of the UB, and face it head on. They customize an agricultural vehicle and head into the world to try and map it. With Sorawo’s one UB eye and Toriko’s transparent hand, they have the ability to see the reality of creatures in the UB. But Sorawo can see something that she’s not telling Toriko, who is becoming more and more dear to her. Sorawo can see that Satsuki Uruma…is watching them.

We get a few random glimpses into both Sorawo’s past, which helps explain a lot about her, and Toriko’s, which doesn’t, but offers tantalizing hints. They encounter a foe whose UB ability is deadly and, for the first time, we run into something that actually frightened me as a phenomenon. As a result I kind of want to talk about the horror author Iori Miyazawa bakes into this series. The author’s notes fascinate me, because they are themselves a kind of second-hand urban legend that the work purports to draw upon. “I read this on a board that’s gone now…” is pretty much the Internet version of  “a friend of a friend told me….” The horrors themselves are random and inexplicable, often being “explained” away by something even more inexplicable, which is charming, but doesn’t make the scare any scarier…unless it coincides with something you, personally, carry. Then it’s fucking terrifying.  ^_^

You may remember we tend to stay in Ikebukuro and we know the corner where the Junkudo is across from the ramen shop well. Yes, that ramen shop with a long line is real. The line starts about 10:30 in the morning and goes all day until the shop closes. It’s mostly Japanese folks, but sometimes has foreigners in it…and it’s on my list of things to do, to get on that line and eat there. ^_^ Well, a few years ago, my wife and I had a scary and strange experience nearby. I won’t get into details, but suffice to say the whole scene outside that Junkudo make me deeply uncomfortable to the point of being genuinely terrifying. Which is when I realized how Miyazawa’s horror works.  All the stories need to do is to evoke a place or a feeling that already scared you, and you’ll fill in the rest. Stories of weird beach houses and toilets in the middle of the hotel room, or strange looking constructions in the middle of the woods might not get you, but if you had stayed in a creepy beach house, or a really weird hotel room or saw some kind of bizzarro structure in the woods, you’d be looking for that light switch as you walked down the hall. ^_^;

Volume 3 ends with an important moment, but one that can’t really be considered a climax until we see if anything will come out of it. Toriko and Sorawo need a heart-to-heart ….but it’s not Satsuki Uruma that they need to talk about.

shirakaba’s art is less-irrelevant than usual, which was nice. Hats off to translator Sean McCann and editor Krys Loh, because translating made up fake horrors and making them make sense is way harder than translating things that exist and making them make sense.  

Ratings:

Story – 9
Character – 9
Service – 3
Yuri – 6

Overall – 9

Volume 3 is available on Kindle, Bookwalker Global  and directly from J-Novel Club.  Volume 4 just came out in Japanese in March, so I imagine it will be a while before we’re getting the next installment! If you can’t wait, you can grab it digitally on Bookwalker Global, as well!

In Volume 1, we are taken to the “other side” along with Internet legend-hunter Sorawo and Toriko, a woman looking for her missing friend. In Volume 2 of Otherside Picnic, by Miyazawa Iori, Sorawo and Toriko gain more understanding, but get no closer to the truth. 

The volume begins as the two decide to return to the Otherside to rescue the trapped and desperate group of US marines who wandered in from Okinawa. To do so, they start to put together a map of the entry and exit points. They barter their rescue for guns and weapons, and have started to expand their use of their changed bodies. Sorawo uses her blue eye to see things on the Otherside more accurately and Toriko uses her transparent hand to open portals between their worlds.

While their rescue attempt is successful, Sorawo is forced to make some real-world decisions. College is becoming increasing difficult, with excursions (and recovery) that take a toll on her body and mind. And, she finds she’s getting a reputation for being weird. So when another girl roughly her age asks her for help with a weird thing, she’s not in the mood to oblige. But she ends up helping “Karateka” (her nickname for Akari, who has actual hand-to-hand fighting skills,) anyway and are the three are immediately catapulted into a whole new set of Internet legends together.

Yuri continues to be complicated. Sorawo is attracted to Toriko, and jealous of Satsuki, the missing friend. Akari’s interest in Sorawo makes her more aware of Toriko. Sorawo is being pulled in several directions at once. She wants to help Toriko….but she doesn’t want her to find her friend (who was probably more) Satsuki, who is beginning to look like she may be the center of the horrors they are facing. Sorawo wants to spend time with Toriko, and resents the intrusion of her new kouhai…but also kind of likes her. When Kozakura introduces them to the organization that is researching the Otherside, they learn that they’ve been in more danger than they even realized….and come to a crisis that requires Sorawo to open up to Toriko to save them both. Only, she still hasn’t admitted everything. At some point Toriko and Sorawo are going to have to come clean about Satsuki. I look forward to that. 

The more we’re faced with creepy-to-horrific circumstances of the Otherside, the less realistic the legends seem. Although Miyazawa is at some pains to document the boards on which he learned about them, the less convincing “I wish this board was still in existence” sounds. ^_^ Ninja cats are funny-creepy, but, to be frank, the complexity of “kid on the beach beaten up by thugs, who kill the kid, but then they all turn on you” kind of loses me. I’m not inclined to be taken in by Internet horrors – I was so tired of seeing warning articles about the Momo challenge, I tracked it all down to the hoax it was, before the wikipedia article was written. Nonetheless, the slow-burn of constant horror, slowly building into climactic real/fake horror was a terrific bit of writing and worth re-reading.

Ratings:

Story – 9
Character – 9
Service – 3
Yuri – 5

Overall – 9

Of everything weird and inexplicable we’ve been asked to believe, the one thing that sticks with me is the “New York style” toilet in the hotel room. I am 100% convinced that that was probably real (although not common or trendy in New York, but maybe it really was in a resort the author visited.) I once stayed in a B&B in Birmingham, England, that had a completely clear-glass walled shower in the middle of the bedroom. It happens.